Gandhi on Defensive Nonviolent Action for Interstate Struggle

When we think of Mahatma Gandhi, images of spinning wheels and peaceful marches come to mind. But Gandhi’s vision extended far beyond India’s freedom struggle. He had remarkable ideas about how nonviolence could work as a defence strategy between nations-ideas that were ahead of their time and would influence how we think about international peacekeeping today.

Nonviolence as a defence strategy 🔗

Gandhi firmly believed that his technique of satyagraha (truth-force or soul-force) could be effectively employed for defensive, interstate struggles that are typically military in nature. This wasn’t mere idealism-it was a carefully developed philosophy that he believed had universal applicability. As he declared, nonviolence represents the greatest force at the disposal of mankind, mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction.

For Gandhi, nonviolent resistance was never passive. It required tremendous courage and spiritual discipline. He distinguished sharply between satyagraha (holding onto truth through nonviolent means) and simple passivity or cowardice. Gandhi wrote that he would advise violence over cowardice if those were the only two options-but he insisted there was always a third path: brave, principled nonviolent resistance.

Why Gandhi believed nonviolence could work in defence 🔗

Gandhi’s reasoning rested on several key principles. First, he understood that governments only maintain power when citizens cooperate with them, either consciously or unconsciously. A population trained in nonviolent resistance could deny an aggressor this cooperation, making occupation functionally impossible without resorting to complete annihilation-something that exposes the aggressor’s moral bankruptcy to the world.

Second, Gandhi believed that nonviolence possessed a spiritual quality absent in ordinary warfare. Violence breeds counter-violence in endless cycles. Nonviolent resistance, by contrast, appeals to the conscience of opponents and has the power to transform relationships at their core. Gandhi maintained that even a small body of determined people with strong belief in their mission could alter the course of history.

Gandhi’s practical experiments with peace forces 🔗

Gandhi didn’t merely theorize-he put his ideas into practice. In South Africa from 1911 to 1913, he trained groups in nonviolent protest and what scholars call interpositioning: placing oneself between conflicting parties. When he returned to India, he organized peace volunteers to mediate during communal riots in Bombay, calling them Shanti Sena (meaning “Peace Army” or “Peace Brigade”).

The Shanti Sena operated on specific principles: members bore no arms (not even sticks), expected no payment, wore uniforms for identification, accepted voluntary self-discipline, and practiced nonviolence in thought, word, and deed. Gandhi believed that a group of neutral, trained individuals willing to suffer injury or even death while acting to save lives would possess the moral authority to bring humanity back to all sides in a conflict.

The dharmic law and international morality 🔗

Gandhi’s approach to interstate relations was grounded in his beliefs about universal moral obligations. He believed in the dharmic law-a moral principle that imposes ethical obligations on states just as it does on individuals. In his view, nations were not exempt from the moral standards expected of human beings. He also embraced the concept of “one world,” though he insisted any global order must incorporate his principles of truth and nonviolence.

He advocated for settling disputes at the level of the parties concerned, through negotiation, mediation, and arbitration rather than through armed conflict. Gandhi saw economic greed and reliance on violence as the deeper sources of aggression between nations, not merely political ideologies. He called for economic justice and sovereign equality among nations as prerequisites for lasting peace.

Blueprint for an impartial world police force 🔗

Gandhi’s ideas pointed toward something remarkably prescient: the establishment of an impartial international force to maintain peace and security. While he envisioned this force operating on nonviolent principles, his concept anticipated elements of what would later be attempted through international institutions.

Gandhi visualized a World Federation founded on principles of nonviolence and international cooperation. In this federation, all nations would participate as equals, and an international force would be maintained for resolving disputes between states. However, Gandhi’s vision differed crucially from conventional military alliances: the members of this force would bear no arms and would use persuasion rather than coercion to resolve conflicts.

Connection to Article 43 of the UN Charter 🔗

Interestingly, Gandhi’s ideas about international peacekeeping forces bear resemblance to provisions in the UN Charter that would be drafted in 1945. Article 43 called for member states to make armed forces available to the Security Council for maintaining international peace and security. The Charter originally envisioned a permanent military force at the UN’s disposal, with strategic command under a Military Staff Committee.

Article 43 provided that member nations would contribute forces, assistance, and facilities necessary for maintaining international peace and security, governed by special agreements determining the numbers and types of forces, their degree of readiness, and general location. While the Cold War prevented Article 43 agreements from ever being concluded, the underlying vision-of an international force that could respond to threats to peace-echoed Gandhi’s thinking about collective security.

From vision to reality: the Suez and Korean crises 🔗

The concepts Gandhi championed became practically relevant during major international crises. During the Korean conflict in 1950, when North Korea crossed the 38th Parallel, the UN Security Council authorized member states to provide military forces under a unified command-an ad hoc arrangement necessitated by the absence of Article 43 agreements.

The Suez Crisis of 1956 proved even more significant. When Israel, Britain, and France attacked Egypt over the nationalization of the Suez Canal, the UN created something unprecedented: the United Nations Emergency Force (UNEF). This was the first large-scale armed peacekeeping force in history. It successfully oversaw the withdrawal of invading forces and served as a buffer between Egyptian and Israeli forces for a decade.

How UNEF reflected Gandhian principles 🔗

While UNEF was armed (unlike Gandhi’s ideal), it incorporated key Gandhian concepts. The force operated with the consent of the parties involved-it wasn’t an enforcement action but a peacekeeping operation based on cooperation. Its purpose was interpositioning: placing neutral forces between combatants to prevent conflict. The famous blue helmets adopted by UNEF became the universal symbol of UN peacekeeping.

Lester B. Pearson, the Canadian diplomat who proposed this peacekeeping force (and later won the Nobel Peace Prize for it), used language Gandhi would have appreciated when he told the UN General Assembly that peace is far more than ceasing to fire. This echoed Gandhi’s insistence that peace is not just the absence of war; it is the elimination of all forms of tyranny and the establishment of a just world order.

Legacy: from Shanti Sena to Peace Brigades International 🔗

Gandhi’s practical experiments inspired subsequent movements. In 1962, after Gandhi’s death, a World Peace Brigade was established by Shanti Sena activists including Jayaprakash Narayan (Gandhi’s close associate). This organization promoted nonviolence as part of liberation struggles in Africa, with sponsors including future presidents Julius Nyerere of Tanzania and Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia.

This legacy continued with the founding of Peace Brigades International in the 1980s. Operating in conflict zones across Central America and beyond, these organizations deployed thousands of international volunteers for long-term peace presences. Their method of “protective accompaniment”-placing international observers alongside threatened human rights defenders-has proven effective where other mechanisms have failed.

Gandhi’s criticism of international institutions 🔗

Despite advocating for international cooperation, Gandhi was deeply skeptical of international institutions as they existed in his time. He viewed the League of Nations as a tool of Britain and France, wielding no real power. He criticized the Kellogg-Briand Pact of 1928-where signatories renounced war as an instrument of national policy-as hypocritical, since those same nations continued to exploit and colonize peoples around the world.

Gandhi perceived many world organizations as built upon foundations of suspicion and fear rather than genuine commitment to peace. He saw peace treaties as often punitive and vindictive, pointing to the Treaty of Versailles as an example of how vengeful peace terms led directly to further conflict. For Gandhi, any international body that perpetuated inequality between nations or protected powerful states at the expense of weaker ones could never create lasting peace.

The path forward: what Gandhi prescribed 🔗

Gandhi’s prescription for durable world peace required several elements: moral regeneration of individuals, economic justice, disarmament, and the eventual establishment of a World State where all nations are free and equal. He believed that if even one great nation performed what he called the supreme act of renunciation-unconditional disarmament-visible peace could be established on earth within a generation.

While these ideas may seem utopian, Gandhi’s fundamental insight remains powerful: violence can only be truly quelled by nonviolence, and lasting security comes not from military strength but from moral authority and just relationships between peoples.

What do you think? Could trained nonviolent intervention forces be more effective than military peacekeepers in certain conflicts today? How might Gandhi’s vision of an international moral community apply to our current global challenges?

References

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satyagraha
2. https://www.mkgandhi.org/articles/international_peace.html
3. https://peacebrigades.org/en/precedents-peace-brigades-international
4. https://polsci.institute/gandhi-contemporary-world/gandhi-pacifism-non-violence-peacemaking/
5. https://www.un.org/en/about-us/un-charter/chapter-7
6. https://www.un.org/en/delegate/stories-un-archive-uns-first-peacekeeping-force
7. https://gjis.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/gjis/article/download/35145/31890/37578