HINDUISM, NON-VIOLENCE
AND THE BHAGAVADGITA
The Jewish Torah or Judaeo-Christian ‘Old Testament’
clearly sanctifies genocide. Islamic fundamentalists claim
that the Koran also justifies violent forms of holy ‘struggle’
or Jihad – at least in particular circumstances. A
fundamental ethical question that needs to be raised also in
relation to Hinduism – indeed any religion or ideology – is
whether, as the Bhagavadgita appears to do, it too sanctifies
war or violence under any pretext – whether ‘duty’ (dharma) or
‘self-defence’. This is something, which, I believe, is central
to the future of Hinduism and also to that of any new
Hindu-influenced form of socialism and ‘communism’,
understood as a ‘commune-alism’ based on autonomous
communes – and not as ethnic or religious ‘communalism’.
Only the clear and consistently pacifist position
represented by Mahatma Gandhi, based on the principle of
Ahimsa – the ethic of not injuring any living being – can
free Hindus and Hinduism of any personal and theological
ambivalence on this question. More important even than
Gandhi’s famous saying “An eye for an eye makes the
whole world blind” is his personal statement of the general
ethic of non-violence:
“There are many causes that I am prepared to die
for, but no causes that I am prepared to kill for."