Il potere della non-violenza

by Mahatma Gandhi

• La mia vita per la libertà
• Il mio credo, il mio pensiero
• La resistenza non violenta

Traduzioni di Lucio Angelini, Bianca Vittoria Franco e Franco Paris

Il nome di Gandhi è ormai divenuto sinonimo di pace e di ribellione non violenta, e forse mai come oggi è importante conoscerne il messaggio. Nella prima parte di questo volume, il Mahatma analizza minuziosamente, in bellissime pagine autobiografiche, il suo percorso esistenziale, le esperienze di vita, gli studi, gli scontri, le conquiste, il lungo cammino percorso con la sua gente. E offre al lettore la sua umile, operosa, quotidiana ricerca della verità, dalla quale emerge la grandiosa lezione morale che la sua figura rappresenta nella storia contemporanea. Nella seconda e nella terza parte vengono esposte l’ideologia pacifista, la strenua, indefessa fiducia nella necessità della non-violenza, la difesa dei diritti e della libertà del singolo e dei popoli, l’uguaglianza delle genti, la sacralità del lavoro e della famiglia: princìpi che per Gandhi non costituiscono tanto un messaggio nuovo e rivoluzionario da propagandare al mondo intero, quanto dei valori essenziali e inalienabili dell’uomo, che fanno parte della sua intima natura e come tali vanno sostenuti. Di qui la purezza, la linearità, la sincerità del pensiero gandhiano, che abbraccia ogni aspetto del vivere singolo e collettivo ed emerge in queste pagine con la limpida onestà morale e con tutta la forza e il coraggio che solo la fede più profonda nella propria verità riesce a generare.

Genres: Philosophy, Politics, Nonfiction, History, Classics, Religion, Society

1008 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, commonly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was the preeminent leader of Indian nationalism in British-ruled India. Employing non-violent civil disobedience, Gandhi led India to independence and inspired movements for non-violence, civil rights and freedom across the world.

The son of a senior government official, Gandhi was born and raised in a Hindu Bania community in coastal Gujarat, and trained in law in London. Gandhi became famous by fighting for the civil rights of Muslim and Hindu Indians in South Africa, using new techniques of non-violent civil disobedience that he developed. Returning to India in 1915, he set about organizing peasants to protest excessive land-taxes. A lifelong opponent of "communalism" (i.e. basing politics on religion) he reached out widely to all religious groups. He became a leader of Muslims protesting the declining status of the Caliphate. Assuming leadership of the Indian National Congress in 1921, Gandhi led nationwide campaigns for easing poverty, expanding women's rights, building religious and ethnic amity, ending untouchability, increasing economic self-reliance, and above all for achieving Swaraj—the independence of India from British domination. His spiritual teacher was the Jain philosopher/poet Shrimad Rajchandra.

Reviews

[Daksh Jindal · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book gives you glimpse of the soul of one of the most prominent leaders of our time. A lot to learn from his mindset to his self reflections on his mistakes.

[Lucy Faria · Rating 3 out of 5]

My first contact with British authority in that country was not of a happy character. I discovered that as a man and an Indian I had no rights. More correctly, I discovered that I had no rights as a man because I was an Indian. But I was not baffled. I thought that this treatment of Indians was an excrescence upon a system that was intrinsically and mainly good. I gave the government my voluntary and hearty cooperation, criticizing it freely where I felt it was faulty, but never wishing its destruction. Consequently, when the existence of the empire was threatened in 1899 by the Boer challenge, I offered my services to it, raised a volunteer ambulance corps, and served at several actions that took place for the relief of Ladysmith. Similarly in 1906, at the time of the Zulu revolt, I raised a stretcher-bearer party and served till the end of the rebellion. On both these occasions I received medals and was even mentioned in dispatches. For my work in South Africa I was given by Lord Hardinge a Kaiser-i-Hind Gold Medal. When the war broke out in 1914 between England and Germany, I raised a volunteer ambulance corps in London consisting of the then resident Indians in London, chiefly students. Its work was acknowledged by the authorities to be valuable. Lastly, in India, when a special appeal was made at the War Conference in Delhi in I918 by Lord Chelmsford for recruits, I struggled at the cost of my health to raise a corps in Kheda and the response was being made when the hostilities ceased and orders were received that no more recruits were wanted. In all these efforts at service, I was actuated by the belief that it was possible by such services to gain a status of full equality in the empire for my countrymen. The first shock came in the shape of the Rowlatt Act, a law designed to rob the people of all real freedom. I felt called upon to lead an intensive agitation against it. Then followed the Punjab horrors beginning with the massacre at Jallianwala Bagh and culminating in crawling orders, public floggings, and other indescribable humiliations. I discovered, too, that the plighted word of the prime minister to the Mussalmans of India regarding the integrity of Turkey and the holy places of Islam was not likely to be fulfilled. But, in spite of the forebodings and the grave warnings of friends, at the Amritsar Congress in 1919, I fought for cooperation and working the Montagu-Chelmsford reforms, hoping that the prime minister would redeem his promise to the Indian Mussalmans, that the Punjab wound would be healed, and that the reforms, inadequate and unsatisfactory though they were, marked a new era of hope in the life of India. But all that hope was shattered. The Khilafat promise was not to be redeemed. The Punjab crime was whitewashed and most culprits went not only unpunished but remained in service and some continued to draw pensions from the Indian revenue, and in some cases were even rewarded. I saw, too, that not only did the reforms not mark a change of heart, but they were only a method of further draining India of her wealth and of prolonging her servitude.
I came reluctantly to the conclusion that the British connec tion had made India more helpless than she ever was before, politically and economically. A disarmed India has no power of resistance against any aggressor if she wanted to engage in an armed conflict with him. So much is this the case that some of our best men consider that India must take generations be fore she can achieve the dominion status. She has become so poor that she has little power of resisting famines.

[Sonia Ramchandani]

Ahimsa-compassion.
‘Ahimsa-you may not offend anybody, you may not harbor an uncharitable thought even in connection with one who may consider himself to be your enemy. (Not whom you consider to be your enemy) So we may not harbor an evil thought in connection with such person. (not saying we should acquiesce) But we shouldn’t resent or wish harm done to the enemy, or that he should be put out of the way, not by our own actions, or even the actions of others.’

Strength isn’t in physical capacity but an indomitable will. A true pacifist is a true satyagrahi- acts with faith and determination & not fists because a satyagrahi is assured when their actions are true and therefore not concerned with the result. They have faith in satya. Satyam Shivam Sundaram.

The feeling of humiliation doesn’t exist if you’ve embodied Gandhi’s non violent spirit, even when someone harasses you?
He says if there is real nonviolence in you then there is NO feeling of helplessness but the feelings of helplessness comes from cowardice. Helplessness/cowardice shouldn’t be confused with nonviolence. “Violence does not mean emancipation from fear but discovering the means of combating the cause of fear.” Nonviolence has no cause of fear- learn to dare danger and death.
‘Nonviolence carries within it its own sanction…There must be within you an upwelling of love and pity toward the wrongdoer. When there is that feeling, it will express itself through some action. It may be a sign, a glance, even silence. But it will melt the heart of the wrongdoer and check the wrong.’
It isn’t just saying you’ll keep your hands to yourself, there has to be a confidence in your nonviolent treatment. “Your nonviolent behavior would either make the bully ashamed and prevent the insult or make you immune against it so that the insult would remain only in the bully’s mouth and not touch you at all.”
We were still cornered to use science for the atomic bombs.
‘Karo ya maro!’

Some of his writing is extremely spiritual and some political.
With all his seriousness using ethos, pathos, and logos used to explain his meaning of satya and nonviolence, I found his humor entertaining. Especially in topics like his ‘Letter to Adolf Hitler’, his letter ‘when I am arrested’, and ‘the great trial’ was funny to me. He was funny explaining his account on civil disobedience, even some of his responses to the British were satirical. His humor even shone thru before he gave his speech in Benares University which he was very late to. He probably had a nice laugh, calming them down. He was funny yet serious in his writing. Gandhi also uses a bit of his humor in ‘To Every Briton’ as he explains the dark and twisted logic of his methods of nonviolent noncooperation.

He believes in euthanasia and using tear gas to protect others but not bombs or war.
He cannot truly believe in nonviolence because he believes humans are just violent creatures that potentially give off violent actions they just can’t avoid-like being born with sin. He says only sinners can be saints. He believes to be successful at nonviolence one must have been in a violent environment to understand the useless fury and hate behind it. Anger and violence are futile. “We have found that a person who has had a schooling in violent activity comes nearer to true nonviolence than one who has had no such experience”.

[Mike Clinton · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is really an excellent and engrossing collection that delves deeply into the complexity of Gandhi's systematic thinking about nonviolent resistance and all its elements. Although I knew that Gandhi himself had a strong spiritual commitment, it only became evident to me after reading these selections how essential such a spiritual commitment is to the very logic of nonviolent resistance. Also, although I understood well enough the ecumenism of Gandhi's outlook, some of these selections pointed out clearly where the principles that Gandhi drew from Hinduism overlapped with Islam, Quakerism, and the broader tradition of Christianity. It assumes a knowledge of the historical context, which limits its value to those who understand the references and the significance of the dates sometimes but not always provided in footnotes that, aside from a paragraph at the beginning of each major chapter, is the only historical orientation provided by the editor. This may be intentional, as a statement of the eternal and universal character of Gandhi's principles, although I may be reading too much into that. The introductory essay is excellent but also emphasizes these selections as primarily spiritual and philosophical rather than historical documents. In any case, the volume could benefit from some additional editorial apparatus, such as a chronology and glossary of names and concepts, which would make it more accessible as an introduction.

[Andrew Epperson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this for my book club with Prof. Rob Wells. Although it’s not a “pleasure read,” this gives insight into Gandhi’s beliefs and work in the nonviolence realm. His definition of “ahimsa” acts as its own religion, and the ideas were seen in America’s Civil Rights and other modern movements.
Gandhi’s letters to Hitler are interesting to read at this point. He clearly thought he could level with the German leader, and I wonder what he’d think about him with a 21st century understanding. The back-and-forth dialogue about how ahimsa applies to roving dogs also proved to be a telling series on how deeply ahimsa could go. Its layers went beyond human understanding. Knowing what comes after the later chapter made his final letters all the more chilling to read.

[Timothy Morrow · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fair introduction to Gandhi’s teachings.

[brad · Rating 4 out of 5]

Strong book. Highlights the thought and philosophy behind the non violence movement. I missed alot of references due to the lack of Hindu upbringing and will circle back after learning more.

[Stefanos Baziotis · Rating 4 out of 5]

It seems stupid to give Gandhi less than 4 stars, but I'm sorry, this is like hearing Socrates speak, except it's more shallow and more pretentious.

[Luca Macchi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un'autobiografia più gli scritti e il pensiero del grande uomo indiano