Compiled by Doug McGetchin, Associate Professor of History, Florida Atlantic University

In the 2019 summer session at Florida Atlantic University, the class “Gandhi and Global Nonviolence” explored the life and legacy of Mahatma Gandhi under the direction of history professor Doug McGetchin. Gandhi’s life, especially his leadership in the Indian independence movement, was the main focus of the course, but his role in amplifying and championing the nonviolent techniques of Satyagraha (holding onto truth, or nonviolent struggle) that helped free South Asia from British colonial control, and its growing legacy in the seven decades that followed was also explored. Gandhi grew up in western India, received legal training in England, developed his technique in South Africa, and collected disciples and admirers from around the world during and after his lifetime. Gandhi’s impact around the world in social and political struggles has been profound, inspiring other activists including Dr. Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, and Aung San Suu Kyi. The method of nonviolent resistance has changed the world from South Africa to Serbia, Egypt, Montgomery, Selma, Manila, Leipzig, and Calcutta.

Papers by students, a requirement as part of the course, examined Gandhi’s role in the Indian Independence movement as well as his wider legacy as an inspiration for nonviolent struggle by Cesar Chavez, Nelson Mandela, and Martin Luther King.

The following includes abstracts of a few student papers.

“The Spiritual and Political Parallels Between Gandhi and Dr. King”
Cierra Hall

When it comes to oppressed minorities, there are typically two tactics frequently used: violence or nonviolence. Violent movements lead to additional calamity, where many lives may be lost. However, the utilization of nonviolence tactics through peaceful marches, boycotting, fasting, and labor unions, can free oppressed minority groups while bringing the oppressed and the oppressors together in such as a way so that future relations and even coexistence is possible. Two of the greatest examples of nonviolent movements was in India’s, led by Mohandas K. Gandhi, and the United States, Led by Martin Luther King Jr. The Indian movement was to gain autonomy from the British and lessen the power of the caste system while the Civil Rights Movement in the United States sought to gain equal rights for all members of society no matter the race. Although Gandhi and Dr. King were in different parts of the world at different times, to what degree were their challenges and nonviolent techniques parallel? King, a young adult when Gandhi was assassinated, was heavily influenced by Gandhi’s nonviolent resistance movements and eventually adopted and used Gandhian technique which successfully led to racial desegregation in the United States.

“The Making of a Mahatma”
Antonia Isaac

Born in 1869 as one of five children, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi would surpass the leadership of his for bears to become one of India’s most prominent Icons through his lifetime experiments with the principles of Satyagraha. But, was he worthy of Sainthood? Or was he simply a common man making the right choices? The Nobel Peace Prize Committee nominated Gandhi for the Peace Prize five times. Gandhi’s political antagonist, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, on hearing of Gandhi’s death sent a letter stating, “One of the Greatest Men.” In 1921, the pastor of NY City’s largest liberal congregation, considered Gandhi “The Greatest Man in the World Today. Upon his death, the London Times referred to Gandhi as, “The most influential figure India has produced for generations.”

“Mandela’s Use of Civil Disobedience in South Africa”
Paul Nolasco

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was a sagacious individual who gave warning of the various atrocities committed by those in power, before and during his lifetime. He was most notable for his use of nonviolent activism through various methods of protest against his oppressors. According to Louis Fischer, American journalist who helped edit a collection of Gandhi’s writings, “Gandhi had a genius for making abstruse ideas practical, and one of the best examples comes when he explains the basis of satyagraha [in other words truth force].” He is not wrong, Gandhi’s endless variations of nonviolent resistance persisted well into both the 20th and 21st Centuries. Political activist Nelson Mandela utilized Gandhian ideas in his quest to change laws and uplift his fellow countrymen in a nonviolent fashion so as not to senselessly lose lives to fruitless violence. To what extent did the young Mandela utilize nonviolent methods similar to Gandhi? Some could argue that he hardly embraced pacifistic ideologies since he was convinced that the downfall of the Apartheid regime would not occur without some form of armed resistance. Although it occurred in the final half of the 20th Century, people’s movements sparked by injustices of an oppressor, in this case the Apartheid government, headed by Mandela is comparatively similar to Gandhi’s in how he employed varying forms of nonviolent resistance such as community education, marches, boycotts, strikes, and a multitude of other civil disobedient actions.

“Gandhi and His Method: The Formative Influences”
Yechezkel Seinfeld

Mohandas Gandhi’s political achievements are readily apparent. His efforts in South Africa went a long way towards alleviating the hardships of his fellow Indians there, and in India his efforts were crucial to its ultimate independence from British rule. The political method he created, which he came to call Satyagraha, was hugely successful, and was the main factor in his political successes, both in large scale, and on an interpersonal basis. Yet, the most commonly revered part of Gandhi’s exemplary life remains the personal traits and characteristics of the man himself. Millions today still call him the “Mahatma” (Great Soul) denoting a level of spiritual elevation which he is believed by many to have achieved through his ceaseless efforts at personal transformation and self-restraint. Perhaps one might consider that this personal reverence for Gandhi is primarily of religious value, and that the study of his exemplary method is worthwhile only to the scholarly. However in truth, the two qualities are inseparable, as both are merely facets of Gandhi’s personality: his self-improvement and “saintliness” was a necessary factor in the success of his political method, and after all, he always saw his political method as a practical facet of Ahimsa to which he had pledged himself, and therefore to him it was only a reflection of his personal conviction.

His achievements lead one to wonder from where did he obtain such qualities? The answer, it might be assumed, lies in his childhood influences, the formative experiences which are often fundamental to one’s persona in later life. So, the question falls to which influence was most essential to the formation of the man as a whole, in whom developed both “saintliness” and the political method of Satyagraha. While it is easy to imagine that this question can be answered simply at its root source – by examining Gandhi’s early influences, those which directly contributed to these qualities – the reality is very complicated. Between his mother’s religious zeal and positive teachings, his wife’s behavior towards him from which he learned his art, and between his own experiments with truth whose ultimate result was to solidify his fidelity to truth and Ahimsa, and to cling to the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita, one might theorize that the conclusion could be reached by discerning which of these was antecedent – that is to say, was the primary quality which enabled all the others, which enabled him to change throughout his life, and to constantly seek improvement. However, to give priority to the importance of one feature over the others is uncertain, and who is to say that in the absence of one, he would still have become “the Mahatma?” Rather it is best to see all of these influences as one, that his mother’s influence, his relationship with his wife and his own experiments with truth all led him towards one thing which alone formed the basis of the entirety of Gandhi’s efforts at personal change, and therefore formed the basis for his political success. The main effect these influences had on Gandhi was to enable his personal philosophy of adherence to truth and to incline him towards the Bhagavad Gita, which he considered the ultimate source of truth, from which he learned to refine his way of life, and which formed the greatest direct influence on both his private deeds and his public ones.

Please visit www.deshvidesh.com/GandhiandGlobalNonviolence to read all the students’ papers in entirety.

About the Author

Doug Mc Getchin, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of History specializes in the history of connections between modern Europe and South Asia. He is the author of Indology, Indomania, Orientalism: Ancient India’s Rebirth in Modern Germany (2009) and several edited volumes. His history courses include world, Germany, India, Gandhi, WW2, and Peace Studies. He is the Associate Director of the FAU Peace, Justice, and Human Rights (PJHR) Initiative for the Jupiter campus and holds the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute Professorship in Arts and Humanities, 2018-19.

Florida Atlantic University

Mahatma Gandhi

Doug McGetchin

Indian independence

Satyagraha

South Asia

South Africa

social and political

Dr. Martin Luther King

Nelson Mandela

Aung San Suu Kyi

Martin Luther King

Cesar Chavez

Cierra Hall

The Spiritual and Political Parallels Between Gandhi and Dr. King

United States

Mohandas K. Gandhi

The Making of a Mahatma

Antonia Isaac

The Nobel Peace Prize

London Times

One of the Greatest Men

Mandela’s Use of Civil Disobedience in South Africa

Paul Nolasco

American journalist

20th and 21st Centuries

Gandhi and His Method: The Formative Influences

Yechezkel Seinfeld

Great Soul

religious

self-restraint

Bhagavad Gita

As promised earlier this year, in honor of the 150th birth anniversary of our beloved Father of Nation and my mentor, Mahatma Gandhi ji, we will feature one article about him in every issue. Given this month is the Education issue, it is only fitting we discuss Gandhi’s greatest guru and teacher, his wife Kasturba.

Raj Shah
Managing Editor, Desh-Videsh

Marriages promise happiness and a rich journey that can be both harmonious and stormy. The marriage of Mohandas K. “Mahatma” Gandhi and Kasturba Gandhi lasted over 62 years, and the couple showed both remarkable common vision as well as an epic battle of wills in which Mahatma conceded she was his master, although it was their partnership that provided a solid grounding for the couple’s shared commitment to public service through nonviolent struggle. Kasturba often fades into the background of an imbalanced historical record. It is difficult to get her point of view as one needs to filter it largely through her husband’s writings. Gandhi left behind ninety-eight volumes of writings in his collected works. Kasturba was illiterate. Nevertheless, she left an important impact and played a central role in the nonviolent campaigns of Gandhi. One can find her voice and her willpower, which Gandhi encountered head-on when he tried to bend her to his own will as a young couple. British viceroys later found Gandhi to be frustratingly stubborn, but Gandhi learned these techniques when he met his match, confronting his own guru in nonviolence: his wife Kasturba.

The young Gandhi was very different from the elderly freedom fighter with whom the world became familiar later. As a teenager, Gandhi was an Anglophile, a sharp dresser, jealous, and passionate. Married at age thirteen, he was extremely suspicious and possessive of his wife Kasturba. Although she was loyal, he set down strict guidelines, as he related in his Autobiography: “she could not go anywhere without my permission. This sowed the seeds of a bitter quarrel between us” (9). Rather than submit, however, Kasturba rose up to the challenge by invoking her own volition. Exasperated, Gandhi wrote, “She made it a point to go out whenever and wherever she liked. More restraint on my part resulted in more liberty being taken by her and in my getting more and more cross” (9). A half a century later, even Gandhi himself admitted,

“I used to be a tyrant at home…I used to let loose my anger at Kasturba. But she bore it all meekly and uncomplainingly…her unresisting meekness opened my eyes and slowly it began to dawn upon me that I had no such prescriptive right over her. If I wanted her obedience, I had first to persuade her by patient argument. She thus became my teacher in non-violence…I literally used to make life a hell for her. Every other day I would… prescribe what dress she was wearing…She was not educated…[yet] Her guileless simplicity conquered me.” (Rajmohan Gandhi, Gandhi, 397-8; Gandhi CW Vol. 74, p. 147 [statement by Gandhi Oct 23, 1938]).

Gandhi made the mistake of thinking he could improve his wife by educating her, and once again they wrestled with conflicting goals and willpower. Gandhi wrote, “Kasturba was illiterate. I was very anxious to teach her, but…the teaching had to be done against her will” (Gandhi Autobiography 10). As his grandson Arun Gandhi writes, “He was going to teach his illiterate wife to read and write…keeping her awake late into the night outlining his course of instruction starting with the alphabet, and expecting her enthusiastic acceptance of the project. Instead, she seemed wary, unresponsive” (Arun and Sunanda Gandhi, The Forgotten Woman, 23). Instead of staying up to study, the couple usually ended up going to bed. Once again Kasturba proved the master of the Mahatma, who was unable to overcome the determination of his wife.

Despite years apart, Gandhi thought of himself as a good father. Gandhi spent years away from his family, three years pursuing legal studies in London and several more years in South Africa. Once his family joined him in South Africa, Gandhi did spend time as a father directly caring for his children. He had a guidebook called Advice to a Mother, and he “nursed both my children according to the instructions given in the book.” The Gandhis did employ a nurse as well, but she helped Kastur, as she was “not for taking care of the babies, which I did myself.” He also delivered his last child, Devadas, himself, as the doctor was unavailable (Gandhi,Autobiography, Part III Chap VI, p. 178). Kasturba does not have a voice in the historical record, but it appears Gandhi was compensating here for not being around for years at a time, so he took pains here to show that he himself was contributing. His taking advice from a book rather than Kasturba herself, however is a sign of his continuing determination to show he knew best. She had already had plenty of experience raising four sons, so could have been a better source of information than the book.

Another point of contention was a divide between loyalty to family and commitment to public service. Although he refused to receive payment for his organizing work, the Indian community in South Africa nevertheless gave gifts to Gandhi and wife Kasturba as they were preparing to return to India. Gandhi had been insisting on simplifying their lifestyle, and even their children agreed to return the gifts. But Kasturba resisted, wanting to have gifts to give her own relatives and insurance in case of emergency. She fought back against Gandhi’s austerity, arguing he was trying to impoverish their children, and asked him, “what right have you to my necklace?” This argument Gandhi was able to win, eventually persuading her to relent. “I was determined to return the ornaments. I somehow succeeded in extorting a consent from her” (Gandhi,Autobiography, 193-194).

Kasturba played a crucial role as Gandhi’s partner. She actively joined Gandhi in what became their political struggles, leading Indian women in South Africa into the nonviolent fight in 1913, and into jail (Gandhi/Fischer, Essential Gandhi, 93). A vital element in Gandhi’s nonviolent movement was the involvement of a wide population in the struggle, with women playing a crucial part of the struggle. After having four sons together, in their mid-30s, Gandhi unilaterally decided to take a vow of celibacy. “After full discussion and mature deliberation I took the vow in 1906. I had not shared my thoughts with my wife until then, but only consulted her at the time of taking the vow. She had no objection” (Gandhi, Autobiography 182).

At the end of her life, Gandhi acknowledged the critical role she had played in his life. In 1944 while in prison, “Kasturba died in her husband’s arms” (R. Gandhi, Gandhi, 490). He wrote, “She was a woman always of very strong will which, in our early days, I used to mistake for obstinacy. But that strong will enabled her to become quite unwittingly my teacher in the art and practice of non-violent non-cooperation” (R. Gandhi, Empire, 491). Their son Harilal had told him, “All the greatness you have achieved is only because of [Kastur]Ba” (R. Gandhi, Gandhi, 376). Gandhi himself recognized this truth, saying, “It is because of her that I am what I am” (R. Gandhi, Gandhi, 492). He honored her by affirming, “If I had to choose a companion for myself life after life, I would choose only Ba” (R. Gandhi, Gandhi, 492).

Further Reading

Gandhi, Arun and Sunanda Gandhi, with Carol Lynn Yellin. The Forgotten Woman: The Untold Story of Kastur, Wife of Mahatma Gandhi. Huntsville, Arkensaw: Ozark Mountain Publishers, 1998.

Gandhi, Mahatma and Louis Fischer, ed., Preface by Eknath Easwaran. The Essential Gandhi: An Anthology of His Writings on His Life, Work, and Ideas. New York: Vintage, 2002.

Gandhi, Mohandas K. An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth. Boston: Beacon Press, 1957. Ahmedabad, India: Navajivan Publishing House, 1925–28. http://www.gandhiashramsevagram.org/mahatma-gandhi-autobiography.php.

Gandhi, Rajmohan. Gandhi: The Man, the People, and the Empire. Los Angeles and Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

Mahatma Gandhi

Wife Of mahatma Gandhi Kasturba Gandhi

freedom fighter

Autobiography

Arun and Sunanda Gandhi, The Forgotten Woman

leading Indian women in South Africa

Gandhi/Fischer, Essential Gandhi

Doug McGetchin

Florida Atlantic University

Kasturba Gandhi

Gandhi’s greatest guru

Kasturba

Mahatma Gandhi ji

Florida Atlantic University‘s Peace, Justice and Human Rights (PJHR) initiative and International Hindu University will host a Gandhi Symposium, tentatively on October 19-20, 2019, at Florida Atlantic University (FAU), Davie, Florida.

There have been a flood of important biographies about Gandhi and studies on his role in South Asian history, yet many questions remain about his life and legacy. Organizers are seeking scholarly examinations about the following possible topics:

• Gandhi’s role in the application of Satyagraha and techniques of nonviolent resistance in South Asia, South Africa, and elsewhere

• Gandhi’s leadership in the environment, sustainability, and economic and social justice; Gandhi’s interests and transformations throughout his life

• Gandhi’s interaction with Dalits and views of caste; Gandhi’s views and actions on family, women, gender, and sexuality

• Critiques of Gandhi and his interactions with independence fighters advocating violence; Influences upon Gandhian thought and his influence on others

• Gandhi’s impact on the growth of human rights and pacifism

• Gandhian communities and international connections

• Gandhi’s religious views and their interaction with communalism (the mixing of religion and politics)

• Gandhi’s legacy in South Asia and abroad

• Gandhi’s idea of democracy and Nationalism

• An analysis of Gandhi’s skill of writing using simple language;

• Gandhi as a Lawyer and reflection on his South African Experiences

This symposium and proposed volume are intended to examine Gandhi a century and a half after he appeared on this Earth and explore lingering issues of his life, providing a scholarly framework for further exploration of a world leader, who though he never won the Nobel Peace Prize, has inspired many who did, and also sought to make a better world.

About the Author

Doug Mc Getchin, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of History specializes in the history of connections between modern Europe and South Asia. He is the author of Indology, Indomania, Orientalism: Ancient India’s Rebirth in Modern Germany (2009) and several edited volumes. His history courses include world, Germany, India, Gandhi, WW2, and Peace Studies. He is the Associate Director of the FAU Peace, Justice, and Human Rights (PJHR) Initiative for the Jupiter campus and holds the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute Professorship in Arts and Humanities, 2018-19.

British india Hero Mahatma gandhi

Peace, Justice and Human Rights (PJHR) initiative

Gandhi’s leadership in the environment

Gandhi’s interaction with Dalits

Critiques of Gandhi

Gandhi’s impact on the growth

Gandhian communities

Gandhi’s religious views

Gandhi’s legacy in South Asia

Gandhi’s skill of writing

growth of human rights

growth of pacifism

Posted on: 04-4-2019 by: Deshvidesh

At the Ph.D. program in history with David Luft at the University of California, San Diego, I studied the German interest in India, including writings by Romantic poets, Indologists, as well as philosophers such as Schopenhauer and Nietzsche. The insights I uncovered doing research in Berlin and Leipzig, Germany, emerged in Sanskrit and ‘Orientalism’ (2004), Indology, Indomania, Orientalism (2009), Transcultural Encounters between Germany and India (2014), and Gendered Encounters between Germany and Asia (2016). While in San Diego, nearby Encinitas had Paramahansa Yogananada’s Self Realization Fellowship gardens and Swami’s State Beach. Connections have deepened in three visits so far to India, to Delhi and Agra in 2000, then to Kolkata (Calcutta) in 2008 and 2013-14, a Nehru-Fulbright scholarship stay with family, experiencing wonderful hospitality and festivals including Holi. As the Associate Director of the FAU Peace Justice and Human Rights Initiative for Jupiter, lately I’ve had the opportunity to teach classes on Gandhi and nonviolence, as well as host speakers.

The year 2019 is the 150th Anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi’s birth on October 2, 1869. Florida Atlantic University has had an annual Gandhi speaker: in 2016 Gandhi’s grandson Arun Gandhi spoke at Gandhi Square in Davie and FAU in Boca Raton, and in 2018 grandson Rajmohan Gandhi spoke in Davie. Events in 2019 will feature a keynote speaker as well as a panel of scholars presenting on various aspects of Gandhi’s life and legacy.

In Summer 2019, Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton will be offering a new class, “Gandhi and Global Nonviolence” that will examine the life of Gandhi, nonviolent resistance, and the larger global context—how others have adapted and applied his methods to their own struggles. Gandhi is well known for his leadership in the Indian independence movement and pioneering the nonviolent techniques of Satyagraha (holding onto truth, or nonviolent struggle) that helped free South Asia from British colonial control. The course will also examine Gandhi’s profound impact around the world in social and political struggles, inspiring other activists including Dr. Martin Luther King in the United States, Lech Walesa in Poland, Nelson Mandela in South Africa, and Aung San Suu Kyi in Myanmar (Burma). The course will empower students to understand the techniques of nonviolent resistance and illustrate how it has changed the world from Calcutta (1947) to Cairo (2011), Montgomery (1956) to Manila (1986), Leipzig (1989) to Belgrade (2000). All these cases show the spreading impact of Gandhi’s nonviolent global influence.

About the Author

Doug Mc Getchin, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of History specializes in the history of connections between modern Europe and South Asia. He is the author of Indology, Indomania, Orientalism: Ancient India’s Rebirth in Modern Germany (2009) and several edited volumes. His history courses include world, Germany, India, Gandhi, WW2, and Peace Studies. He is the Associate Director of the FAU Peace, Justice, and Human Rights (PJHR) Initiative for the Jupiter campus and holds the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute Professorship in Arts and Humanities, 2018-19.

Posted on: 04-2-2019 by: Deshvidesh

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Professor Douglas Brooks

Bhagavadgita

Upanishads

Gitagovinda

Buddhism Ideology

Third World Lives of Struggle

violence of Algerian Frantz Fanon

University of California, San Diego

writings by Romantic poets

philosophers Schopenhauer and Nietzsche

Events in 2019