Gandhi and Non-Violent Protests

Do you believe Gandhi’s system of non-violent protests offers a complete answer to political problems?

Gandhi is prominent; he was well known for advocating for non-violent resistance in India on the verge of advocating for the struggle for independence. Gandhi played a crucial role in ensuring that the process of non-violent resistance was successful. Suppose he had advocated for violence and fighting. He would not have achieved a lot because there was a higher probability that he would have lost his life before playing a role in attaining independence in his country. Gandhi used non-violent and peaceful processes to develop a strategy of obtaining his objective in the long run. For many years, he had worked in law firms, thus, had a more in-depth knowledge in the law, which made him command respect and succeed in attaining a massive following in India. A large citizen push for independence in India made Gandhi succeed in using non-violent protests when the effects of violence were eminent between the British and Indians. The use of non-violent protests was an effective strategy; however, I do not believe that Gandhi’s system of non-violent protests offers a complete answer to political problems.

The non-violent method of political resistance is entirely inapplicable in the current political system. Moreover, a non-violent political system would have less likelihood of thriving and being successful. It is so because such a method has little capacity of coercing perpetrators to move out of their comfort zones. The world is full of bad people; they are everywhere devising evil plans. They can destroy the world in seconds, and such cases do not give space for working with non-violent ways of peaceful protests (Gandhi, 2016). At some point, even the United States had to apply some force in reducing Iraq’s war threats to the world. United States’ efforts to violent protests helped reduce the terrorism agony in the 9/11 attack (Gandhi, 2016). Moreover, non-violent and peaceful demonstrations have proved inefficient in some countries such as Russia since they often lead to deaths, massive arrests, and violence. Peaceful demonstrations also have a lower likelihood of working in Turkey since protests are always marked by teargas and violence (Gandhi, 2016). Contemporary Turkey and Russia are examples of countries where peaceful protests have a lesser likelihood of being successful.

Peaceful demonstrations often succeed due to their nature of wanting to push up for the truth. However, they always have a higher likelihood of failing because they always have different agendas. The different agendas fail due to deviating massively from the truth and how things are supposed to be. Gandhi has a great interest in the truth; he always pushed for the truth; he believed that truth is the most potent tool, surpassing other weapons of mass destruction (Cortright, 2015). Truth being Gandhi’s stand can never be applicable in today’s political systems. Their hidden agendas lure most people in such political systems seeking the truth. They want to benefit themselves through fake truth. For instance, some politicians have succeeded in hiring protestors to benefit themselves financially. Gandhi believed that truth is a lifetime value that should be embraced (Cortright, 2015). The current political system can never attain peaceful protests because it has no space for relying on the truth. Failure to prioritize the truth often makes non-violent protests stand at a lesser position of addressing political problems.

In some cases, the use of non-violent protests has been successful in social protests. For example, the use of social protests has proved to be successful in revolution and civil resistance. However, a lot of effort has to be put into this. A lot of force ought to be applied to attain the required results. In the long run, the use of force has made people lose their lives and property (Sharma, 2017). A common phenomenon in society is that most people often start peacefully, but, in the process, they end up ignoring the authority, the ignorance results in the use of violence. Gandhi advocated for good ethics and values, but he failed in determining weakness in his approach. This is why most non-violent demonstrations today result in violence in the political systems (Sharma, 2017).

Conclusion

Gandhi’s political approach to peaceful demonstrations does not bear many fruits in solving political problems in contemporary times. Most of the perpetrators are robust and have a lot of influence; that is why they often intimidate protesting results and intimidate all the protestors causing violence and chaos. Gandhi regarded the truth; he was interested in political systems that regard the truth; this is not the case in today’s political systems; they are full of corruption and discrimination. For most peaceful protests to be successful, in today’s political system, they ought to be accompanied by violence; the society is programmed this way. Today’s society is violent; the political system is also ignorant; ignorance triggers violence to seek attention. This way, it is not possible for Gandhi’s system to answer political problems completely.

References

Cortright, D. (2015). Gandhi and Beyond: Nonviolence for a new political age. Routledge

Gandhi, M.K. (2016). Selected political writings. Hackett Publishing Company, inc. Indianapolis/ Cambridge.

Sharma, S. (2017). Gandhian Strategy: The Exclusive Mantra for solving problems, in modern context. Mahatma Gandhi’s.