Gandhi Spiritual Nonviolence

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

The work of Mahatma Gandhi has influenced the struggle for civil rights, the elimination of apartheid, the struggle for freedom in Tibet and Burma and so forth. Peaceful or non-violent resistance has received most of the attention as ways of fighting injustice without resorting to violent action. However, the message of Gandhi himself was far more radical philosophically and more challenging from a spiritual or psychological perspective. “Soul Force” demands a great deal more than non-violence. It is rooted in ancient Indian philosophy and calls for new ways of thinking and a vigorous program of changing inner habits. For example, Gandhi was not content with resistance to injustice: he insisted on actually loving the men and women who commit injustice. This course will examine the Hindu philosophical and theological sources of Gandhi’s radical monism (Upanishads, Shankara, Yoga Sutras, Kabir) along with the works of Gandhi himself. We shall identify equivalent western documents (New Testament, Tolstoy, Buber) that may be put into a conversation with the Hindu material. Using these and contemporary secondary sources (including Martin Luther King Jr. and the Dalai Lama), students will put together a program for resolving a specific contemporary conflict in a manner that implements Gandhian thought, that is, that are far more radical than merely non-violent resistance.