5. The National and Universal Importance of the Non-violent Policy of Mohandas K. Gandhi

It is a matter of dispute as to whether the attainment of national independence is primarily the result of non-violent actions by the Indians, or of the moderate British colonial policies. Numerous domestic political factors in India and Britain, and above all the weakening of the British Empire as a result of the World Wars, paved the way for the success of the largely non-violent independence movement. Its most important political leader was Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. He only rarely took up official positions in the Indian National Congress. Nevertheless he enjoyed authority over the masses. The core element of Gandhi’s way of life is an awareness of one’s responsibility not only for one’s actions, but also of one’s failure to put up resistance against injustice in one’s own environment. Non-cooperation is the primary legal means of non-violent action. Civil disobedience is a stage of escalation of non-violent policies that requires careful preparation and consideration of the risks to the common good that it entails. The basic principles of non-violent social behaviour and Gandhi’s policies have universal significance, particularly in liberal democracies and in dictatorships that are losing their legitimacy in the eyes of a population suffering from injustice.