Excerpts from Gandhi and Beyond: Nonviolence for an Age of Terrorism, by David Cortright,
Paradigm Publishers, 2006
Chapter 1 – Grasping Gandhi
p. 12 Although of Hindu origin, Gandhi was once described as “one of the most Christlike men in history.”
This observation reflects not only his extraordinary service to others but his genuine interest in the
teachings of Christ, especially the Sermon on the Mount…. He considered Christ the “sower of the seed”
of nonviolent philosophy.
p. 19 Gandhi’s greatest contribution was the method of nonviolent social action, which he defined as
satyagraha…. Satya, as noted, means “truth”; agraha means “forcefulness or grasping.” Satyagraha is
thus persistence for truth…. It means forceful but nonviolent social action to realize and uphold truth.
p. 22 The goal of political struggle, Gandhi believed, is to reach agreement for the sake of social
betterment. Political power is not an end in itself but a means of enabling people to better their
condition…. In Gandhi’s political campaigns there were three stages of activity – persuasion, sacrifice,
and noncooperation. Before engaging in direct action, the activist attempts to persuade the adversary
through the presentation of facts and a rational argument… When factual argument fails to persuade, as
is often the case, the activist proceeds to the next stage, resorting to dramatic acts of self-sacrifice.
Through disciplined nonviolent action and a willingness to suffer arrest or physical harm, the activist
attempts to reach the conscience of the adversary. After dramatizing the issues and arousing moral
concern, the activist then moves to the final stage, mass noncooperation.
p. 30 Gandhi repeatedly emphasized that his method is for the strong, not the weak. It takes courage not
to fight. It takes strength to suffer for a cause and not to respond with violence.
Chapter 2 – Gandhi USA
p. 37 Americans have been intensely interested in Gandhi since news of his early achievements in South
Africa first arrived in the years before World War I. Gandhi exerted profound influence on the African
American community in particular, especially on Martin Luther King Jr., who became the principal vehicle
through whom Gandhi’s ideas reached millions of Americans.
p. 44 The unique approach of Gandhi was his emphasis on mass action. Civil disobedience and other
forms of nonviolent protest were known in the United States long before Gandhi’s time, but they were
usually the efforts of solitary intellectuals.
Chapter 3 – Martin Luther King Jr.: An American Gandhi
p. 55 While King was influenced by Gandhi, the fundamental inspiration for his commitment to
nonviolence came from the Gospel. p. 57 As King came to understand the social implications of Christ’s
teachings, he placed increased emphasis on the obligation to care for the oppressed and overcome
injustice. p. 58 Too often, King believed, the church fails in its mission to society. It is too timid in the face
of injustice. King’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” was written to Alabama clergymen who had appealed
for moderation and opposed “extreme” actions.
p. 61 Gandhi also reinforced King’s belief in the essential compatibility of ends and means. “Nonviolence
demands that the means we use must be as pure as the ends we seek,” King wrote…. King believed that
nonviolence could turn adversaries into allies. The goal is not to defeat but to convert the adversary, to
forge unity out of division. In Stride toward Freedom he wrote, nonviolence “does not seek to defeat or
humiliate the opponent, but to win his friendship and understanding…. The end is redemption and
reconciliation.”
p. 68 He [King] longed for the creation of a dedicated cadre of activists who could apply Gandhi’s ideas in
the United States. He wanted to encourage a long-term commitment to social change. “We shall have to
have people tied together in a long-term relationship,” he said, “instead of the evanescent enthusiasts
who lose their experience, spirit and unity because they have no mechanism that directs them to new
tasks.”
Book summary courtesy of the Progressive Women’s Alliance of West Michigan.
Chapter 4 – Gandhi in the Fields
p. 73 Cesar Chavez stands next to Martin Luther King Jr. as one of the greatest nonviolent leaders in
U.S. history. Through the United Farmworkers movement, which he founded and led for more than thirty
years, Chavez successfully applied Gandhian principles to the farm fields of America. He combined the
nonviolent strategies of Gandhi, Catholic social teaching, and the organizing methods of Saul Alinsky [of
the Community Service Organization] in a unique blend that was part labor union, part social movement,
and part religious crusade.
p. 81 As the farmworkers sought ways to convince the major vineyards to negotiate [over wages], they
turned to more forceful means of applying pressure…. The first boycott action came after the November
harvest of 1965, when longshoremen at the docks in Oakland agreed not to load a shipment of grapes
from Delano, leaving a thousand ten-ton crates of grapes to rot on the piers. p. 87 In January 1968, the
Farmworkers Association announced a national boycott of California grapes. The campaign caught on
quickly in those activist days and eventually spread across the nation and internationally…. The grape
campaign and the subsequent lettuce boycott became the signature achievements of the farmworkers
movement.
p. 91 The boycott can be a powerful tool of social change, but it is difficult to develop and sustain….
People join a boycott only when it is for clear and compelling purposes (justice for farmworkers,
independence for India) and when it is supported or sponsored by reputable organizations (unions,
religious bodies, established political parties). Consumers cannot be expected to follow the twists and
turns of a particular social campaign…. When a movement calls off a boycott, either to declare victory or
to enter a negotiating process, it should recognize that resuming the boycott will be very difficult. Once
under way, a boycott should be sustained for as long as possible, until concrete changes are secured.
p. 94 Fasting is a controversial and uncertain tactic that works only in special circumstances…. The more
uncertain question is political viability. Fasting works when it is part of a truly massive popular struggle,
such as the suffrage movement, or when those who employ it command broad public respect and
recognition, such as Gandhi. Fasting also depends on effective communications strategies…. These
conditions do not often coincide, but when they do, as in Chavez’s struggle for farmworker rights, fasting
can be a highly effective method.
Chapter 5 – Dorothy Day: A Mission of Love
p. 98 A gifted writer and committed political activist, pacifist, suffragist, and ardent advocate for the poor,
Dorothy Day has been described as “the most significant, interesting, and influential person in the history
of American Catholicism.”
p. 101 Nor was Day content with church-sponsored charities such as soup kitchens or shelters for the
homeless…. What was needed was justice, she believed, a social order in which there would be less
need for charity. p. 104 The Catholic Worker movement [founded by Day and Peter Maurin] drew from
two seemingly contradictory impulses: the Christian belief in the sacredness of life and the communist
commitment to empowering workers and the poor.
Chapter 6 – The Power of Nonviolence
p. 128 Because nonviolent action reduces animosities to a minimum, it allows for what [Reinhold] Niebuhr
called “a certain degree of objectivity in analyzing the issues of the dispute.” In a violent conflict, hatred
clouds our perceptions and prevents us from seeing the other side’s perspective…. The nonviolent
method, by contrast, allows the contending parties to engage in dialogue more readily and facilitates
understanding. Violence makes communication and dialogue more difficult and impedes the reconciliation
of contending viewpoints.
p. 129 Nonviolence enables us to hate the sin but not the sinner…. [N]onviolent action minimizes the
likelihood of a rally-around-the-flag effect, which often occurs in wars or in cases of physical coercion.
Where there are no casualties and no one suffers physical harm, there is less pressure to close ranks
behind the leader.
Book summary courtesy of the Progressive Women’s Alliance of West Michigan.
Chapter 7 – Learning Lessons
p. 139 [Nonviolent action in Albany, Georgia was ineffective. King sought to understand why. Conclusions
reached by the organizers were: 1) Tried to do too much – should have attacked segregated lunch
counters or buses rather than all forms of segregation; 2) Should have targeted the city’s business
leaders rather than elected officials – blacks had little political power but substantial economic leverage
through their patronage of downtown stores; 3) Lack of organizational unity – tensions between the
student activists of SNCC and the more established leaders of the local NAACP hampered the
movement; 4) The opposition’s coolness under fire. King and his lieutenants entered the Birmingham
campaign with a strategy and plan of action that reflected these lessons learned.]
Chapter 8 – Gender Matters
p. 163 One of the most prominent but unlikely Americans to make the trek [to visit Gandhi] was Margaret
Sanger. At the time of her visit in 1936, Sanger was renowned as the world’s leading crusader for birth
control and women’s rights…. Gandhi and Sanger shared a commitment to social justice, but on issues
related to women and sexuality, they were polar opposites: he, the prudish ascetic who would confine
women to home and hearth; she, the sexually liberated proponent of women’s emancipation. Sanger
believed that economic and social advancement depended on freeing women from the tyranny of
constant childbirth. Overpopulation was the cause of poverty and human misery, she believed, the source
of fodder for war. Birth control was absolutely necessary for the freedom of women and the progress of
human civilization. Gandhi, on the other hand, saw no relation between sexual liberation and the struggle
for India’s emancipation. He considered sexual abstinence the only solution to India’s crushing population
problem. p. 167 Sanger was unable to convince Gandhi.
Chapter 9 – Principles of Action
p. 193 Gandhi placed a strong emphasis on organization building as an essential element of his method.
He realized that his views would have no impact without the backing of an organized constituency. p. 194
Social change groups do not have the deep pockets of the corporate elite. Their power depends instead
on the number of people they can mobilize.
p. 196 Social movements are most successful, according to Jim Wallis, when they emphasize “the
transcendent character of moral values.” Movements, like religions, attract followers on the basis of moral
ideals…. p. 197 Campaigns differ from movements, however, and they are guided by more limited
objectives.… Modest objectives sometimes can have far-reaching consequences. What matters most is
not the sweep of the demands but the breadth and vigor of the social movement behind them.
p. 199 To influence political leaders and reach the public, a movement needs money…. This is another
key advantage of organizational development. It provides the capacity for raising funds. p. 201 Nonviolent
activists devote fewer resources to the media than their corporate or government adversaries, and they
are less sophisticated in their use of the media. This is a weakness that must be overcome if challenger
groups are to be more effective in achieving their goals.
p. 207 There is no universal guide to the choice of tactics, since each political situation is unique, but
Alinsky produced the most useful and authoritative set of principles for social action….: 1) Never go
outside the experience of your people. 2) Wherever possible go outside the experience of the adversary.
3) Make the adversaries live up to their own rules. 4) Ridicule is a potent weapon. 5) A tactic that drags
on too long becomes a drag. 6) A good tactic is one that your people enjoy. 7) Keep the pressure on. 8)
The threat may be more terrifying than the thing itself. 9) The price of successful attack is a constructive
alternative.
p. 215 Nonviolence is the exact opposite of and the most effective antidote to terrorism. It offers targeted
police pressure on militants, protection for the innocent, and the prevention of extremist violence through
conflict transformation. It is a strategy we must continually advocate to uphold justice and peace. Wallis
calls us to “reject war, but unite to defeat terrorism.” This is the challenge of our age and an essential
requirement for the credibility of nonviolent social change.
Book summary courtesy of the Progressive Women’s Alliance of West Michigan.