Living in Truth | Introduction

It is our aim in the following pages to give a full and rounded picture of Mahatma Gandhi’s relevance to our world, both in its ethical-political and economic-ecological aspects. Gandhi’s life and contributions have been the subjects of countless books and essays, but rarely have his thoughts and actions been approached and analysed in terms of a paradigm. Many, if not most, people have probably never heard of the concept of paradigm. The word comes from the Greek term, παράδειγμα (paradeigma), which means pattern or example. A paradigm is thus a guiding idea or a conceptual framework.

As such, when we speak of ‘Gandhi’s paradigm’, we refer to the exemplarity of his thoughts and actions, which we can say, touched every aspect of Indian ethical, political and economic life. His leadership was paradigmatic and became one with the life of the Indian nation. However, we can also add that the Gandhian paradigm has a universal value in today’s world, because it provides a model solution to a great number of our global challenges. The Gandhian paradigm, in its initial form that was developed in Gandhi’s seminal work, Hind Swaraj (1909), and its contemporary analysis, have had an impact on our mode of thinking about the two concepts of tradition and modernity. But, it has also changed the way we think about humankind’s spiritual and rational attempts at understanding the world. Before Gandhi, our views on politics and economics were dominated by a heroic narrative of technoscientific progress. Gandhi did not try to add a new truth to the existing stock of old truths. In their book, Llyod I. Rudolph and Susanne Hoeber Rudolph had said: Gandhi’s epistemology was rooted in ‘truth in action’, a concept that locates truth in the facts and circumstance of particular situation… For Gandhi, truth had several meanings and forms. It could be situational as in the goal of a satyagraha, contextual and contingent as in the experimental truths found in his autobiography, and absolute as in his commitment to ‘Truth in God’.Gandhi usually spoke of truth in terms of self-experience, rather than universal cognition. ‘Truth,’ he said, ‘resides in every human heart, and one has to search for it there, and to be guided by truth as one sees it. But no one has the right to coerce others to act according to his own view of truth.’ Gandhi considered the search for truth an integral part of his non-violence and a vital component of the relationship between the private and the public. Dennis Dalton, a political science professor, said:

The point of achieving individual self-realization as a vital component of the political method of satyagraha is related to Gandhi’s vision of the ultimate source of conflict resolution. He contended that the seeming diversity of individual interests could be ultimately reconciled in terms of a higher unity or consensus. The unity was expressed in a religious ethic of spiritual oneness.

The main point here is the difference between the possession of a final truth and the permanent search of an experimental truth as a common ground for non-violence.Briefly put, in this book, we are of the view that the essence of the Gandhian paradigm is the effort of searching for meaning in a meaningless world. His going beyond (para-) the everydayness to show (deiknynai) the relationship between the ideal and the real was a way of raising the ethical aspiration of the citizens and the non-violent essence of the government. What set Gandhi apart was his belief in transformative leadership and citizenry. ‘Gandhi’s particular accomplishment as a political leader was to relate both the power of sataygraha and the purpose of swaraj to the ideal of inclusivity… Gandhi saw the task of leadership as educative in another sense, that satyagraha must be used to gain the empowerment of those who had never been politicized.’

If Gandhi’s critique of the political has any relevance today, it is due to two main factors: on the one hand, contemporary politics lacks moral leaders, and on the other hand, democracies around world have abandoned the empowerment of the weakest in favour of economic and political supremacy, and hegemony of the strongest. However, Gandhi’s view of democracy was exactly the opposite. ‘My notion of democracy,’ he observed, ‘is that under it the weakest should have the same opportunity as the strongest. That can never happen except through non-violence.’

The Gandhian paradigm is, therefore, based on truthfulness and non-violence. However, as we will see throughout this book, Gandhi also established an essential relationship between social awareness and common humanity. For him, politics as the art of organizing society was a path to self-realization and autonomy of the individual and the community. The truth is that the Gandhian revolution was not only political, but also ethical and spiritual. Gandhi not only spiritualized Indian politics by making it truthful and exemplary but also brought about ethicality in Indian economy by opting for a network of mutuality and solidarity. A thorough reading of Gandhi’s 100 volumes of Collected Works reveals no ambiguity. Gandhi’s distinctive quality was not merely his love of equality, inclusivity and the spiritual equilibrium between humankind and other living creatures but also his exemplary persistence on respect of the other. He argued: ‘Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need but not every man’s greed.’6 This vision continues to hold political contemporaneity and spiritual power because it grew out of the process of incubation and intellectual maturation of the Gandhian paradigm. Assuredly, a variety of intellectual ruptures and spiritual experiments operated together throughout to develop Gandhi’s life in his triple vision of swaraj, satyagraha and sarvodaya. Swarajand satyagraha are the two mother concepts of Gandhian social and political philosophy. At the heart of the Gandhian doctrine of self-emancipation and self-determination, we find the concept of swaraj. As a point of connection between ethics and politics, swarajincorporated many other aspects of the Gandhian thought, including trusteeship. At the centre of this concept was the urge to promote equity and justice, while reducing the gap between the rich and the poor to a minimum. Accordingly, Gandhi believed that ‘economics is untrue which ignores or disregards moral values. The extension of the law of non-violence in the domain of economics means nothing less than the introduction of moral values as a factor to be considered in regulating international commerce.’7 As such, far from having a utopian vision of the economic order, Gandhi believed in equal partnership of entrepreneurs, workers and consumers. However, more than just being a methodology, Gandhian trusteeship is a way of life. As Gandhi argued: The real implication of equal distribution is that each man shall have the wherewithal to supply all his natural wants and no more. For example, if one man has aweak digestion and requires only a quarter of a pound of flour for his bread and another needs a pound, both should be in a position to satisfy their wants. To bring this ideal into being the entire social order has got to be reconstructed. A society based on non-violence cannot nurture any other ideal. We may not perhaps be able to realize the goal but we must bear it in mind and work unceasingly to near it. To the same extent as we progress towards our goal we shall find contentment and happiness, and to that extent too, shall we have contributed towards the bringing into being of a non-violent society.

It goes without saying that the Gandhian revolution was integral because it took into account not only the domains of the ethical and the political but also established a new anthropology. Gandhi believed, ‘All men are brothers and no human being should be a stranger to another. The welfare of all, sarvodaya, should be our aim. God is the common bond that unites all human beings. To break this bond even with our greatest enemy is to tear God Himself to pieces. There is humanity even in the most wicked.’9 We can fully understand hereby the inclusive character of the Gandhian model of interconnectedness. As we can see, Gandhi’s innovation emerges in relation to the development of Indian concepts, like swaraj, satyagraha and sarvodaya, in a global context. Thus, Gandhi extended his ideal of swaraj to the capacity for self-rule, birth of truth and non-violence, all being directed towards the upliftment of all categories of citizens. As a result, Gandhian political anthropology was founded on the argument that the belief that ‘there is no connection between the means and the end is a great mistake’.10 The consequence that Gandhi drew from this convertibility between means and ends was that no individual or community could have the pretension to understand humanity and the world without encouraging the pursuit of truth and embracing all forms of non-violent action. In this respect, it’s certainly regrettable that Gandhi’s serious commitment to non-violence and welfare of all has not been taken seriously by many political and corporate leaders around the world.

Undoubtedly, Gandhi’s alternatives to the political and economic ills of our world can bring back the truthful force of spirituality, and the ethical needs of humankind to the forefront of our global struggles, like climate change, poverty, rise of populism, influx of refugees and the domination of the world economy by the corporate mindset. That is why, these days, the Gandhi-esque slogans, such as ‘simple living’ and ‘small is beautiful’, seem suited to the needs and ideals of the twenty-first century. The Gandhian paradigm of ‘living in truth’, which Václav Havel referred to as a mode of resistance in an ideological state, was a strategy that fostered empathy and compassion.11 Unsurprisingly, all the inheritors of Gandhi, like Martin Luther King Jr, Nelson Mandela, Havel, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, etc., well understood what Gandhi meant by the hidden powers of the soul. And yet, Gandhi’s own approach was the most interesting. He said: I am engaged in trying to show, if I have any of these powers, that I am as frail a mortal as any of us and that I never had anything extraordinary about me nor have any now. I claim to be a simple individual liable to err like any other fellow mortal. I own, however, that I have humility enough to confess my errors and to retrace my steps.

Gandhi knew well that empathy, solidarity and interconnectedness were the keys to the prioritization of social justice, equity, harmony and non-violence in our world. What he suggested, therefore, was to develop a humanitarian pedagogy against greed, self-centredness, arrogance and brutality. Moreover, Gandhi’s pedagogy for harmonious exchange and living democracy underlined the necessity for a new ecological vision. For Gandhi, the spiritualization of the modern economic mindset basically meant to transcend the tragic separation of the humankind from nature. Questioning the moral irresponsibility of the techno-capitalist civilization, Gandhi said that the modern project of ‘conquest’ and ‘domination’ of Earth is a mortal danger to the natural biodiversity and all the indigenous cultures. The Gandhian revolution, as developed in Hind Swaraj, represents an ethical and political challenge to the reductionist essence of the concept of ‘progress’.

Consequently, the Gandhian paradigm is the recognition and the transformation of the conquest of nature and human beings through the idea of progress. The Gandhian project of love and care for the ‘otherness of the other’ went hand in hand with a new gaze on the definition of rationality, and its economic and ecological expressions. Thus, with Gandhi, we have a revolutionary who not only changed the Cartesian view on human nature but also emphasized on a shared meaning of life between humans and non-humans. In fact, Gandhi deeply believed that peace with the world would not be possible till human beings transcend their selfish interests. For Gandhi, empathy and compassion were not cultural choices, but values that combined interconnectedness and spiritual growth of humanity. At the same time, Gandhi considered himself as a practical idealist, who combined his ‘experiments with truth’ and a high moral attitude towards the ‘otherness of the other’. For Gandhi, life was not a matter of ‘spiritual knowledge’, but that of ‘spiritual growth’.

He underlined: ‘We often confuse spiritual knowledge with spiritual attainment. Spirituality is not a matter of knowing scriptures and engaging in philosophical discussions. It is a matter of heart culture, of unmeasurable strength. Fearlessness is the first requisite of spirituality. Cowards can never be moral.’ Let us be clear: the Gandhian paradigm is a spiritual project of change and transformation of humanity in its relation with the world. Gandhi was convinced that

‘a civilization which makes the attainment of material pleasures as one of the central objects of life and sanctions extreme violence against nature, non-human life-forms and sections of humanity for achieving material ends is not a civilization which can be conducive for the upholding of higher ethical principles’. All through out his life, Gandhi kept his moral commitment to the ahimsic (non-violent and harmless) nursing and healing of humans and non-humans. His sensibilities towards the disastrous effects of unchecked modernization and unbridled progress were completed by his efforts to fight against the environmental degradation of Indian biodiversity and individual moral corruption. As such, Gandhian paradigm was coherent with his life, since he followed his moral and spiritual commitments until the very end. He gave priority to the frail and the fragile by struggling for the weakest and the poorest in the public sphere. He also stood firmly on Mother Earth’s side, fighting the proliferation of unlimited economic and technological growth. Thus, at the centre of Gandhi’s philosophy of life, we can find the idea of need against greed and the condemnation of a civilization with no self-control. That is why, Gandhi was ahead of his time in criticizing and disapproving the growing menace of ecological degradation, consumerism and mechanization social life. The challenges of the twenty-first century gives us an opportunity to go back to Mahatma Gandhi and to rethink about different facets of our world in the mirror of the Gandhian paradigm.Gandhi’s commitment to ethical and moral revolution could be visualized in his notion of economics. Emerging from the primary dimension of upliftment and enrichment of human life, the fundamentals of Gandhian economics measure economic welfare and growth not as materialistic pleasure but value the extent of ultimate satisfaction that is followed by spiritual enlightenment. The law of non-possession forms the basis of the entire philosophy of the Gandhian economic revolution. The economic growth led by human civilization has been the primary cause of unprecedented consumerism. As a result, humans have been trapped in the vicious cycle of unlimited wants. Greed, competition, vested interest and preponderance of power have become the basic nature of humankind. Equity and distribution have been conveniently ignored under such an economic framework. In contrast, the Gandhian trusteeship model becomes a means to transform the present capitalist order of the society into an egalitarian one. It gives no quarter to capitalism but gives the present owning class a chance to reform itself. It is based on the faith that human nature is never beyond redemption. Gandhian economics revolves around the ethical revolution of humans who can morally distinguish between desire and need. The inner voice, which makes this ethical judgement, as suggested by Gandhi, was to some extent similar to ‘an impartial spectator’ suggested by Adam Smith, the ‘father of modern economics’. Nicholas Phillipson equated Smith’s use of the term ‘impartial spectator’ with the voice of conscience or even that of the deity as both are judgemental.

Gandhian economics stands distinct from the classical school of thought proposed by Smith where markets achieve equilibrium with the help of ‘invisible hands’. In Gandhian economics, the ethical pursuit of humans is the guiding force for achieving sustainable economic growth. The classical theory of invisible hands was criticized by Marxian economics by advocating the labour theory of value. But Gandhian economics deviates from Marxists’ notion of economics based on the fundamental principle of materialism. Though both the theories were focused on achieving equality and justice, primarily reflecting similar ends, the means deployed were distinct. Marx adopted revolution by uniting the labour force against injustice, while Gandhi called for an ethical and moral revolution. Eventually, the neoclassical-Keynesian school of thought emerged post Second World War, advocating the role of government. The Keynesian belief that the increasing demand could lead to a multiplier effect and would be equally distributed to the poor also fell apart. This was from the experience of the stagflation during the 1970s.

Gandhian economics provides an alternate view and revolutionizes the fundamentals of economics, fortifying that material wants should not be the key driver of economic growth. The ethical aim of every economic system must be to attain happiness,sociological and psychological well-being, and ultimately, sustain human dignity.India’s Intended Nationally Determined Contributions is based on the Gandhian notion of trusteeship. Gandhi had said that we should act as ‘trustees’ and use natural resources wisely, as it is our moral responsibility to ensure that we bequeath to the future generations a healthy planet.

Gandhian trusteeship concept is a remarkable breakthrough in the fundamentals of economics, unfolding the problem of scarcity by proposing the most efficient way of treating surplus. Trusteeship doctrine emerges from the law of non-possession, where possessing material things is considered theft. Gandhi contended: The rich people who have accumulated excessive wealth should distribute it for maximising the welfare of the rest of the community. The wealth belongs to the entire community. Wealthy people should consider themselves to be the trustees. However, no force should be used to acquire their wealth. Their wealth should be used properly through their consent as trustees.

The core of trusteeship is the protection of human dignity and not merely material prosperity. Wealth should be rrowing the class gap. According to the Gandhian principles of economics, the rules of the game are not ‘invisible hands’ operating in the market as suggested by Smith but fundamentals guided by the soul force, based on ethical and moral evolution of self. In such an economy, welfare is defined as the ultimate satisfaction of every entity, ensuring a Pareto optimality, a state wherein everyone attains satisfaction. Thus, the Gandhian economic revolution departs from Marxist economics, as it is intensely spiritual. On the other hand, Marxist economics is confined to material equity and market mechanism requiring government intervention. Gandhian economics attains self-sufficiency and self-satisfaction by advocating a decentralized setting, wherein the economic agent is spiritually and ethically evolved and manifests the absolute truth. The objective of this economic system is to maximize both material and spiritual utility based on needs and not wants or desires. Thus, the whole fundamentals of Gandhian economics differ from both classical and Keynesian economics. While the latter justifies the role of government to attain full employment, Gandhian economics advocates the role of government for maintaining law and order along with the health, social security and welfare of the people. The decentralized systems across regions, based on consensus, will deliver a more egalitarian, peaceful and non-violent society.The Gandhian ethical and moral connection was not only limited to humankind but also extended to non-human entities in nature. The connection between humans and nature, as perceived by Gandhi, was not simply materialistic, but was interconnectedness at a spiritual level. This spiritual connection, he said, could be envisaged only by realizing the absolute truth that manifests out of absolute love for every human and non-human entity in the environment. Gandhi contended, ‘Nature suffices for my inspiration.’ He believed in universal coexistence and considered non-violence as a universal law of life, which manifests in love for all creatures.Human beings have been caught up in the vicious cycle of consumerism. The fallout of unchecked consumerism is primarily evident in the most severe global challenge of climate change. The world has begun to realize the challenge of ‘meeting the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs’. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were born at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro in 2012. Later in the mid of 2000, Environmental Social Governance (ESG) reinforced the need for conscious and shared responsibility to the environment and ethics by all stakeholders in an economy.

Gandhi’s ideology was highly advanced and respected the interconnectedness of the human self and ecology. Through the concept of sarvodaya, as described earlier, he successfully established an ethical and harmonious connectivity of humans with the environment. He advocated the essence of environmental ethics and the noble concept of service for common welfare based on the moral understanding of non-possession. The essence of Gandhian philosophy gradually started appearing globally in various environmental initiatives undertaken by civil society and multilateral organizations.Till the 1960s, no major initiatives were taken considering the environment or its conservation. The oil crises of the 1970s, followed by the global financial crises of the 1980s, led to the emergence of ecological movements across the globe. Gradually, ecological movements became political movements. In 1972, the Club of Rome published a report titled The Limits to Growth. The Brandt Commission published North-South: A Programme for Survival in 1980, emphasizing on self-fulfilment and creative partnership in the use of a nation’s productive forces and its full human potential. In 1983, the World Commission on Environment and Development was established. In 1992, the Earth Summit at Rio de Janeiro produced several agreements including the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development. This was followed by the Kyoto Protocol being adopted in 1997 by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Later, several movements and initiatives were undertaken to sensitize countries and societies about the emerging global challenge of climate change.

Various non-state actors and civil society organizations collaborated vertically and horizontally at regional, national and international levels. In 2006, the Living Planet Report categorically stated that the lifestyle followed by western societies disturbed the subtle balance of the planet earth. Later, in 2007–08, The Human Development Report on fighting climate change emphasized on enlightenment principle that ‘human progress will make the future look better than the past’.

TIME magazine in 2007, published ‘The Global Warming Survival Guide: 51 Things We Can Do to Save The Environment’ and the fifty-first point mentioned consuming less for a simplified life. We can learn to live simply so that others can simply live. The concept of ‘Earth community’ was adopted by Prof. Herbert Girardet in his book, Surviving the Century: Facing the Climate Chaos. In India, several environmental movements that took place were strictly aligned with the Gandhian belief system related to ecology and the environment. The Chipko Movement in India in the 1970s, also known as Chipko Andolan, was a non-violent social and ecological movement by rural villagers. In that movement, the voice of women became evident for saving trees and forests. Later, Narmada Bachao Andolan began in 1985—it was a social movement by native tribals, farmers, environmentalists and human rights activists. This movement was initiated against a large number of dam projects across the Narmada River. The campaign was completely non-violent, followed by hunger strikes, rallies and public gatherings. The protesters raised questions related to ownership of Chilika Lake, destruction of livelihood and commercial use of resources to close down the Coca-Cola factory in Odisha.

Gandhi opposed to the western idea that considered humans as entities conquering the earth. He strongly supported Indian traditions, wherein the earth was considered as a mother. Gandhi contended that ‘man has no power to create life, therefore, he has no right to destroy life’. Humans have higher intellect, so that they can be empathetic, compassionate and responsible for lower beings.

Gandhi demonstrated several methods of conservation of resources in day-to-day life in ashram. He used the river water sparingly even though it was in abundance, stating the rationale of non-possession or aparigraha. In another instance, he promoted the use of scrap papers for writing brief notes and inside-out envelopes for letters. Such remarkable preaching and messages for recycling waste and conservation of resources can be related to our everyday lives. The notion of continuity of life was maintained by Gandhian philosophy of non-violence and truth. This phenomenon of the cycle of life is similar to the fundamental theory of ‘cradle to cradle’ developed by Prof. Michael Braungart and William McDonough in 2001. The continuity of life functions by coordinated and dedicated efforts manifested out of absolute love and empathy towards each other and nature.

Gandhi contended, ‘I do believe that all God’s creatures have the right to live as much as we have.’ He also said, ‘It takes the human being beyond his species. The cow to me means the entire sub-human world. Man, through the cow, is enjoined to realise his identity with all that lives.’He argued, ‘I believe in Advaita (non-duaity), I believe in the essential unity of man and for that matter of all that lives. Therefore I believe that if one man gains spiritually, the whole world gains with him and if one man fails, the whole world fails to that extent.’

However, human civilization missed out on this underlying connectivity between man and nature as a part of the cycle of life and spirituality. The impact of humanity on the environment and the resulting inequalities are evident in climate change. This biggest global challenge finds a direct linkage to the use of conventional energy sources and unchecked economic growth.

Climate change, energy, environment and ecology are all intertwined and interconnected. Ignoring energy in the gambit of the climate change debate would be a blunder; not bringing in the arguments of the Gandhian perspective related to energy will not complete the Gandhian revolution or paradigm. Countries across the globe are struggling to achieve carbon-neutral economies in the present scenario, in which they are confronted by the global challenge of climate change. The centralized energy system has been exploitative and destructive to the environment, leading to concentration and preponderance of power, vested interests, war and unrest. The indispensable political economy associated with conventional energy has resulted in inequality, injustice and climate change. The world has realized the immense need to undergo a paradigm shift in the energy regime, also referred to as the energy transition, is inevitable. United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), adopted in 2015, have been dedicated to incorporating challenges related to energy. Improved access to energy, renewable energy and energy efficiency have been discussed in the SDGs. Gandhi believed socio-economic systems should follow that decentralized way of functioning. A decentralized energy system will lead to more flexibility in generation and meeting the local demand patterns for electricity and heat. This also implies greater awareness of energy issues through community-based energy systems, driving change in social attitudes and more efficient use of energy resources. Locally confined social set-ups and communities, which are self-sufficient and based on local resources, lead to lesser consumption. An ethically enlightened and morally evolved socio-economic decentralized Gandhian setting will lead to the ethical use of energy resources. Moreover, the energy demand in such communities will be need-based and not dependent on unlimited wants or desires. Limited consumption, consensus-based, self-sufficient and energy-independent communities reflect a Gandhian ethical revolution.

The Gandhian ethical and moral revolution uplifts the individual self and elevates the human value system. The inner self of an individual gets transformed to seek the absolute truth and becomes enlightened with empathy and love for humankind. Non-violence, peace and tolerance are the fundamentals of the ethically evolved self. Therefore, the desired benefits of such a revolution are not confined to only one individual but are manifested in humankind as a whole. Such a Gandhian moral revolution transforms the inner self and formulates connectivity amidst humans. It is this transformation that revolutionizes socio-economic and political relations, which referred to as Gandhian economic revolution and Gandhian political revolution, respectively, as described in the chapters. Finally, the Gandhian moral revolution strives to achieve unity and oneness in ecological harmony, and that is referred to as the Gandhian ecological revolution.

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