April 19, 2022
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Early this month I was in a high school in Lake City, Florida, for an event. The award giving ceremony was organized in the school cafeteria. As I was entering the cafeteria, I came across a huge picture of Gandhi (about 20 feet long, and 5 feet wide) with the message, “you must be the change you wish to see in the world.” It was a suprise for me to see this picture in a small town in Florida, and that too in a high school. It provoked me to think – to think about Gandhi and his relevance in this polarizing world.
Gandhi is popular across the world. Though his legacy has been increasingly contested, Gandhi is perhaps one of the most studied, and followed, Indians among his contemporaries. Martin Luther King, Jr., the leader of the civil rights movement in the USA, even drew parallels between the Gandhian principle of nonviolence and the law of gravitation. He proclaimed, “In a real sense, Mahatma Gandhi embodied in his life certain universal principles that are inherent in the moral structure of the universe, and these principles are as inescapable as the law of gravitation.” The great African leader, Nelson Mandela too was influenced by Gandhi as he transformed himself and followed the path of nonviolence. Mandela said in 1993, “The enemies that Gandhi fought – ignorance, disease, unemployment, poverty and violence are today common place… Now more than ever is the time when we have to pay heed to the lessons of Mahatma Gandhi.” The famous theologian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, was influenced by Gandhi and wanted to stay in his Ashram to learn more about his nonviolent principle. Sadly, he was killed before his wish could be materialized.
But seeing the Gandhi picture in Lake City brought to me the realization that Gandhi was not only followed by famous leaders and celebrated in universities or big cities, but also celebrated in small towns and high schools. It implies that Gandhian values permeated to the bottom, to all corners of the world. One can argue that in the high schools the teen age students are occupied with their dreams and aspirations, and their vitalism and youthful tendency militate against Gandhian principles of nonviolence, austerity, and Gandhian exhortation to ‘simple living, high thinking’. But the picture in the high school invoked in me the hope that even the teenage school students are influenced by Gandhi, or at least have some inclination to hear his message of peace and nonviolence. And that thought itself was comforting to me.
While thinking about Gandhi, one increasingly confronts a dilemma. Gandhi remains popular. Gandhi statues, pictures, paintings adorn public parks, streets, educational institutions, all over the world. But apparently the world has turned away from Gandhi. What could be a better example than the war in Ukraine? People are dying there every day in public glare. Gandhi called war ‘immoral’ and ‘evil’ and argued that war only proves that one’s power of destruction is stronger. That is exactly what is happening in Ukraine. The war is devastating the country, and all the powers are preparing for a protracted war. This is un-Gandhian.
Even if we look at everyday events in public spaces, whether in shops, restaurants, flights, the incidents of violence have apparently increased. We have not yet completed the four months of 2022, but the number of deaths from gun violence in the United States, as per a study, is staggering 12,741. Another study tells us the passengers in the flights have become violent in the recent months, and sometimes the flight staff have to call police to stop the violence. It is no surprise to hear from a neighbor that there was gun violence in another part of the city. Where is Gandhi? It appears Gandhi is everywhere at least in theory, but Gandhi is nowhere in practice. And that is perhaps the biggest dilemma the peace lovers – the believers in nonviolence social change – must confront and work upon.
For Gandhi, hypocrisy is responsible for the chasm between theory and practice of nonviolence. A principle has no value unless it is put into practice. That exactly was the Gandhian message in the picture in the Lake City high school – you must be the change you wish to see in this world. If I wish to see a peaceful and harmonious world, I must practice it in my life first – Gandhi would argue. How can I preach and promote peace unless I am peaceful from within and without – Gandhi would argue. Gandhian logic goes like this: when there is harmony between what I think, what I say, and what I do, there is true peace. For him, peace negotiations and dialogues are meaningless unless the negotiators (broadly the state leaders and diplomats) are free from violence from within. He was critical of the United Nations. In a press statement in 1945, he made a case to the founders of the organization that unless the victorious and defeated nations “shed their belief in the efficacy of war and its accompanying terrible deception and fraud” and are “determined to hammer out real peace based on freedom and equality of all races and nations” exploitation and domination will continue. If we look at the working of the United Nations for the last seventy and odd years, we see how the apex institution, despite its moral foundation, had belied the Gandhian hopes.
What to do now? It is true that the world has been increasingly polarized. There is apparently violence everywhere, at every level – whether micro or macro. A Gandhian, while feeling sad about these developments, will not lose hope. As an infinite discoverer, he will explore pathways to bring these Gandhian values to build peace within himself, within his community, and the world. Instead of turning to pessimism, and turning to the proverbial cave of darkness, he will rather be energized and engage in nonviolent social praxis. Did not Gandhi say – “there is no path to peace, peace is the path”?
