The Gandhi Project by Nashid Fareed-Ma’at
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40
Mohandas K. Gandhi, Non-Violent Resistance (Satyagraha), 1961, p. 57, excerpt from Young India,
October 20, 1921.
41
Mohandas K. Gandhi, Non-Violent Resistance (Satyagraha), 1961, p. 250, excerpt from Young India,
April 3, 1930.
42
Mohandas K. Gandhi, Non-Violent Resistance (Satyagraha), 1961, p. 123, excerpt from Young India,
July 28, 1920.
211
The need for such discipline is tied to the science of Satyagraha. Gandhi explained this point in
the following:
“But I am certain that Swaraj is unattainable this year if some of us
have not the courage which enables us to stand firm like a rock
without retaliating. The might of the tyrant recoils upon himself
when it meets with no response, even as an arm violently waved in
the air suffers dislocation.
“And just as we need the cool courage described above, we need
perfect discipline and training in voluntary obedience to be able to
offer civil disobedience.”
40
(emphasis mine)
Gandhi’s call for perfect discipline cannot be overemphasized. As he wrote, “Perfect
discipline and perfect co-operation among the different units are indispensable for success.”
41
This is not just a call to display discipline in the face of an opponent’s provocation but also in
cooperating with Satyagrahis and their supporters. Gandhi stated:
“But the greatest thing in this campaign of non-co-operation [civil
disobedience] is to evolve order, discipline, co-operation among
the people and co-ordination among the workers. Effective non-
co-operation depends upon complete organization.”
42
If Satyagrahis seek the highest effectiveness from their civil disobedience campaigns and social
actions it follows that they should attain such high effectiveness in their organizations and within
themselves. Embodying a high level, if not perfect, discipline is essential to attaining this
effectiveness.
43
Mohandas K. Gandhi, Non-Violent Resistance (Satyagraha), 1961, p. 58, excerpt from Young India,
October 20, 1921.
44
Mohandas K. Gandhi, Non-Violent Resistance (Satyagraha), 1961, p. 334, excerpt from Young India,
May 1, 1930.
212
Attaining the highest levels of effectiveness within organizations and one’s self requires a
key aspect of discipline: that we keep and fulfill the promises we commit to. Gandhi addressed
this requirement in regards to rules Satyagrahis pledged to impose upon themselves in Swaraj
efforts in India:
“Rules voluntarily passed by us and rules which carry no sanction
save the disapproval of our own conscience must be like debts of
honour held far more binding than rules superimposed upon us or
rules whose breach we can purge by paying the penalty thereof. It
follows that if we have not learnt the discipline of obeying our own
rules, in other words carrying out our own promises, we are ill
adapted for disobedience that can be at all described as civil.”
43
This applies to organizations as well as individuals. Gandhi was stern in warning that
individuals and organizations committed to Satyagraha fulfill and keep their promises. This is
also a warning that such individuals and organizations should be very careful about what
promises they make. Gandhi’s reasoning on these points can be simply explained. Note this
warning he gave to the Indian National Congress in their pursuit of Swaraj:
“If the word of a Congressman or a Congress organization cannot
be relied upon, we shall ultimately lose the battle. Satyagraha
means insistence on truth. Breach of promise is a base surrender
of truth.”
44
And if we surrender Truth from Satyagraha, which literally means Truth-force or holding on to
Truth, the house of Satyagraha has no foundation to stand upon.
There are many factors that come into play in cultivating ourselves to become persons
who keep all of our promises, a number which have been addressed throughout the book. But I
do want to highlight one factor that Gandhi emphasized: physical fitness. He wrote:
45
Mohandas K. Gandhi, Hind Swaraj (Indian Home Rule), 1938 reprint from original publication in 1909,
p. 58, Chapter XVII: Passive Resistance.
46
Mohandas K. Gandhi, Non-Violent Resistance (Satyagraha), 1961, p. 110, excerpt from Young India,
May 12, 1920.
213
“It is difficult to become a passive [or civil] resister unless the
body is trained. As a rule, the mind, residing in a body that has
become weakened by pampering, is also weak, and where there is
no strength of mind there can be no strength of soul.”
45
In the modern era, particularly the last few decades, there has been a general decline in the
quality of people’s physical health. This decline has been masqueraded by extending the
longevity of living in an ill or unhealthy state, but the general population is less healthy than
many of our predecessors. One of the consequences of such unhealthiness is a weakness that
pervades the general population. Consider how many people cannot refrain from having an
alcoholic drink, smoking a cigarette, drinking coffee or soda, eating junk food, and other
unhealthy (physically destructive) acts -- and often this lack of restraint is done knowing the
harms associated with these acts. This is weakness. As Gandhi pointed out, a weak body is
generally indicative of a weak mind that is incapable of beholding the strength of soul needed to
live Satyagraha. It thus becomes an elementary and essential step to strengthen the body to
contribute to the strengthening of the mind that it may then embody the strength of the soul.
Without this, Gandhi would advise against engaging in civil disobedience. And those organizing
civil disobedience campaigns should hold physical health as one requirement, among many,
necessary to engage in civil disobedience.
Gandhi acknowledged the importance of direct action. In fact, he declared: “Never has
anything been done on this earth without direct action.”
46
But for a Satyagrahi, such actions
must be carried forth with a discipline that keeps them on the side of right (justice and
beneficence) and not wrong (injustice or destruction). Gandhi explained:
“Non-co-operation, when its limitations are not recognized,
becomes a license instead of being a duty and therefore becomes a
crime. The dividing line between right and wrong is often so thin
47
Mohandas K. Gandhi, Non-Violent Resistance (Satyagraha), 1961, p. 62, excerpt from Young India,
December 29, 1921.
48
Mohandas K. Gandhi, Non-Violent Resistance (Satyagraha), 1961, p. 196, excerpt from Young India,
June 4, 1925.
49
Mohandas K. Gandhi, Non-Violent Resistance (Satyagraha), 1961, p. 172, excerpt from Young India,
August 4, 1921.
214
as to become indistinguishable. But it is a line that is breakable
and unmistakable.”
47
Gandhi encouraged Satyagrahis to exercise great discipline to ensure that our actions are on the
side of right. And if the line between right and wrong is indistinguishable, we should choose
actions so much on the side of right that it doesn’t come close to breaking an indistinguishable
line and crossing onto the side of wrong. Thus, humility, uncompromising insistence on
morality and character, ahimsa, love, seeking Truth, and more became means to ensure our acts
are firmly on the side of right and a safe distance from committing wrong. And with discipline
we will remain firmly on this side even if apparently quicker resolutions seek to draw us closer
to the line between right and wrong. To this, Gandhi advised:
“It [Satyagraha] is a force that works silently and apparently
slowly. In reality, there is no force in the world that is so direct or
so swift in working. But sometimes apparent success is more
quickly attained by brute force.”
48
Note, Gandhi said apparent success is sometimes attained by brute force, not actual success.
In addition to staying clearly on the side of right, Gandhi held that “Disobedience to be
civil has to be open and non-violent.”
49
Openness is relevant to the effort of staying on the side
of right as there is a tendency among some, if not many, to hide their wrongs. If everything is
done in the open it serves to diminish wrongful acts committed discreetly as well as more clearly
distinguish right acts performed openly. Thus, Gandhi held firm in stating that:
“In the method we are adopting in India, fraud, lying, deceit and all
the ugly brood of violence and untruth have absolutely no room.
50
Mohandas K. Gandhi, Non-Violent Resistance (Satyagraha), 1961, p. 358, excerpt from Young India,
December 31, 1931.
51
Mohandas K. Gandhi, Non-Violent Resistance (Satyagraha), 1961, p. 379 - 380, excerpt from Harijan,
February 10, 1946.
215
Everything is done openly and above board, for truth hates
secrecy. The more open you are the more truthful you are likely to
be.”
50
The more truthful we are, the more we are able to embody and carry out the tenets of Satyagraha.
A more truthful person will also be more rooted on the side of right and create more distance
between one’s self and the lines that border right and wrong.
Gandhi’s advocacy of openness was accompanied by his disdain for secrecy. He
explained:
“No secret organization, however big, could do any good. Secrecy
aims at building a wall of protection round you. Ahimsa disdains
all such protection. It functions in the open and in the face of
odds, the heaviest conceivable. We have to organize for action a
vast people that have been crushed under the heel of unspeakable
tyranny for centuries. They cannot be organized by any other than
open truthful means. I have grown up from youth to 76 years in
abhorrence of secrecy. There must be no watering down of the
ideal. Unless we cling to the formula in its fulness, we shall not
make any headway.”
51
As stated earlier in the book, rejection of secrecy (or being open) doesn’t mean that we need to
put our entire life stories out in public domain. But there is usually a clear sense of when we are
withholding something that is better to be shared, and it such withholding that moves into the
realm of secrecy. Within these situations, Gandhi calls for Satyagrahis to be open and forthright.
He would caution us to veer on the side of being too open than even mildly secretive. And the
call for openness applies to all matters, no matter how embarrassing or uncomfortable such may
be, or even if such revelation would given our opponents an apparent advantage. Gandhi and
other mystics realized that Truth is completely open, hiding nothing to those who develop the
52
Mohandas K. Gandhi, Non-Violent Resistance (Satyagraha), 1961, p. 227, excerpt from Young India,
March 12, 1930.
53
Mohandas K. Gandhi, Non-Violent Resistance (Satyagraha), 1961, p. 325, excerpt from Young India,
April 10, 1930. Gandhi also acknowledges the power of women in attaining such moral conversion as the next
sentence in the quote is: “Who can make a more effective appeal to the heart than woman?”
54
Mohandas K. Gandhi, Non-Violent Resistance (Satyagraha), 1961, p. 201, excerpt from Harijan, April
15, 1933.
216
means to perceive it. It is this quality of Truth that Gandhi used as an example in his call for
openness, a call made as one committed to seeking Truth and trusting the assured victory of
Truth over all that is contrary to it.
Walking the path of Truth-assured victory, Gandhi never saw a need to compel anyone in
any way. Paying particular attention to the importance of one’s means, he rejected compulsion
and strongly advocated conversion as his approach toward his opponents and others not on the
side of Satyagraha. He made the following statement regarding his approach to confronting the
British in their colonization of India:
“I have deliberately used the word conversion. For my ambition is
no less than to convert the British people through non-violence,
and thus make them see the wrong they have done to India.”
52
What Gandhi said regarding the British would apply to anyone he held to be an opponent. For
him, civil disobedience “must never be a matter of coercion but conversion, moral suasion.”
53
This shift in moral position from wrong to right (from evil / destruction to beneficence) is key to
establishing a lasting solution that transcends repeating cycles of conflict and violence. In fact,
any so-called “victory” that does not manifest a shift in or departure of those who commit wrong
is a facade: as long as there are people willing and able to commit wrong there is a problem,
even if the appearance of this problem or such persons are suppressed. In the eyes of Truth,
suppression is oppression regardless of what form or for what reasons it is imposed. Gandhi,
partly because of his own personal transformation, held that all humans are capable of
transforming from persons who commit evil to those who only perform good (beneficence).
Such transformation cannot be forced to be genuine, as Gandhi acknowledged: “there should be
no compulsion in religion or in matters of any reform. ... No man can be purified against his
will.”
54
He emphasized the importance of this point in discussing Satyagraha efforts in India:
55
Mohandas K. Gandhi, Non-Violent Resistance (Satyagraha), 1961, p. 331, excerpt from Young India,
April 17, 1930.
56
Mohandas K. Gandhi, Non-Violent Resistance (Satyagraha), 1961, p. 147, excerpt from Young India,
December 8, 1920.
217
“We may not use compulsion even in the matter of doing a good
thing. Any compulsion will ruin the cause. I feel that we are
within reach of the goal. But all the marvellous work done during
this week of self-purification will be undone if the movement is
vitiated by the introduction of compulsion. This is a movement of
conversion, not of compulsion, even of the tyrant.”
55
Thus, Gandhi used a wide variety of means -- ranging from suffering to educating to be a living
example of a moral citizen -- in his attempts to convert his opponents. Commitment to this goal
is essential for all civil resisters: the realization that those who commit the most evil acts can be
transformed and that we are willing to work toward the moral conversion of such persons.
Gandhi would find those not able to completely commit to this goal unfit to be civil resisters. He
would require such persons to engage in education and preparation processes to cultivate the
maturity to completely commit to this goal before allowing them to participate in civil
disobedience.
For Gandhi, the rejection of compulsion is also tied to the spirit and reality of democracy
he sought to establish in an independent India. He explained:
“We must try patiently to convert our opponents. If we wish to
evolve the spirit of democracy out of slavery, we must be
scrupulously exact in our dealings with opponents. We may not
replace the slavery of the Government by that of the non-co-
operationists [civil resisters]. We must concede to our opponents
the freedom we claim for ourselves and for which we are
fighting.”
56
Gandhi held the situation in which the British colonial government imposed control over the
masses of India as slavery. In his strong criticism of this arrangement, he also strongly rejected a
reversal of the situation in which the dissenters of colonialism or the Indian masses imposed
57
Mohandas K. Gandhi, Non-Violent Resistance (Satyagraha), 1961, p. 174, excerpt from Young India,
January 5, 1922.
218
“slavery” on the British and those aligned with them. For Gandhi, democracy was the goal --
even a democracy that allowed those who would commit evil the right to such (immoral)
positions. He also acknowledged a depth of purity among Truth-seekers would be enough to
convert or repel (drive away without force) those who would commit evil. But with the goal
being democracy, the means to attain such could not be compromised the slightest.
To keep civil resisters a safe distance from compulsion, Gandhi reiterated his common
refrain mandating that no violence should be committed by anyone on the side of Satyagraha --
whether by civil resisters or those supporting them. As discussed earlier in the book, violence is
often used as a means to force others to accommodate one’s will or desires. Thus, in this vein,
violence is a form of compulsion and on this basis alone must be avoided. He wrote:
“At the same time that the right of civil disobedience is insisted
upon, its use must be guarded by all conceivable restrictions.
Every possible provision should be made against an outbreak of
violence or general lawlessness. Its area as well as its scope
should also be limited to the barest necessity of the case.”
57
Here Gandhi included violence with lawlessness and extending the reach of civil disobedience
beyond a reasonable scope as forms of compulsion. As he was critical of his opponents using a
variety of compulsory means to their ends, he refused to be a hypocrite by employing or
allowing use compulsion from the Satyagraha side. But he also understood the use of civil
disobedience may spark incidents of violence. He shared the following words on the eve of
starting a civil disobedience campaign:
“That civil disobedience may resolve itself into violent
disobedience is, I am sorry to have to confess, not an unlikely
event. But I know that it will not be the cause of it. Violence is
there already corroding the whole body politic. Civil
58
Mohandas K. Gandhi, Non-Violent Resistance (Satyagraha), 1961, p. 222, excerpt from Young India,
January 23, 1930.
219
Disobedience will be but a purifying process and may bring to the
surface what is burrowing under and into the whole body.”
58
Gandhi’s emphasis on purity and the willingness to suffer prior to engaging in civil
disobedience, as well as maintaining these as guiding themes during such engagement, were
proactive measures on his part to prevent and quickly subdue any violence that may erupt from
civil disobedience. These and other means, including his stricter requirements for who could
become civil resisters, exemplified the great care he took in seeking to minimize spontaneous
and unforeseen inclinations toward violence on the part of civil resisters. Also know, that in
certain instances, violence on the part of civil resisters (even violent words like insults) was
cause for Gandhi to terminate immediately certain civil disobedience campaigns and return to
the work of preparing and cultivating participants to mature their understanding of and
commitment to ahimsa.
ADDITIONAL CHARACTER TRAITS OF A CIVIL RESISTER
The previous section covered some tenets civil resisters should seek and commit to, even
if they do not yet fully embody such traits. For example, a person can act with great humility
without fully being a deeply humble person. There may be a thin line between these states but
the personal reality of someone who acts with humility and a person who is deeply humble is
vastly distinct. In fact, there’s never a need to instruct a humble person to act with humility: and
by being a humble person she or he will embody a depth of humility that can rarely be attained
by acting with humility. Understanding the difference between acting a virtue and embodying (if
not becoming) that virtue informs how the following character traits are presented. By all
means, I encourage readers to embody these traits before accepting the role of a civil resister;
and Gandhi’s reflections on these traits may substantiate this plea. These traits will be presented
in no particular order: all are equally essential for civil resisters although, in our uniqueness,
certain persons may embody some qualities more so than others. And neither should the
following be considered a complete list: there may be other traits necessary for individuals and
groups to embody before embarking on civil disobedience, but I present the following as a group
of key traits.
59
Mohandas K. Gandhi, An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth, 1957, p. 62.
220
Included among such traits are: seeking Truth, ahimsa, personal and collective (or
organizational) Swaraj (self-rule), faith, and a commitment to beneficent righteousness and
justice. Gandhi, as much of the book has demonstrated, called on Satyagrahis to not only act out
these virtues, but to embody them. That a Satyagrahi should become a living quest for Truth.
That a Satyagrahi should become a living vessel of ahimsa and Swaraj. That one should become
an expression of faith in which no doubt can exist. That one should become beneficent
righteousness and justice to the extent that to encounter such a person is to engage a living
demonstration of beneficence, righteousness, and justice. As these topics were addressed in
depth earlier in the book, I would direct those who require more of an explanation of these to
reread the appropriate chapters.
As I continue on with the following character traits, I acknowledge some of have been
mentioned earlier in the book. I won’t repeat in depth what has been stated earlier, instead I will
focus on points that have not yet been covered fully. But if more explanation is required, I
would direct the readers to consult the earlier chapters for topics previously mentioned.
A civil resister should be a person of care. I’ll use the following quote about Gandhi’s
carefulness with words as an example his approach to carefulness:
“My hesitancy in speech, which was once an annoyance, is now a
pleasure. Its greatest benefit has been that it has taught me the
economy of words. ... Experience has taught me that silence is part
of the spiritual discipline of a votary of truth. Proneness to
exaggerate, to suppress or modify the truth, wittingly or
unwittingly, is a natural weakness of man, and silence is necessary
in order to surmount it. A man of few words will rarely be
thoughtless in his speech; he will measure every word.”
59
It’s worth nothing that it is from a place of silence that Gandhi rooted his carefulness regarding
his use of words. I have encountered the lesson of this approach numerous times in my spiritual
studies of spiritual mysticism and have experienced the benefit of embodying this approach. As
much as it can be applied to words, this approach can also be applied to our thoughts and actions
(and entire way of being). I emphasize this in relation to Gandhi’s definition of violence that