Abstract
Gandhi’s thoughts on democracy are not merely relevant in a postcolonial nation. His criticism of Western civilisation for reproducing alienating self and subjugated nature is very suitable for the West. Gandhi argues for self-rule or Swaraj for East and West. He pleads for the reconstruction of democracy from within the self. He adopts a concept of the oceanic circle, which presupposes the flow of democratic power from within and from below in ‘ever-widening circles. It begins with numerous primary (village) communities. Oceanic circle also assumes multiple Sangam communities existing with Bhaichara (brotherhood) tradition horizontally. The concept refers to communities living in widening and horizontal relations. His idea of Swaraj is realizable through several paths: Antyodaya, Sarvodaya, Satyagraha, and so on. His idea of village communities is reformative, not an empirical concept. It is to be reconstituted via social reformation of existing village communities to ensure the development of all. Gandhi’s Satyagraha critically hinges on the method of dialogue. Without dialogue and respect for Anekantavad, a true Satyagraha cannot be ensured. All these are different aspects of Gandhi’s participatory democracy.
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Notes
- 1.
Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi (CWMG), Gandhi Sevagram Ashram, Wardha, Vol. 65, p. 12. (e-books), brought to my attention by Satya Narayan Sahu, a well-known Gandhi scholar.
- 2.
The famous quote from Gandhi is from Parel (1997: p. 189), brought to my attention by Siby K. Joseph, Institute of Gandhian Studies, Wardha.
- 3.
Putnam’s account of bridging social capital by communities and the state. He assumes bridges are absent in social capital formation. So, they need to be built separately from outside by a political community. This is old social contract idea which argues that the state is necessary to build bridges across individuals lacking in trust. Putnam extends this idea of building trust networks to autonomy seeking communities in civil society. It is like a bridge built on two separate riverbanks. In the West, there is nothing in the Self that connects with the Other. It needs to be built from outside. In India, the Self remains incomplete without the Other. The Self manifests by sharing elements from the Other by a method of assimilation. For a Western view, Putnam, (2000), Bowling alone: The collapse and revival of American community. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster.
- 4.
This is brought to my attention by Satya Narayan Sahu.
- 5.
Mark Juergensmeyer, Gandhi's Way: A Handbook of Conflict Resolution. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005, pp. 18–26.
- 6.
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Patnaik, A.K. (2022). Gandhi, Oceanic Circle, and Participatory Democracy. In: Behera, A., Nayak, S. (eds) Gandhi in the Twenty First Century. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-8476-0_2
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