Gandhi gives prime importance to the individual because according to him the individual
has a soul while society does not. He had a very positive view of human nature as it
has the ability to rise above selfishness and violence. The individual was central and thus
a nonviolent society had to be created that could satisfy human needs. Self-realisation is
the “highest” need but that depends on the satisfaction of other needs. Only a nonviolent
individual could be the foundation of a nonviolent society and the creation of a nonviolent
society required nonviolent transformation of the individual.
Gandhi rejected the conception of conflict in terms of class war as elucidated by
socialism. He viewed conflict as a positive and desirable thing. It is in fact an opportunity
to transform the self and the society. Moreover, conflict “is an important means to greater
human unity”, for it reminds human beings of the bonds that relate them to each other.
Conflict, according to Gandhi, was built into social structures and not into people.
Therefore his approach to conflict resolution aimed to preserve the individual while
systematically targeting the structure. Gandhi “saw conflict as a perennial condition” and
was thus more concerned about managing conflict and creating new social arrangements
free of structural violence. Robert J Burrowes says, “In Gandhi’s view, conflict is the
result of the structural denial of human needs. If these needs are to be satisfied, new
structures are necessary. This requires a method of struggle that satisfies three conditions:
It must destroy need-denying structures, create need-satisfying structures, and respect the
needs of the conflicting parties during the struggle itself.”
In 1992, Johan Galtung, agreeing with Arne Naess (1974), summarised Gandhi’s conflict
norms. Firstly, one should act in conflicts, not out of necessity but out of conviction;
define the conflict well, which would include stating one’s goals clearly and trying to
understand the opponent’s goals; and have a positive approach to conflict, seeing it as an
opportunity to meet the opponent, as an opportunity to transform the society and the self.
Secondly, one should act nonviolently in conflicts, not harming or hurting with either
words, thoughts or deeds and act in a goal-consistent manner by including constructive
elements and acting openly, not secretly. Further one should not cooperate with evil or
with those who cooperate with evil; be ever ready to sacrifice; neither polarise the
situation nor escalate the conflict. Lastly, conflicts should be solved by insisting on
essentials and willing to sacrifice on non-essentials; seeing oneself as fallible and admitting
mistakes; being generous with opponents by not judging them harder than oneself and not
exploiting their weaknesses; and most of all, aim for conversion rather than coercion, not
only of the opponent but conversion of the self
