E-Book - Mahatma Gandhi

Gandhi and Contemporary… 97therefore becomes one that has to factor violence into it as thereis no other choice. Nonviolence, for Fanon, is responsible forsustaining the violence of the oppressors, which can only betackled through counter violence. Fascism tells us that violencehas a dramatic effect on spectators. It is also seen asprogressive and playing a midwifery role – like the sufferingthat the mother is allowed to undergo before the baby is born.We can refer to three types of violence, based on thetypology that Johan Galtung has suggested. The first ispersonal violence, which is direct harm inflicted on the humanbody including killing. Then comes structural violence, whichis any form of oppression where direct violence may not bepresent, and the victims may have internalized such oppression.The third is cultural violence, which consists of attitudes andbeliefs that justify or normalize both personal and structuralviolence. 1Why is violence bad? It is bad because it shuts the doorfor dialogue as it is based on an unflinching belief in therightness of one’s cause. Secondly, violence brutalizes not onlythe victims, but also the offender. Thirdly, it can lead, on manyoccasions, to counter-violence as violence has a tendency toreproduce itself. Fourthly, the effects of violence are most oftenirreversible. Fifthly, violence privileges force and theprofessions based on force such as the police and the armedmilitia, whether of the government or of the rebels. Finally,violent revolutions are less participatory as they are based onthe strength of the able-bodied alone.Nonviolent action is known by various names. In thefifties of the last century, Chief Albert Luthuli of South Africadescribed his brand of nonviolence as defiance campaigns. InKwame Nkruma’s Ghana, it was known as positive action. InLatin American countries, it is understood as non-submission