This chapter contains extended discussion on matters relating to war and peace and the relevance of Gandhi’s ideas to perpetual peace; it reveals how Gandhi’s ideas complement and go beyond those espoused by thinkers like the German... more
This chapter contains extended discussion on matters relating to war and peace and the relevance of Gandhi’s ideas to perpetual peace; it reveals how Gandhi’s ideas complement and go beyond those espoused by thinkers like the German philosopher Immanuel Kant. For example, both Kant and Gandhi agree that egoistic tendencies need to be checked and controlled for peace to prevail. Kant hoped that reason would accomplish this because the prohibitive costs of war and destructive potentialities posed by it make war repugnant to reason. Gandhi goes beyond reason to cultivate peace of mind in the place of ‘armed peace’ to get as close as possible to perpetual peace. The state, according to Gandhi, subsists on the power of force and, therefore, it cannot ensure peace. More significantly, Gandhi emphasized non-violence as the right means to achieve peace within the individual as well as between individuals, groups, and states.
When asked about his message to the world, the Mahatma famously said, ‘My life is my message.’ In him there was no room for contradiction between thought and action. His life in its totality is a series of experiments to convert dharma,... more
When asked about his message to the world, the Mahatma famously said, ‘My life is my message.’ In him there was no room for contradiction between thought and action. His life in its totality is a series of experiments to convert dharma, moral principles, into karma, practices in action. Gandhi believed that development is a dialectical process stemming from the antinomy of two aspects latent within every individual—the brute and the divine. While the former represents instinct-driven behaviour, the latter is one’s true self, which is altruistic. Gandhi described this process in different fields, most of which are relevant even today. Gandhi’s Dharma is an overview of Mahatma Gandhi—his person, philosophy, and practices. The author asserts that the basic principles governing Gandhi’s thoughts—satya, ahimsa, and sarvodaya—are not relics of the past. Nor are his thoughts an obsolete list of rules. Gandhi’s ideas are dynamic principles perpetually in the making, perfectly adaptable to c...
