The Kodaikanal Gandhi Prize 2021
Third Prize
(shared)
Annapoorani Pandiyan
The Gandhigram Rural Institute, Dindigul Disitrict
A Response to: Why did Gandhi consider cowardice and apathy even worse than violence? do you agree with him? Why or why not?
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. Ways of Countering Injustice
3. Lesson from Anitha’s Suicide
4. Comfort Zone – Cowardice Zone
5. Conquer Objectives
6. Structural Violence versus Direct Violence
7. Nonviolence is the Weapon of the Strong
8. Conclusion
9. References
1. Introduction:
According to Gandhi “Science without Humanity” and “Knowledge without Character” are social sins. But the rapid Growth of Science and Technology redefines the life of human beings. Slowly and steadily, Artificial Intelligence has been overtaking human intelligence. In the process we are surrendering ourselves to the technology. Literally, we are trapped by corporatized society and believe that luxuries are the core part of life. The Dalai lama beautifully said that “Love and compassion” are necessities not luxuries. Without them humanity cannot survive”. We forget the fact that we are part of society and, knowingly or unknowingly, we are falling into the root ignorance zone, that is that the world is not ready to find the right balance between Science and Humanity, Education and Character etc. This is the highest form of cowardice.
In my point of view, a
1. Coward is one who submits himself / herself to injustice.
2. Coward is one who is afraid to come out of root ignorance ”
3. Coward is one who is afraid to live morally and ethically
4. Coward is one who is not ready to come out of his / her comfort Zone
5. Coward is one who compromises his / her principles for the sake of short pleasures
With regard to the above definitions of cowardice, “Gandhi has to be the bravest man of 20th Century. He never submitted himself to injustice, he always searched for truth and knowledge ( Sat + Chit = Ananda), he laid strong boundaries for his code of conduct, earned food by cleaning the toilets and spinning, rather than as a lawyer (sweat of the brow), and honoured his prime principle of nonviolence till his last breath. Gandhi was not only the Father of our Nation but the Conscience of the World.
2. Ways of Countering Injustice:
Key words: Root Ignorance, Structural Violence, Comfort Zone, Submissive, NEET
“Anywhere injustice in world is a threat to peace everywhere” – Martin Luther king There are three ways to countering injustice.
1. Submissive – bow to injustice – the highest form of cowardice
2. Violence – punishing or countering the opponent (subjective)
3. Nonviolence – kill the evil not the evil doer (objective)
But we are confusing nonviolence with cowardice. There is huge difference between these two words. The above quote of Martin Luther King, shows that when the world is under the pressure of the injustice, or any other disturbances affect the peace and welfare of an individual,
the world of injustice ---- > affects individual people.
Among eight billion of people live in the world, one third of the people are cowardly and in apathy. First, we should know the meaning of cowardice and apathy: cowardice means lack of bravery and apathy means lack of interest and enthusiasm. Most of the people in the world are knowingly or unknowingly engaging in cowardly activities. That is called root ignorance.
3. Lesson from Anitha’s Suicide
Following case study of Anitha’s suicide, clearly explains the terms – injustice and cowardice.
Anitha was a student from Ariyalur District ,Tamilnadu. She scored 1176 out of 1200 in the XII standard examination. She was District First and was the only student from the District to secure 100% marks in Physics and Mathematics. Since childhood, she dreamt of being a doctor and did her best in the qualifying examination despite of economic and social barriers. She lost her mother at a very young age due to health issues. That was a driving force for her to become a doctor. Her medical seat would have been assured if the State Board marks alone had been considered like in previous years.
Unfortunately in 2017, the NEET Exam, which is based on Central Board syllabus, was introduced in Tamilnadu. NEET coaching in India is now a trillion dollar business. Poor Anitha couldn’t afford such big money. After the failure of several protests and law suits, desperate Anitha lost her hope in the process, and she committed suicide.
In this case, I observed two things.
1. The NEET Exam is an example of Structural Violence (no access to education is a form of Structural Violence) – Only the rich are able to clear the exam. It is the biggest injustice and pressure to the students. 12 years of studies are literally meaningless.
2. Submissive to injustice – Tamilnadu is famous for its social justice. It has lots of first graduate doctors, doctors from rural backgrounds and doctors from socially downtrodden communities. There is no question of Anitha’s knowledge and mission. Despite of performing 99.99 % of correct actions, she did 0.01% wrong activity (submitted herself to the injustice).
From this incident I came to know that she was very passionate, and confident about her dreams and bold enough to fight against the injustice but at the end, she lost her life by suicide. This not an end to her and we all know that one quote from Gandhi which is, “strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will”.
No doubt that the NEET is an injustice but, at the same time, suicide is not the solution. The great Nelson Mandela spent 27 years to get justice and became the president of South Africa. We should not lose hope at any injustice, and never give up.
4. Comfort Zone – Cowardice Zone
98% of the people in the world are never ready to come out of their comfort zones. They are not ready to fight against injustice. They never know that injustice somewhere will affect their peace. In this zone, they will be always in safe and will not fight against the injustice. They will become cowardly and apathetic.
From the picture, we clearly understand that
Comfort Zone and Fear Zone ----> Cowardice and Apathy
Learning Zone and Growth Zone ----> Conquer objectives
5. Conquer Objectives
To conquer our objectives against injustice, we should understand the difference between submissive behaviour, violence and nonviolence. In Richard Attenborough’s Gandhi movie, Gandhi’s speech against the Asiatic Registration Act (Black Act) clearly explained the difference between the three.
Cowardice / Apathy – Accept the Black Act.
Violence – (Indian protesters said) Kill the officials who disgrace the Indians
Nonviolence: (Gandhi said) will attack no one; will kill no one; we will not give our finger prints; they will imprison us; fine us; seize our possessions; but never give up our self-respect. Our objective is to fight against their anger not to provoke it”. We will not strike a blow but we will receive them, and through our pain we will make them see their injustice. It will hurt, as all fighting hurts (violence). But we cannot loose. They torture my body, break my bones, even kill me; then they will have my dead body; not my obedience. (A nonviolent man never can be a coward).
6. Structural Violence versus Direct Violence
There two types of violence. We all know about direct violence but we do not understand Structural Violence. Examples of structural violence are: poverty, hunger, gender discrimination, caste and religious discrimination and other social injustices. Our belief system plays a pivotal role in organizing structural violence and we automatically surrender to the belief system. In the process, we became invisible cowards. We are afraid to come out these social stratifications. Hence one should understand that Structural violence is more dangerous than direct violence.
Gandhi dedicated his entire career to fighting structural violence. That’s why he said that “I do believe that, where there is only a choice between cowardice and violence, I would advise violence”.
On another occasion, he said, “The world is not entirely governed by logic. Life itself involves some kind of violence and we have to choose the path of least violence”. So, in our lives, we should not choose cowardice in any situation.
7. Nonviolence is the Weapon of Strong
The very apt quotation from Gandhi for nonviolence and cowardice is, “Nonviolence and cowardice are contradictory terms. Nonviolence is the greatest virtue; cowardice the greatest vice. Nonviolence springs from love, cowardice from hate. Nonviolence always suffers, cowardice would always inflict suffering”.
As much as possible, in our lives, we should adhere to nonviolence; we should not choose the way of cowardice. We should not be cowards at any instance. To remove cowardly behaviour from the minds of the people, Gandhi made life long efforts. He said his life is his message. His unique method of Satyagraha guided Indian Independence. The Dharasana Salt Satyagraha is the best example for this generation to learn about nonviolence. During that epic event, many people got injured and died because of the violence of police officers but none of the Gandhian army ran away from the place and never even raised their hands against the brutal assault of the policemen. That was the turning point of the freedom movement. Winston Churchill said that “Dharasana inflicted such humiliation and defiance as has not been known since the British first trod the soil of India.”
8. Conclusion:
This essay shows that the rapid growth of science and technology and the present day education system is making us cowards. The corporate world wants us to become cowards, rather than a protestor. Today, even the protesters are symbolized as men of violence. To bring peace and harmony, one should understand the difference between submissive, violence and nonviolence. Students and youth should learn to be correct persons rather than good persons. Correct persons should not be good persons to all. They have to come out of their comfort zones and understand the structural violence of society. Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King were instrumental in the removal of structural violence. Once structural violence is removed from society, direct violence will automatically vanish from society. The means to the nonviolence is not an easy one; but that is the only way. It is the matter of existence versus extinction.
"If humanity is to progress, Gandhi is inescapable. He lived, thought, and acted, inspired by the vision of humanity evolving toward a world of peace and harmony. We may ignore him at our own risk,"
- Martin Luther King
9. References:
1. Collected works of Mahatma Gandhi
2. Gandhi film directed by Richard Attenborough
3. https://beahero.agency/why-you-should-step-outside-of-your-comfort-zone/ 4. Report of Dharasana Satyagraha
Edited by the Out of Print Team
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