T N Purwar

​DEVELOPMENT OF NON-VIOLENCE

The smallest unit of human society is a family, which is based on love and compassion. But what an anomaly that the coordinating agency or federating authority of families, which is known as the state, is based on repression and violence! So as it is to change an unjust system or destroy an oppressive state violent methods are needed. Gandhi experienced and realised the cruelty inherent in the anomaly. He felt the depressiveness of the situation. He visualised human society as a family, where love and compassion should be the way to resolve various conflicts. Gandhi introduced non-violent methods based on a threefold action: Satyagrah (insistence to truth), Asagayoga (non-cooperation) and Atmanigrah-atmabalidan (self-abnegation, self-sacrifice). The combination of all of these is crystallized in Savinaya Avajnya Andolan (civil disobedience movement) by individuals and communities against the oppressor and oppressive authority. Gandhi successfully fought the British imperial authority with his non-violent methods and led the Indian subcontinent towards Independence.