Shanti

This chapter contains extended discussion on matters relating to war and peace and the relevance of Gandhi’s ideas to perpetual peace; it reveals how Gandhi’s ideas complement and go beyond those espoused by thinkers like the German philosopher Immanuel Kant. For example, both Kant and Gandhi agree that egoistic tendencies need to be checked and controlled for peace to prevail. Kant hoped that reason would accomplish this because the prohibitive costs of war and destructive potentialities posed by it make war repugnant to reason. Gandhi goes beyond reason to cultivate peace of mind in the place of ‘armed peace’ to get as close as possible to perpetual peace. The state, according to Gandhi, subsists on the power of force and, therefore, it cannot ensure peace. More significantly, Gandhi emphasized non-violence as the right means to achieve peace within the individual as well as between individuals, groups, and states.