Vaishali Institute Research Bulletin 3

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

Page 36

THE SOCIAL AND POLITICAL IMPLICATIONS OF NON-VIOLENCE
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and universal welfare. Not the audacious and unwarranted conquest of a weak neighbour but the integration of personality through the harmonization of one's impulses and the maximum satisfaction of the justifiable social demands of citizens should become the aim of individual thought and action and of political rulers. Political action has to satisfy not merely the criteria of formal rationality like the minimization of the costs and the attainment of external efficiency but has also to realize the essential ideals of liberty, equality, charity, justice and universal good or Sarvodaya. Hence social accommodation, solidarity and fraternity on an increasing scale are necessary. Avarice, anger and treachery which are the accompaniments of Macht politik have to be conquered. But this realization of fundamental ideals has to be made possible by personal purification and by the gradual replacement of the coercive appliances and instruments of the state machine by a regime of moral authority and social justice. Gandhi believed in self-control and he rebelled against the automatic violence of governments because according to the ideal of non-violence, coercive control has to be replaced by voluntary self-disci. pline. Ahimsa requires a quest for the incorporation of justice and virtue in our social and political life and hence it demands the neutralization of Machtpolitik. Gandhi's stress on the ethicization of politics through the pursuit of Ahimsa, thus, is an important contribution to political thought.
To sum up, there are four merits of Ahimsa a technic for political action and as a concept in political philosophy. First, it strengthens the foundations of democratic behavior. Secondly, it prevents the emergence of counter-revolution. Thirdly, it serves as a morally-oriented conceptual pattern for judging political action. Fourthly, it pleads for the replacement of 'Machtpolitik,
7. Ahimsa And Western Sociological And Political Thought
The stress on Ahimsa represents the emphasis on the creative role of the moral mind and heart as factors in human evolution. It implies that evolution is not automatic, dictated by the progress of objective forces, but is influenced by the rational and moral powers of man. In sociological terms, Ahimsa represents social coordination, mutual adjustment and socio-mental correlation and integration. Consequently, in place of tension, conflict and antagonism it stands for accommodation and cooperation. It wants increasing coordination and mutual relationship between the different groups, classes, races and nations into which humanity is apparently divided. It pleads for the replacement of imperialism by the dynamics of creative