Gandhi’s political philosophy concerns the peaceful political order—Pax Gandhiana. Its main contention is that peace cannot be achieved by politics alone. Peace requires the confluence of the four canonical ends of life: politics and economics (artha), ethics (dharma), forms of pleasure (kama), and the pursuit of spiritual transcendence (moksha). Modern political philosophy isolates politics from the other three ends. Gandhi corrects this error. Therein lie his originality and importance. Gandhi reaches his conclusion by reinterpreting the Indian theory of the four canonical ends of life. In h ... More

Gandhi’s political philosophy concerns the peaceful political order—Pax Gandhiana. Its main contention is that peace cannot be achieved by politics alone. Peace requires the confluence of the four canonical ends of life: politics and economics (artha), ethics (dharma), forms of pleasure (kama), and the pursuit of spiritual transcendence (moksha). Modern political philosophy isolates politics from the other three ends. Gandhi corrects this error. Therein lie his originality and importance. Gandhi reaches his conclusion by reinterpreting the Indian theory of the four canonical ends of life. In his interpretation, these four must not operate in isolation from one another. Therefore, politics must act in coordination with the nonviolence of the other three ends. This mandatory coordination imposes an intrinsic limitation on the kind of violence that artha exercises. The nonviolence that Gandhi stipulates therefore is civic, and compatible with the requirements of the coercive state. The coordination also stipulates that the means of politics be ethically good, that rights be coordinated with duties, that the state renounce war as policy, and that the self-rule of individual citizens supplement the independence of the state. Next to the limited state, the peaceful political order requires a multitude of nonviolent NGOs engaged in constructive programs. Though Gandhi invented satyagraha, he later downgraded its importance vis-a-vis constructive programs. Pax Gandhiana is Gandhi’s response to the violence of Indian politics, whether it stems from religion, race, ethnicity, or gender differences. His response has relevance not only to India, but to every society plagued by violence.