E-Book - Mahatma Gandhi

110 Contextualising Gandhian Thoughtin Manipur have a tradition of fighting against oppression andIrom represents that embedded spirit.Describing the experience of Indian women during thefreedom movement Gandhi said in Rome:“The beauty of non-violent war is that women can playthe same part in it as men. […] In a violent war the womenhave no such privilege, and the Indian women played a moreeffective part in our last non-violent war than men. The reasonis simple. Non-Violent war calls into play suffering to thelargest extent, and who can suffer more purely and nobly thanwomen? The women in India tore down the purdah and cameforward to work for the nation. […] They manufacturedcontraband salt, they picketed foreign-cloth shops and liquorshops, and tried to wean both the seller and the customer fromboth. At late hours in the night, they pursued the drunkards totheir dens with courage and charity in their hearts. Theymarched to jails and they sustained lathi blows as few mendid” 14Do nonviolent movements undermine the political classand the constitutional bodies and create a new form of politics?I think it will depend on how resilient our political parties are.When the new social movements in Europe surfaced and poseda challenge to the established political parties, it had someimpact on the parties themselves. They incorporated manyconcerns of the new social movements into their partyprogramme. Will a similar impact have on Indian parties manyof which have several parliamentarians with criminal records?The need for creating a system by which citizens engage withthe government constructively as well as agonistically is veryimportant. It is important here to make a distinction betweenagonism and antagonism. Nonviolent action is agonistic but notantagonistic. A small achievement is better than big unrealized