Certified History/Social Studies/Greek Teacher
Although Gandhi is well-known for his severe critique of the Western Civilization, including the Greeks, in his Hind Swaraj (“The Indian Home-rule”), he was profoundly influenced and inspired by the eternal teachings and the moral stature of Socrates (Gandhi, M.K. Hind Swaraj, p. 45). Hind Swaraj, however is written in a way that reminds us the Socratic Method, as it is a dialogue between the Editor and the Reader. The editor of the book tries to guide his reader in a meditation on the situation of India enslaved by the British rule by asking questions which gradually enable the reader to search for a meaningful and reasonable consensus on what is good and just for the Indian people and finally see the point of the Home-Rule, which is the vision for an independent India, an India for the Indian people. Scholars have found affinities between Socratic and Gandhian thought and it is not an accident that Gandhi himself wrote a novel based on this great Greek philosopher.It is Socrates that he always remains the Western representative of integrity, self-knowledge, and inner peace. He is the philosopher who never wrote, but myriads of writings are still written about him, the man who never received any money for teaching the youth and was never in need to publish anything for making himself or his ideas known, the man who selflessly sacrificed himself for his ideas and for his dedication to his city and to his conscience (Conford, pp. 30-55). Gandhi envisioned a hero-thinker of Socrates’ caliber in the Indian version of a Satyagrahi (the one who sacrifices himself through suffering for satyagraha or Truth-force) (Ghandi, M. K., Non-Violent Resistance p. 3) and he described his story in a paraphrased version of Plato’s Apology that he named the A Story of Satyagrahi, written in Gujarati (Gandhi L. 1997, 119). This character embodies the message of ahimsa or non-violence, (Gandhi, L, 1997, 115) a message that aims to global peace and which is perennial and essential, especially for our days of global conflict, materialism, terrorism, and turmoil.
Gandhi himself has included a list of ahimsaic votaries, which includes Pralahad, Harishchandra, and as Leela Gandhi says, he also includes Daniel and Socrates (Gandhi, 197, 118). A modern politician using a list of “immortal” people, such as Socrates for his political and nationalist agenda is really an audacity, not to mention going far enough to paraphrase Plato’s Apology. However, Gandhi’s concepts of ahimsa, anashakti yoga (the yoga of non-energism (Gandhi, L., p. 125, p. 129) or non-action), universal love and struggling against “slave morality” or resentment (Gandhi, L., p. 124) were meant to go beyond mere nationalism and entered a sphere of political metaphysics. That is because of the almost saintly way of Gandhi’s lifestyle, such as his celibacy, the denial of sex and his body. Gandhi dedicated to always telling the Truth, at least in his last years of life, which has been seen by many as unrealistic, utopian as Leela Gandhi believes, and inconsistent with the life of the politician or with Nehru’s realpolitic (Gandhi, L., pp. 136-138). Gandhi tried really hard to become a satyagrahi himself.
Gandhi believed that you don’t need to get physical and hurt people. There are other ways, such as protests, boycotts, strikes, flamboyant speeches, propaganda, and rhetoric, that he called satyagraha (“Truth-force”), “non-violence”, “ non-co-operation”, “passive resistance” and civil disobedience” (to the oppressor) (Gandhi, M.K., Non-Violent Resistance, p. 3). Henry Runkler observes that “As a result of Gandhi’s strikes and boycotts, men were thrown out of work and violent riots took place in English textile towns.” (Runkler, p. 282). Sri Aubindo is also one of those who objected Ghandi’s idea of non-violence and he goes far enough to say that “aggression is necessary for self-preservation and when the force ceases to conquer, it ceases to live...Hinduism has always been pliable and aggressive” (Sri Aubindo, Karmayogin, p.38). However, Socratic and Ghandian believes of “non-violence” have certainly influenced and inspired the majority of people all over the world through the centuries.
Gandhi used Socrates as a vehicle to launch his non-violent propaganda using him as “an exemplum for the correct fulfillment of Indian nationalism, simultaneously transforming him into a critic of Western civilization.” (Gandhi, L, 118). However, we would not be surprised if Socrates would have criticized modern practices that Gandhi criticizes baptizing them “Western”, such as cruelty against animals in the name of science or weapons of mass destruction, though weapons and cruelty to living organisms, including humans and animals, are timeless and “culture-less” issues. Socrates’ teachings indeed are very congruent with Gandhi’s strong feelings against injustice and disharmony and his visions of searching truth and inner peace.
Socrates, however, never spoke directly in favor of nationalism, but his thinking was purely humanistic and universal, an idealism that constructively and creatively inspired realistic plans of political actions, since his meditating on the ideal city (see Plato’s Republic) was based on the observation and public debate on issues, such as harmony in human relations, division of labor, the dynamics of workforce, social hierarchy and social stratification and the pathology of family and politics. Socrates used almost scientific methods, such as asking people in the market place and testing public opinion in various topics, and using reason and modeling the dynamics of natural forces for understanding social forces. Martha Nussbaum’s and Leela Gandhi’s made the assertions that the Greeks dichotomized theory and practice based on the description of poet as a man of words and emotions and the philosopher as a man of thought and reason in Plato’s Phaedrus (Gandhi, Leela, p. 106). The answer to these modern interpretations and assertions are that Socrates’ craft was quite practical and perennially inspirational for the modern political scientist as well as the politician. Socrates was both a man of reason, but also emotional, moral, spiritual, theoretical, and yet naturalist and practical. F. M. Conford said about the Age of Socrates that it is “only now that the Greek mind clearly perceives that social laws are not divine institutions operating with inevitable sanctions like the penalties of transgressing against natural law. The theory of social contract is announced” (Cornford, p. 42).
Despite the differences and the anachronism that lies in a comparison of Socrates and Gandhi, an ancient philosopher and a modern politician, Iyer’s description of the Satyagrahi easily reminds us Socrates: “that a satyagrahi does not fear for his body, he does not wish for the destruction of his antagonist...but has only compassion for him” (Iyer vol.3, p. 46). Socrates, indeed, ignored his student Phaedo’s proposal to escape the prison and save his own life, he never cursed his enemies and his judges, but accepted their decision with dignity and courage, he did not turn against his city, but obeyed it, as a child must respect and obey his/her parents, he was not afraid to die and sacrifice his body, not just to obey a divinity or a selfish voice of his ego, but to balance the equation of universal good and personal cost (Plato, Phaedo). He knew that if he would just escape he would be proved inconsistent and untrue to all these people who believed in his teaching, he would be a selfish man who hides in the dark, though he always preached ideas of spiritual enlightenment and harmonic relations between civil authorities and dissent citizens. Therefore, he chose not to turn his back to the court’s verdict which convicted him, though it was wrong. That’s exactly what Gandhi’s satyagrahi did and that’s what Gandhi did himself as he defied death, by continuing living the way his conscience dictated him, though his death was sudden as he was assassinated rather than having Socrates’ chances to escape his fate. It is a nobler act to have the chance to escape death and not to do so for your equally noble reasons.
Gandhi always cherished Socrates’ inner voice, as the voice of conscience, the real force of the satyagrahi. Gandhi always listened to that inner voice of his and we should give him credit for being brave and heroic enough to stick to his idea of listening to everybody’s opinion, but doing what his voice dictates. That’s great for a philosopher , but being a politician you also need to listen to the people and DO things that comply to the people’s will, which are those who elected you to this office. Otherwise, your governance is a form of narcissistic dictatorship.
Gandhi’s critique, as Iyer insists, is like Socrates’ critique against the spiritually blind people whose soul has become blind by the “eclipse of truth” (Iyer, vol. 1, p. 5). Erikson sensed this need of Socratic self-awareness for the European youth, which felt alienated by modernity (Erikson, pp. 9-10). Modern therapists, criminologists, and philosophers, such as the therapist and professor of philosophy Pierre Grimes, have seen how Socrates led his young students to the search of self-awareness and the truth of who they are and what they say, after exposing them to the “elenchus” or “testing”, a process of asking questions (Socratic Method) that reaches a “destructive” goal, or a point where denial, fallacy and error are sometimes painfully realized in dialogue (Brickhouse, T. C. & N. D. Smith, pp. 16-17) and tracing down maladaptive thoughts or pathologos (literally: “abnormal reasoning”) (Grimes & Uliana, pp. 18-59).
Regina Uliana, a clinical psychologist, empirically tested in an clinical study the effectiveness of Grimes’ model of Socratic Therapy, a cognitive model similar to Elis’ Rational-Emotive Therapy, and found it to be very successful with her patients! (Pierre & Uliana, pp.224-225). Gandhi’s similar practice of political dialectics between the oppressed/colonized Indian and the British colonizer/oppressor, the use of meditation and yoga, and the Indian concepts of ahimsa andsatyagraha set up an example of keeping spiritual sense in struggle rather than adapting mere raw violence, maintaining one’s conscience and soul intact and serving one’s people and his/her land by even sacrificing himself/herself for the search of truth, freedom, and justice. Gandhi also gave some wonderful tips for anger management that in combination with the Socratic Method could be used in counseling and psychotherapy, crisis intervention or conflict resolution: “...As extraneous aid take a hip-bath, i.e., sit in a tube full of cold water with your legs out and you will find that your passions have immediately cooled.” (Cf Ghandi, L, p.105). This even reminds us some of the techniques of stress management that have been used in applied psychophysiology and biofeedback and shows how the Indian Medicine, from the very ancient times, knew so well the human body and its relation to the soul and the mind!
Saint or yogi, thinker or politician, despite his inconsistencies, fallacies, and utopian thinking, Gandhi, like Socrates, is a an idealist visionary and a tragic hero. Gandhi is a rare icon of a humble, ascetic, skinny politician in an age of plump haughty politicians who live in luxury and corruption, a symbol, not only for India, but even for modern thinkers in general and the people who fight for inner and global peace, but who also at the same time struggle for their country and its freedom. What better example than the Greeks and especially Socrates could Gandhi find?
References
- Brickhouse, T.C. & Smith, N. D. Plato’s Socrates. New York: Oxford University Press.
- Cornford, F. M. Before and After Socrates. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1932.
- Erikson, Erik, Gandhi’s Truth: On the Origins of Militant Non-Violence. London: Faber, 1970.
- Gandhi, Leela. Concerning Violence: The Limits and Circulations of Gandhian Ahimsa or Passive Resistance. Cultural Critique. Winter 1996-97, pp. 105-147.
- Gandhi, M.K. Non-Violent Resistance. New York: Schoken Books, 1951.
----------------, Hind Swaraj. Ahmedabad (India): Navijivin Publishing House, 1938.
- Grimes, Pierre & Regina Uliana, Philosophical Midwifery: A New Paradigm for Understanding Human Problems with Its Validation. California: Hyparxis Press, 1998.
- Iyer, Raghavan, ed. The Moral and Political Writings of Mahatma Gandhi, 3 volms. Oxford: University Press, 1987.
- Runkler, Gerald. Is Violence Always Wrong? The Journal of Politics, Vol. 38, No. 2, 1976, pp. 367-389. Sri Aubindo. Karmayogin: Early Political Writings. Pondicherry: Sri Aubindo Birth Centenary Library, 1972.
- The Completed Dialogues of Plato including the Letters. Edited by Edith Hamilton and Huntington Cairns. New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1961.
