Love and truth

In a letter dated March 2, 1930 to Lord Irwing, British Viceroy of India, Mohandas Gandhi heralded the start of the civil disobedience campaign that would lead to the famous Salt March a few weeks later.

Over 400 km from Ahmedabad to Dandi on the north-western coast of the country, to reach the ocean and symbolically demonstrate against the English salt monopoly. Monopoly that was particularly odious for the population, forced to buy a primary good at decidedly too high prices when instead they could have obtained it independently.
Gandhi's march was a resolute example of non-violence that did not bow even in the face of repression by the British police. Precisely in the letter, Gandhi explained the reasons and the strength of non-violence: «And the conviction grows ever deeper in me that only absolute non-violence can constitute a valid antidote to the organized violence of the English government. Many think that nonviolence is not an active force. My experience, however limited it may be, has shown me that nonviolence can be an intensely active force. It is my intention to direct this force as much against the organized violence of English rule as against the disorganized violence of the rapidly escalating party of violence. To remain passive would be to give free rein to both of these forces. Having as blind and unshakeable faith in the efficacy of non-violence as I have, it would be guilty of me to wait any longer."

Gandhi appears fully aware not only of the immediate difficulties, but also of the future possibilities: 'I know that by carrying out non-violent action I will run a risk which could rightly be described as insane. But the victories of truth have never been achieved without taking risks, and have often been achieved only through the ability to take the most serious risks. The conversion of a nation that consciously or unconsciously lives off another nation that is much more populous, much older and no less civilized than it is something that deserves risk. I have deliberately used the word conversion.
Indeed, my ambition is precisely to convert the English people through non-violence, and to make them understand the harm they have done to India. I mean no harm to your people.
I want to serve him no more or less as I want to serve mine. […] If I have the same love for your people as I have for mine, this love cannot long go unacknowledged. [...] If the people join me, as I believe they will, the suffering they will face, if England does not change her attitude as soon as possible, will be able to touch the hardest hearts».

Converting the hardest hearts through decisive, mild, constant attitudes is the great lesson that Gandhi leaves us, together with the conviction that every conversion - of just one heart or of millions of hearts - always depends on the love that we are capable of putting into play .

Renato Bonomo
NP November 2022