"The Doctrine of the Sword", in his weekly paper Young India, 11 August 1920
The Law of Our Species
In August 1920 Mahatma Gandhi launched the non-cooperation movement across India. The country was angry about the massacre at Amritsar in April 1919, where British troops under General Dyer fired on an unarmed crowd. Bal Gangadhar Tilak died in Bombay on 1 August, the day the campaign began. Critics told Gandhiji that his plan was weak. Some leaders in the Congress argued that refusing to hit back was an excuse for cowardice. On 11 August he answered them in an essay called "The Doctrine of the Sword" in his weekly paper Young India.
Gandhiji wrote that if the only choice were cowardice or violence, he would advise violence. He did not want people to submit to mistreatment simply because they feared injury. Then he laid out a third path that required far more courage than hitting back. He wrote, "Non-violence is the law of our species as violence is the law of the brute." An animal relies only on physical might, but human beings have the power to refuse an order without raising a weapon.
Therefore
Do not mistake patience for fear, in your own actions or in anyone else. Refusing to fight works only when you are willing to stand your ground and take the consequences.
Young India, 11 August 1920
On the night before the essay appeared, Gandhiji boarded a train from Bombay to Madras with the Khilafat leader Maulana Shaukat Ali. Many nationalists still believed that only guns could remove the British from India. When the Indian National Congress met in Calcutta in September 1920, delegates argued over whether unarmed boycott would lead to defeat. Gandhiji had already returned his Kaiser-i-Hind medals to Viceroy Lord Chelmsford to prove he had no fear of the administration. The Congress accepted the policy. Within months, lawyers left the courts, students walked out of government schools, and families began to spin their own yarn. The campaign worked because millions of people actively refused to cooperate. They proved that courage does not need weapons.
A small reminder, on the desk or the notebook, that refusing to hit back takes more courage than fighting.
$3.50
2.5 inches vinyl · weatherproof · ships in 1–3 days
Mix & save: 3 for $9 · 5 for $14 · 10 for $25· free shipping at ten
- Weatherproof vinyl
- Ships from Wayzata in 1–3 business days
- Secure checkout
If anything is wrong, we'll refund or replace it. Read the policy
