"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 nationalist leader Bal Gangadhar Tilak died in Bombay on the very day it began. People were angry about the killings at Amritsar from the year before, where British troops fired on an unarmed gathering at Jallianwala Bagh. Critics inside the Indian National Congress said the new policy was weak. They argued that asking people not to fight back was asking them to be cowards. Gandhiji answered them in an essay called "The Doctrine of the Sword", printed in his weekly paper, Young India.
Gandhiji met the objection head-on. He wrote that if the only choice were cowardice or violence, he would choose violence. He would rather India took up arms than watch her own dishonour in fear. But he insisted there was a third choice, and that it took far more courage than picking up a gun. He wrote: "Non-violence is the law of our species as violence is the law of the brute." Animals settle things by bodily force because they have no other way. Human beings can refuse an order and take the blow without hitting back. That deliberate restraint is ahimsa, which means non-violence or doing no harm.
Therefore
Do not confuse backing down from fear with refusing to strike. Courage shows when you stand your ground without using force.
The Doctrine of the Sword, Young India, 11 August 1920
The essay was printed at the Navajivan Press in Ahmedabad on 11 August 1920, while Gandhiji travelled south by train with Maulana Shaukat Ali. The argument worked because it set a standard people could act on. Non-cooperation was not retreat. Within weeks, thousands of Indians returned British honours and titles. Lawyers left the courts, students walked out of government schools, and households began to spin their own cloth. By September 1920, the Congress formally adopted the policy. Gandhiji held to the rule. When protestors killed policemen at Chauri Chaura in February 1922, he stopped the entire national campaign.
A small reminder, on the notebook or the desk, that restraint takes more courage than striking back.
$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