It may seem strange to find a man professionally concerned with the study of strategy writing a foreword to these essays on nonviolent defence. But the word "strategy" has only become associated with military problems because for many centuries de-fence has been largely synonymous with soldiers and armaments. As the Greeks used the word, or as Napoleon used it, it had a much wider definition, namely, the means of achieving the objective which the people or the state desire.
It is, therefore, essential that as the classic direct strategies for preserving the integrity of nations, the threat of attack or retaliation, lose their reality with the development of weapons which can destroy civilizations, and as the older defensive strategies have become totally outmoded by technical innovations, we should pay increasing attention to the indirect strategies for preserving our societies from domination or external rule. For it may be that in concepts like the nonviolent defence of countries lies the key to the preservation of society in a world order that contains so many explosive new forms of power, physical, psychological and economic, that firearms will become too dangerous to use.
I have deliberately grounded the case for this valuable collection of essays on a pragmatic basis-rather than arguing that non-violent defence is inherently better or more noble than the resort to violence for that is what the authors themselves have done. As Adam Roberts expresses it, "All the authors of this book con-sider that nonviolent action should be judged, not in terms of a doctrine which one may accept or reject, but as a technique, the potentialities of which in particular situations demand the most rigorous and careful study."
The reader will see for himself the difficulty that the authors are up against in even sketching the outlines of such study. The recent case material is sketchy and drawn from different countries (Gandhi's India, wartime Denmark and Norway, post-war Hungary and the contemporary American South), in widely differing circumstances. No country has ever committed itself to the principle or even laid aside resources for research. As Professor Nass, who begins by stressing the continuing need for systems of defence, points out, "Military defence methods have for centuries been carefully studied. Non-military methods cannot be impro-vised, in fact we do need study and clarification of non-military methods and training, and preparation in the use of such methods in specific situations." The reader must be content, therefore, if these essays are no more than a preliminary exercise in definition, for he himself is being challenged to take up the task of helping to develop the structure of ideas which would make possible more exhaustive research into how nonviolent defence could operate in different circumstances in order to be effective. If this booklet leaves him with many unanswered questions (Gene Sharp, for instance, offers a useful definition of "nonviolence", but what is the precise definition of "violence"? How does nonviolent resistance in a small country have an effective influence on the conscience, the morale or the nerve of a larger power, if there is no group of armed allies or adversaries ready to exercise direct armed pressure on it: was not this the case of the Tibetans?), he is certainly encouraged to help find the answers or formulate the questions.
Despite the almost limitless extent of Gandhi's own writings on the subject of nonviolence and the variety of ways in which he demonstrated its effectiveness in two different situations-in South Africa and in India-there is still only a minimal under-standing of what nonviolence is all about. The tendency increasingly is to look upon the Gandhian experience as unique and untransferable and as being inapplicable to the more complicated situations of conflict of the present day. This has been particularly in evidence in the India after Gandhi.
One of the reasons may be the general failure of the Gandhian minority in India to face up to the crucial question of national defence and, instead of merely indulging in arid criticism of the country's dependence on its armed forces, to formulate a positive, coherent and viable nonviolent alternative. This present book is an attempt, however limited in scope, to provide the working basis for such a formulation.
The book grew out of a pamphlet which Peace News, Lon-don published in 1964. Although we made many attempts, in the process of enlarging its contents and in other ways making it as useful and relevant as possible, to include contributions from one or two authoritative Indian sources they proved to be unavailing, partly because of the difficult nature of the subject, but mainly as we must ruefully admit-on account of a continuing reluctance in India to accept a commitment to non-violence or even to explore its possibilities in a rational manner.
I am indebted to President Radhakrishnan for his brief words of commendation, to co-editors Gene Sharp and Adam Roberts for their infinite patience with the delays that overtook this book at almost every stage, to the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Bombay for collaborating with us in its publication, and to Smt. Meera Mahadevan for reading the proofs and compiling the index.
Hindu (931)
Agriculture (121)
Ancient (1090)
Archaeology (768)
Architecture (564)
Art & Culture (914)
Biography (715)
Buddhist (544)
Cookery (167)
Emperor & Queen (569)
Islam (242)
Jainism (309)
Literary (889)
Mahatma Gandhi (378)
Send as free online greeting card
Email a Friend
Visual Search
Manage Wishlist