NONVIOLENCE AS A WAY OF LIFE History, Theory and Practice NONVIOLENCE AS A WAY OF LIFE History, Theory and Practice Edited by PREDRAG CICOVACKI KENDY HESS Volume - II MOTILAL BANARSIDASS PUBLISHERS PRIVATE LIMITED “ DELHI First Edition : Delhi, 2017 © PREDRAG CICOVACKI and KENDY HESS All Rights Reserved ISBN : 978-81-208-4071-3 Available at MOTILAL BANARSIDASS 41 U.A. Bungalow Road, Jawahar Nagar, Delhi 110 007 8 Mahalaxmi Chamber, 22 Bhulabhai Desai Road, Mumbai 400 026 203 Royapettah High Road, Mylapore, Chennai 600 004 236, 9th Main III Block, Jayanagar, Bengaluru 560 011 8 Camac Street, Kolkata 700 017 Ashok Rajpath, Patna 800 004 MLBD Cataloging-in-Publication Data Nonviolence As a Way of Life by PREDRAG CICOVACKI and KENDY HESS ISBN : 978-81-208-4071-3 Includes Notes and References. I. Indian Philosophy II. Nonviolence III. Cicovaksi, Predrag IV. Hess, Kendy Printed in India by RP Jain at NAB Printing Unit, A-44, Naraina Industrial Area, Phase-I, New Delhi-110028 and published by JP Jain for Motilal Banarsidass Publishers (P) Ltd, 41 U.A. Bungalow Road, Jawahar Nagar, Delhi-110007 Table of Contents Part III : PRACTICE 21. My Experiments with Nonviolence RAM C. MAJHI 343 22. Ahimsa in Personal Life ARUN GANDHI 350 23. A Pragmatic Approach to Ahimsa in the Saman Order SAMANI CHARITRA PRAJNA 360 24. Ahimsa Taken to the Limit PHILIP CLAYTON 370 25. The Practice of Ahimsa BARRY L. GAN 381 26. Behind the Apricot Tree MOLLY HAGLUND 392 27. Teaching Nonviolence RICHARD WERNER 398 28. Cherry Blossoming : Practice of Nonviolence in Education LUIZA MOUZINHO 421 29. Practicing Ahimsa with the Childhood Victims of Himsa ANDREW FITZ-GIBBON and JANE HALL FITZ-GIBBON 429 30. (Non)Violence in Prison MATT HARPER 446 31. Motivation to Become a Nonviolent Person SUBHASH C. JAIN 472 vi Table of Contents 32. Ahimsa in Jainism and the Moral Imperative of Veganism GARY L. FRANCIONE 482 33. Alarming Behavior : The (Ab)Use of Alarms in Nursing Homes JADRANKA GREK-CICOVACKI 493 34. Violence in the Practice of Law : The View from Here KENDY HESS 499 35. Exhibitions on Nonviolent Resistance : A New Medium for Peace Education CHRISTIAN BARTOLF and DOMINIQUE MIETHING 514 36. Finding Gandhiís Glasses : The Unexpected Satyagraha of the Occupy Movement 533 DAVID H. WOESSNER 37. A Three-Dimensional Model of Living with Ahimsa : The Life-Story of a Chinese Farmer LIU BANGCHUN 549 38. Ahimsa : The Life Force of Humanity SULEKH C. JAIN 556 39. The End of Violence: An Illusion or a Feasible Aim? MAJA MIL|CINSKI 583 40. Violence in Travelling NARAYAN LAL KACHHARA 596 41. Ahimsa in Daily Life P. KRISHNA 604 42. The Practice of Ahimsa as Enlightened Self-Interest : The Jaina View BALABHADRA BRUCE COSTAIN 609 43. Jain Concept and Practice of Ahimsa NARENDRA BHANDARI 624 44. Applied Jain Nonviolence : A Holistic Approach SAMANI SHASHI PRAGYA 638 Table of Contents vii 45. Application of Nonviolence in Daily Life JOHAN GALTUNG 652 46. Love Wrestles with the World : Hospitality to the Poor as a Means to Ahimsa CLAIRE SCHAEFFER-DUFFY 657 Endnotes 667 About the Contributors 676 Part III: PRACTICE 342 343 21 My Experiments with Nonviolence RAM C. MAJHI This essay is the story of the authorís effort to practice Gandhiís ideas on nonviolence at a personal level, and the consequences of that prac- tice for some of his personal relationships. It also includes some reflec- tions on nonviolence. *** During the second part of the last decade of the twentieth century I tried to be nonviolent towards other human beings in thought, speech and action under the influence of Gandhiís ideas. I wanted to give his ideas a try. By ìnonviolentî I meant not causing pain or suffering to others. Soon I realized that it is not easy. It was easier not to act than not to speak something that causes pain to others. It was easier to refrain from saying something that hurt others than to refrain from thinking ill of others. The first human subject of my experiment was my wife. We had returned from the United States after the completion of my Ph.D., and I had returned to my old job as an assistant professor of philosophy in an undergraduate 344 RAM C. MAJHI college. The payment of salary was irregular. We had two children and my mother also lived with us. I was trying to get a job in a university without success. I was frustrated by the hypocrisy of the recruitment practices of the Indian universities I applied to. During this period I came in contact with Gandhiís writings. Somewhere he had said that the educated youth of India had a tendency to seek more and more privileges from society in return for the benefits he has received from it. That was the turning point in my outlook and attitude towards society. I thought of becoming a social activist. Naturally, my wife objected. She was already stressed. She thought that the life of the wife of a student in the U.S. was better than the life of a professorís wife in India. There was a lot of freedom for women there, food was cheaper, there was order in public life, etc. There are a great number of problems for women in India. She did not want more trouble in her life, especially from me. So, there were two opinions in my home regarding how we should live. I was suggesting that I would be a social activist working for social change within the scope and limitation of holding a semi government job. For that I had to change my existing lifestyle to a type of living that was as simple as possible without asking my family to do so. She would have none of that. Her argument was that my choice would inevitably affect their lives adversely and she had a right to object when something was not good for her or her family. I reasoned with her that the sacrifice has to be made for the greater cause. She had her counter ready at hand. The goal set by me was my goal, not theirs. I had no right to impose that goal on them. It was obvious that there was a conflict of interests. It was not a conflict of interests alone! We differed in our ways in approaching the issue. She pleaded, cried, took the help of friends and relatives in order that I change my view. It was obvious that she was suffering. That seemed to me a natural consequence of a situation when one party is seriously considering a radical change in lifestyle that affects the aggrieved party. Was it morally acceptable? It seemed to me that it was. My Experiments with Nonviolence 345 What was challenging for me was to respond to her in a nonviolent way. Sometimes I felt anger though I tried not to express it while speaking to her. When I asked myself why I was angry with her I got the answer that she was not letting me have my way. One day, out of sheer frustration and anger, I made a pile of all the things I had brought from the U.S. such as the garments, books and the computer, and attempted to set fire to it. Our neighbors rushed to the place and dissuaded me and they brought the things I had thrown out back home. I had started wearing khaddar and wished to be a vegetarian. I did not shave because I could not find a razor made locally. The toothbrush and the tongue cleaner I used were made outside of my province, so I stopped using those. I used dantoon, a small six-inch stick made out of branches of Sal (Shorea robusta) or Karanj (Pongamia pinnata) trees. I discovered that most of the items I used were made outside of my province. So, in order to be close to the principle of swadeshi, the idea was to use as fewer items as possible and practicable. It should be clear by now that my idea of a local product was one made in oneís province. If I could walk, I did not take my bicycle. If I could manage with my bicycle, I avoided using my scooter. The idea was that one should make best use of the resources available. I searched and found in the town we were living an organization in line with Gandhiís principles and participated in their activities. Later, I associated myself with the national organization Sarva Seva Sangh, at a provincial level. My wife objected to all of this. I thought that I should be allowed to live the way I wanted as long as I was carrying out my responsibilities toward my family. But living together in a family or in a larger society creates the difficult problem of deciding what is personal and what is public, and it is a serious issue since what you do also affects others. What she expected of me is that I should only do those things that would promote the good of the family. I made the distinction of personal freedom and public responsibility when I failed to convince her that we should change ourselves for the good of society 346 RAM C. MAJHI beyond the good of the family. Between the good of the self and the good of the family, she was for the latter. Between the good of the family and good of society, I was for the latter. So we were adopting the same principle, namely, that one should act toward the welfare of the larger group.