Free Research Paper On Mahatma Gandhi Philosopher

Mahatma Gandhi is one of the most prominent philosophers, who emphasized the need to resist, expose and transform violence. He is one of the rare personalities who focused on the central mission of peace education. His non-rational approach appeals to the soul, heart, feelings and emotions of the individuals. Gandhi often advised the people to reject the religious scriptures for they contain passages that defy reason. It is human reason and human experience that appeals to the ultimate reality and faith. Gandhi preached that human reason, which is the highest cognitive capacity, interprets the integrity and freedom of the individuals . His emphasis on education affirms his pragmatic idealism. His ideas are very much different from his contemporary philosophers of the twentieth century. It is ineffective to discuss the philosophy of violence and non-violence without the Gandhian sense of education.
Gandhi possesses a little concern for technical philosophical formulations. His reflections on peace education serve as a catalyst as well as a challenge. In his writings on education, Gandhi criticizes both the evils and deficiencies of the British educational system. He offers various insights on education, stating that the true value of education is liberation. He states that character building is the new basic of education. Being a moral idealist, Gandhi emphasizes on the goal of human beings to develop as moral beings rather than intellectual beings. He lists the goals of education as fearlessness, courage, virtue, strength, and one’s ability to engage in social work aimed at spiritual and moral aims . He also stresses on the real needs and simple living of the human beings, development of non-violent relations and productive manual labor. Gandhi’s holistic approach on moral development involves the training of both the body as well as the soul.
Gandhi focuses on the ethical and multidimensional characteristics of normal education and advises that peace education is the true education. He also defines three ways of maintaining peace. Peace with oneself, peace with others and peace with nature. He asks each individual to analyze that the only way that leads to peace is commitment to truth. Education should instill the terms of non-violence in one’s thoughts, judgments, feelings and emotions . Gandhi challenges the individuals to rethink their views on violence and nonviolence. He believes deepening the concepts and assumptions towards nonviolence has a profound effect on how one approaches towards education. He devotes his writings in trying diverse approaches to resolve conflicts rather than nonviolence. Gandhi condemns struggles directed at war, caste violence, communal violence and over terrorism.
Gandhi considers educational violence as a similar phenomenon to other forms of violence, which involve social, political, economical, cultural and psychological forms . He believes in language as a powerful weapon in humiliating, manipulating, terrorizing, controlling, oppressing or intimidating violence. He analyzes the effect of educational models in promoting cultural violence. Gandhi is one of the renowned persons in history, who believes that the primary focus of human beings should be the political and economic dimension of human existence. He emphasizes that economic violence leads to domination, exploitation oppression and injustice among the human beings . He criticizes the modern education system as a dominant model that maximizes economic exploitation, which is violent in nature. Gandhi emphasizes in interdependency as one of the important moral positions of life and true education should preach individuals to rise and fall together.
Gandhi feels that about 90 percent of the violence is preventable in nature as humans are the basic cause. He considers the basic challenges of education as identifying the root cause of violence and proposing ways and means to eradicate it . He prefers to escalate the causes of violence and prevent conflicts. Gandhi rejects the concept of utilitarianism and its models of education. He advises the individuals that it is not apt to use violence as a means to achieve nonviolence. He believes in the law of karma and warns the individuals to address the root cause and dynamics of violence. Gandhi pleads the individuals to resolve the contradictions in human relations in a subtle way. He rejects the educational approach that tolerates or promotes the institution of terrorism. Gandhi’s two major absolutes, such as truth and nonviolence express his views of ultimate reality . He presents nonviolence as the means and truth as the end and states that the two absolutes are interchangeable.
Gandhi advises each individual to show care, empathy, cooperation and tolerance while resolving conflicts. Spiritual truth and moral truth are the major concerns of Gandhi. He warns the individuals to stop the inhuman acts of beatings, humiliation, rape and exploitation as they would provide no results. He upholds the legitimacy and right of maintaining military forces as a means of order and self-defense rather than violence . Gandhi also advises the human beings not to kill the animals. He preaches to get rid of ego and indulge in spiritual and ethical values of life. He criticizes false education as a means to trap the human beings in selfish egos, subject to material life rather than a nonviolent will. Though Gandhi’s philosophical views are impressive, there are various challenges and criticisms, especially in terms of truth and nonviolence. Gandhi criticizes religious education as violent, aggressive and intolerant, which is not acceptable as each religion has its ethical values and beliefs that hold a certain value in the society.
Gandhi’s ideals impose restrictions on diversity and differences. They are hegemonic and ethnocentric in nature. While Gandhi’s approach towards education is acceptable, it is selective as it is impossible to transform the entire education system into a Gandhian sense of education. On the other hand, Gandhi’s right to civil disobedience is another important concept in the Gandhian philosophy. He supports the right to civil disobedience as a concept based on duty rather than the rights . Gandhi’s fast called Satyagraha is truly dependent on self-sacrifice. He denies civil disobedience as contrary to the law. He considers laws as a reflection of moral principles and asks the individuals to obey the laws. However, Gandhi condemns revenue laws as unjust means of harming the moral values of the individuals. He demands the public to obey the state-made laws as they are crucial in the smooth running of the state.
Gandhi claims civil disobedience as an inherent right of the citizens. He considers that any means of suffering used to impress the opponent would lead to adverse causes. He believes that the right to civil disobedience is apt if it involves self-respect and conscience. The best part is that Gandhi rules out the view that the court should reduce the punishment in the case of guilt. Gandhi’s writings mention about his skill for earning his living and offering free service to the community and expect everyone to do so . He devoted most of his life in maintaining peace, which saw great disturbances due to communal violence between the Hindus and the Muslims. Realizing the importance of communal unity, Gandhi tried to resolve the sporadic clashes between the communities. He concentrated his public speeches on communal harmony and advised that it is the most essential element of maintaining peace in the country. At the end of his life, Gandhi had to admit that the nonviolence movement brought no change to the situation of the country due to the presence of various people who considered nonviolence as a mere passion rather than creed.
Being an anti-utilitarian, Gandhi believes in supporting the interests of the minority groups. He believed in the good of all and took all necessary steps to spread the knowledge about the welfare of the minorities. He felt that violent means would always lead to corrupt ends and offer no value to the individuals. Gandhi’s complex attitude towards decision making considers the difficulties of the enemies too. Similar to other philosophers, Gandhi also advised to give up one’s possessions and led an ideal life . He stood as a live example to his followers. Gandhi’s followers and admirers always supported his philosophy of truth and nonviolence and spread the same across the world. Gandhi wanted to transform Satyagraha into science. His philosophical writings state that Gandhi sometimes wanted to take decisions as do what is right irrespective of the consequences that would occur. Thus, Gandhi stands as an ideal man until today.

Works Cited

Bharathi, K. S. The Social Philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi. Concept Publishing Company, 1991.
Patel, M. S. The Educational Philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi. Navajivan Publishing House, 1958.