President Obama has often invoked the legacy of four of the most outstanding leaders that the world has ever seen: Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela (He has started referring to Clinton only recently). These men sensed the pulse of the people and championed their causes throughout their lives. But what is sometimes forgotten is that these men were great thinkers and expressed their ideas in ways that are too rich to be simply hammered into populist slogans like “Be the change you want to see in the world”. In the past few years, the Obama campaign has erected a Bastille of misconception around the philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi. To demolish Obama’s claims to Gandhi’s legacy, I offer some pearls from the enormous corpus of Gandhi’s writings on issues that were as important in his time as they are today:
On Individual Freedom
“The individual is the one supreme consideration. No society can possibly be built upon a denial of individual freedom. It is contrary to the very nature of man. Just as a man will not grow horns or a tail, so will he not exist as man if he has no mind of his own. In reality, even those who do not believe in the liberty of the individual believe in their own.”
On material progress
“The common belief is that religion is always opposed to material goods. One cannot act religiously in mercantile matters. Religion is only meant for salvation……In my opinion, there is no line of demarcation between salvation and worldly pursuits.”
On Capital
“Capital as such is not evil; it is its wrong use that is evil. Capital in some form or other will always be needed.”
On Capitalism
“It can be easily demonstrated that destruction of the capitalist must mean destruction, in the end, of the worker….Either is dependent on the other…….Inequalities in intelligence and even opportunity will last till the end of time.”
On Limited Government
“I look upon an increase of the power of the State with the greatest fear, because while apparently doing good by minimizing exploitation, it does the greatest harm to mankind by destroying individuality, which lies at the root of all progress. We know of so many cases where men have adopted trusteeship, but none where the State has really lived for the poor. …”
“Government control gives rise to fraud, suppression of Truth, intensification of the black market and artificial scarcity.”
On Socialism and Communism
“The socialists and communists say that they can do nothing to bring about economic equality today. They will just carry on propaganda in its favor and to that end they believe in generating and accentuating hatred. They say, when they get control over the State, they will enforce equality. Under my plan, the State will be there to carry out the will of the people, not to dictate to them or force them to do its will.
It is my firm conviction that if the State suppressed capitalism by violence, it will be caught in the coils of violence itself, and will fail to develop non-violence at any time. The State represents violence in a concentrated and organized form. The individual has a soul, but as the State is a soulless machine, it can never be weaned from violence to which it owes its very existence.”
On Abortion
“It seems to me clear as daylight that abortion would be a crime.”
On Non Violence
“Non Violence is the highest ideal. It is meant for the brave, never for the cowardly.”
