Gandhi Wields the Weapon of Moral Power (Three Case Histories)

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This book reports facts and nothing but facts-facts which have all been published before. And yet it is a truly important work destined to have a great educational effect. It is a history of India's peaceful struggle for liberation under Gandhi's guidance. All that happened there came about in our time-under our very eyes. What makes the book into a most effective work of art is simply the choice and arrangement of the facts reported. It is the skill of the born historian, in whose hands the various threads are held together and woven into a pattern from which a complete picture emerges.

How is it that a young man is able to create such a mature work? The author gives us the explanation in an introduction: He considers it his bounden duty to serve a cause with all his power and without flinching from any sacrifice, a cause which was clearly embodied in Gandhi's unique personality: to overcome, by means of the awakening of moral forces, the danger of self-destruction by which humanity is threatened through breath-taking technical developments. The threatening downfall is characterized by such terms as "depersonalization", "regimentation", "total war"; salvation by the words "personal responsibility together with non-violence and service to mankind in the spirit of Gandhi".

I believe the author to be perfectly right in his claim that each individual must come to a clear decision for himself in this important matter: There is no "middle ground".

The author, Gene Sharp, was born in 1928 in North Baltimore, Ohio, U.S.A. He was graduated from North High School, Columbus, Ohio in 1946 after attending several schools in that State. He holds the degrees of Bachelor of Arts with high distinction in social sciences from the Ohio State University (1949) and Master of Arts in sociology from the same University (1951). His M. A. thesis was en- titled Non-violence: A Sociological Study. While at the University he was active in religious, socialist, pacifist and anti-discrimination organizations, was a member of the University debate team, and was elected to several honoraries.

In 1951 he moved to New York where he supported himself by part-time jobs while continuing his research on Gandhi and non-violent resistance. This volume was completed in February 1953, at the age of twenty-five.

In April 1953 he was sentenced to two years' imprisonment for civil disobedience to military conscription; over nine months were served in prison and the remainder on parole. In his position he was firmly supported by the late Dr. Albert Einstein.

While in the United States he held a variety of jobs, including working as a factory labourer, gardener, guide to a blind social worker, and secretary to A. J. Muste, America's leading pacifist.

He was invited in 1955 to become Assistant Editor of Peace News, the weekly pacifist newspaper published in London, where he remained until 1958. During February- March and October-November 1957 he spent two one-month periods at the University of Oslo at the invitation of the Institute of Philosophy and the History of Ideas doing re- search and lecturing on non-violence under a programme financed by the Norwegian Research Council for Science and the Humanities. From 1958 to 1960 he has been conduct- ing research and study on non-violence under a stipend from the Institute for Social Research, Oslo. His long-term study on totalitarianism and non-violent resistance is continuing in association with the Institute for Social Research, Oslo, Norway. The author is an Associate Member of the Gandhi Peace Foundation.

Gandhi is one of the most widely known men of our age. He is also one of the least understood. Many are those who will glibly say what a great and good man he was. Also there are those who would regard him as an impractical, idealistic reactionary. Most of these people of both groups are profoundly ignorant of what this man was trying to do and how he tried to carry on his work. One of Gandhi's greatest contributions is the development of an active, dynamic way of combating social evils without the use of violence.

Before this development, the influence of moral power and love was limited to that of individuals and groups who; by their integrity, goodness, power of example, acts of mercy and refusal to compromise had an effect on other people. There had also been cases of group or mass resistance without overt violence to oppression, but in most such cases the absence of overt violence was largely, if not entirely, based on pure expediency and the resistance was largely passive.

Gandhi sought to combine the influence of moral power, love, integrity and goodness with non-violent strategy and techniques which resulted in providing an active, dynamic method of struggle. In most of the Indian campaigns this method was followed out of expediency, though even then, there was associated with the movements the feeling that this was a morally superior method of struggle. The practice was not perfect. It was, however, a distinct improvement over both violent struggle and reliance simply on individual moral influence. It is the most significant development in the philosophy and technique of revolution in our time.

This book reports facts and nothing but facts-facts which have all been published before. And yet it is a truly important work destined to have a great educational effect. It is a history of India's peaceful struggle for liberation under Gandhi's guidance. All that happened there came about in our time under our very eyes. What makes the book into a most effective work of art is simply the choice and arrangement of the facts reported. It is the skill of the born historian, in whose hands the various threads are held together and woven into a pattern from which a complete picture emerges.

How is it that a young man is able to create such a mature work? The author gives us the explanation in an introduction: He considers it his bounden duty to serve a cause with all his power and without flinching from any sacrifice, a cause which was clearly embodied in Gandhi's unique personality: to overcome, by means of the awaken- ing of moral forces, the danger of self-destruction by which humanity is threatened through breath-taking technical developments. The threatening downfall is characterized by such terms as "depersonalization", "regimentation", "total war"; salvation by the words "personal responsibility together with non-violence and service to mankind in the spirit of Gandhi".

I believe the author to be perfectly right in his claim that each individual must come to a clear decision for him- self in this important matter: There is no "middle ground".

We have arrived at a moment in human history when wars have to be banned if humanity is to survive. Nations are forging nuclear weapons which, if used in a war, are likely to destroy or poison life on this planet for generations. Man has, therefore, for his very survival to find some other way of overcoming conflict than war. Against this background Gandhiji's life, message and work derive vital significance for he points to an alter- native to war. He turned his back to violence, but he did not on that account meekly submit to evil. He discovered a way of fighting evil, a dynamic way, which he felt could never know defeat.

His way was the one taught by the Prophets, not of striking the opponent down, but of winning him over by an appeal to his reason and conscience through selfless devotion to a righteous cause, self-suffering and love. He took seriously Buddha's instruction to overcome hatred by love and Jesus' teaching to love your enemy. He imbibed the Hindu teaching of centuries of the marvellous spiritual value of self-suffering. His genius lay in blind faith in these principles and ruthless application of them in practice.

His life, as he himself looked upon it, was nothing other than a series of experiments with these principles. He was interested in nothing else. Science had achieved wonders in carrying on experiments in the material world and in the discovery of natural laws. Gandhiji spent his life in making experiments in the spiritual world, and in the discovery of the efficacy of the great spiritual laws taught by seers through the centuries.