E-Book - Mahatma Gandhi

188 Contextualising Gandhian Thoughtto generate the forces that non-violent action can generateunless it: (j) distinguishes between the evil and the evil-doer;(ij) aims at convincing and not coercing or liquidating the evildoer;(iii) uses methods, words, and situations to promoteintrospection and to effect a change in perception; (iv)promotes self-introspection in the evil-doer; (v) refrains fromaction that inflicts vicarious suffering on those who are not theperpetrators of the injustice that is being resisted; vi) confinesitself to action that causes only voluntary suffering, ,and that tothe resisters who invite it as a consequence of their resistance toinjustice; (vii) paralyses the evil through non-cooperation withit; (viii) refrains from action that leads to the destruction ofpublic property; and (ix) abjures all secrecy and fear.Without these conditions, non-violence will be as selfdefeatingas violence has proved itself to be. Subject to these,non-violence can promote total and effective resistance even inthe face of the violent power of the State. Even a mild versionof such resistance has, in the last five years, succeeded inbringing down totalitarian regimes in many countries ofEurope. Humanity is awakening to the realization thattechnology has rendered violence obsolete.A good way to end this analysis may be to quote fromAchille Ochetto, Secretary-General of the Italian CommunistParty. When asked by an interviewer: 'What you have saidcould give the impression that you think violence is an evil, buta necessary evil in history," Ochetto replied: "I believe theopposite; history has no more need for violence. In 1789,violence was against an oppressive system, of injustice andhunger. But since history moved into the era of democracy,everything has changed ... A modern terrorist is ten thousandtimes more terrorist than Robespierre. Violence these dayscannot be justified. It is anti-historical, because it is happening