Mahatma Gandhi’s non-violence: Influences from West to West Gujarat

MK Gandhi, whose nonviolent political philosophy became a model for world leaders like Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King, may have been influenced by western traditions as well as from his own backyard in Kathiawad - presently the western portion of Gujarat. The author notes that while dictionaries often define “ahimsa” as a translation of the Sanskrit word for ‘non-violence,’ Gandhi emphasized its deeper significance as a philosophical principle rooted in ancient India. However, a 19th-century Sanskrit–English dictionary by Monier-Williams provides a more extensive interpretation, describing “ahimsa” as ‘not injuring anything,’ ‘harmlessness’, and ‘security’ or ‘safeness.’ This suggests that “ahimsa” encompasses a broader concept than just ‘non-violence.’ “Gandhi only began to talk about ahimsa as an informing principle of his method of resistance after his return to India from South Africa in 1915. “Gandhi began to apply the term ‘ahimsa’ to his method of resistance—satyagraha—only after his return to India from South Africa in January 1915. Historian late Howard Spodek in a research paper titled ‘On the origins of Gandhi’s political methodology: the heritage of Kathiawad and Gujarat’ says that Gandhi would have been inspired from traditions closer home.