Indian-Nordic Encounters 1917-2006
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Indian-Nordic Encounters 1917-2006 Tord Björk Folkrörelsestudiegruppen – Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam 1 Reclaim Gandhi – Indian-Nordic encounters 1917-2006 Content: Introduction……………………………………………………………………. 3. Part 1. Dialogue, Constructive Programme and Liberation Struggle 1917-1947 - Grundtvig meets Gandhi ………………………………………... 7. 1.2 Building an international solidarity movement for Indian liberation … .. 12. 1.3 Opposing Nazism and building an international work camp movement… 16. Part 2. Peace and Solidarity against any imperialism 1948-1969 – Anarchism, Theosophy and Mao meets Gandhi………………………….….. 22. 2.2 Four Gandhian and Indian influences changing Nordic countries………. 34. 2.3 Overcoming limitations of interpretation of Indian influences………….. 42. 2.4 Young theosophists and antiimperialists continious Gandhian struggle… 49. Part 3. Global Environmental Movement Period 1970-1989 – Ecology meets Gandhi……………………………………………………….. 51. 3.2 Challenging Western Environmentalism and UNCHE 1972……….……. 61. 3.3 Anti-nuclear Power and Alternative Movement…………………….…… 91. 3.4 Nordic peace, future studies and anti-imperialist initiatives……………. 102. 3.5 New struggles and influences from India 1983-1988…………...……… 108. Part 4. The Global Democracy Period 1989-2004 – Solidarity meets Gandhi…………………………………………………...... 113. 4.2 Gandhi Today in the Nordic countries………………………………..… 122. 4.3 Mumbai x 3………………………………………………………….….. 126. 4.4 Reclaim Gandhi…………………………………………………….…… 128. Appendix I Declaration of the Third World and the Human Environment……………… 132. Appendix II Manifesto of the Salt March Committee 2005……………………………… 137. 2 Introduction When the Indian Muslim Sheth Habib in September 11, 1906, raised his voice against the British empire and the new racist laws, a new modern popular movement was born that is still of global importance. At a mass meeting with 3 000 participants with the police present at the Empire theatre in Johannesburg, Habib said that in the name of Allah he would resist the new law discriminating coloured people, making it illegal not to carry a passport declaring your race. He also told others to do the same. Mohandas Gandhi, who organised the meeting, had not had the idea himself to go as far as making illegal actions. But overwhelmed by the Muslim initiative not to obey the law in a nonviolent manner he soon followed and became the organiser of the first campaign using Satyagraha, the ethical force of those who have the truth on their side resisting oppressive opponents with open collective nonviolent actions. Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs joined hands and mobilised against the oppressive laws that made it easier to exploit their indentured labour. After 10 000 had been sent to prison the government had to give up and the nonviolent movement was successful in stopping the racist laws. The British Empire had been defeated. Nordic connections with this movement started in 1917 in the midst of brutal wars among imperialist states. These contacts started after the first successful Satyagraha campaign in South Africa but before this way of changing society were used in India. Two Danish women, Esther Færing and Anne Marie Petersen both interested in education met with Gandhi in January 1917 shortly before he started his nonviolent civil disobedience campaigns in India which made him the leader of the nationalist movement 1919. Since this meeting Gandhi and Indian popular movements have continuously influenced Nordic popular movements and societies. This is especially the case when core values of the society are at stake. When issues as freedom of speech, global justice, environmental devastation and the role of the Nordic countries’ position in the global imperialistic system have been addressed in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden.1 To some degree influence has also come from the Nordic countries to India at crucial stages in the struggle for equality between men and women and the liberation of the country. Gandhian and Indian influences are still important in the Nordic societies and especially among popular movements engaged in the struggle for global justice and responsibility. This text primarily deals with the political influence, especially when people are mobilised in societal conflicts.2 Indian influence culturally, at the official political level and economically is of importance but is outside the scope of this study. The Gandhian and Indian popular movement influence on other societies is of global interest. The predominant view on social change and popular movements is that they start in modern 1 When the peace marches in early 1960s revitalised all political cultures in the Nordic countries, much inspired from Gandhian philosophy via the Cmmittee of 100 and CND in Great Britain, Iceland had the strongest participation in demonstrations. But otherwise the Indian influence has been small or not existing. 2 A systematic study has been carried out to support the claims of this article for the period 1940 – 1972. The earliest period has been well covered by Holger Terp. Later periods is the text basically built on oral history among popular movements with some additional search for litterature. The oral histories I have heard during my three decades as an activist in the environmental and solidarity movement. This oral history has been supplemented references in a work in progress on the Nordic alternative movement. It is my interest in global justice, the environment and popular movement mobilisation that have led me to searching for knowledge on the Indian-Nordic connection, not primarily interest in India or Gandhi. 3 Western societies, preferably Great Britain or the US, and then are spread globally.3 But if the case can be proven that some of the most crucial societal conflicts in Western modern states have received some or its main influence from Indian popular movements through half a century or more, than there is something wrong with the idea that liberation and democratic challenges starts in the rich countries in the North. The findings of this study thus challenge the present academic, governmental and corporate Western worldview. It has been carried out voluntarily outside full-time job as a teacher and commitment to voluntary work in the environment and solidarity movement. Under these limitations it has only been possible to cover the development in so many countries during a period of almost a century without going into details. Especially the first period of Nordic- Gandhian relationships have been very well studied by Holger Terp and E.S Reddy.4 But the following periods lack systematic studies. Due to the dependency of the American university system, scholars dealing with nonviolent movement in the Nordic countries knows very much about the connections between Gandhi and the US and how the US influenced the Nordic countries, but less about the direct contacts between Indian popular movements and Nordic popular movements. Much of the history here presented is with other words never before told. The knowledge on most of the connections have been scattered and is for the first time gathered here. Some of the most crucial mass mobilisations in the Nordic countries for freedom of speech and solidarity with the third world were started by a group inspired by Indian thought and values but the story have never been printed and only existed in oral form. International academic studies claim that the kind of actions undertaken by the Indian inspired group in Sweden to defend freedom of speech were of crucial importance for the whole youth and student movements of the 1960s, but wrongly states that this kind of actions took place for the first time in the US 1964 when the same thing took place in Sweden 1961. Nation-wide mass mobilisation for the third world at schools, also started by the Indian inspired group before similar actions has been documented in other countries, has also been ignored by academicians who either do not see this kind of actions as important or focus on actions undertaken by established organisations in smaller scale.5 This study concentrates on how Indian inspiration has influenced movements that are in conflict with the dominant order in society and its place in the world order. The criteria for being included and seen as relevant thus stems from two judgements. On the one hand, and primarily, if the movement and conflict presented can be shown to be historical both in terms 3 In his comprehensive research project Ickevåldsaktion: En social praktik av motstånd och konstruktion, 2005, Stellan Vinthagen states that non-violence is spread in the Nordic countries first in the 1970s. Vinthagen claims that nonviolene develops through four stages. The first being born in North Eastern USA during the struggle against slavery in the 1830s. The second being developed by Indian popular movements in South Africa 1906 and later in India with non-violent resistance through satyagraha, preparations for nonviolence in ashram communities by living collectively and through the constructive programme. The third stage uses the term non violent direct action and is primarily used by the American civil disobedience campaign, the defiance campaign in South Africa and the anti nuclear weapon movement on the UK. The fourth stage is when methods for networks of independent non-violent groups without charismatic leadership is developed at the actions against nuclear power at Seabrok in the US 1977. The claim of this book is that there is a Nordic tradition with direct links to India that has its own tradition and not is mainly influenced through the US, UK or South Africa. This tradition is especially strong in Sweden and Norway mixing with domestic popular movement experiences. 4 The first period of correspondence with Gandhi and publishing efforts in all of the Nordic countries has been thoroughly investigated by Holger Terp and E.S.Reddy. Their findings are presented in Friends of Gandhi: and is also presented at the homepage of the Danish Peace Academy. 5 The comprehensive study on Sweden and the liberation of Southern Africa by Tor Sdellström mentions some more established roots to this mass third world solidarity school action but not this first national support for a project in the liberated third world.