E-Book - Mahatma Gandhi

128 Contextualising Gandhian ThoughtGandhi later explained why he came to the conclusion thatmere persuasion was not adequate, that Direct Action wasrequired to shock people out of their prejudices andintransigency, to force open their minds when their ears wereclosed to all appeals of reason. Direct Action is open action,that often takes the form of physical action including physicalconfrontation and physical and mental suffering to theSatyagrahi.Gandhi had a burning faith in Direct Action, and it wasthat made him different from the traditional Rishi, on the onehand, and the reformer and the constitutionalist on the other.Look at his answer to a critic: "But, my critic deplores DirectAction. For, he says, "it does not work for unity."One can hear echoes of the same thought still! Gandhicontinues, "I join issue with him, Never has anything been doneon this earth without Direct action. I rejected the word 'passiveresistance', because of its insufficiency and its being interpretedas a weapon of the weak. It was Direct Action, which told andtold so effectively that it converted General Smuts to sanity ....It was direct action in Champaran which removed an age longgrievance. A meet submission when one is chafing under adisability or grievance which one would have gladly seenremoved, not only does not make for unity, but makes the weakparty... angry and prepares him for an opportunity to explode.By allying himself with the weak party, by teaching him direct,firm but harmless action, I make him feel strong and capable ofdefying the physical might. He feels braced for the struggle,regains confidence in himself, and knowing that the remedy lieswith himself, ceases to harbour the spirit of revenge and learnsto be satisfied with a redress of the wrong he is seeking toremedy." He goes on to say that Jesus, and the Buddha, beforehim, were men of direct action. "What was the larger'symbiosis' that Buddha and Christ preached? Buddha fearlesslycarried the war into the enemy's camp and brought down on its