Conquest of Violence: The Gandhian Philosophy of Conflict. With a new epilogue by the author
... diferencian entre 'resistencia no-violenta por principio' y 'resistencia no-violenta pragmática'. La 'resistencia no-violenta por principio' se basa en convicciones religiosas, ideológicas o filosóficas, y se remonta a los escritos y los logros de Gandhi (1950), que son reelaborados entre otros por Bondurant (1988) y Gregg (1965). La 'resistencia no-violenta pragmática' (también llamada acción no-violenta o directa) lleva la dimensión estratégica de la no-violencia al centro del análisis, y se basa en las reflexiones de Sharp (1973), que en la actualidad son reelaboradas entre otros por Ackerman y Rodal (2008). ...
Este artículo reflexiona sobre las opciones por parte de civiles de resistir pacíficamente en conflictos armados. Los argumentos desarrollados aquí se basan en una investigación de campo en la Comunidad de Paz de San José de Apartadó, Colombia. El marco analítico y teórico por medio del cual se delimita en este artículo la aplicación del término ‘resistencia’, se basa en las consideraciones conceptuales de Hollander y Einwohner (2004) y en el concepto teórico de ‘resistencia legítima’ de O’Brien (1996). Después de un breve análisis del conflicto, describiremos los procesos socio-históricos de la zona de Apartadó, y las experiencias auto-organizativas de sus habitantes, las cuales favorecieron la conformación de esta iniciativa de paz. El análisis de las dimensiones y de los objetivos de la resistencia de la Comunidad de Paz permite reconceptualizar la idea de ‘resistencia legítima’ de O’Brien.
An Autobiography, or The Story of My Experiments with Truth is the best-known of Gandhi’s writings and its continued popularity testifies to the enduring interest in its writer/subject. Chapter 2 describes the immediate context in which the autobiography, and its English translation, were produced. It considers the impetus for the autobiography’s commencement and highlights some of the practical features of its construction, before summarising the autobiography’s structure and content. Next, the chapter considers Gandhi’s role in the autobiography’s translation alongside an exploration of his own views, as a translator himself, on the process of translation. The chapter concludes with an overview of extant critical responses to and scholarly engagement with the text.KeywordsGandhi
An Autobiography, or The Story of My Experiments with Truth
Indian autobiographyTheories of translationTheories of autobiography
This chapter reasons with the Gandhian strategy of non-violent and peaceful conflict resolution in an Indian context. The first part of the chapter provides a brief note on the existing violent conflicts in India: the Maoist conflict, ethnic conflicts in the Northeast, separatism in Kashmir, and religious tensions. The second section engages with the critical aspects of Gandhian ideas for peaceful conflict resolution. Gandhi’s ideas like engaging with the conflict parties, early solutions to hostilities, and positive social construction in the post-conflict societies are discussed in detail in this section. The chapter, at the end, argues that the Indian State, following Gandhi, should start engaging with the violent groups operating in different parts of India. Moreover, there should be a political will to resolve these conflicts at the earliest. The issues of violent conflicts should not be put under the carpet. Efforts like initiating negotiation with multiple violent groups hold the key to the successful and peaceful resolution of these conflicts.KeywordsGandhiPeaceful conflict resolutionNon-violenceViolent conflicts NegotiationMaoist conflict
While nonviolence has and is being practiced by millions of people around the globe and there are numerous programs for inculcating nonviolence among various populations, there has been a dearth of instruments which can be used to measure the efficacy of these programs. Further, a question that has often been raised is whether nonviolence is a stable personality characteristic, amenable to psychometric measurement. The focus of this chapter is to establish the idea that nonviolence, determined through either heredity, environmental forces or the combination of both, is a more or less stable characteristic of human beings, dictating the unique reactions made by individuals and as such, it can be measured and used for the prediction of the degree to which individuals will manifest nonviolence. Various psychometric measures that have been developed by psychologists have been described along with the sound methodology that has been followed for the development of such measures. The psychometric properties of the scales have also been discussed. Some of the tests described are the Pacifism Scale, the Nonviolence Test (NVT), the Teenage Nonviolence Test (TNT), the Gandhian Personality Scale (GPS) and the Multidimensional Scale of Nonviolence (MSN). It is hoped that the chapter will lead to the enhancement of psychological studies of nonviolence, thereby enriching the science of nonviolence. In a world faced with strife and violence, it is mandatory that both educational programs and training programs be conducted for imbibing nonviolence, the philosophy and practice of which was clearly enunciated by Gandhi. An awareness regarding possible ways for adjudging the efficacy of such programs, through the use of scales for nonviolence, would not only encourage program coordinators but could also be utilized by governmental agencies in areas where violence runs rampant.
Directly or indirectly, the choice that individuals make between violence and nonviolence is mediated by cognitive processes. The chapter begins with the application of the information processing approach to cognition and Kahneman’s prospect theory to Gandhian nonviolence. Throughout the chapter, an effort has been made to bring to the fore, how Gandhi, with his keen perception of human psychology, created schemas and scripts for nonviolence. While recent research on facets such as priming, nudging and boosting has brought to the fore the importance of these aspects of cognition, Gandhi demonstrated the practical ways of using them to move people toward the practice of nonviolence. Further, Gandhi’s stipulation that his followers use their inner voice to take decisions regarding joining Satyagraha clarifies how he could nudge people to delay their decision making and make use of soul force, akin to the more rational System II elucidated by Kahneman much later. Cognitive psychology would certainly be benefitted by taking cognizance of the Gandhian way forward. Similarly, moving to the social side of cognition and the Social Identity Theory (SIT), Gandhi helps us to understand how a super identity can be created, blending both personal and social identity, to be used for the social good. At the same time, the focus on nonviolent cultures elucidates the underlying value placed upon the perception and practice of and training for nonviolence in certain cultures. The above reveal fresh avenues of research which could go a long way in not only enriching current theorization in cognitive psychology but in also helping individuals to comprehend and inculcate nonviolence.
Introducción Este artículo pretende acercarse a la teoría y la práctica ético-política de Gandhi y sus seguidores. Desarrollando, en torno al concepto de satyagraha, la forma de lucha que desplegó Gandhi a lo largo de su dilatada carrera política. Estas formas de lucha satyagraha, las cuales estaban fundamentadas en la concientización, la no-cooperación política, social y económica, así como la acción directa (desobediencia social y civil, etc.), no se podrían entender sin otros objetivos de la noviolencia gandhiana que pretendían elevar el nivel de conciencia de la población campesina, indígena y popular de una India atribulada por la presencia imperialista británica y la penetración de relaciones capitalistas de producción que estaban desplazando la industria-doméstica y proletarizando a la población autóctona. En este sentido el sarvodaya gandhiano pretendía establecer las premisas de un bienestar general fijando las necesidades básicas sustentables (vivienda, vestido, comida, etc.) por encima de otros intereses; igualmente, el swaraj o auto-gobierno implicaba el desarrollo de la autodeterminación social, política y soberanista de los indios para desplegar un programa agrario y campesino (que luego fue traicionado por Nerhu y sus seguidores) y, finalmente, el swadeshi o autosuficiencia acercaba el programa gandhiano a una economía moral muy alejada de los intereses del mercado colonialista y metropolitano. Pues bien, pretendemos acercarnos a estas cuestiones desde una perspectiva conceptual que nos permita aclarar y fijar un saber gandhiano muy distinto al que suele conocerse del líder indio. Alejándonos, por tanto, de una visión onírica, idealizada y sublimada tanto del personaje como de lo que hizo o dejó de hacer. Gandhi es un personaje complejo y lo que hizo debe estar sujeto a un análisis crítico permanente, despojándolo del terreno de las creencias pero no de los valores éticos de una conciencia moral que sitúe la lucha social y los sistemas políticos hegemónicos en el punto de mira de una pregunta a responder: ¿cuántas víctimas deja, tras de sí, una forma de lucha y una estructura político-social? En gran medida, a responder a esta pregunta, se devanó los sesos el propio Gandhi con la formulación de la lucha satyagraha. Einstein dijo de Gandhi que «quizá las generaciones venideras duden alguna vez de que un hombre semejante fuese una realidad de carne y hueso» (Díaz, 2007: 23; Quiñones, 2011: 20), no sólo por su nobleza, su fuerza de carácter, su alma indómita y su tenacidad, sino sobre todo porque introdujo la ética en la política, precisamente en unos tiempos en los que se exaltaba a la violencia y a los totalitarismos. Gandhi convivió temporalmente con líderes como Churchill, Roosevelt y Chamberlain, pero también con otros como Mussolini, Hitler, Stalin o Mao. En el siglo más violento de la historia, Gandhi recuperó para la política a la propia política, superó esta paradoja redimiendo a aquella de su miseria moral, como señaló el historiador Arnold J. Toynbee, el líder hindú: «se hundió hasta el cuello [en la política], pero salió espiritualmente indemne gracias a la que, en mi opinión, es una de las características más notables de su personalidad: su inmersión en el sórdido ambiente de la política sin sufrir contaminación alguna» (Rau, 1984).
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, through his nonviolent technique (Satyagraha), attempted to shape human behavior, revealing in the process, the human capacity to be able to rise above adversity, for hardiness and resiliency, qualities recognized by psychology to be the very ingredients for coping with stress and wellbeing. With his incessant focus on self-control, a hitherto neglected topic of study in psychology and other social sciences, and which he demonstrated through his nonviolent movement, he was able to forge courage and commitment leading to both social and emotional maturity. In this chapter, we focus, briefly, on a few selected concepts to highlight the usefulness of his work in promoting our understanding of human behavior in particular and its relevance for the mental health issues facing the world of today.
At first thought it is apparently startling to some people to suggest similarities between Gandhi’s ideas and the Old Testament, since it is conventional to view the Old Testament as a violent and warlike book. In fact, however, the books of Amos, Hosea, Micah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ruth and Jonah contain a set of ethical principles that are parallel to the basic ideas of Gandhi. Nine parallels between Gandhi and these Old Testament prophets are discussed beneath, along with some differences.
Starting from violence's widely acknowledged status as a wrong, this article critically explores attempts to legitimate violence through appeals to moral frameworks that determine the ends for which violence may be employed. Recognizing that such frameworks exist on all sides of violent conflict, it argues that since there will never be complete agreement on their content or application, nor complete certainty about which moral framework is the ‘correct’ one, it becomes impossible to distinguish legitimate from illegitimate violence either non-controversially or with certainity. Two problems result: our own ‘legitimate’ violence may reproduce rather than limit violence by sparking ‘legitimate’ violence in return, and our own use of violence may actually be unjust, despite our intentions. If we wish to avoid these problems yet maintain our moral commitments – however contested or contingent – we must employ nonviolent means to wage our conflicts, as such means remain legitimate despite disagreement or uncertainty regarding ends.
Nonviolence is a deceptively complex concept. It has been written about for well over two millennia and, as would be expected, it is very nuanced. If fully understood and routinely applied within human interaction, it has the potential to transform our communities and the greater society in profound and positive ways. The challenge of understanding nonviolence is the focus of this book.
When nonviolence is mentioned in conversation, one might be referring to a religious virtue or belief (e.g. Sharma, 1965), a philosophy (e.g. Bondurant, 1965; Gandhi, 1951), or a political behavior or strategy (e.g. Gandhi, 1957/19731927; King, 1963; Sharp, 1973). Major texts on nonviolence, including those by Gandhi (1957/1927), Sharp (1973), Pelton (1974), Harak (2000), Hare and Blumberg (1968), Holmes and Gan (2005), Kool (1990, 1993a, 2008), Sponsel and Gregor (1994), and Ackerman and Kruegler (1994), have approached the topic from anthropological, historical, psychological, political scientific, sociological, strategic, and pragmatic perspectives.
As is the case for many concepts, the words used in many languages to represent the concept of nonviolence are not totally reflective of the meaning. As I clarify the nature of nonviolence and before I begin to trace its recent history, I want to discuss the similarities and differences with a range of related terms and concepts by answering the following questions. What do aggression and violence mean? How does nonviolence compare to aggression and violence? How are nonviolence and pacifism similar and different from one another?
The role of sound theory is vital in psychology and within all fields in the social sciences. A good theory puts forth conjectures about causal relationships and causal inferences in coherent, parsimonious, and general terms that are falsifiable (Fiske, 2004). An important function of theory is to derive hypotheses that direct research and advancing knowledge within a field. Therefore, if our understanding of nonviolence and nonviolent action is to move forward, theories of nonviolence are crucial.
McCarthy and Kruegler (1993) make a strong case for good theory building and productive research to advance our understanding of nonviolent action. They stress that the study of nonviolent action needs theories that suggest productive research questions. These important research questions should focus the attention of researchers to the significant variables within the context of a nonviolent action or conflict in which nonviolent responses are being considered. McCarthy and Kruegler believe “that research will be most fruitful when focused on nonviolent action as purposive behavior in conflicts and on the problems and possibilities that nonviolent action raises for actors in conflicts (p. 2).” They also encourage researchers to use data sources not previously utilized. In addition, they underscore that the use of good theories will permit researchers of nonviolence to abandon unproductive avenues of research.
Sharp (1973) noted that a considerable amount of nonviolent actions throughout history have been poorly documented, if documented at all, because of a lack of interest to do so. Wars and the outcomes of war are carefully described in our history books. Historians describe the winners and the losers in wars in great detail along with the causes and the implications of their outcomes. Nonviolent struggles are not recorded or recounted with the same regularity and vividness, as are wars and violent interchanges. Despite this propensity, hundreds of nonviolent struggles can be identified throughout recorded history (e.g., Lynd & Lynd, 1995; Sharp). Sharp in fact traces nonviolent action back to 494 B.C. when lower and middle class Romans refused to perform their usual functions until the leadership agreed to make improvement in the conditions of their lives and their status. The ancient Greek playwright, Aristophanes (1944), depicts an effective nonviolent action by Spartan women in his play, Lysistrata. In his play the women agree to withhold sex from their husbands to end the Peloponnesian War and to secure peace.
The importance of nonviolent alternatives is evident in our society's ongoing struggle with the issue of violence as it invades our schools, workplaces, and streets.' The United Nations declared "nonviolence" to be the main theme for the first decade of the twenty-first century. The State of Rhode Island has undertaken an effort to become a "model" as the first nonviolent state in the nation, and the University of Rhode Island is acting as the laboratory for this experiment. The Center for Nonviolence and Peace Studies was formed to promote nonviolence as a flexible approach to conflict resolution. Dr. Bernard Lafayette, a civil rights activist who worked closely with Martin Luther King, Jr. and the co-founder of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), was hired to bring to the University of Rhode Island the teachings and theories of Kingian nonviolence and its applications. The Center's mission can be summarized as an ultimate goal to build a nonviolent society that promotes mutual understanding and peaceful processes in resolving conflicts. The Center seeks to accomplish this by providing training programs and education, by expanding its efforts to build additional centers nationally and internationally, and by cooperating with other peace-building organizations. This chapter describes a nonviolence training program offered by the Center for Nonviolence and Peace Studies at the University of Rhode Island. The Center offers nonviolence training to University of Rhode Island students; in addition, it has been contracted by local school districts to provide training to high school students and teachers in Rhode Island. The training consists of a two-day seminar that focused on issues of conflict resolution within a multicultural medium. We also describe the results of an evaluation of the program, designed to find out if this particular training seminar is achieving its goals and objectives. To do so, we first defined those goals and objectives; next, we developed an appropriate nonviolence measure which we later used to assess changes among students and teachers who have participated in the program.
In this essay the importance of spirituality (or ethics) in the life of a research scientist is explored. The following four
questions are considered: a) Why should the problem be studied? What are the benefits? and For whom? b) How should we approach
this problem? c) What if the results of this investigation contradict other theories? What should we do in case of disagreements?
and, d) What are the consequences of this study? Who or what is going to be harmed? What are the effects on the environment?
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