Champaran Satyagraha and the Gandhian assertion of justice and Peace through peaceful means

      The  manner in which Gandhi strategized the  Champaran Satyagraha a hundred years ago reveals astonishing aspects about Gandhi’s gift of fight .It also reveals among many other aspects Gandhi’s conviction that in any conflict management efforts one has to strive for a win-win situation to the stakeholders and peace and justice can be achieved only through peaceful means.The Champaran Satyagraha is a classic and monumental example of how the soul-force can be pitted against brute force and victory can be achieved without hurting those in whom a change of heart was sought.

 Humanity has witnessed several wars and revolutions. Occasionally it has also seen great changes being effected through gentle and peaceful means. Gandhi demonstrated the irresistible power of Ahimsa (Nonviolence) as an alternative to war and violence as well as an effective tool to tackle the  menace of injustice of various kinds.

The  power of nonviolence as a moral and political weapon and instrument of liberation was emphasized and successfully demonstrated by Mahatma Gandhi in his various campaigns both in South Africa during the close of the nineteenth century, and later in India during the early decades of the twentieth century. Since then, it has made its mark on the world and has come to stay as an effective weapon and strategy in the hands of those who believe in the supremacy of soul-force and moral law.

It may be noted that the general contemporary interest in nonviolence is largely due to Gandhi’s relentless fight for the adoption of  nonviolent methods as a workable alternative. The successful Champaran initiative was preceded by persistent and heroic sharpening of nonviolence as a weapon that would not hurt but would lead to change of heart. The twenty one years of Gandhi’s work in South Africa and the various campaigns he led heralded indeed a new era in human history.

 Gandhi never claimed that he was the progenitor of all that goes along with the  concept and practice of nonviolence. On the contrary,the history of the idea of nonviolence as a religious or  philosophical doctrine can be traced to the ancient Upanishads,   the hoary Indian pearls of philosophical insights and intuitions. The Chandogya Upanishad as well as the Chinese Tao- Te-Chim of the sixth century B.C. glorified nonviolence both as personal  virtue and as a desirable societal goal. The New Testament of the Bible also upholds the virtue of nonviolence for the edification of mankind. Gauthama Buddha, who was a rebel against the gory and corrupt practices of religion, was an apostle of gentleness, nonviolence and compassion' and he laid the foundation for a modern outlook and emphasized the need for developing social awareness based on respect for all living beings.

 Gandhi as a trend-setter

Plato had advocated truth and goodness; and he gave a vague sort of advice to overcome evil by good deeds. But with Gandhi (and later with Martin Luther King Jr.) nonviolence became a creative, challenging and eloquent force symbolizing man's inalienable right to live in peace and harmony and to help himself and his fellow beings to reach out towards their Maker.

The tragedy of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the rampant colonial exploitation which was no less dehumanizing than the reality of mass murder, and the capitalist injustice prevalent all around has now brought nonviolence to the center stage. Those who apparently control human destiny may still find it as an inconvenient irritant that would go against their selfish worldly interests, particularly the economics of exploitation that they have developed.

        The  Gandhian perspective of nonviolent human transformation is slowly but steadily receiving extensive attention in varying degrees in almost all parts of the world. A considerable number of social activists, freedom fighters, human rights activists, thinkers, political leaders and even to some extent those to whom acceptance of nonviolence would hurt their national economics, which are based on military hardware, and those who encourage and engineer troubles and conflicts globally so that their armaments could be sold - have demonstrated their conviction that the non-violent option as advocated by Gandhi needs serious attention. Thanks to this positive development, humanity is assured of a re-examination of the Bismarckian approach of treating war as a wholesome therapy that strengthens human nature when civilization becomes too soft and frail.

  The protagonists of the Bismarckian notion had propagated the obnoxious theory that aggressiveness is healthier than gentleness, waging war invigorates mankind and it is genuinely positive to be vigorous and offensive.

 At one stroke, Gandhi demolished this myth - though the significance of the Gandhian initiative was not immediately understood all around. Let it be remembered that at first the industrialized West as well as the developing world did not take Gandhi seriously, though they were aware of what he was advocating. At that time, the difference in the cultural context in which Gandhi worked and the difficulty of many leaders to see beyond their noses were important factors which prevented the international community from realizing the supreme importance of the Gandhian strategy. But gradually the situation changed.

 Humanity learnt a few lessons from the experience of the World Wars. Thereafter Martin Luther King proclaimed the efficacy of the Gandhian strategy of nonviolent resistance in these words: "... The Christian doctrine of Love, operating through the Gandhian method of nonviolence is perhaps, one of the   most potent weapons available to the oppressed people in their struggle for freedom."

 But, still, the international community took the Gandhian initiative as expounded by Martin Luther King as a freak development for some more time.

 Effectiveness of nonviolence as a strategy

       A  few  major  developments stand out as one thinks of nonviolence as a effective  strategy not only to counter violence but to bring about   peace   in human lives as we grapple the complex problems of the  twenty first century .A noticeable development is in all continents and in almost all the countries, several motivated groups of individuals who firmly believe nonviolence offers a healthy vision of life have sprung up. However it has not yet become a mainstream strategy.

The pace of non-violent collective action along Gandhian lines initiated by Martin Luther King, was continued with conviction and courage by various activists of civil liberty movements all over the world. Kenneth Kaunda, Albert Luthuli, Desmond Tutu, Julius Nyerere, Nelson Mandela, Ho Chi Min, Aung San Suu Kyi  and Maired Maguire are only a few of the most illustrious names which come to mind in this context.

The acceptance of Gandhian tactics for nonviolent transformation by "the Greens", notably by Petra Kelly, has led to the propagation of a new dimension of ecological and sustainable developmental model as envisioned by Gandhi to various countries of Eastern Europe. 'The Quakers' then adopted Gandhian non­violence as their ideology. This was another hopeful sign and it led to a resurgent collective action for justice and freedom in many western nations. The impact of their initiatives notably in the Latin American nations is quite substantial and extensive.

Several motivated souls who developed strong faith in the efficacy of nonviolence in the service of mankind such as Prof. Glenn D. Paige, Gene Sharp and Johan Galtung through their dedicated efforts and sustained critical interest added new valuable inputs to the concept and practice of non-violence as a strategy for human survival.

Professor Glenn D Paige is one of those scholars who have been instrumental in bringing into the scene a whole generation of young researchers and peace activists by offering them an appropriate framework to understand, scrutinize and analyze the various aspects of nonviolence. The Herculean efforts of Professor Paige to develop a wholesome critique of Non­violent Political Science is an important phase of modern history. Professor Paige has made a significant contribution in enthusing several young scholars of international repute to adopt 'non-violent political action' as their area of specialization.

Ahimsa as a moral counterpart to wars

Can Ahimsa and Satyagraha be moral counterparts to wars and other violent conflicts that corrode human character and jeopardize human survival? It is claimed by both Western and Indian scholars that Ahimsa and Satyagraha can be resorted to in any given situation involving injustice. In their view even in those situations where armed resistance is impossible, Satyagraha and Ahimsa can be resorted to as ultimate instruments of justice. This assertion happens to be partially ambiguous.

Horsbough has stated that the prospects of nonviolence in the  sphere of international conflict are brighter than what is commonly supposed even though people still believe in the efficacy of Armed Force. As Gandhi had advocated and demonstrated, a conscientious effort to make Ahimsa a way of life, and not a curious creed, is the need of the hour.

 Gandhi says: "Man either progresses towards Ahimsa, or rushes to his Doom". Analyzed against the background of all that the great preachers and prophets of humanity and votaries of Ahimsa have instructed throughout the- centuries, Gandhi's contribution to the cause is most outstanding and crucial. Incredible optimist that he was, Gandhi believed in the essential goodness of all.

     As in Gandhi's own time, his concept of nonviolence continues  to be diversely understood, interpreted and discussed in different  parts of the world. While to some it is an ideal that all men should  cherish, to an overwhelming number of others it is a moral  principle which can guide thought and action. Many people view it as a policy which can be adopted and made effective only in certain given circumstances. A large number of people all over the  world find in it a practical tool which can be used in certain situations according to the capabilities of the user. Some others view  it as  a technique suggesting one range of actions which me at times be supplemented be supplemented or even substituted by other techniques as and when the situation demands. Each one of these different interpretations is usually upheld with the support of quotations from Gandhi's own words and citing Gandhi's own actions.

Hubert Humphrey, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Senator Diakno, Johan Galtung, Gene Sharp, Erik Erikson and Prof. Richard Keyes, have found in Gandhi's concept of nonviolence a great opportunity for humanity which enables mankind to take a fresh look at the various problems man has created for man, disregarding the Laws of Nature. France Huthchins and several others find Gandhi's approach towards non-violence as absolutist. To them Gandhi's view of nonviolence explicitly or implicitly includes motive as well as action, so that ahimsa or nonviolence is both psychic and corporal.

Thomas Clark and several others find great scope for the practical application of the principle of non-violence. William Robert Miller, James E. Bristor, William Stuart Nelson, A.J. Maste, Ted Duncan, Willock Michael, W. Sonneleitner, Glenn D. Paige and many other scholars and pacifists find in Gandhian nonviolence a force and a method of action that can well become the basis for the twenty-first century man to adopt and practice. Dr. Daisaku Ikeda, SGI President, and one of the most profound thinkers of our time regards Gandhian nonviolence as a potent force and an effective instrument to secure justice and peace.

Nonviolent struggles after Gandhi

A cursory glance reveals that during the last six decades since the assassination of Gandhi, a considerable degree of intellectual efforts have gone into the appreciation and understanding of the concept of non-violence in different parts of the world. This ranges from deep sociological analysis of the dimension of the conflict to the policy implications of the Gandhian mode. Many see in the Gandhian nonviolence, clues to ways of dealing with national problems of tensions, conflict, arms race and war. What most of the analysts, critics, followers and admirers have seen in Gandhi is a 'challenge rather than a stereotype'.

It is natural that different levels of perception developed as the Gandhian approach expanded globally. Since Gandhi represented a model value system, it is quite natural that people viewed the Mahatma from different social, political and territorial perspectives. Klaus Scuts, Mayor of Berlin, was categorical in his assertion, "Nonviolence does not mean passivity or political vegetarianism". It is an active attitude, it permits fight for justice ,challenges the opponent to declare himself.

The Gandhian concept of nonviolence never visualized surrender to evil or injustice, but pitting of one's soul against the will of the tyrant. The philosophy of soul-force visualizes three kinds of persons. The first category is that of the coward who supinely submits to injustice in order to save his skin; while the second category is that of the brave man who is eager to redeem justice by brute force - who is ready to kill and to get killed. The third is the superior person, the Satyagrahi, the believer in and practitioner of nonviolence, who in the fullness of his strength  forgives the evil doer and attempts to persuade  to adopt right doing through nonviolence and love.

    Gandhi’s early laboratory

      South Africa was the laboratory of Mahatma Gandhi. The Twenty one   years that Gandhi spent in South Africa witnessed Great changes  both in his private life and public life. Much of what Gandhi did later in India had been tempered by the South African  experiments.

        Gandhi’s  ascetic ashram life had its beginning in the Phoenix Ashram in   South Africa. Non-violent resistance, simple living, Charkha spinning, non-violent struggle, insistence on simplicity and moderation-    all had their origin there. In fact Gandhi was a Mahatma in the making by the time he left South Africa for India. His was a heroic struggle involving several millions of people over a long period.

Gandhi's influence on South Africa's fight against apartheid

The votaries of peace and nonviolence all over the world would find it inspiring to realize that the epoch-making changes in South Africa signaling the extinction of apartheid owe their inspiration to Mahatma Gandhi's heroic struggles in that country. Nelson Mandela openly acknowledges this truth. Mohandas Gandhi who proceeded to South Africa as a lawyer to fight a court case, found on his arrival, a situation highly mortifying and humiliating and too harsh for any human being to tolerate. He was already aware of the inhuman segregation known as untouchability which a section of Indians were enduring back home in his own country. But what Gandhi had to face in South Africa was beyond his understanding. The strange experience of man being segregated in the name of the colour of his skin and getting his basic rights denied came to him as a rude shock. In South Africa millions of the local black population and the Indian settlers (most of them indentured labourers) were languishing in inhuman conditions. Gandhi himself became a victim of this dehumanizing practice not once or twice but several times. On June 7   of 1893, a few months after his arrival in South Africa, Gandhi while traveling by a train in a first class compartment was thrown out of the train at the Petermauritzburg station. The charge against Gandhi was only that he was black in colour. The Blacks of South Africa were not permitted to travel in the first class compartment. On another occasion Gandhi was denied travel in a coach along with white passengers. Once he was denied hotel accommodation because of his colour. Taking pity on him, a kind individual then offered him accommodation in the hotel on the specific condition that he would not come down to the dining hall, but remain closeted in his own room throughout his stay. On another occasion, he was pushed down by the guards for having walked along a road in the vicinity of the residence of a highly-placed White official. Later Gandhi came to know that the Blacks and the coolies were not allowed to walk along that road. Gandhi also found that the children of the Blacks were not allowed to study in schools along with the white children. These were only some of the visible symptoms of the dreaded practice of Apartheid which had many more humiliating aspects, the foundations of which were too strongly entrenched and defied all attempts of uprooting. The fact that a satisfactory solution to this vexed issue was finally found in the year 1993 which marked the centenary of the beginning of Gandhi's struggle in South Africa, is a matter of rejoicing for all Gandhian peace activists all over the world.

           It is interesting to note how the local Blacks responded to  Gandhi. By and large, Gandhi was fighting against the inhuman and discriminatory laws enacted by the Pretoria regime. But he was equally opposing a system that was perpetuating racial discrimination in the name of colour and nationality. The general condition faced by the Blacks in South Africa was not much different from what the Indian settlers were confronting. It would he naive to believe that the Black population was insensitive to what was happening in South Africa under the leadership of Gandhi.

          Though he was concentrating on the Indian settlers there, the  principle he was fighting for had importance far beyond what the Indians in South Africa were endeavoring to secure. But it cannot be claimed that Gandhi had great influence on them when the Gandhian struggle was actually taking place in Natal, Pretoria   and other places.

          The law of nature teaches us that the seeds always take time to sprout. In South Africa, the Gandhian variety of non-violent struggle had to wait until Nelson Mandela  appeared on the scene. No one can deny that the ANC was considerably influenced by Gandhi. The ANC movement  got strength and vigour largely from the inspiration of Gandhi. The basic question that arises is whether it was the brute force of the white minority which kept the Blacks at bay or whether the Blacks themselves by their own quiet surrender were responsible for their plight. The fact remains that from their own experiences, they have developed a different notion of nonviolence as a creed and a strategy. It was conceived as creative and positive and in their own way the Black majority tried to give it a fair trial.

The ANC leadership in general and Nelson Mandela in particular seemed to be familiar with and appreciative of Gandhi's work and the success of his campaign. Mandela's speech after two days of his release from jail on 11 February 1990 was significant, since apart from referring to his indebtedness to Gandhi, he said.

Another strand in the struggle against oppression began with the formation, right here in Natal, of the Indian Congress founded in 1884, a tradition of extra parliamentary protest that continues with the present. The next decade saw the increasing radicalization of Indian politics under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi... In 1906 - when Bambatha led sections of Africans in a war to abolish the poll tax -our brothers who descended from India, led by Mahatma Gandhi, fought against the oppression of the British Government.

Mandela had quoted a passage from Jawahar Lai Nehru before his arrest : "There is no easy walkover to freedom anywhere and many of us will have to pass through the shadow again and again before we reach the mountain tops of our desires". This also indicates that Mandela was always studying the Gandhian option carefully. Though the release from jail of Mandela and the legalizing of ANC cannot be viewed as concessions, they gave definite indication of the superior wisdom and discernment ol President De Clerk which none of his predecessors had displayed

    Of course there were other ground realities which prompted De Clerk to adopt an attitude of reconciliation ignoring the stout opposition from the die-hard whites. There was resurgence in the people's movement despite the imposition of emergency in 1985 and the banning of the UDF and other organizations. The upsurge of 1989 and the open defiance of the segregation laws, made it practically impossible for De Clark to govern South Africa which had almost become an untouchable among the comity of nations. Further the nation's economy was showing signs of a total collapse following the strikes by COATSU and the mine workers. The sanctions imposed by the international community also shattered the economy. The so-called military supremacy of South Africa proved to be a myth when Angola gave a hard knock;  its military might. There were many hurdles to be crossed. Yet there was the silver lining as was revealed from the manner in which both the government and the ANC denounced criminality, and violence. Despite several setbacks, the ANC and the government moved closer. The lifting of emergency except in the Natal Province, also helped large number of refugees to return. The signing of the 'Pretoria Minutes' augured well for the future. The repeal of discriminatory legislations, the release of political prisoners  and the acceptance of the principle of 'one man one were very central to the transfer of power and the restoration of peace. The deep scars of Apartheid and the legacy of distrust, the clinical  attempts made by the apologists of Apartheid, the growing internecine war among the Blacks and the stridency of the  Neo Nazi groups made the process of change painfully slow .But the final  victory as reflected in the triumphal emergence of South Africa  as a free democratic nation under Nelson Mandela  recreated  visions of non-violence as a matchless life force. As the dismantling of apartheid proclaimed the humanistic side of non -violence in political arena, the wisdom shown by Nelson Mandela in the setting up of the Truth & Reconciliation  Commission under the leadership of Bishop Desmond Tutu revealed unparalleled creative non-violent leadership. Their adherence to non-violence enabled the new leaders to proclaim firmly that 'there is no future without forgiveness'.

Gandhi's influence on Martin Luther King (Jr.)

In his own way, Martin Luther King of USA added new dimensions to Gandhian nonviolence in the nineteen sixties in order to make it an effective instrument of this fight against evil. When the fight derives its strength from the moral and spiritual caliber of the Victim and depends on the quality of his suffering, it takes quite a long time to effect what we call the 'change of heart' of the oppressor which is the goal of a non-violent struggle as opposed to 'victory. In an armed conflict victory is not assured to either of the parties involved.

The  racial violence which broke out in Los Angeles at the beginning of the new century and some other parts of the USA speaks volumes regarding how fragile our modern civilization is. It is actually an ominous portent and a disturbing reminder of what has been simmering underneath the surging welter of modernity and progress.

These events also reveal how skin-deep is our pretension of adherence to the equality of human beings. It is surprising to see that such racial disturbance should occur in the land of Abraham Lincoln, Thoreau, Emerson, Walt Whitman, Kennedy and Martin Luther King; and that too several decades after the eradication of the demon of racial discrimination. It shows how far away still is the dream of Martin Luther King about the day when the sons of former slaves and of the slave owners could sit down together at the table of brotherhood on the red hill of Georgia. No doubt the American Blacks have won several rounds with remarkable success. But the Los Angeles violence shows that the dream of Dr. King that "my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character", still remains unrealized. Gandhi warned humanity as early as 1909 when he published his book, "Hind swaraj", that a civilization bereft of human considerations is 'Satanic'.

Even from his school days Martin Luther King was greatly influenced by the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi. Therefore it was only natural that he adopted the Gandhian doctrine of non­violence as the most effective weapon at his command to fight racial segregation in the US. He once said in explaining his philosophy: "I believe in a militant, non-violent approach in which the individual stands up against an unjust system, using sit-ins, legal action, boycotts, votes and everything except violence or hate". Acknowledging his indebtedness to Gandhi, Dr. King said: "... from my background I gained Christian ideals; from Gandhi I learned my operational technique".

      In another context Dr. King acknowledged his debt to Mahatma Gandhi, while explaining the Montgomery bus boycott programme as follows: "This is a protest of passive resistance depending  upon moral and spiritual forces. We will return good for evil. Christ showed us the way and Mahatma Gandhi showed us it could work". He declared that the American Black will not resort to “more radical ways to gain civil rights", because he has full faith “that he can get justice within the frame work of the in democratic set-up."

     It is a fact that Gandhi continues to inspire a considerable section of American opinion even today. E. Stanly Jones, himself a renowned pacifist, had this to say about Jesus Christ and Mahatma Gandhi   "1 bow to Mahatma Gandhi, but I kneel at the feet of Christ and give him my full and final allegiance." Referring to Mahatma Gandhi, Stanly Jones stated that he "has taught me more of Christ than perhaps any other man in East or West.”

Global influence of Gandhi

There are quite a few among the liberal pacifists in the West who found in Gandhi the argument against the inevitability of the deterministic social order propagated by Darwin and Marx. Albert Einstein, Aldous Huxley, Oswald Garrison Villard, Roger Balwin and many others were able to see in Gandhi a reinstatement of the Renaissance faith of the perfectibility of man. In contrast to this school, there was the group of religious pacifists such as A.J.Maste, John Nevin, Haynes Holmens, Norman Thomas who found in Gandhi "a moral equivalent of war". There may not be a Martin Luther King now in USA; but the number of true votaries of non-violence both as a political strategy and as a creed has substantially increased. Several internationally famous pacifists such as Johan Galtung, Homer Jack, Dr. Glenn D. Paige, Gene Sharp, Dr. Lou Ann Guanson, Dr. Barnard Laffeyette, Vance Engleman, Dr. Richard Deats, Captain Charles Alphin and Richard N. Nagler are the ardent practitioners, exponents and champions of non-violence today.

The spilling of blood in both the erstwhile Yugoslavia and former Czechoslovakia and the uncertainties created by the events following the dismemberment of the USSR should be viewed as the inescapable consequence of incongruities engendered by the die-hard communist philosophy which by and large did not care about purity of means in achieving laudable ends. The validity and relevance of the Gandhian insistence on purity of means -something which the communist blocks had always scoffed at -became obvious now. The Gandhian concept of nonviolence thereafter began to attract the attention of the youth of Czechoslovakia. There arose a general belief that non-violence which is as old as the hills and which is based on the primordial instinct of man to live happily and to let others live comfortably would be an answer to the seething problems of the nation.

Two decades earlier, at the time of the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, there was a Gandhian protest efficiently organized by the Czech youth. From the youth the message gradually spread to the elders also. The Czech people also organized extremely significant programmes during the Gandhi centenary. The Speaker of the National Assembly of Czechoslovakia specifically stated in a message that "Gandhi's thought is of special significance". In the crossfire of the dismemberment of the USSR and the vaulting ambition of the selfish political leaders of Czechoslovakia, the helpless people looked up to the Gandhian concept of non-violent social transformation more than ever before. In Yugoslavia also the total collapse of the monolithic communist structure encouraged the people to think of a Gandhian alternative. The USSR, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia - the three main pillars of communism in Europe - faced very serious existential crisis, a crisis that called for a gentle humanitarian touch to get defused. Reports indicate that profound political thinkers and leaders seriously considered the Gandhian alternatives in these countries as means to prevent political extinction and to avoid internecine killings.

    There is no doubt that the present century has been a glorious on the terms of man's continued conquest of nature including the outer space. Man has reached the very zenith of material achievements. The rapid technological strides that have changed the life style of man also induced in him a new sense of hope and also in insecurity. The hope lies in his ability to rise like the phoenix reconstruct life from its ruins and the indomitable spirit of ‘never to yield’. The insecurity arises from the realization that unless worldly progress is tempered with the elixir of spiritual values humanity will land itself on the desert sands of crass materialism.

    
 In former centuries, Europe had overawed the rest of humanity with its superior military might and  an intelligent harnessing of the fruits of Science and Technology. Asia in the meanwhile, was enveloped in spiritual and philosophical pursuits. The appeal of the Buddha, despite the tidal wave of material progress, swept almost the whole of South East Asia while the Indian civilization and the Chinese civilization made feverish attempts to come to terms with the new challenges.  The Asian nations were condescendingly described as 'developing' countries while the African region with its infinite natural resources and tremendous manpower was described to be the 'dark' and 'underdeveloped' continent. The fact was that it suited the colonial exploiters to keep it so. It did not escape the notice of the impartial observers that Africa is only a 'sleeping giant' who when awakened will be a formidable force to reckon with. In spite of the hangover of the centuries and the traditional old colonial exploitation which is still hampering the different countries, there is no doubt that the rejuvenated African continent which would be self confident of its inherent strength will play a crucial role in the 21^st century. Brushing aside these seething problems, Africa and Asia - that have several common features in between - would boldly challenge the West and, as and when this happens, it would mark a new phase in human history.

Johan Galtung points out that Gandhi has become a part of the world political culture and Gandhian thought is bound to influence the progress of the twenty first century. This is made amply clear by the steady onward march of the fast-spreading Soka Gakkai movement under the presidentship of Dr. Daisaku Ikeda. Dr. Daisaku Ikeda, an unbelievably energetic and creative leader, has always emphasized the supreme importance of the Gandhian method for achieving world peace. The SGI leadership has shown remarkable awareness of the value of Gandhian nonviolence as is evident from the thrust SGI President Dr Ikeda gives to the propagation of Ahimsa as enunciated by Gauthama Buddha. A world without war which has become one of the cherished goals of humanity can no longer be treated as a distant dream. A spiritual awakening supported by strong cultural, educational and social movements is the need of the hour.

What kind of basic change are we hoping for? It cannot be anything other than a non-violent, non-exploitative and just society where no man will die of hunger, where everyone's self-respect will get prime consideration and where no one will be segregated in the name of caste, class, colour or sex. Are we just dreaming about an unattainable Utopia? Certainly not. Moreover even if it is a dream, only dreams like this give hope and strength to the human race.

The tragedy of the present times is that a large segment of our fellowmen is still denied the dreams, hopes and opportunities of growth.

Denial of justice and the widening gap between the rich North and the poor South

There can never be peace and happiness on earth if humanity dues not address the basic problems that perpetrate inequality. Let us look at   the following staggering facts provided by the World Watch Institute (State of the World 2002 New York, 3-

•         More than a billion people on earth today lack access to adequate clean water

•         Nearly three billion people do not have access to adequate sanitation  facilities.

•         Nations have long grappled with inequality; but never in history have the  assets of the three   

      richest individuals matched the combined  national economies of the poorest 48 nations as is      the case today 

•         Inspite of a  of unprecedented economic growth that has added over ten trillion U.S. dollars every     

      year to the global economy, the  number of people living in poverty (at the rate of one US dollar a day  remains more than one billion,  without any change.

A billion people are being added to the human population every 15 years.

•         The lack of democratic political representation and the concentration of economic and political power in a few hands have created a fundamental instability in many nations – an instability that has far-reaching consequences in the form of large- scale human migration, illegal drug exports and increasing terrorism.

•         The average American uses 19 times more paper than the average person in a developing country, and most of it ends up as trash.

•         Some 27 per cent of the world's coral reefs have now been irredeemably lost (whereas it was only ten per cent in 1992). Coral reefs are second only to forests in biological wealth, and such an extensive loss of the reefs inevitably takes a great toll on many aquatic species of living beings. The goods and services obtained from reefs were valued at 375 billion U.S. dollars in 1997.

•         Global emissions of carbon have grown by an additional 400 million tones during the ten years it has taken to arrive at an agreement for a modest climate protocol.

•         Twenty known communicable diseases - including tuberculosis (TB), malaria and cholera - which had been effectively controlled re-emerged virulently and spread widely in the last quarter of the twentieth century. At least thirty previously unknown deadly new diseases - including HIV, Hepatitis C and Ebola – have also surfaced in the same period.

•         After sixty years of near-continuous decline in deaths from infectious diseases in the United States, the trend reversed in 1980 and death rates have nearly doubled since then

•         A pharmacological study made in 1999 reported that only  13 out of 1,223 medicines commercialized by multinational drug companies between 1975 and 1997 were designed to treat life-threatening tropical diseases..

•         The market for drugs meant to cure minor ailments like toenail fungus, obesity, baldness, face wrinkles and impotence runs into billions of dollars.

•         A third of all adults are overweight in Europe; the figure stands at 61 per cent in the United States. Obesity (the extreme condition of overweight) rose dramatically in the 1990s - by ten to forty per cent in most European countries and by fifty per cent in the United States.

Champaran Satyagraha and its relevance today to  ensure  social justice

Social justice and human rights have been the two key areas of Gandhi's concern both in South Africa and India. Gandhi predicted that unless expeditious corrective measures are taken, humanity will see more mega-death weapons proliferating among nations and there will be population explosion, more pollution and poverty, reducing our planet's life-supporting capabilities.

Gandhi insisted that social justice, distributive justice and communicative justice have to be woven into the matrix of social, political and community life. Commutative justice is based on the dignity and equality of all persons while distributive justice guarantees the right of all men and women to have equal share of essential goods and services, material comforts and social security.Social justice should encourage citizens to engage themselves in the creation of just social and political structures which constitute inline democracy. Truth will be the guiding principle in all of them.   In the Gandhian concept the way of peace is the way of truth. What Jaime L Cardinal Sin pointed out in the annual lecture series United Nations University (1985), aptly sums up the frightening scenario:

Poverty in the third world or anywhere else is an indication of our collective failure. But the subject and agent of this failure are not the poor themselves; rather, they are the victims of this failed human and technical enterprise. The responsible agents of poverty are the rich and the powerful. The agents of poverty are the economic planners who choose to import capital-intensive technologies and whose victims are the jobless industrial workers. The technocrats of poverty are the educators who promoted school systems that are replicas of foreign universities. Their victims are the youth who became alienated from their own people and culture. The merchants of poverty are those unscrupulous industrialists who manipulate fragile economies and destroy their self-reliant foundations. The innumerable victims are the small farmers, fishermen and entrepreneurs whose labour and produce are brought cheaply and whose daily rice depend on market decisions made in Chicago or Geneva. The poor are poorer because they must contend not only with the exploitative powers of local groups, but with those of an international network as well.

The eloquent lessons that arise out of Gandhi’s heroic efforts in Champaran a hundred years ago  is that nonviolence, which is an attribute of the soul is also a matchless weapon  which has eternal  relevance. Gandhi demonstrated this with convincing success when he took on the vulgar face of the colonial arrogance and exploitation and  the  abysmal  helplessness of a fear-stricken segment of  poor indigo laborers of Champaran who were crushed both physically and psychologically.