By examining Gandhi as a political organiser it may be possible to bridge
the gap between two interpretations of his importance -- one which focuses
on his propagation of nonviolence "as a way of life", the other- which treats
him as a pioneer in the use of nonviolence "as a conflict technique. "
Gandhi named his philosophy and his method of action, "satyagraha". Between
1915 and 1922 he emerged as the organiser of local satyagraha campaigns in
Bihar and Gujarat. He moved quickly, however, to leadership of further
struggles at a national level, in particular the hoxlatt Satyagraha in 1919
and Noncooperation eighteen months later. The thesis explores, through a
series of case studies, how Gandhi developed his methods as he moved over a
period of about five years from local to national scale.
At the national level, Gandhi failed to take India by storm as he had hoped
through organisations founded by himself to propagate his principles like
the Satyagraha Sabha and the Swadeshi Sabha. He therefore forged alliances
with political figures from other perspectives within the Khilafat movement
and the Indian Rational Congress who nonetheless were prepared to follow
his direction. A principal means which Gandhi developed for generating
solidarity between the nation's educated "classes" and the "masses" and for
mobilising people short of civil disobedience, was the promotion of campaigns
of constructive work. This is particularly clear in his planning and
leadership of the Noncooperation movement.
Presentation of nonviolent action in the West, by overstressing the "conflict"
aspect of satyagraha and neglecting the "constructive", has been one-sided.
The importance in Gandhi's method as an organiser of a concept of constructive
programme and its application in practice suggests that advocates of nonviolent
action as a technique should look more closely at the balance between
the two aspects in his approach.
The thesis concludes with a review'of the rules and stages in Gandhi's
satyagraha campaigns which have been proposed in the work of Joan Bondurant. / Long Dene Fund
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BRADFORD/oai:bradscholars.brad.ac.uk:10454/3866 |
| Date | January 1982 |
| Creators | Overy, Bob |
| Contributors | Young, Nigel |
| Publisher | University of Bradford, Postgraduate School of Studies in Peace Studies. |
| Source Sets | Bradford Scholars |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis, doctoral, PhD |
| Rights | <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/"><img alt="Creative Commons License" style="border-width:0" src="http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc-nd/3.0/88x31.png" /></a><br />The University of Bradford theses are licenced under a <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/">Creative Commons Licence</a>. |
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