MOHATMA GANDHI

BY

MORM KULKITYA

SUM SOVANNDEKA

A research paper submitted in partial fulfillment of

the Internship Program

at the

MEKONG DIALOGUE INSTITUTE

Submission Date: May 21st 2014

I. Introduction

Our society is comprised of different groups of people, religious, political systems,

ideological influence, and ethnic. It is hard to seek the compromise between those different

groups for the development and the progress of society. However, Peace, Unity, and tolerance

are the fundamental elements, principles, and norms that value the “Civilized Society”. What

are peace, unity, and tolerance? Peace, unity, and tolerance are the durable solution to the

difference that may occur between elements of society which are human being. According to

UN Declaration on Cultural of Peace and Non-Violence, Peace is an integral approach to

prevent violence, violent conflict, and an alternative to the culture of war based on education,

promotion for sustainable development, respect for human rights, equality between women

and men, democratic participation, tolerance, the free flow of information and disarmament.

According to the Declaration on the principle of Tolerance, adopted by UNESCO in 1995,

Tolerance is not concession, condescension or indulgence, but tolerance is the respect,

acceptance and appreciation of the rich diversity of our world’s cultures, our forms of

expression and ways of being human. Tolerance helps develop knowledge, openness,

communication, and freedom of thought, conscience and belief. Turning to Unity, the term

“Unity” does not simply mean that everyone in society must believe in the same, do the same,

or be as like one another as possible. In fact, diversity cannot be eliminated in human life as

well as in society, but this does not exclude the possibility of unity of overall purpose. Unity

appears when the contrary views are brought together under one universal common standpoint

to seek for overall solutions.

This research paper aims to study and understand the approach toward peace, unity,

and tolerance of two different scholars – Mr. Fethullah Gullen and Mahatma Gandhi. The

paper will first look at the background of these two peace activists, following by analyzing his

approaches toward peace, unity, and tolerance at different aspects. Then, this paper will

further examine their achievements and their impact on individuals, society, and sates.

II. Background

Fethullah Gülen

Gülen, who currently is 73 years old, was born in Turkey. He started to “crystallize his

theme and expand his audience base” in his life journey just right after his very successful

examination result in 1958. His journey didn’t only focus in the cities, but also many other

parts in remote area, or even in the coffee shops. Gülen is known widely known by the world

as a ‘pious Muslim, an educator, a peace advocate, an Islamic scholar, an intellectual, a

preacher, and a global leader’. At the same time, he has also been recognized by his

movement, the Gülen Movement or the Hizmet, which is not a governmental organization nor

a state sponsored organization. The movement focuses on “the betterment of the individual

toward a positive change in society, support of democracy, openness to globalization,

progressiveness in integrating tradition with modernity, and its humanistic outlook.”

Even if Mr. Gülen is influenced by Islamic, one special characteristic about him is that

every speeches of him do not restricted to religious, but instead education, science, economy

and social justice are also mentioned too. Gülen has been writing various types of books,

articles, and journals. Gülen has put lots of efforts in establishing dialogues among the

factions representing different ideologies, cultures, religions and nations, which goal is to

increase mutual understanding, empathetic acceptance, peaceful coexistence, and cooperation.

(M. Fethullah Gulen: Essays Perspectives Opinions, 2002)

Mahatma Gandhi

Mahatma Gandhi is well-known for his non-violent movement. He is regarded as the

father of the Indian independence movement. Gandhi was born in October2, 1869 and died in

January30, 1948. His farther name Karamchand Gandhi and her mother name Putlibai who is

his father’s fourth wife. He was the last child. His full name is Mohandas Karamchand

Gandhi. Gandhi was a shy-soft-spoken youth and was a mediocre student at school. Gandhi

married to Kasturba (or Kasturba) at the age of thirteen and had four sons.

In September 1888, Gandhi departed to London in order to study barrister in London,

leaving his wife and newborn son in India. For the first there months of his life in English,

Gandhi tried to fit himself into English society by buying new suits, fine-turning his English

accent, learning French, and taking violin and dance lessons. However, he found out later that

it was useless and wastes times and money, so he decided to abandon those activists. He

became really serious in studying and spent his life in a very simple life.

Meanwhile, he also discovered the life of passion for vegetarianism. Gandhi

determined himself not to eat meat because he had promised with his mother that he would

stay as a vegetarian. He searched for vegetarian restaurants in London and joined the London

Vegetarian Society. Because of being the member of that society, Gandhi began to read the

“Bhagavad Gita”, the epic poem and the sacred text to Hindus. He learnt new ideas and

concepts from this books which set the foundation for his later beliefs.

In June10, 1891, he graduated and sailed back to India. At India, Gandhi attempted to

practice law in this country. Unfortunately, Gandhi felt that did not have enough knowledge

of Indian law and self-confidence at trial. Thus, he did not hesitate to take a year-long position

to take a case in South Africa.

In May 1893, he went to Africa. He went there with the hope of earning money and to

learn more about law. During a short business trip taken in South Africa, he has transformed

his life from a very quiet and shy man to a resilient and potent leader against discrimination.

The life in Africa, Gandhi met some injustice events. During the trip from Natal to the capital

of the Dutch-governed Transvaal province of South Africa, officers railroad ask him to

transfer to the third-class passenger car even he was holding the first-class passenger ticket.

He refused to move, but the officers came and threw him off the train. Actually, he had found

out that his experience was not isolated from the other Indians in South Africa, who are

coolies. Thus, after have been threw out off the train and sitting in the cold of the railroad

station , Gandhi decided to stay in South Africa in order to fight against such injustices and

discriminatory practices. Thus, he has spent almost the next twenty years to promote better

Indian’s right in South Africa. Gandhi established Natal Indian Congress (NIC), which,

firstly, was an organization for wealthy Indians. However, he worked diligently to expand its

membership to all casts and classes. Because of his activities, he became well-known in

English and India newspapers and shortly became the leader in Indian Community in South

Africa.

After having spending almost twenty years to promote better Indian’s right in South

Africa, in 1914, he came back to India in the wish of helping his country. After his arrival

back at India, he was eager to begin reform in India, but his friends suggested him to wait for

a year and spend some time traveling around India so that he get acquaint with the people and

their tribulations. Thus he decided to travel around India and made the observation on

different aspect. In his observation, he observed the condition that the poor live day by day

and found another communal settlement which is Sabarmati Ashram. For the next sixteen

years, Gandhi and his family lived on the Ashram. Although his observation ended, his

purpose to fight for freedom from British rule could not be happened because British were

fighting the huge war in WWI. Thus, he seeks to change inequality between India through

Satyagraha. When the WWI reached its end, Gandhi believed that it is time for India to fight

for Indian Self-rules with his peace plan. India, finally, gains its independence from British

after the end of WWII. However, not everyone satisfied with his peace plan. Thus, he was

attempted to assassinate for six times which the last attempt was successfully assassinate him.

III. Analysis

Fethullah Gülen

Gülen has convinced both people in Turkey and many other part of the world that

dialogue can play such a very crucial role in making the communities peaceful. On top of that,

Gülen promotes the cooperation of civilizations as opposed to clash, through dialogue, mutual

understanding and gathering around shared values. His stance against the combination of

violence and religious rhetoric, has always been a judicious point of him, as after the 9/11

attacks on the world trade center of the United States by the group known as Al-Qaeda, Gülen

was the first ever Muslim scholar to criticize the attacks in public. As a peace lover, Gülen’s

famous message is “Interfaith dialogue is a must today, and the first step in establishing it is

forgetting the past, ignoring polemical arguments, and giving precedence to common points,

which far outnumber polemical ones”. Gülen urges people to forget on whatsoever happened

in the past, and learn how to forgive, avoid involving in the any kind of arguments, and take

priority on shared goals. He believes that from doing that, it can be assure that peace will be

taken into place.

Mahatma Gandhi

Mahatma Gandhi is well-known as the father of the Non-Violence movement in India.

To archive his goals, he applied “Civil Disobedience and Satyagraha” concept. The term

“Satyagraha” means “truth force” which derived from Sadagraha (Sad: Truth, Agraha:

Firmness). For Gandhi, the word “truth” here referred to “Natural Right”, the right granted by

nature and the universe. Gandhi differentiated “Satyagraha” from “Passive resistance”. He

believed that “Passive resistance” has a connotation of weakness and still led to the violence.

Thus, it is not present the true spirit of Indian resistance. In contrast to the later, Satyagraha is

a culmination of all the values and beliefs such as dear, truth, courage, service and

compassion. In practice, Satyagraha was a focused and forceful nonviolent resistance to a

particular injustice. For example, the act of refusing to follow an unjust law is a mean of

Satyagraha to fight against injustice. Satyagraha is a negotiation of using brute force and

avoid injury to the opponent while being willing to suffer in one’s own person. Practitioner of

Satyagraha would never take advantage of an opponent’s problems because the goal of

Satyagraha is not to be for the winner and loser of the battle, it seeks to the understanding the

“truth” and repeal the unjust law.

Mahatma Gandhi first used Satyagraha for the fights against injustice and

discrimination in South Africa. In 1907, in South Africa, Asiatic Registration Law, known as

the Black Act, was passed. This law required all Indians, young and old, men and women, to

get fingerprinted and to keep registration documents on them at all the times. In fighting

against this law, Gandhi organized opposition through the use of Satyagraha. All Indian in

South Africa refused to get fingerprinted and picketed the document offices. Meanwhile, there

were mass protest, strike, and the illegal traveled from Natal to Transvaal in the purpose of

opposite against the Black Act. Finally, after 7 years of protest, the Black Act was repealed in

June 1914. This proves that nonviolent or Satyagraha of Gandhi could be immensely

successful.

When he came back to India in 1915 at the age of 40, he also applied “Civil

disobedience and Satyagraha” for the reform in India. For the first period of his arrival, he

discovered the turmoil condition of poverty under British dominion and a tense relationship

between the people and her rulers. Thus, he established the sense of connection with the poor

by committing himself to a humble life. He wore traditional dhoti and refining his diet to

mainly fruit. He also helped to desperate laborers by establishing “Ashram”, the community

where he organized supporters to build schools and hospitals and clean up poor sanitation

conditions. Due to his solidarity with the poor, he gained population, consensus, and alliance

from them which facilitate the organize protest by groups of oppressed peasant, farmers, and

laborers against discrimination and the government’s excessive land-tax.

In the protest on the land issue against government and landowner, again, Gandhi

applied Satyagraha. He called for a day of “prayer and faster” which is another act of political

strike, resulting in the close down all transportation and communication all the country. Due

to this, the government and landowner agreed to give the farmer the right to control over what

they grew and the right to get fair compensation for their labor.

When the issues of high salt tax, high salt price and the problem of legalizing the

British to sale salt in India arise, he also applied Satygraha for the protest against this issues

which later also lead to the success of gaining Independence from India. In applying

Satyagraha, Gandhi led a 241 mile march from Sabarmati to Dandi aiming protest against the

salt’s tax and law granting the British Empire full ownership of all salt. Then, thousands

protesters broke the law, went to the sea shore, and began to make their own salt for their own

country’s consumption. This led to imprison of 60 000 Indians which generated upset

throughout the country and gave bad images to the government. British government had no

option but to negotiate with Gandhi for releasing the prisoners. During the negotiation, the

topic of Indian Independence was also raised up. However, when the issue of Indian

Independence became realistic, the tension between Hindus and Muslim became more heated

over the problem of who to control the power after British leave. Gandhi wanted the country

to be unified, but the tension became bloodshed. Thus, Gandhi began peace negotiations and

fasting again even his age now reaches the last stage of life. He vowed to keep fasting until

peace was restored between the faiths.

IV. Achievement

Fethullah Gülen

One of the big accomplishment of Gülen is that he is able to bring the majority of

muslim people in his country to have a positive view on other people who share the same

land, but different religious such as Catholic and Jewish. It does mean that he encourage them

not to discriminate on those minority people, and create a better relationship among them.

Mohatma Gandhi

Throughout his life, Mohatma Gandhi dedicates his Non-Violence Satyagraha for

fighting against discrimination, inequality, and independence. Due to his Satyagraha, he

restored the right of Indian in South Africa, help to eliminate the Black Act law which

discriminated Indian in South Africa. Moreover, he helped raises and fight against the

problem of poverty happening in India society which is the result of British dominion in

India. He helped Indian to gain right to use and sale salt and from the monopoly of British

Empire on the sale of salt since salt is a necessity goods for daily Indian life. However, the

most well-known achievements of Mohatma Gandhi are the struggle for Independence for

British Ruler in India and the restoration of peace between Hindu and Muslim in India.

Gandhi has left the world with an enormous legacy. His works and philosophy of life

has left a wise set of idea on humankind, which is the unmistakable power of non-violence.

Many people have been influenced by his wise life and work. World leaders such as Nelson

Mandela, Dalai Lama have admired Gandhi for his great effort. Even Martin Luther King has

commented that “Christ gave us the goals and Mahatma Gandhi the tactics”.

V. Opinion and Conclusion

To conclude, a very successful life of Gülen should be followed. That the idea of

bringing people together and inspire them not to fight, argue, but to forgive and forget, can be

ensure the peace to the communities, as well as the world as a whole. Thus, more dialogues

should be established in order to improve mutual understanding and cooperation. On the other

hand, what we have learned from Gülen is that, people must not always stand on their thought

or specifically their religious, and say the other religious are bad. As mentioned above on the

successful of him in bringing majority people in Turkey to have a have a better relationship

with the other people who have different religious, could be a very good example for other

scholar to succeed after him. . Meanwhile, the non-violence approach (Satagraha) of Gandhi

is function really well to fight against the discrimination and injustice. I believe that it is an

effective way for citizens to struggle against those who dominate the power, but sometimes

does not provide justice to citizens. As Gandhi said that “we cannot use violence mean to

fight against the violence, the most effective mean is to use non-violence”. Throughout this

research we also have learnt that non-violence movement is a truth force that helps to reform

the society and to achieve peace, unity, and tolerance in society. However, in order to gain

such truth force, we have to build social trust among each other. The works and philosophy of

Gandhi give much influence to the world thought and really bring the change in South Africa

and India.

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