India’s Hard Power through the Prism of Gandhi’s Soft Power of Non-violence

When the world will be observing Gandhi’s birthday as International Day of Non-violence as declared by the United Nations and at a time when India has emerged as one of the major powers in the world demonstrating its prowess, a natural question arises- has India abandoned its principles of non-violence as propounded by Gandhi? Well, the critics of India both within and outside who neither understand nor appreciate India’s both hard power and soft power would like deride India for both its hard power and soft power.

This article attempts unpack the complex riddle. India’s political dispensation time and again have reiterated India’s steadfast commitment to the principles and philosophy of non-violence enunciated by seers and saints from Gautama Buddha, Asoka to Mahatma Gandhi. Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his recent address at the United Nations very recently alluded to the imperatives of peace and development. He has also reiterated the imperatives of dialogue and diplomacy with regards to conflict zones in the world including in Ukraine. Although a nuclear power with nuclear triad, India has never used nuclear threat or threat of use of force or violence in its relations with the countries in its neighbourhood and beyond. India was the vanguard for disarmament including nuclear disarmament. Still, with India’s peaceful nuclear explosion of 1974 and later in 1998, India became a nuclear power state in the world.

Today India has a nuclear triad. A natural question arises and in fact the critics of India who indulge in double speak have sometimes raised their doubts if India has distanced herself from the canons of disarmament and Gandhi’s principles of Ahimsa or non-violence. Recalling Gandhiji’s own words will amply demonstrates the true meaning and import of non-violence. Gandhi said, “I do believe that where there is only a choice between cowardice and violence, I would advise violence. Hence, also do I advocate training in arms for those who believe in the method of violence. I would rather have India resort to arms in order to defend her honour than that she should in a cowardly manner, become or remain a helpless witness to her own dishonour.” ^[1]

This wisdom of Gandhi reminds the naivety of the then ruling regime and their utter negligence of country’s defence capability long after independence and after the Pakistani marauders invaded Kashmir soon after Independence till 1962 when China attacked India. And this was after India so credulously signed the crafty Panchsheel agreement with its northern neighbour. India had to suffer defeat and humiliation and literally beg for arms compromising its self-esteem. What was unfortunate and regrettable was the political dispensation continued its deferential policy pleading for adversary’s admission in the United Nations which was criticised by the alert and vigilant opposition. What was still regrettable was that the prevalent political regime never realised the need for nuclearisation for strategic purposes even after the adversary’s nuclear explosion in 1964. The regime woke up from the slumber after a decade when a hardnosed Prime Minister Indira Gandhi carried out the PNE in 1974 and then the country relapsed into retro inertia by pursuing the pipedream of nuclear disarmament. It is a different matter that the country’s dedicated and highly talented nuclear scientists led by Homi Bhabha, and others were instrumental in maintaining wherewithal for nuclear detonation when the need arose.

It was Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee who had the courage and the conviction to ignore the threat of sanctions by the West to take a political decision to direct the country’s nuclear establishment for a series of underground nuclear tests in Pokhran in Rajasthan in 1998. In a letter to the then US President Bill Clinton he wrote, “We have an overt nuclear state on our border, a state which committed armed aggression against India in 1962. Although our relations with that country have improved in the last decade or so, an atmosphere of distrust persists mainly due to the unresolved border problem. To add to the distrust that country has materially helped another neighbour of ours to become a covert nuclear weapon state.” ^[2] The rationale and conviction was so strong that in the run-up to the repairing of the Indo-US relations, the Clinton administration not only lifted some of the sanctions against India, but also indicated to the Vajpayee government that a pledge to sign the CTBT would not be a precondition for Clinton’s visit to India. The moral of the lesson is- strength begets strength, not kowtowing to the powers that be and belittling the self-esteem of the nation.

India has not looked back ever since then. The country’s defence infrastructures including on its borders have been strengthened and all the wings of the defence edifice including the army, the navy and the Air Force have been beefed up to an extent the impels the adversaries to think hundred times before setting its evil eyes on any misadventure. The Indian security apparatus gave a taste of India’s resolve in Galwan in June 2020 and within these four years, the country has further strengthened its defence arsenal to deter any threat to its territorial integrity and sovereignty. The morale of the soldiers and fighters in other wings of the defence forces is at all-time high. India understands well that to secure peace, the country has to prepare for war. And that is the message of Gandhi’s philosophy of non-violence, and not the timidity and vulnerability of a fragile nation to succumb to intimidation. The rules of the game have changed. India’s resilient economy, a regime of cyber security to protect its digital edifice and security installations, it’s and pulsating democracy with all its pitfalls provide a protective shield to country’s esteem in the comity of nations. This is the befitting tribute of the nation to the Mahatma.

References

^[1] The wisdom of Gandhi Manjul Publishing House Limited, 2004,p.62
^[2] India’s Letter to Clinton on the Nuclear Test, New York Times, 13th May 1998, https://www.google.com/search?q=vajpayee+letter+to+clinton&oq=&aqs=chrome.4.69i59i450l8.6258838j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 [3]

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