Ahisma is the attribute of the soul,
and therefore to be practiced by
everybody in all the affairs of life.
M.K. Gandhi

What we call ‘nonviolence’ used to be called ‘passive resistance’. Mahatma Gandhi did not like the Indian version of this phrase. The word ‘passive’ was his problem. The force he understood was an active one. So he changed the phrase to the Indian word ‘Ahimsa’, which we translate ‘nonviolence’. Now in English the word has some problems since some may say it means no violence. But that is the best we can do to describe this force which we just saw topple governments and as Gandhi says “can be practiced by everybody in all affairs of life.”

I point the above out to show the limits of words. In fact when Gandhi was searching for a word to describe the struggle for truth, the use of ‘Ahimsa’ he ran a contest in the local Indian newspaper. The winning entry was a made up word satyagraha, which is loosely translated as ‘Soul Force’ or ‘truth force’. By creating a new word for to name the struggle for Ahimsa or nonviolence Gandhi was saying the power of ahimsa or nonviolence is important not the word.

So what does nonviolence mean? There are a number of similar meanings: It can refer to a “general philosophy of abstention from violence because of moral or religious principle; It can refer to the behavior of people using nonviolent action, civil disobedience, symbolic protest and more. My favorite description comes from Judith Brown in her book on Gandhi when she defines his Satyagraha, the struggle of this power of nonviolence, “striving nonviolently to the point of sacrifice rather than fighting to attain one’s vision of truth.” Martin Luther King in his famous letter from the Birmingham jail, talks about how “disciplined nonviolence totally confused the rulers of the South. They did not know what to do. When they finally reached for clubs, dogs and guns, they found the world was watching, and then the power of nonviolent protest became manifest.”

The power of nonviolence in all its meaning means accepting suffering, rather than responding violently in word or action. St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus says we should pray to God for the “desire to be with you in accepting all wrongs and all rejections and all poverty, both actual and spiritual.”

So words like ‘nonviolence’ are easy to use but putting the meaning of these words in action is difficult. Action speaks louder than words.

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