E-Book - Mahatma Gandhi

96 Contextualising Gandhian Thoughtcreation of the Mahatma Gandhi Institute for Research in PeaceEducation and Sustainable Development as a category 1Institute of the UNESCO in New Delhi five years later.However, Shri. Ravindra Varma’s efforts have not been in vainand the Institute of Gandhian Studies has now grown into aninstitution of high visibility, making significant contributions toGandhian Studies and establishing collaborative links with likemindedorganizations both within and outside the country.The theme that I like to dwell on today is contemporarynonviolent action. There is an abundance of literature relatingto nonviolent action. At the turn of the millennium, Shri.Ravindra Varma had organised an international seminar on theexperiences of nonviolent action worldwide and theirimplications for the future. The topic of today’s lecture wouldalso be in the similar line.Events in the early part of 2011 as well as the last twodecades show that more and more people are turning tononviolence as a means of expressing grievances and resolvingconflicts. Regions that were generally seen as impervious tononviolent action have also turned round. But the very idea ofa revolution is still centred on violence, which is a legacy of theFrench revolution. Because repressive regimes relied onviolence, the sincerity of persons opposing such regimes wasmeasured on the degree of willingness they have to eliminatetheir enemies by employing violence. Employing violence wasa kind of self-sacrifice for a greater cause informed by loyalty,duty and discipline. The notion of violence was presented asredemptive, a virtue attributed to the violence of good guysagainst the violence of the bad guys. The Just War doctrine wasoften presented in virtuous light, on the presumption that thoseundertaking it are the good guys.Advocates of violence for social change would alsoadvance the reason that human nature is inherently evil. Politics