The Kodaikanal Gandhi Prize 2021
Honourable mention
Jasmine Beth Kurian
Hebron School, Ooty
A Response to: Gandhi viewed non-violence as an active form of resistance.
Looking at contemporary injustices, does non-violence work?
State your points with examples.
“When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it -- always.”- Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.
Gandhi Ji was a lawyer, politician, social activist by profession and was fondly known as the ‘Father of Nations’ for his courage to stand up for the truth.
Contemporary injustices can be widely characterized based on gender, religion, status, position or profession. It is often the vulnerable communities that are targeted, such as Christians, Muslims, the Dalits, farmers, women and girls. They are the ones more likely to get exploited or mistreated. Indian women and girls are often subjected to physical, emotional or sexual abuse at least once in their lifetime. If brought up for discussion the female point of view is discredited.
Gandhi was internationally esteemed for his doctrine of nonviolent protest also known as the Satyagraha. Satya means ‘truth’ and ‘agraha’ means ‘insistence’. ‘Satyagraha’ by definition is the act of holding firmly to the truth, or truth-force, in a particular form of nonviolent resistance or civil resistance. Protests were established considering nonviolence that is echoed at its core. Gandhi Ji was Satyagrahi who led peaceful protests.
Satyagraha was developed to achieve political and social progress, to give citizens a form to express general mass responses towards contemporary injustices. ‘The Salt March 1930’ is one of Gandhi’s well-known acts of peaceful resistance. From 12th March to 6th April 1930 there was a direct campaign of tax resistance and nonviolent protest against the British salt monopoly. Salt being an essential commodity, the steep 8.2% tax on salt had to be paid even by the poorest. Gandhi Ji led a 240-mile march from Sabarmati Ashram to the city of Dandi in Gujarat, western India. The protest started with 78 people but ended with thousands joining in as they marched across villages. Days later they were met by violent retaliation. Gandhi Ji was arrested. Over 60,000 Indians were also arrested. As one article puts it, ‘For Gandhi, resistance meant placing one’s own body in harm’s way, open to the possibility of injury, imprisonment or even death. And that is what made it such a powerful political tool.’ The results were not immediate. The real aim was freedom from the colonial British, which was achieved 17 years later.
The salt March was the very first Satyagraha.
A current injustice is the protest by Farmers to the recent Farm Bills.
With a population of 1.27 billion India is the world's second most populated country. Agriculture is the largest source of livelihood. 70 percent of its rural households still depend primarily on agriculture for their livelihoods, with 82 percent of farmers being small and marginal. With a shrinking economy that already made it hard for farmers to make ends meet, the introduction of the (1) the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020, and (2) the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020, have not been welcomed. The Bills lay the framework for the produce to be sold to the large corporate houses. They fear that the Minimum Support Price (MSP) security net will be removed and that a monopoly cartel will fix low prices for the agricultural produce, forcing distress sales.
Terms of this bill could make life hard for farmers as this is a way the government invites big players into a fragmented and deregulated market that could lead to volatile prices for the farmers. In other words, the big business houses will have the opportunity to take over their livelihood. The bill also permits the government to have dictatorship over how farms are to function, from the choice of crop to the prices, leaving nothing for the farmers in the long run. As these agreements increase outside of wholesale markets, they could further fragment the market and leave small farmers dependent on terms set by big corporations or be cut out of the industry altogether.
Therefore, a reason emerged for protest. Thousands of farmers from Haryana and Punjab have camped outside Delhi, in protest. With many farmers joining them from all across India, the Farmers Union and their representatives demand the laws to be repealed and clearly protest that they are not willing to accept any compromise. In the words of one protestor, “We are not leaving until our demands are met,” represents the determination of them all. “We have been sitting here since the first COVID wave, winters, summers, the second COVID wave and now the monsoon; we are prepared for years to come.” Farmers have selflessly put themselves out there in the cold, heat and wet, with not only the risks of being bullied and violent opponents, but have also exposed themselves to COVID-19, a deadly pandemic that has killed millions. Over 40 farmers unions, 400 farmers have died due to farmer’s satyagraha and other causes.
The immediate results are often tear gas, abuse, arrests and injustice for a peaceful, nonviolent protest. Police brutality has always been a concern. We cannot control what others may do to us but we do have the power to control the way we choose to react. Nonviolence protests have the moral high ground, they reveal the brutality of their violent opponents, unfortunately at the cost of someone’s life. What would Gandhi ji say about this?
“Nonviolence is a weapon of the strong.”, “Non-violence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind. It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of man”, Gandhi Ji
These words of Gandhi ji, the results of earlier satyagraha and the determination of the farmers to continue their nonviolent protest, gives hope for justice to come through eventually, however long the wait.
A second example of a contemporary injustice would be the ‘Citizenship (Amendment) Bill.
The Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 was passed by the Parliament of India on 11th of December in 2019. This amendment created a pathway for Indian citizenship for persecuted religious minorities from neighboring countries for example, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan. This opportunity was extended to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis or and Christians who had arrived in India before the end of December 2014. Despite Islam being the second-largest religion in India, with 14.2% of the country's population, approximately 172.2 million people, the law does not grant such eligibility to Muslims from the countries previously mentioned, all of which are Muslim-majority countries. The Act was the first time that religion had been overtly used as a criteria for citizenship under Indian law and therefore attracted global criticism. Discrimination is based on religion. Protestors demand that the Act not come into force and the National Register of Citizens not be implemented. The bill has raised concerns among the Muslims in India that they may be regarded as Stateless, which could lead to their detention. They are also concerned that all citizens will have to prove their citizenship for inclusion in the National Register of Citizens.
Peaceful protests took place from 4 Dec 2019 to 14 Mar 2020. Here is the story of a single day turning into a violent nightmare for many young students. With the introduction of the CAA bill, many communities took on the challenge to protest against the injustice. For example, a protest held by students of Jamia Millia Islamia. Students were seen taking out marches with torches, raising slogans, and putting up posters. There were speeches by significant individuals such as Swaraj India leader Yogendra Yadav and controversial Gorakhpur doctor- turned- activist Kafeel Khan.
In response to a peaceful protest, the police choose to be violent. Tear gassing, brutal beatings is what they experienced. I quote one of the experiences of a victim admitted at Jawahar Lal Nehru Medical College and Hospital (JNMC) with multiple fractures in both hands, Khan says, “We could hear police going from room to room, dragging out people. We were inside for around two hours, when police broke open the toilet door, dragged us out, and thrashed nine of us, hurling communal abuses, shouting, ‘Beat them up, there is no camera here. I was taken from one station to another without any medical aid. I was even denied water,” Tazeem, the son of a retired doctor from Allahabad said.
In several cities, including Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai, and Kolkata, many individuals stood in support of the students of Jamia Milia University and as well as Aligarh Muslim University following incidences of alleged police brutality during the protest.
In a show of resistance, solidarity and dissent, many young protests put together thought-provoking quotes, slogans, poems and even songs. These were in the attempt to question the government’s policy and decision- making. A few include, " "When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty" and "We are for rights, not riots”.
The government has reacted with police brutality but not responded to the concerns of the minorities. These non- violent protests are for justice and truth. Truth always comes out victorious in the end and injustice will come to an end, even if it may seem to succeed initially.
I am reminded of Gandhi Ji’s words on violence, “I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent.”
My third example goes beyond the boundaries of our country. Racism has been an international injustice.
"Time and again, racist ideas have not been cooked up from the boiling pot of ignorance and hate. Time and again, powerful and brilliant men and women have produced racist ideas in order to justify the racist policies of their era, in order to redirect the blame for their era’s racial disparities away from those policies and onto Black people."
‘Black Lives Matter began as a movement started in July 2013, that used the hashtag #BlacklivesMatter on social media after the incident of the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting to death of African-American teen Trayvon Martin 17 months earlier in February 2012. It was only in 2014 when it was recognized in a street demonstration after the death of two other individuals. Black Lives Matter is not only a social movement but also a decentralized political movement against incidences of police brutality and all racially motivated violence against many black individuals. “Black Lives Matter'' itself remains untrademarked by any group. The movement typically advocates “to eradicate white supremacy and build local power to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities by the state and vigilantes”.
A recent incident brought Black Lives Matter to international headlines. Many celebrities, activists, and even individuals across the world recognized this injustice and joined the movement! This was the George Floyd protests in 2020 following his murder by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. The estimated participant numbers in the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests in the United States alone were 26 million making it in fact one of the largest movements in their county’s history! Other countries across the globe joined this injustice.
Again, the immediate reaction to peaceful protestors was police atrocities - tear gas, foam projectiles and aggressive tactics. While these in turn resulted in casualties of the innocent public and those seeking justice, the truth is that these protests have drawn the attention of governments to sit up and take note of injustices and do their part to give justice. What Gandhiji said is tru, as we see here - “In a gentle way, you can shake the world.”
May we pursue non-violence in a world of violence. “We may never be strong enough to be entirely nonviolent in thought, word and deed. But we must keep nonviolence as our goal and make strong progress towards it,” as said by Gandhi ji.
Let us continue to be strong in fighting injustices, whether national or international or at whatever level with nonviolence. as “Nonviolence is a weapon of the strong.” (Mahatma Gandhi)
“Non-violence is the greatest force at the disposal of mankind. It is mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of man.” So may we press on in pursuit of justice, with the weapon of nonviolence, that though we may lose the battle, we win the war of specific injustices.
Resources used
https://www.history.com/topics/india/salt-march
https://indianexpress.com/article/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020%E2%80%932021_Indian_farmers%27_protest https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/20/us/protests-policing-george-floyd.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Lives_Matter https://www.marieclaire.com/culture/a32823549/black-lives-matter-quotes/ https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2020/12/31/2020-the-year-black-lives-matter-shook-the-world
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