Gandhi and the Ethic of Active Non-Violence

Authors

  • Anthony Parel Anthony Parel is Emeritus Professor of Political Science at the University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. He can be reached at: parel@ucalgary.ca

Abstract

This paper argues that Gandhi’s active non-violence is an ethic that (a) resists the use of illegitimate violence to solve conflict and (b) seeks to remove the material and moral conditions that engender conflict. It gets its ultimate strength from “soul-force” as Gandhi calls it. Its effectiveness depends on the deep spiritual life of its practitioners, the respect for human rights and social justice. A society can be governed by non-violent means only if the vast majority of its members are already non-violent in their civic behavior. Gandhi does not advocate radical pacifism as he recognizes the right of self-defense, and the legitimacy of the constitutionally limited state. The reduction, not the elimination, of violence is its general policy.

Downloads

Issue

Vol. 10 No. 1-2 (2009): January-December, 2009

Section

Articles

License

Consent to Publish and Transfer of Copyright
By publishing in Prajñā Vihāra, the author agrees to transfer and assign to Assumption University of Thailand as the Publisher of the Journal, the copyright to the Article in any form, including any and all rights, interests and claims related to it.

The author does retain the following rights:

  1. The right to make further copies of the published article for their use in classroom teaching.
  2. The right to reuse all or part of the published article in a compilation of his or her own works or in textbooks of which they are the author or coauthor.
  3. The right to make copies of the published article for internal distribution within their academic institution.
  4. All proprietary rights other than copyright, such as patent rights.
The author must also guarantee that:
  1. The Article is his or her original work, and has not been published previously and is not under consideration for publication elsewhere.
  2. It does not contain any matter that is obscene, libelous, or contrary to law.
  3. They have obtained the necessary license or written authority and paid any and all related fees for the use and reproduction of text, tables, illustrations and other copyrighted work from the owners of the intellectual property rights, and can furnish the Publisher copies of the license/written authority and proof of payment of related fees upon the signing of this Agreement.
  4. They have the consent of the Co-Authors of the article upon the signing of this Agreement.
  5. In the event that they intend to republish, reprint or translate all or part of the Article in other publications, they will secure the prior written permission from the journal Editor.

Prajñā Vihāra adopts the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY-NC-ND) license