From the Editor's Desk: Special Issue: 100 Years of Gandhian Nonviolent Action
Sam Diener is one of the editors of Peacework Magazine.
Full Article:
“In 1921, Gandhi made it clear that he had no desire to found a sect. He added, ‘I am really too ambitious to be satisfied with a sect for a following.’ Sixteen years later Gandhi asked his followers to forget him on his passing, to ‘cleave not to my name but cleave to the principles [of truth and nonviolence].’”
— Tom Weber, Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future Research
In his playfully humble egotism, Mohandas Gandhi was quite honest. Gandhi was indeed ambitious, endeavoring to change the historical rules which had governed politics and social change worldwide for millennia: in particular the basic rule which dictated that armed force makes the rules.
Among the revolutions that Gandhi endeavored to undertake in his lifetime were the recognition of immigrant rights in South Africa, the abolition of war, the mobilization of millions to nonviolently decolonize India and the rest of the world, the transformation of religions into a force for peace, the empowerment of village-based political and economic self-determination, the end of a centuries-old caste system, the inclusion of women as equal participants in politics, the transformation of village sanitation systems, and the redefinition of the struggle for mutual understanding as a valuable aspect of human existence.
Some may claim that the “war on terror,” and the cycles of violence in Iraq, Afghanistan, Chechnya, Israel-Palestine, Lebanon, Sri Lanka, Colombia, Sudan, and Uganda, among other places, are proof that Gandhi failed. The politics of violence still inflict untold suffering on millions of people each year.
And yet: South Africa did change its immigration rules, in 1914. In the decades that followed, the apartheid regimes in the US and South Africa were overthrown mainly by nonviolent action; scores of countries have been liberated by nonviolent insurrections; India banned the caste system (though it persists); a global feminist movement challenges male domination and violence worldwide; and millions of people and thousands of non-governmental organizations have been mobilized to almost double the average human life-expectancy, largely through improved sanitation.
Most issues of Peacework are filled with contemporary accounts of these struggles: stories about resisting war, feminist organizing, public health campaigns, struggling for social justice, speaking out for political freedom, working for economic democracy, and creating ecological alternatives. In this special expanded edition, we decided to take a longer view.
On the fifth anniversary of the murder of thousands of civilians and military personnel on September 11, 2001, we knew there would be endless re-hashing of the politics of violence in the corporate media. But September 11 is also the date when Mohandas Gandhi began his first campaign of nonviolent direct action, 100 years ago. What if we used this moment to critically reflect on 100 years of Gandhian nonviolent action?
In the first part of this issue: survivors of violence from around the world will converge in the week before September 11th to declare an alternative: the politics of reconciliation. Dave Taber reminds us to keep a historical focus when remembering victims of terror attacks. Jack DuVall sets the stage by chronicling the rise of People Power worldwide (a theme echoed towards the end of this issue by Fred Fay’s and Fred Pelka’s tribute to disability rights activist Justin Dart, and by Bill Quigley’s account of the aftermath of Katrina one year on). The Mayor of Asheville proclaims September 11 as a day for peace, and the poet E. Ethelbert Miller alerts us to the dangers and importance of becoming allies for each other in the face of racist backlash.
Gandhi’s 1906 speech initiates a large section of articles analyzing Gandhi’s multiple legacies: his family, historical perspectives, analyses from around the world, assessments of his spiritual mission, and perspectives about how we may learn to abolish war and usher in social justice. Lederach’s article describing the value of replacing the term “conflict resolution” with “conflict transformation” speaks to Gandhi’s efforts to redefine conflict itself as something we could embrace. We also include critiques of Gandhi’s work and philosophy; essays which challenge us to cleave, not to Gandhi’s name, but to the principles of nonviolence, of struggling firmly and gently towards truth, he so successfully championed.
