Vaishali Institute Research Bulletin 3

Author(s): R P Poddar
Publisher: Research Institute of Prakrit Jainology & Ahimsa Mujjaffarpur

Page 34

THE SOCIA , AND POLITICAL IMPLICATIONS OF NON-VIOLENCE
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concentrated dynamics the political realms also. Hence he wants that concrete and immediate steps have to be taken to reform the individual and that kind of individual change of heart will have social and political repurcussions. Gandhi's acceptance of divine determinismı imparted to him great faith in the inevitable emergence of the non-violent society in the future because God could not be expected to be a witness to the holocaust of man. This notion of the inevitability of the victory of nonviolence is a consequence of Gandhi's faith in the conquering power of the divine spirit. Man becomes dejected because he takes a limited view. It is his imperative duty to work for personal self-purificaticn, for the reformation of social and political life and for the realization of God in the lives of living beings and the eventual triumph of truth is sure to occur because a Gandhi used to repeat "Truth is God.” Viewed in the context of this supreme belief in the victory of truth, Gandhi's theory of the progressive application of non-violence to world politics certainly represents a great advance in the direction of political idealism. He persisted in his faith that the various problems of India could be solved by non-violence and hence his constant refrain was that for the achievement of real freedom and true democracy the torchlight of non-violence has to keep burning with ever greater brightness"in the midst of the present impenetrable gloom.”50 Non-violence, thus enunciated and cherished by Gandhi, will definitely strengthen the moral and psychological foundations of democratic civilization,
As a technic for the solution of social and political conflicts, Gandhi felt that Ahimsa was efficacious because the sufferers for the cause of truth raise themselves in the opinion and judgment of the world, because through the pains, suffering and persecutions undergone by them they deeply touch and influence the delicate sensitiveness, mental susceptibility and inner responsiveness of other men and thus prevent the barbarization of society. Furthermore, the settlement of social, political and economic tensions, rivalries and animosities through the technic of non-violence prevents the possible melicious injury to the compromise formula by any group of counter-revolutionists. An attempt is made to convert the latter into integral supporters ef the claims of the community.. Thus Ahimsa is beneficial as a technic for the resolution of national and internationrl tensions.
Even if the immediate implementation of the creed of absolute Ahimsa may sound psychologically and sociologically unrealistic, still it can serve as a useful conceptual pattern, a measuring-rod for our
50. Young India, July 20, 1926,