E-Book - Mahatma Gandhi

Gandhi’s Non-violence… 43than the bomb, because it was in harmony with the demand ofthe age. The way of the bomb lacked appeal, so it could notmake people free of fear. His non-violent method proved moreeffective than the bomb method. 25Gandhi’s work has inspired and will continue to inspirepersons and societies to work for peace and justice. Leaderslike Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Dalai Lama andAung San Suu Kyi proudly acknowledge Gandhi’scontribution. Gandhi’s vision has helped movements thattoppled dictators like Ferdinand Marcos in the Phillippines,Augusto Pinochet in Chile and the Communist dictatorships inEastern Europe. Movements for environment, alternativescience and technology, eco-feminism, human rights,exploitation, resistance to nuclear programme- all have directlyor indirectly, knowingly or unknowingly drawn inspirationfrom Gandhi. In the world torn by strife and lured by violence,Gandhi continues to be a luminous ray of light. The UnitedNations has accepted that Mahatma’s legacy of non-violence isof crucial importance to the world and has declared 2 nd October(Mahatma’s birthday) as the International Day of Non-violencein 2008. It is not necessary that non-violent struggles alwaysyield immediate success. The path of this journey is slow andpainful. Non-violence is difficult, but not impossible topractice. A comparison of 323 non-violent and violentresistance campaigns from 1900 to 2006 shows that non-violentresistance methods are likely to be more successful than violentmethods and have achieved success 53 percent of the time,compared with 26 percent for the violent resistancecampaigns. 26Gandhi had realised early in his political life thatviolence pauses a formidable challenge. His well-articulatedarguments against violence are found in his seminal work HindSwaraj, written on the return voyage from London to Cape