[E-rundbrief] Info 128 - Douglas Allen: Discovering Gandhi. Friedensinitiativen in der USA. Gandhi-Zitate

[Matthias Reichl]

E-Rundbrief - Info 128 - Douglas Allen: Discovering Gandhi. Strukturelle 
Gewalt in der Gesellschaft und die Friedensinitiativen in der USA. 
Interview in "Times of India"; Gandhi-Zitate

Bad Ischl, 14.8.2004

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Discovering Gandhi

Interview with Douglas Allen

  Peace activism entails a certain degree of futility. But for Douglas 
Allen, professor of philosophy at the University of Maine, USA, it has been 
a way of life for close to 40 years. An ardent admirer of Mahatma Gandhi, 
he has been active in the civil rights movement, the anti-Vietnam war 
struggle, anti-apartheid and feminist movements and more recently anti-Iraq 
protest.

Question: Gandhi is a revolutionary who offers a radical critique of the 
oppressive and unjust status quo. His definition of violence was not 
restricted to very physical violence. He spoke about structural violence 
and the violence of the status quo that most of us do not even recognise as 
violent.

How did you get interested in Mahatma Gandhi?

Douglas Allen: In 1963, I came to Banaras Hindu University on a Fullbright 
Fellowship. I spent a year there, teaching an upper level English course, 
studying philosophy and interacting with people who were vedantists, yogis 
and experts in Indian philosophy, religion and culture. During the same 
time Martin Luther King Jr. was gaining prominence as the most influential 
leader of the 'civil rights movement'. I realised that in order to 
understand King and his philosophy and methods of non-violent resistance, 
one had to understand Gandhi. That is how I started studying Gandhi. Later, 
I started doing research and teaching Gandhi, as well as lecturing and 
writing about Gandhi.

Q.: How relevant is Gandhi today?

D.A.: Not all Gandhi said was correct and he himself realised that many of 
his 'experiments in truth' were failed experiments. We have to be selective 
about his philosophy. In my view Gandhi is a revolutionary who offers a 
radical critique of the oppressive and unjust status quo. His definition of 
violence was not restricted to overt physical violence. He spoke about 
structural violence and the violence of the status quo that most of us do 
not even recognise as violent. Poverty was violence to him. Humanly caused 
and unnecessary suffering and doing nothing when you have the means to 
alleviate suffering were essential features of his analysis of violence.

Q.: How does America view Gandhi?

D.A.: Americans who know of Gandhi usually admire him greatly, although 
there is a tendency of some to romanticise him in unreal and impractical 
ways. There are two main practical uses of Gandhi in American society 
today.  First, some relate to Gandhi primarily in terms of their 
dissatisfaction with dominant values in the US society and their desire for 
qualitative lifestyle changes. By focusing on simplifying their needs, 
becoming more peaceful persons, and gaining greater control over their 
lives, they use Gandhi to achieve more meaningful personal lives. Second, 
some relate to Gandhi as a peace and justice activist who can be used in 
resisting a world of violence, war, exploitation, and domination. Gandhi 
provides them with positive alternatives and hope for transforming their 
world in the desired direction of truth and non-violence.

Q.: But does he stand a chance in an overtly consumerist society?

D.A.: Millions of Americans are reacting against the dominant culture of 
consumerism. They have found that a culture that defines success and 
happiness in terms of how much you consume, how much you own and possess, 
is hollow, meaningless, and reflects false and dangerous priorities.

It seems ironic that when the culture of consumerism is gaining such 
influence over Indian society and the rest of the world, many Americans are 
rejecting it. For some of these Americans, Gandhi helps them to understand 
how modern consumerist conditioning maximises our ego desires, needs and 
attachments and this leads to insecurity, selfishness, aggressive 
competition, exploitation, violence and war. Gandhi teaches us not to allow 
those who profit from consumerism to define who we are.

Q.: Tell us about the 'peace movement' which takes inspiration from the 
teachings of Gandhi?

D.A.: In many ways, the Bush administration has energised and renewed the 
peace movement. The movement is less visible and less effective as compared 
to, say, the earlier civil rights movement or anti-war Vietnam movement 
because it is so diverse with so many agendas involving militarism, 
imperialism, jobs, healthcare, race, gender, environment, and so forth.

Q.: The aggression in US foreign policy is attributed by many to the 
revival of Christian fundamentalism in the US. How serious is it?

D.A.: Americans often focus on the dangers of rising fundamentalism 
throughout the world, especially in Muslim countries. They rarely focus on 
the dangers of rising fundamentalism in the US. Christian fundamentalism in 
the US tends to be narrow, exclusivist, intolerant and aggressive. What is 
particularly dangerous about this fundamentalism is that it has become 
highly politicised and now forms the most fanatical basis of the Republican 
Party.

These fundamentalists are not crazy people. Fundamentalism with its simple 
answers to complex problems arises out of contemporary conditions of 
oppressive exploitation, alienation, meaningless and powerlessness, and it 
fulfils real needs. Fundamentalists feel that their religion empowers them 
and provides them with hope, meaning, and a sense of shared community.

Source: "Times of India", 4.8.2004


Einige Zitate von Mahatma Gandhi:

I have nothing new to teach the world. Truth and non-violence are as old as 
hills. (in "An Autobiography")

My life is my message. (7.9.1947)

Die Vergangenheit gehört zu uns, aber wir gehören nicht zur Vergangenheit. 
Wir gehören zur Gegenwart. Wir sind die Bereiter der Zukunft, aber wir 
gehören nicht zur Zukunft.

If we are to make progress, we must not repeat history but make new history.

Life will not be a pyramid with the apex sustained by the bottom. But it 
will be an oceanic circle whose centre will be the individual always ready 
to perish for the village, the latter ready to perish for the circle of 
villages, till at last the whole becomes one life composed of individuals, 
never aggressive in their arrogance but ever humble, sharing the majesty of 
the oceanic circle of which they are integral units... In this there is no 
room for machines that would displace human labour and that would 
concentrate power in a few hands. Labour has its unique place in a cultured 
human family. Every machine that helps every individual has a place... (in 
"Harijan" 28-7-'46)

You cannot build non-violence on a factory civilization, but it can be 
built on self-contained villages. (in "Harijan", 4-11-'39)

The world has enough for everyone's needs, but never enough for even one 
man's greed.

How can you account for the growing violence among your people on the part 
of political parties for the furtherance of political ends? Is this the 
result of the thirty years of non-violent practice for ending British rule? 
Does your message of non-violence still hold good for the world?
I have condensed the sentiments of my correspondents in my own language. In 
answer I must confess my bankruptcy, not that of non-violence. I have 
already said that the non-violence that was offered during the past thirty 
years was that of the weak. Whether it is a godd enough answer or not is 
for others to judge. It must be further admitted that such non-violence can 
have no play in the altered circumstances. India has no experience of the 
non-violence of the strong. It serves no purpose for me to continue to 
repeat that the non-violence of the strong is the strongest force in the 
world. The truth requires constant and extensive demonstration. This I am 
endeavouring to do to the best of my ability. What if the best of my 
ability is very little? May I not be living in a fool's paradise? Why 
should I ask people to follow me in the fruitless search? These are 
pertinent questions. My answer is quite simple. I ask nobody to follow me. 
Every one should follow his or her own inner voice. If he or she has no 
ears to listen to it, he or she should do the best he or she can. In no 
case should he or she imitate others sheeplike. There is no hope for the 
aching world except through the narrow and straight path of non-violence. 
Millions like me may fail to prove the truth in their own lives, that would 
be their failure, never that of the eternal law."
(in "Harijan", 29.6.1947 quoted in M.K.Gandhi: "For Pacifists", Ahmedabad, 
1949 p. 129-30, in Deutsch: Mahatma Gandhi: Für Pazifisten. Übersetzt von 
Wolfgang Sternstein, 1996, LIT-Verlag)

In this picture every religion has it's full and equal place. We are all 
leaves of a majestic tree whose trunk cannot be shaken off its roots which 
are deep down in the bowels of the earth... (in "Harijan", 28-7-'46)

Vergebung ist kein Zeichen der Schwäche sondern ein Art der Stärke.

Sieh auf die Natur: Sie ist beständig in Aktion, steht nie still, und doch 
schweigt sie.

Es gibt Wichtigeres im Leben, als beständig dessen Geschwindigkeit zu erhöhen.