GANDHI & MAO TSE-TUNG ON VIOLENCE.   Term Paper ID:23071 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Compares ideas of Indian pacifist & Chinese Communist revolutionary on role of violence in struggle against imperialism & for independence & social justice.... More...

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Paper Abstract: Compares ideas of Indian pacifist & Chinese Communist revolutionary on role of violence in struggle against imperialism & for independence & social justice. Paper Introduction: The purpose of this research is to examine the views of Mohandas K. Gandhi and Mao Tse-tung on the subject of whether violence should be used to defeat imperialism, achieve independence, and gain social justice. The plan of the research will be to set forth the historical and political context in which the views of Mao and Gandhi emerged, and then to discuss how their arguments differ, as well as the arguments for and against the use of violence, with a view toward suggesting the position that appears to lend itself most strongly to political and historical cogency. The public lives of Mao Tse-tung and Mohandas K. Gandhi were roughly contemporary as far as achievement of their respective goals of political revolution are concerned. The elder contemporary, Gandhi, was assassinated at the age of 80 in 1948, follo Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. Nonviolence as a moral ideal (Gandhi)VI. New York: Vintage/Random House, 1962.Gross, Feliks. "Violence and Material Class Interests: Fanon and Gandhi." Journal of Asian and African Studies 16 (1981): 196-211.Fischer, Louis, ed. Weakness of violent strategy 3. In this regard,Gross cites a report in Time in 1969, the height of the CulturalRevolution: On several occasions, the Chinese made a practice of marching prisoners to the center of the river, accusing them of being pro- Soviet traitors, and then beheading them. their anarchism has no room in India ifIndia is to conquer the conqueror."[xxiv] Gandhi's emphasis on absorbing (but not returning) the violence ofoppressors so as to overcome the oppression bespeaks a pacifist ethos,while Mao's celebration of contradiction and conflict bespeaks an ethos ofviolence. TheKuomintang, with which the Communists were was allied at the time, soughtto unify the provinces through its Peasant Movement Training Institute:"When the [Kuomintang's] National Revolutionary Army reached the areas inwhich the party cadres worked, they were to mobilize the peasants to servethe army in supporting roles such as spies, guides, and porters."[xvi] By the time of World War II, Mao viewed the peasantry as a politicaland military collective. But . Joseph Kunkel and Kenneth Klein, 54-87. Bullard describes their makeup in order to show that the post-revolutionary transition created much political tension as China sought tomodernize, but the ideology of political violence is nonetheless obvious. I myself am an anarchist,but of another type. [xix]Asha Ram, "Practical Aspects of the Thoughts of Mao Tse Tung,"Indian Philosophical Quarterly 7 (January 198 ): 29 -5, passim. During and after the revolution Mao exploiteddivisions between the landlord and peasant classes of feudal China society,employing the People's Liberation Army as part of the strategy. [xxv]Samuel Farber, "Violence and Material Class Interests: Fanon andGandhi," Journal of Asian and African Studies 16 (1981): 2 1. Another favorite habit was forming up on the river ice, sticking out tongues in unison at the Soviet troopers, and then turning and dropping trousers to the Russians in an ancient gesture of contempt. CharismaIII. But nonviolence more resemblesthe ideal form than the achievable objective, if recent history is anyguide. [xxiii]Gross, 226. Joseph Kunkel and Kenneth Klein (Wolfeboro: Longwood, 199 ), 57. The effect in each case was a form of civil war,characterized by destructive purges.[xix] Mao's doctrine of continuousrevolution contained authority for Marxist ideology to permeate all aspectsof existence in a Communist country. . In China and India,respectively, Mao and Gandhi were positioned in the vanguard of political,social, and economic change. Permanent revolution 2. "Terrorism in India During the Freedom Struggle." Historian 55 (1993): 469-482.Joffe, Ellis. In my opinion, it is a book which . [xxii]Bullard, 8. Excesses of Cultural RevolutionV. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1984.Farber, Samuel. [iii]Peter Heehs, "Terrorism in India During the Freedom Struggle,"Historian 55 (1993): 475. [iv]Ibid., 347. Wolfeboro: Longwood, 199 .Merriam, Allen H. a general proposition that change is determined bycontradictions and conflicts."[xiii] Of particular interest in this regardis Mao's utilization of the Chinese peasantry and the People's LiberationArmy in accomplishing the Communist revolutionary victory in China and instructuring post-revolutionary society. Louis Fischer. . Mao's attachment to the concept of the people's warseems driven by ideology, supported by his sanction of violent means toenforce ideological goals. [xiv]R.H. replaces violence with self-sacrifice. Commitment to anti-imperialist revolution B. Rice, Mao's Way (Berkeley: University of California Press,1972) 32. Swaraj [Home Rule or Self-Rule] would descend upon India from heaven.[v] An active employment of nonviolence can be a militant strategy ofpolitical transformation. They were not well-educated and they did not understand the complexities of the modern world. If that is toomuch, then leave her to anarchy.'[vii] At the time of this statement,Gandhi was countering charges that British withdrawal would invite Japaneseinvasion by arguing that a free India would tend to support the Allies, butthat continued British presence in India encouraged Indians to welcome theJapanese as liberators. . "Gandhi's Quest for a Nonviolent Political Philosophy." Celebrating Peace, ed. . This partlyexplains the use of the "human sea" of attacking infantry--wave after waveof soldiers overrunning the enemy--that was so effective for China when itentered the Korean War.[xx] Elsewhere, Joffe cites "the revered militarythought of Mao Tse-tung, which stresses political factors above militaryones as the key to victory."[xxi] Bullard attributes the Maoist notion of continued political revolutionas one principal source of the Sino-Soviet ideological split and internalinstability in the PRC, culminating in the excesses of the CulturalRevolution in the mid-196 s: "Mao saw certainty in uncertainty or orderfrom disorder."[xxii] Mao's connection between ideology and violence hasthe effect of equating political control with social justice or moreexactly assigning more value to the former than the latter. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1965.Kohl, Marvin. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1974.Heehs, Peter. Ethos of nonviolence as strategy of political transformation 1. . The public lives of Mao and Gandhi: contemporaries and parallel lives A. [x]Ibid., 88. It is important to understandnonviolence as an active political principle (or more exactly as aprinciple of political action), although the term passive resistance,associated with Gandhi in popular imagination, suggests that the principleis not active. [xxiv]Gandhi, 129. Which is the better answer to injustice?Obviously the nonviolent solution, especially if it is effective in drivingout oppression. [ix]Ibid., 347. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1971.Vaitheswaran, Ram. I. PLA leaders who matured during the two decades after 1935 can generally be characterized as charismatic type revolutionaries. Orderly British withdrawal will turn the hatred into affection.[viii]"Whether Britain wins or loses," Gandhi elsewhere continues, speaking in1942, "imperialism has to die. . Itis apparent in retrospect that the authorities opted virtually all the timein favor of Mao's ideological preference, which was predicated of permanentrevolution, and by implication permanent violence. Gandhi, The Essential Gandhi, ed. And nonviolent actors have a tendency to fall not in spite of butprecisely because of a commitment to nonviolence: Gandhi, Dr. King, Rabin.Thus we cannot settle the question once for all but are left with aparadox: And so what are we to do with our rage? I left my home, where I had been resting, and began a rural organizational campaign. . To be sure, Gandhi's India was not immune to political violence,either before or after Indian independence. They were brave, energetic and loyal to the Communist cause. Theory and practice in revolution and postwar administration 1. [xxviii]Kohl, passim. [xviii]Ellis Joffe, Party and Army: Professionalism and PoliticalControl in the Chinese Officer Corps, 1949-1964 (Cambridge: HarvardUniversity Press, 1965) 44. Further, Heehs asserts that theviolence of some Indian independence factions not affiliated with Gandhiserved Gandhi's political agenda because of the British perception thatGandhi was the lesser evil.[iii] But whether he benefited from the violenceof rival political factions, the record is that Gandhi himself uniformlyopposed its strategic or tactical use in quest of Indian independence.Indeed, Gandhi appears to have connected rejection of revolutionaryviolence to successful political transition following independence: "Forfreedom won through non-violence [sic] will mean the inauguration of a neworder in the world."[iv] As early as 19 9, Gandhi distanced himself fromextremist and moderate Indian home-rule activists alike because, as hestated in Hind Swaraj or Indian Home Rule, "either party relies on violenceultimately." In an introduction to the 1938 edition of the volume Gandhistuck to the theme: I felt that violence was no remedy for India's ills, and that her civilization required the use of a different and higher weapon for self-protection. . Violence ensuring social control (Mao) B. But there is disagreement about Gandhi's political contribution.Farber is hostile to Gandhi, whom he describes as a moralistrevolutionary.[xxv] He acknowledges Gandhi's anti-imperialism but assertshis anti-democratic leanings, saying that Gandhi's nationalism gave him anaffinity for oppressive authoritarianism. Where nonviolence is conceived as a weapon, theradical rethinking of political relationships that such a conceptionimplies results in uncompromising rejection of what is politicallyunacceptable but an acceptance of political risk. Party and Army: Professionalism and Political Control in the Chinese Officer Corps, 1949-1964. Strength of nonviolence 2. The Revolutionary Party. The public lives of Gandhiand Mao were circumscribed by an apparently absolute commitment to radicalsocial transformation in the modern period. Satyagraha, not passive resistanceIV. . The elder contemporary, Gandhi, was assassinatedat the age of 8 in 1948, following the achievement of India's absoluteindependence from British rule and about one year before Mao's communistrevolution succeeded on the Chinese mainland. Commitment to contradiction, conflict B. IntroductionII. Mao's Way. [xi]Ibid. Gandhi were roughlycontemporary as far as achievement of their respective goals of politicalrevolution are concerned. Hitherto therulers have said, 'We would gladly retire if we knew to whom we should handover the reins.' My answer now is, 'Leave India to God. In a few months we had formed more than twenty peasant unions.[xv]Violence was undoubtedly an attribute of militance for Mao, for it was inthis period that China was in the midst of division and civil war. Leroy S. There is no ambiguity in his 1942 statementthat "British rule in India in any shape or form must end. New York: Vintage/Random House, 1962.Gandhi, Mohandas K. Satyagraha postulates the conquest of the adversary by suffering in one's own person.[x] Fischer notes that Gandhi himself did sometimes describe passiveresistance as "the reverse of resistance by arms,"[xi] but the context foruse of the term appears to have been qualified by rejection of violence(body-force) and embrace of penalties for disobeying unjust law (soul-force). I am therefore trying to wean the people from their hatred by asking them to develop the strength of mind to invite the British to withdraw. [xxvi]Marvin Kohl, " Toward Understanding the Pragmatics of AbsolutePacifism," in In the Interest of Peace: A Spectrum of Philosophical Views,ed. The Essential Gandhi, ed. . . The purpose of this research is to examine the views of Mohandas K.Gandhi and Mao Tse-tung on the subject of whether violence should be usedto defeat imperialism, achieve independence, and gain social justice. He continues: If we are strong the British become powerless. [xxi]Ibid., 42. That tactic stopped when Soviet troops took refuge behind large portraits of Chairman Mao.[xxiii] The principal argument in favor of violent anti-imperialist revolutionappears to be that nonviolent methods do not encourage ideological purityor social control. . Solomon, Mao's Revolution and the Chinese Political Culture(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1971) 191. As Gross explains, "Maoadvanced further strategy and tactics of direct action by combiningpolitical and military strategy and war and revolutionary means. should not wait for the fellow-Jews to joinme in civil resistance."[xxvii] The expectation of punishment, therefore,is built into the nonviolent challenge to brutality and sets an example forothers. . Solomonquotes Mao's view of the central role of the peasantry in revolutionarytheory: Formerly I had not fully realized the degree of class struggle among the peasantry, but after the May 3 [1925] Incident, and during the great wave of political activity which followed it, the Hunanese peasantry became very militant. In this regard, Parekhasserts that Gandhi's ideas of nonviolent revolution reject statistpolitics (wherein the element of violence is an unavoidable component ofpolitical discourse) and constitute a claim for an entirely new politicalphilosophy.[vi] Gandhi analyzes imperialism, independence, and social justice in termsof an ethos of nonviolence. "Gandhi and Mao: A Comparison in Terms of Relevance for the Politics of National Liberation and Reconstruction." China Report 12 (1976) 31-44. . . [viii]Ibid. BibliographyBullard, Monte. [vi]Bhikhu Parekh, "Gandhi's Quest for a Nonviolent PoliticalPhilosophy," in Celebrating Peace, ed. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 199 .Rice, E.E. The attraction and paradox of nonviolence----------------------- Notes [i]Allen H. Ram sees an interpenetration of Mao's theory and practice, dating fromthe anti-imperialism driving the War of Liberation, through his declarationof the Great Leap Forward in the 195 s when ideological factions brieflysurfaced, to the Cultural Revolution, in each case manipulating events soas to entrench his view that guerrilla warfare was the only legitimate formof revolution. [xvii]Monte Bullard, China's Political-Military Evolution: The Party &the Military in the PRC, 196 -1984 (Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1984)19. Gandhi's unswerving declarations of nonviolent theory C. Theplan of the research will be to set forth the historical and politicalcontext in which the views of Mao and Gandhi emerged, and then to discusshow their arguments differ, as well as the arguments for and against theuse of violence, with a view toward suggesting the position that appears tolend itself most strongly to political and historical cogency. Mao's Revolution and the Chinese Political Culture. . "Charismatic Leadership in Modern Asia: Mao, Gandhi, and Khomeini." Asian Profile 9.5 (1981) 389-4 .Parekh, Bhikhu. Rouner, 142-58. Merriam, "Charismatic Leadership in Modern Asia: Mao,Gandhi, and Khomeini," Asian Profile 9.5 (1981) 39 -4. values completely inimical to the modernization process; values which emerged from Mao Zedong's "people's war" philosophy.[xvii] In the years just after the 1949 War of Liberation, "there was littleto distinguish the political from the military leaders."[xviii] As newblood entered the armed forces, conflict developed within the PLA overwhether ideological or military skills should predominate in the army. [xvi]E.E. Further, a commitment to nonviolence implies internalpolitical stability over the long haul, and it seems consistent with theideals of social justice and cooperation. It is certainly of no use now to the Britishpeople, whatever it may have been in the past."[ix] Gandhi's negative views of violence can be misunderstood as a strategyof passivity, but this is not accurate. The role of the peasantry 2. [xx]Ibid., 19. The so-called Liberty March and salt campaign, in which Gandhi andthousands of others violated the British imperial monopoly on making saltby marching to the sea, collecting salt water, and processing salt forpersonal use without paying a tax, is a case in point. [vii]Gandhi, 346. Louis Fischer. Leroy S. . If India adopted the doctrine of love as an active part of her religion and introduced it in her politics. . It was the human element, not militaryskills or technology as such, that was decisive in war. In a clarification of Satyagraha (civil disobedience aimedat effecting political change), Gandhi himself shows that passiveresistance is a misleading term for another reason, that it "is oftenlooked upon as a preparation for the use of force . .[His] long-range strategy, outlined in his essay On Contradictions, isbased on . . "Toward Understanding the Pragmatics of Absolute Pacifism." In the Interest of Peace: A Spectrum of Philosophical Views, ed. The case of Gandhi A. [xii]Ibid., 26 -66. Violence pro and con A. China's Political-Military Evolution: The Party & the Military in the PRC, 196 -1984. . Rouner (Notre Dame:University of Notre Dame Press, 199 ), 145-7. The role of the military C. . Mao's revolutionary leadership wassurrounded by what one could call all the violence of civil war, butGandhi's was organized and implemented without a commitment to armedinsurrection and the kinds of battle plans commonly associated withpolitical rebellion. The Essential Gandhi, by Gandhi, ed. The WorldWar II guerrilla armies scattered throughout Chinese provinces appear tohave been an important element of the Communist victory in the War ofLiberation in 1949 and became part of the national People's LiberationArmy. Nationalist outlook C. Indeed, Merriam says that both leaders'charisma took on the character of near deification among their most loyalfollowers.[i] The popular historical record readily confirms their success inachieving measurable transformation of their societies and indeed cultures.Vaitheswaran finds similarity between Gandhi and Mao in the fact that bothmatured under imperialist rule and developed a specifically nativenationalistic outlook.[ii] But their practical methods and theoreticalfoundations differed dramatically. [and] may beoffered side by side with the use of arms." He continues: In passive resistance, there is always present an idea of harassing the other party, and there is a simultaneous readiness to undergo any hardships entailed upon us by such activity, while in Satyagraha there is not the remotest idea of injuring the opponent. [ii]Ram Vaitheswaran, "Gandhi and Mao: A Comparison in Terms ofRelevance for the Politics of National Liberation and Reconstruction,"China Report 12 (1976) 4 -1. It pits soul-force against brute-force. Louis Fischer (NewYork: Vintage/Random House, 1962) 118-9. Internal purges 3. The case of Mao A. The problem of a lack of qualified leaders was exacerbated by . Berkeley: University of California Press, 1972.Solomon, R.H. [xv]Ibid., 192. Notes. . [v]Mohandas K. The public lives of Mao Tse-tung and Mohandas K. . Kohl agrees, also citing the argument that because one cannot becertain about the extent of brutality, there is never a justification forviolent opposition to it.[xxviii] It appears that Mao would reject such arguments out of hand as so muchnonsense; he advocates politics as violence, not politics or evenrevolution that includes violence. Curiously, Gandhi indirectly supports this idea,although he equates violence with the kind of anarchy that does notguarantee revolutionary success: "India of today in her impatience [forindependence] has produced an army of anarchists. Initially an urban revolutionary, Mao "grasped thepeasants' revolutionary possibilities"[xiv] in the mid-192 s. The people's army 1. It was marked by anonviolent "raid" on a Salt Works, in which hundreds of demonstrators whoapproached the gates were clubbed.[xii] In contrast to Gandhi's view of the structure of political revolution,Mao's conception of violence in political action in general and revolutionin particular appears to have been instrumental. They did not, however, possess characteristics generally ascribed to "modernizers". [xiii]Feliks Gross, The Revolutionary Party (Westport, Conn.:Greenwood Press, 1974) 11 . Violence surrounded Gandhi B. Kohl outlines positions both forand against Gandhi's approach, the principal argument against Gandhi beingthat nonviolence is ineffective against determined aggressors such asHitler.[xxvi] Directly on point, Gandhi asserts that even a Hitler couldnot destroy hundreds of thousands of villages, and further, that if he werea Jew in Germany, he "would claim Germany as my home even as the tallestgentile German might, and . [xxvii]Gandhi, 327, 329. The long-term connection of Mao with the peasantry has been noted by anumber of commentators. If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.

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