India's Women's Peace Corps: Embodying Gandhi's Idea for a Peace Army

One of Mohandas Gandhi’s lasting legacies is the idea that we could replace militaries with shanti senas, unarmed peace brigades. In 1938, he wrote, “Some time ago I suggested the formation of Peace Brigades whose members would risk their lives in dealings with riots, especially communal. The idea was that this brigade should substitute [for] the police and even the military.” During his lifetime, he was only able to implement the shanti sena concept on a limited scale, though the results in stopping the Hindu-Moslem violence in Calcutta in 1947, for example, were nothing short of astounding. It is worth explaining Gandhi’s conception of shanti sena in detail before exploring a contemporary implementation of the idea, the Mahila Shanti Sena (Women’s Peace Corps).

Gandhi believed that peace should also be waged like war is waged. Gandhi said, “A soldier of peace, unlike the one of the sword, has to give all his (sic) spare time to the promotion of peace alike in war time as in peace time. His work in peace time is… [the] prevention of, [and] also that of preparation for, war time.”

In his article in Gandhi Marg, Jan – March 2002, “Mahatma Gandhi’s Peace Army: A Paradigm,” M. William Baskaran explains in great detail the five major integrally related guiding principles of an ideal shanti sainik (member of a peace army). For each of the guiding principles, Baskaran explains the means shanti sainiks could use to pursue these principles (utilizing language and concepts which, at times, post-date Mohandas Gandhi). To summarize Baskaran’s ideas:

I. Search for Truth

Gandhi pursued Truth throughout his life. He made a distinction between absolute Truth (which only God could know) and relative truth. As it is impossible for us to know the absolute Truth, he suggested that we need to make conscious, constant, efforts to seek the truth as we understand it, and to appreciate the truth in others. The following are the some of the means to pursue Truth:

Nonviolent Communication — expressing oneself directly and listening intently to what others have to say. Engaging in compassionate dialogue to build constructive relationships, even with opponents.

Transparency — Being open to oneself as well as to others.

Pluralism — Respect of religions and beliefs other than one’s own.

Conscientization — This is the process of learning to understand oneself and one’s relationships with nature, culture, and power. Both the use of the spinning wheel to produce homespun cloth (and boycott British goods) and the salt satyagraha were campaigns designed, among other things, to conscientize millions about the power Indians had to declare independence from Great Britain by practicing self-determination.

Transformation — This refers to a willingness to change when we come to appreciate new perspectives or more complicated truths.

II. Stopping and preventing direct violence

By this, Gandhi means the peaceful resolution of conflict and responding to violence with determined nonviolent resistance. Gandhi said, “In the age of the atom bomb, unadulterated nonviolence is the only force that can confound all the tricks of violence put together.”

The following are the means:

Skills for Peace-Making and the Peaceful Resolution of Conflict — Adopting a win-win approach to counseling, dialogue, negotiation, mediation, arbitration, and legal and judicial proceedings.

Crisis Intervention — Putting oneself in between parties in conflict, undertaking dispute management.

Alternative Defense — Deter and defeat internal and external attacks by developing a human wall against any invading army and organizing nonviolent civilian defense by refusing to cooperate with any invader.

Disarmament — Follow unilateral/bilateral/multilateral approaches in stopping the production and deployment of all kinds of weapons. It also means abolishing the existing conventional, nuclear, and other kind of lethal weapons. Gandhi said, “Peace will never come until the great powers courageously decide to disarm themselves.”

III. Removing Structural Violence

At present, one of the crucial problems is structural violence, the prevalence of inequality, injustice, and exploitation. This has to be challenged and new structures have to be built. For that, the following means are required:
Nonviolent Direct Action (satyagraha)—This involves non-cooperation and self-suffering for the issues of justice and freedom. It becomes satyagraha when it is associated with truth, love, and spirituality. Nonviolent direct action needs planning, strategy, training and leadership to counter violence.
Constructive Work (also called constructive program) — a long–term strategy to build parallel and alternative peace structures in all spheres of life.

Nonviolent Organization and Managerial Skills — developing institutions based on the principles of the democratic participation of everyone involved, care for others, and the avoidance of exploitation.

IV. Nonviolent Ethics and Values

Shanti sainiks must repudiate all kinds of lethal force — individual killing, the mass killing of war, and instead nourish the values of love, compassion, reconciliation, and service towards others. To practice these values, the following is recommended:

Relief, Rehabilitation, and Humanitarian Assistance — when natural and/or human-caused disasters happen, shanti sainiks should be available to help.

Alternative Lifestyles — Gandhi proposed giving up materialistic consumer culture and the cultivation of a self-sufficient nonviolent lifestyle.

Interpersonal and Intergroup Relationships — Cultivation of positive inter-group and interpersonal relationships across communal, caste, and other lines.

Eco-friendliness — Reverence for all living beings is expected. No harm should be done to the environment.

V. Inner Peace

A shanti sainik must have inner peace, as without inner peace it cannot be transmitted outside. The following training is required:

Training for Peace and Nonviolence — Gandhi said, “just as one must learn the art of killing in the training for violence, so one must learn the art of dying in the training for nonviolence.”

Peace Games — Instead of competitive games, cooperative games should be played to build a peaceful society.

Transformative Practices — Practices such as yoga, meditation, prayer, and self-introspection should be practiced.

The Women’s Peace Corps

Gandhi insisted that the power of organized nonviolence is stronger and longer lasting than the power of might. The Mahila Shanti Sena (Women’s Peace Corps) was founded in 2002 at Vaishali Sabha (Vaishali Assembly) in the northeast Indian state of Bihar in order to embody these principles.
The co-sponsoring organization is Shramabharati, founded in 1952, which has run primary schools, health camps, women’s peace training, small-scale industrial workshops and other programs.

One of the main reasons behind starting the Mahila Shanti Sena was the amendment of the Indian Constitution in 1992 giving rural villages autonomy in governance as well as the reservation of 30% of seats in all elected bodies for women. The latter amendment has led to the election of thousands of rural women to village councils (Panchayats).

As most of these women are illiterate, a little training in the area of peace, democracy, and development has been very helpful. This raises mass awareness among women to realize their strength and power, which in turn, can influence policy priorities at the local level in a way that meets the needs of women, children, families, and neighborhoods. With this training they develop courage and dare to ask questions in their village council.
Mahila Shanti Sena consists of at least 5 or 10 women from each village. The membership is voluntary and involves training ranging from three to five days in peace building, the practices of democracy, and economic development. Initially, through lectures, discussions, and role-playing around issues like the status and rights of women in India, barriers to women’s advancement, such as dowry, child marriage, alcoholism among men, domestic violence, economic dependence and others, women learn conflict resolution techniques and work to identify possible solutions to local issues. Village council governance is also discussed. Then, these women take an oath to remain non-partisan and work across party lines to create peace in the village.

On October 31, 2000, the United Nations Security Council unanimously adopted resolution 1325 on women, peace, and security. This resolution reaffirms “the important role of women in the prevention and resolution of conflicts and in peace-building, and [stresses] the importance of their equal participation and full involvement in all efforts for the maintenance and promotion of peace and security and the need to increase their role in decision making with regard to conflict prevention and resolution.” Mahila Shanti Sena stands as a proof of this central role of women in creating and maintaining peaceful communities by following the guiding principles of shanti sena — compassionate communication, dialogue, respecting all religions and castes, developing skills for peacemaking, nonviolent ethics and values and others. Mahila Shanti Sena has now spread to other parts of India including Assam, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, and others. Mahila Shanti Sena as a rural women’s development project is likely to be more successful due to the following reasons:

First, it is a grassroots movement with assistance from the Gandhian organization, Shramabharati Khadigram, that has spent more than fifty years focusing on the needs of the rural people in Bihar, one of the poorest and most illiterate states in India. Second, it does not have any political agendas and refuses funding from political parties. It is funded by the financial contributions of women participants themselves and other private institutions. Most of the women involved in the movement are volunteers and are committed to making positive changes in their communities. Third, it is a movement that includes men and women from any caste and all socio-economic strata.Fourth, it is non-hierarchical and is based on a collaborative partnership method. Like Gandhi’s own life, it is experimental and is subject to self-assessment, with the flexibility to make changes when necessary. Lastly, its focus is on peace building, conflict resolution, and problem solving skills. Village women in India are faced with violence at different levels. With these simple tools, women are able to deal with violence in a more constructive way.

Other organizations modeled on shanti sena are better known in the West, including Peace Brigades International (PBI) and Witness for Peace, which have advanced the concept of nonviolent intervention and have achieved success in Central America. The Nonviolent Peaceforce (see page 17) was founded in India in 2002 by seventy member organizations in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and North America. It is coordinating its first field project in Sri Lanka. All of these organizations and many more have been inspired, to a large extent, by Gandhi’s concept of shanti sena: responding to violence through transformative nonviolent action.