India’s 9/11 — Centenary of Gandhi’s Non-Violent Strategy

Enroute from South Africa Barrister Mohandas K Gandhi (center) meets with a British Colonel during the First World War. Gandhi had volunteered to form an ambulance corps of Volunteers, 1913.

As much of the world marked September 11 by commemorating the 2001 attacks on the United States, India celebrated it as a day of peace — the 100th anniversary of Mohandas Gandhi’s philosophy of peaceful resistance, or ‘Satyagraha’, reports the International Herald Tribune.

(There is also additional reporting in The Times of India.)

“On Sept. 11, 1906, Gandhi, then a young, little-known lawyer working in South Africa, joined a meeting of fellow Indians in a Johannesburg theater to protest a proposed law that would force Indians to carry identity documents and be fingerprinted. Indians had initially been brought to South Africa as indentured workers by the British, who ruled both countries at the time.

“Gandhi convinced those present to resist or ignore the law — but without resorting to violence. He called the idea ‘Satyagraha,’ which literally translates as ‘insistence on truth.’

“Thousands of Indians were jailed, including Gandhi, for refusing to cooperate and burning their identity booklets.

“In the end, the government eventually agreed to some of Gandhi’s demands.

“In 1916, Gandhi returned to India to set up an ashram, a Hindu spiritual center, where he taught his philosophy. He also stressed ending caste differences, relieving poverty, and ousting the British.

“Gandhi’s great success was offering an opportunity for the masses of Indians to join the struggle for independence, said Pran Chopra, a New Delhi-based political analyst. Before Gandhi, opponents of British rule were either isolated intellectuals or small groups that resorted to violence.

” ‘”This platform offered by Gandhi … gave them an opening so they could participate in boycotts and protests,’ he said.

“Finally Gandhi spearheaded the Quit India campaign, which forced the British, exhausted by World War II, from India in 1947.”

For more information on Gandhi you may click here.

An Indian newspaper reports that: “Mahatma Gandhi has been crowned ‘Management Guru’ by Harvard School of Business Management. Others take a cue, introduce course in Gandhism. An increasing number of Universities and colleges in US are starting courses on Gandhian Thought.

“About 50 universities and colleges in US have launched courses in Gandhism in the last few years, says Savita Singh, Director of Gandhi Smriti and Darshan Samiti here. Among the leading institutions in America, University of West Virginia, University of Hawaii, George Mason University and many more have started courses.

” ‘The West has reached an extreme stage of development, progress and over-indulgence. Now they are trying to back to simplicity. In this mission, they are looking for the route in Gandhism,’ she says.

“Lieah Wells, a scholar of Gandhian Studies, has formed a core group of 10,000 students in California recently to learn and spread Gandhism.”

You may also visit Einstein on Gandhi. For more information on Gandhi’s ashram click here.

“Generations to come, it may be, will scarce believe that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth.” — Albert Einstein

“How significant September 11 was for humankind comes through in a conversation between Albert Einstein and Jawaharlal Nehru in the United States in 1949. Soon after the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombing in 1945, the Mahatma had questioned Nehru on the atom bomb. In Nehru’s words, ‘with deep human compassion loading his gentle eyes,’ he remarked that this wanton destruction had confirmed his faith in God and non-violence….” Read on.