6d. Gandhi's Peace Movements

While Gandhi led a nonviolent movement for Indian independence, he applied his principles and strategies to other conflicts in his own country and elsewhere. Here are seven campaigns in which Gandhi used satyagraha to address conflict and violence.

1. against racism in South Africa towards Indians (South Asians) (though Gandhi was accused of not applying this to Blacks in South Africa);
2. against imperialism and colonial rule in India;
3. against the caste system in India and on behalf of the Dalits (called ‘untouchables’);
4. against economic exploitation and in favour of poor peasants and workers;
5. against strife between Hindus and Muslims;
6. against cruelty towards women (although the integrity of his personal relations with women has been questioned);
7. for political awareness and participation of all people in self-determination and self-rule.

The struggle against colonial rule is viewed as his primary success, while the other conflicts continued well after his death, and to the present. Even though nonviolent resistance did not end all these conflicts during Gandhi’s lifetime, he did raise awareness of social and political injustices at many levels. And he offered alternative, peaceful ways to respond to the violence and oppression that such conflicts engendered.