October 10: “The best way to show how to do it, is to do it myself.” –Gandhi (Young India, October 23, 1924) It was Gandhi’s first great campaign in India, well portrayed in the Attenborough film: the indigo farmers of Champaran, Bihar state. While the farmers were faced with starvation and slave-labor conditions in their… read more
Tag Archives: Nonviolence
“Brave enough to love each other”–Daily Metta
October 8: “Before they dare to think of swaraj they must be brave enough to love one another.” –Gandhi (Young India, September 29, 1924) While love is, in itself, a kind of freedom, what does a love of a nation or a larger social order look like when there is no love between those living… read more
“Knowing when to escalate”–Daily Metta
October 6: “Since Satyagraha is one of the most powerful methods of direct action, a Satyagrahi exhausts all other means before he resorts to Satyagraha.” –Gandhi (Young India, October 20, 1927) When I first contemplated activism, I thought it meant going from doing nothing to throwing every last ounce of energy into direct confrontation with… read more
Realizing Peace–Podcast
You know what is cool about Peace Paradigm Radio? We get to talk to experts in nonviolence and conflict resolution. It’s a university without walls. On the International Day of Nonviolence and Gandhiji’s birthday, Stephanie had the honor of interviewing Dr. Louis Kriesberg, Professor Emeritus of Sociology, Maxwell Professor Emeritus of Social Conflict Studies, and founding… read more
“Progress without exploitation”–Daily Metta
October 5: “All motion is not progress. We have no reason to believe that the people of Europe are progressing.” –Gandhi (Young India, February 11, 1920) The movement for localism–swadeshi–in the Free India Struggle had an enormous purpose at its core: to deracinate exploitation itself, especially as it manifests through the unfettered accumulation of material… read more
“Gandhi and the man from Assisi”–Daily Metta
October 4: “Compassion or love is the human being’s greatest excellence.” –Gandhi (Indian Opinion, August 9, 1913) Only a couple of days after the celebration of Mahatma Gandhi falls the “feast day” (in the Roman Catholic tradition) of St. Francis of Assisi. Two people from different times, hundreds of years apart, they realized one and… read more
“Happiness: a dare”–Daily Metta
October 3: “I would like people to compete with me in my contentment.” –Gandhi (Young India, April 30, 1925) Nonviolence does not eschew all forms of competition. Not at all. Competition can be a healthy, positive technique to help us unfold our full selves. But like anything else that can quickly become narcissistic and destructive,… read more
“Belonging or belongings?”–Daily Metta
October 1: “The possession of anything then became a troublesome thing to me and a burden.” –Gandhi (Young India, April 30, 1925) For Maja When Natchiketa, the young hero from the Katha Upanishad, is sent to Death by his father, he willingly goes, curious to meet and learn from Death. Waiting for three days at… read more
“Civil Existence”–Daily Metta
September 30: “It should be obvious that civil resistance cannot flourish in an atmosphere of violence.” –Gandhi (Harijan, March 18, 1939) Civil resistance is not the full picture of nonviolence in the least. Gandhi knew this, and he maintained that people needed at times to find ways other than disobedience; for example, if you are… read more
“A great day indeed”–Daily Metta
September 29: “If India can discover a way of sublimating the force of violence…and turning it into constructive, peaceful ways whereby differences of interests can be liquidated, it will be a great day indeed.” –Gandhi (Harijan, August 31, 1947) Gandhi never maintained, even once, that violence was something other than a force that had to… read more
