Gandhi As a Political Strategist: With Essays on Ethics and Politics

392 Pages·1979·11.308 MB·English

by  Gene Sharp

with
Essays on
Ethics and
Politics
Introduction by Coretta Scott King
Also Available in 1979 from
EXTENDING HORIZONS BOOKS
SOCIAL POWER AND POLITICAL
FREEDOM by Gene Sharp might have
been called Re-thinking Politics. These
provocative, readable chapters challenge
us to think freshly about our gravest prob¬
lems. They urge us to seek new solutions,
not bound by past doctrines and policies,
to such problems as the survival of free¬
dom, genocide, war, political structure,
civil disobedience, struggle against op¬
pression, and popular powerlessness.
Radical politics is reexamined, and the
political insights in Hannah Arendt’s ON
REVOLUTION and EICHMANN IN
JERUSALEM are discussed. The au¬
thor’s well-known “The Political Equivalent
of War’’- Civilian Defense is included.
The book’s title is taken from a stimulating
power analysis which argues that the
vitality of the society’s nongovernmental
institutions determines the degree of
freedom or dictatorship.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dr. Gene Sharp is a Research Associate
of the Center for International Affairs,
Harvard University, and Professor of Polit¬
ical Science and Sociology, Southeastern
Massachusetts University. He has lec¬
tured widely, and his writings have been
published in several countries and lan¬
guages. His The Politics of Nonviolent Ac¬
tion is widely recognized as the definitive
work on nonviolent struggle. He holds the
degree of Doctor of Philosophy from
Oxford University.
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GANDHI AS A
POLITICAL STRATEGIST

GANDHI AS A
POLITICAL STRATEGIST
with Essays on Ethics and Politics
by GENE SHARP
Introduction by
CORETTA SCOTT KING
Extending Horizons Books
PORTER SARGENT PUBLISHERS, INC.
11 Beacon St., Boston, MA 02108
Copyright ® 1979 by Gene Sharp
Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 79-84497
International Standard Book Number; 0-87558-090-4 (cloth)
International Standard Book Number: 0-87558-092-0 (paper)
3 1223 10746 3672
r
Book design by Patricia E. McGauley
The intellectual and moral satisfaction that / failed to gain
from the utilitarianism of Bentham and Mill, the revolu¬
tionary methods of Marx and Lenin, the social contracts
theory of Hobbes, the “back to nature” optimism of
Rousseau, and the superman philosophy of Nietzsche, I found
in the nonviolent resistance philosophy of Gandhi. I came to
feel that this was the only morally and practically sound
method open to oppressed people in their struggle for free¬
dom.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Stride Toward Freedom
Contents
Introduction by Coretta King ix
Preface xiii
Acknowledgements xix
PART ONE: GANDHI AS A POLITICAL STRATEGIST
1. Gandhi’s Political Significance 1
2. Origins of Gandhi’s Use of Nonviolent Struggle:
A Review-Essay on Erik Erikson’s Gandhis Truth 23
3. Gandhi on the Theory of Voluntary Servitude 43
4. Satyagraha and Political Conflict: A Review of Joan
V. Bondurant’s Conquest of Violence 61
5. The Theory of Gandhi’s Constructive Program 77
6. Gandhi’s Evaluation of Indian Nonviolent Action 87
7. India’s Lesson for the Peace Movement 121
8. Gandhi’s Defense Policy 131
9. Gandhi as a National Defense Strategist 171
PART TWO: ESSAYS ON ETHICS AND POLITICS
10. Types of Principled Nonviolence 201
11. Ethics and Responsibility in Politics: A Critique of the
Present Adequacy of Max Weber’s Classification of
Ethical Systems 235
12. Morality, Politics, and Political Technique 251
13. Nonviolence: Moral Principle or Political Technique?
Clues from Gandhi’s Thought and Experience 273
vi