Dr Jeanette Pinto –
On 15 June 2007 the United Nations General Assembly resolved and established a Non-Violence Day, observed on 2nd October, the birthday of Gandhi, leader of India’s independence movement. The day is an occasion to “disseminate the message of non-violence…through education and public awareness…and reaffirm the desire for a culture of peace, tolerance, understanding and non-violence”. The purpose was to honour how Gandhi’s work and legacy has impacted the global value of non-violent protest.
Non-violence is the personal practice of not causing harm to others under any condition. The concept may have emerged from not hurting people, animals and or the ecosystem to achieve a philosophy of abstention from violence. Non-violence is a powerful and just weapon, that cuts without wounding and ennobles the person who wields it. Its principle is to defeat injustice, not people. Non-violence believes that the universe is on the side of justice, it holds that suffering can educate and transform it chooses to love instead of hate.
Violence on the other hand impacts a people with a wide range of ill effects, namely: anxiety, depression, insecurity, anger, pathological lying, manipulative behaviour, posttraumatic disorder, heart diseases and suicide. It scares people out of participating in neighbourhood activities, limits business growth and prosperity, strains education, justice, medical systems and community progress. One cannot deduce that violence is part of our evolutionary process because some people behave that way. Not everyone exhibits violent behaviour. If humans were naturally and chaotically violent, our species wouldn’t have survived for millennia.
Is nonviolence the same as peace? Peace is really a God given gift to the universe. We see it in Creation and Nature from the beginning of time. Peace in the world is a stress-free state of security and calmness that comes when there’s no fighting or war, everything co-existing in perfect harmony and freedom. The world does not need the use of arms for scoring goals particularly nuclear disarmament and arms control. Truth with non-violence is the only pure means to achieve the goal of a peaceful world order. Gandhi gave a revolutionary turn to social reform movements, he applied Satyagraha in the non-violent struggle against injustice, exploitation and dictatorship.
Delivering a speech at the auditorium of University of Oslo in 1964, Martin Luther King said Gandhi had a long and successful non-violent struggle against British rule in India. In the quest of ultimate truth Gandhi singled out non-violence as the fundamental moral virtue which ought to be practiced at all times by all men. Truth and non-violence are no new ideals.
The core of non-violence is a way of life for courageous people. It is aggressive spirituality, mentally and emotionally, an active non-violent resistance to evil. Secondly, Non-violence seeks to win friendship and understanding. It is certainly a more powerful method for social change than violence as it is participatory and can engage greater numbers. Thirdly, Non-violence wins new allies, while violence even if from a small group of participants can isolate a movement from the rest of the people.
Satyagraha or “holding firmly to truth” is the exercise of the purest soul-force against all injustice, oppression and exploitation. It is a particular form of nonviolent or civil resistance showing tolerance. Suffering and trust are attributes of soul force, which makes an immediate appeal to the heart. Satyagraha is built on three basic tenets – Satya, Ahimsa and Tapasya. Satya or truth implies openness, honesty and fairness. Ahimsa means refusal to inflict injury on others. Tapasya conveys willingness for self-sacrifice and patience.
Co-existence is the essence of life. It’s God the Creator’s will that all human beings live as happy liberated people. Education, position, power, wealth or status, is never the yardstick for the measure of humanity. Peaceful Co-existence was a theory developed and applied by the Soviet Union at various points in their Cold War. It is a state in which two or more groups are living together while respecting their differences, and resolving their conflicts non-violently. There are Five Principles of Peaceful Co-existence: mutual respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, mutual non-aggression, non-interference in each other’s internal affairs, equality and mutual benefit, and peaceful co-existence.
The era we are presently living in, is the midst of the omnipresence of disaster, plagues, droughts, floods, toxic air and water, wars, massacres, famines, earthquakes, wildfires, recessions, and despotism, all nightmares in slow motion. In addition, egoistic human beings destroy the balance in society because they desire to be in control. They forget God who is omnipotent. All human beings are meant to live in tolerance as equals but some choose to be otherwise.
Many believe that non-violence is an ineffective instrument. However, let’s not forget that we live in an age of destruction, where power struggle, AI and technology cope with disaster hurricanes. The world needs healing and reconciliation. When mankind is confronted with clashes of national interest, religious fundamentalisms and ethnic and racial prejudices, non-violence can be a trusted means of laying the groundwork of a new cosmopolitics.
Non-violence is man’s effort and tool to bring humanity and divinity together. Gandhi undoubtedly remains the prophetic voice of the 21st century and his non-violence urges us to continue struggling on behalf of what we view as right and just. He once stated: “Non-violence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind. It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of man…more positive than electricity, and more powerful than even ether”. He fervently believed non-violence could be put into practice at every level of human experience; it was not for him just a political tactic but spirituality and a way of life.
Dr. Jeanette Pinto is a retired educator and a member of the Archdiocesan Human Life Committee, Bombay. She also leads a Church ministry for widows at her Parish. She is an author of several inspirational books and articles.