Abstract
This paper provides an analysis of the development of M. K. Gandhi's (1893-1914) political discourse on ahimsa between the period beginning with his South African sojourn (1893-1914) and ending with the establishment of the Satyagraha Ashram in 1915. Many previous studies have assumed that the Jain and Hindu conceptions of ahimsa significantly influenced Gandhi's development of the principle of satyagraha. Contrary to this assumption, this paper clarifies that Gandhi first began to associate the ideological basis of satyagraha with the concept of ahimsa after his return to India in 1915. Significantly, even in "Hind Swaraja" (1909), which he had written to meet all the objections that had been raised by contemporary Indian revolutionaries, Gandhi never used the term ahimsa in reference to his conception of satyagraha.
Immediately after returning to his homeland in 1915, Gandhi began to travel throughout India to acquire firsthand knowledge of the current conditions. This period of observation led to the gradual reinforcement of his belief in the existence of a binary opposition between ‘the East’ and ‘the West’. While the former, particularly India manifested as a ‘holy atmosphere’ and ‘place of spirituality’, the latter manifested as modern civilization characterized by materialism and violence. Such an epistemic perception convinced Gandhi of the necessity to spread his belief that the only means of achieving ‘true swaraj’ for India was devoting oneself to the fundamental teachings of the ‘Hindu religion’, which firmly advocates ‘abstention from himsa’.
