E-Book - Mahatma Gandhi

Gandhi’s Non-violence… 33dialogues for finding alternatives. As he puts it, “I very muchlike the doctrine of the manyness of reality. It is this doctrinethat has taught me to judge a Mussalman from his ownstandpoint and a Christian from his…My Anekantvada is theresult of the twin doctrines of Satya and Ahimsa.” 2In Gandhi’s view, moral, social and political truthscould not be discovered by sitting and meditating in a cave butthrough open and free dialogue among the parties with theirown understanding of the truth. Gandhi through the processof satyagraha seeks to change and reconcile both the outlookand behaviour of opponents. Thus Gandhi’s non-violence is aprogramme for transformation of relationships and not a merestrategy for peaceful change. It also includes constructive workas an active and transformative force.Gandhi had a cosmological vision of social relationsbased on his theory of unity of all life. According to him, alllife is interrelated and interdependent. Thus happiness andsuffering of any individual affects the rest. He believed thatintolerance is also a form of violence and an obstacle in theway of progress. People are mutually dependent on oneanother, and no one could be sacrificed for the good of the rest.Everyone has to recognise this interdependence and actaccordingly.Gandhi’s politics was revolutionary in nature. Hepresented the vision of an alternative society based on nonviolence,mutual respect, harmony, and dialogues. He alsoshows that we can pursue dialogue in a constructive way if weconcentrate on the means rather than ends. According to him, ifwe take care of the means, the end will take care of itself. Heargues that "Ahimsa and Truth are so intertwined that it ispractically impossible to disentangle and separate them. Theyare like two sides of a coin, or rather of a smooth unstamped