center for nonviolence research

c/o dwarko sundrani

Bodh gaya, bihar, india

guiding philosophy

an exploration of spirituality, science and mutual trust

And how we hope to address

social change through nonviolence

The fruit of silence is prayer

The fruit of prayer is faith

The fruit of faith is love

The fruit of love is service

The fruit of service is peace

--Mother Teresa

Nonviolence

The legacy of Gandhi and his principle of nonviolent action for social change are celebrated in many places throughout the world. People on all the continents are conversant with Gandhian nonviolence. We know of concerted actions in diverse places such as Ireland, Colombia and South Africa where activists are engaged in nonviolent ways to resolve conflicts. In fact a ray of hope surrounds the formation of a new organization called NonviolentPeaceWorkers, headquarted in St. Paul MN (USA), which aims to recruit thousands of peace workers who will intervene at the invitation of parties involved in conflicts.

Sadly, in the land where Gandhi toiled selflessly for so long, his legacy remains a distant memory and the subject of scholarly study. Dwarko Sundrani, a disciple of Gandhi and Vinobha, now at the age of 80 is carrying the torch. Yet, the Gandhian style of leadership has been to attract followers, not to create new leaders. We are surely missing leaders who make leaders.

Dwarko Sundrani lives and works in the state of Bihar, which was witness to the miracle of land reforms that gave land to landless laborers. Land reform started in Bihar and gained momentum through out India in the nineteen sixties. It resulted in millions of acres of land being given to the landless. Yet this state is now suffering rising violence; specifically as a result of failed land distribution. Over the past 15 years militancy has grown between both the landless, abetted by Maoist communists, and the upper-caste landlords who have formed paramilitary groups called Senas. Thousands die annually in brutal conflicts, (beheadings, rape and killing of pregnant women). Millions live and work in fear with hopelessness dominating their lives.

Even as we commence development of a program to bring about a reduction of violence and contemplate nonviolent action to resolve these issues, we are compelled to examine and define our concepts.

· What is acceptable nonviolent action?

· What are appropriate social changes?

· What is spirituality?

· How can a spiritual force be developed and brought to bear to resolve conflict?

· How is trust generated and maintained during the process?

· How can scientific methods and technologies be used to foster genuine Peace, the ultimate objective of nonviolence?

These questions are posed to serve as a stimulant for dialog and discussion so that we may begin operation with a shared understanding of our means as well as ends.

The goal of nonviolence is the reduction of violence. Success is therefore defined as a demonstrable reduction in violence over a period of time. From a scientific perspective we must demonstrate that any such a reduction of violence is not merely deferred violence but is actually a stabilizing force and that nonviolence is becoming an accepted principle.

Just as violence can be seen and examined through several lenses: social, political, economic, family, interpersonal, and structural; nonviolent action can also be processed through these lenses.

· Social violence and family violence are the most common forms of violence. These forms of violence include incidents of war, murders, domestic violence and child abuse and so on. Social nonviolence is seen as those incidents where conflicts are recognized and resolved without the use of arms, weapons, and threats; but through change of heart, recognition of shared ideals, shared values and shared goals.

· Political violence results when power is taken through force, corruption or threats or when those who gained power legitimately disregard their obligations to promote the common good and instead use it for their political power, for personal gain. Replacing these political leaders with people that will act ethically and responsibly is an appropriate nonviolent objective.

· Economic violence occurs when economic power is used to prevent, inhibit or deter others from achieving their own financial independence and success. In the 21^st Century there is no excuse or reason for poverty. Innovative nonviolent means must be developed to employ political and economic power to make the world a stable, healthy, better place for everyone.

We believe that all types of violence can be reduced through ACTIVE nonviolence. We envision a web-like socio-political-economic model that (a) addresses root causes of violence (b) ensures that stable results emanate from our actions (c) reduces the overall level of violence as conflicts are addressed. This approach leaves no room for moral pragmatism that advocates some violence to avoid greater violence. Such pragmatism takes on roughly two forms: violence of numbers (violence against a few to avoid violence against many) and violence in time (small violence now to avoid greater violence later). Our goal is to reduce all violence and perhaps one day to eliminate it.

The current posture of the US regarding a “first strike” against Iraq and some of the measures used to tackle the threat of more terrorist attacks has raised the stake for nonviolent activists. In this case, eliminating the threat of terrorism through nonviolent action would benefit the world.

(This is a great topic for research that accompanies our social work.)

Spirituality

Gandhi believed that mankind is less influenced by writing and speaking than by action. His life was one of action; personal action.

Gandhi said, “When I die, burn all my books in cremation. They will be of no use. My life is my message. Whatever I have done in my life will help to solve the human problems”.

While each of us can achieve extraordinary deeds without relying on spirituality, the most powerful personal action comes with the development of spiritual power. Spiritual power multiplies the ability to bring others into a nonviolent mode of thinking, speaking and acting.

What then is spirituality and what is spiritual force? Let us begin with a quote from Gandhi:

“The purpose of life is to undoubtedly to know oneself. We cannot do it unless we learn to identify ourselves with all that lives. The sum-total of that life is God … The instrument of this knowledge is boundless, selfless service. This is enough for the man who is true to himself: Do not undertake anything beyond your capacity and at the same time do not harbor the wish to do less than you can. One who takes up tasks beyond his powers is proud and attached; on the other hand one who does less than he can is a thief.

I am an irrepressible optimist, because I believe in myself. That sounds very arrogant, doesn’t it? But I say it from the depths of humility … I am an optimist because I expect many things from myself. I have not got them, I know, as I am not yet a perfect being … For me the road to salvation lies through incessant toil in the service of my country and of humanity.”

Spiritual force develops through the adoption of a set of principles that guide all actions, speech and thought. Developing a spiritual force requires personal commitment as well as the support of a community of practitioners who guide each other. The principles of spirituality include:

§ Believing in the fundamental unity of all living things through God

§ Respecting the sanctity of life. Supporting all beings in their search for happiness and avoidance of suffering.

§ Finding meaning in service to others.

§ Rendering service that helps others to help themselves.

§ Participation in the creation of Tipping Point non-local effects; stimulating one corner of the web can result in changes in the entire web.

§ The desire to bring The Kingdom of God on Earth.

§ Adopting Truth, Love and Compassion as the values that guide our lives.

Science

The progress of science has depended on our ability to accurately measure as well as the adoption of the scientific method. In this case, we not only engage in processes of social change, but we also adopt the principles of scientific thinking to aid us in improving our effectiveness. Accurate record keeping, paying attention to factors that affect the situation including the ones we control and those we do not control; analysis without prejudgment of the results; repeatability; submission to peer review and critique are hallmarks of the scientific method. Utilizing such scientific methods will permit us to develop models that give us greater understanding of conflicts, their root causes, their lifecycles and the control points (physical, emotional, spiritual). These models will help us in taking the lessons we learn from prior encounters to new ones and accurately differentiating (characterizing) the new situation and how it is the same or different from earlier experiences.

Without the scientific method, we are likely to fall into traps. One such trap would be to treat all situations the same and to try what worked before again, losing efficiency. Another trap would be to treat each situation as novel and thereby lose the effectiveness that would be gained from prior experience. Science is remarkable in its track record of achievements in this regard. Yet we also sound a note of caution. Science that is reductionist attempts to reduce root causes to the fewest possible and hence is just now waking up the web of life and the occurrence of non-local phenomena. It is in our interest to become more aware of the New Science with its understanding of complex systems and quantum field effects and to bring the most current understanding to our work.

Mutual trust

Situations of conflict are inherently ones with low trust. It is our focus on mutual trust, gaining the trust of all parties involved that is essential to being effective practitioners of nonviolence. We bring to the situation neither physical force nor the force of authority. Our starting point is the willingness of all parties to suspend their distrust in us and then build this into respect toward us and finally respect toward each other. There is considerable research on trust and means of building trust that we can bring to bear on our work.

One of the sponsors of the Center is an active researcher and practitioner of mutual trust. From time to time, results of this research can be brought to influence the work of this Center. A few of the principles of trust are enumerated below.

· Exhibit the Trust you want to promote

· You have to give Trust to gain Trust

· There are no failures, only learning

· Make a decision, if there is a mistake, we will communicate

· Change can erode Trust; Trust-conscious change need not have that effect

· Types of Trust (System, Transactional, Relational) need to be blended in any organization

· Components of Transactional Trust (Communications, Contractual and Competency) deserve managerial attention.

· Formalizing Transactional Trust leads to System Trust (e.g. converting best practices to policies)

· Creative approaches to Transactional Trust leads to Relational Trust (e.g. Communities of Practice)

· Listen with an open mind, listening promotes Trust

· Trust is putting the relationship above self-interest

· Blind Trust is taking needless risks and is foolish

· Dispositional Trust is affected and transformed by focusing on Self-Trust

· "I feel safe" results from System Trust

· "I can make others feel safe" comes from Self-Trust

· "I can Trust myself" comes from Self-Trust

· "I can Trust others" comes from Relational Trust

· Learning from each other - lateral learning

Spirituality, Science and Mutual Trust are three important drivers for the 21st century. It is on these three pillars that we will base our work.

The graphic reproduced above was developed at the Getty Center workshop on Leadership for the 21^st Century.

Social change

Earlier we referred to the lenses through we see society. The social change we seek to bring about above all is rooted in developing respect for each other and for our differences.

In one oft repeated story, a woman is said to have come to Gandhi with her young daughter with the plea, “Bapuji, please tell my daughter not to eat too many sweets!” Gandhi asked her to return in a couple of weeks. After a couple of weeks pass, the woman comes back and makes the request again. Gandhi admonishes the girl not to each too many sweets. Puzzled, the woman inquires, “Why did you ask us to wait two weeks? You could have said this to her then.” Gandhi replied, “But my dear friend, I had to stop eating sweets first.” He could not tell another to do something he was doing too.

Acting in concert with what one wants to teach is a guiding principle for social change. “Do as I say, not as I do” will not work. As proponents of nonviolence we must be compassionate, honor the sanctity of life, be trustworthy and act nonviolently if we can expect to persuade others to do the same. We hasten to point out that seeking the same goal and accepting the principle that we must be what we teach does not mean that we must all approach our work in exactly the same way or share identical beliefs or values. Each of us brings a different background, different experience, different resources and different styles to our task. We encourage diversity, respect diversity and believe that through diversity we gain strength.

Social change is not about “helping” others. It is about being involved in such a way that others are influenced to change their words, thoughts and actions; social change becomes a consequence of example. The result of the change must leave people empowered to manage their own change and able to create stability and safety in their own lives and in their community. Such change must also include the cultivation of leadership and management for long-term stability and growth. Done properly, the result is a feeling of a win for all those who are involved or impacted.

Action

Action and non-action are included in the vocabulary of the nonviolence practitioner. Just as silence is golden in spiritual practices, inaction is golden in social work. An aphorism from Hindu philosophy says “Speak words that are true, but utter them with love; do not speak the untruth, even if spoken lovingly; utter not without love what would be true.” In the same manner we also enjoin all of us to engage in action that is born of truth and love and to avoid all action that violates truth or love.

Nishkama Karma is another famous principle discussed in one of Gandhi’s favorite books, The Bhagavad-Gita”. This principle tells us to engage in action that appears to us to be true and loving in a given situation and given our role in that situation (Dharma), but to avoid any attachment to the fruits of the action. This level of detachment is required to give fully of ourselves in that situation and also to maintain equanimity as the results of the action may take a long time to come to fruition or might be too subtle to observe.

There may appear to be a contradiction between Nishkama Karma and the scientific principle of documenting and analyzing to determine effective causes. The appearance of such a contradiction, we take to be superficial and not deep. Even a scientist adopts this stance to maintain equanimity.

Personal development

A high degree of both intellectual intelligence and emotional intelligence will be demanded by the situations in which we are likely to be placed in our work. Integration and development of our physical, intellectual, emotional and spiritual self is one of the benefits we will gain from participation.

The aims of the Center are to form an environment that is conducive to formal and informal learning and to contribute the scientific advancement. Formal learning comes through the understanding the results of scientific research. Informal learning comes through our own actions and experience.

The Center as a microcosm of our own work

Whenever a group comes together, we are bound to encounter issues that pull us apart. The way we use mutual trust, knowledge and respect for all others to identify, recognize and resolve our own conflicts and differences will form a critical success factor.

We aim to support a leaderless model or an environment in which leadership can emerge and rotate. In this regard, the appeal to authority to resolve conflicts is not an option. No method of win-lose would suffice. In the way we conduct our own business, we become role models, and earn the respect of others.