Peace Through the Millennia: How Mahatma Gandhi Became a Role Model for Nonviolent Movements

I’m a South Asian, an Indian American to be exact. While I was born in the United States, my parents and brother were all born in India before immigrating here. Even here, so far from the life and culture of my family, where most Americans still view India as a poor, hungry, third-world country, the name of one Indian leader is held in the highest regard.

At the risk of sounding cliché, I’d like to talk about Mahatma Gandhi. Rather than stop there, though, I want to delve into the rich history that helped Gandhi lead what would become the role model for nonviolent movements across the world. While Gandhi was an extraordinary man, his philosophy was nothing revolutionary. The idea of nonviolence is deeply embedded into South Asian culture, ingrained into the history of our land through the impact of not just one, but three important leaders that have advanced the movement over the millennia.

In 261 BCE, Emperor Ashoka of the Mauryan Empire waged war against the kingdom of Kalinga, resulting in a war that took anywhere from 100,000 to 250,000 lives. Walking among the corpses in the aftermath of the battle, Emperor Ashoka was shaken by overwhelming horror at what he had just done. From that moment, he vowed“to conquer mankind through people’s hearts and not through war.” 

In the “Military History of Odisha,” scholar Ramesh Prasad Malhotra wrote that “ No wars in the annals of human history have changed the heart of the victor from one of wanton cruelty to that of exemplary piety as this one.” The violent, dominating legacy the Mauryan empire had cultivated over the previous 100 years took a drastic turn with Ashoka. He converted to Buddhism in the aftermath of the war and advocated for its peaceful ideals, such as ahimsa (nonviolence), metta (loving-kindness towards all), and numerous others. 

This age-old story inspires me so deeply because it shows that even the most greedy, violent individuals can turn into peaceful people when faced with our powerful nonviolent culture. Regardless of your worldview, there is probably at least one leader who you see as a brutal tyrant, but our history shows us that even those leaders can become calm, peaceful Ashokas. Ashoka carved many pillars and edicts out of rock known as the Ashokan Edicts to spread nonviolence, which served as the foundation upon which the nonviolent movement would be built. Even here, over 2000 years ago, we can see our first powerful individual who left a lasting impact on the nonviolent movement.

What Gandhi did was stand at the top of the lighthouse thousands of years in the making and call us to our nonviolent roots.

Centuries later, we find our second impactful individual, Emperor Akbar of the Mughal Empire, whose reign lasted from 1556 to 1605. Often called Akbar the Great for his intelligent reforms, Akbar made various changes to balance a power disparity older than the Mughal Empire itself. The Muslim minority had ruled over the Hindu majority for centuries in the Indian subcontinent, the power discrepancy dating all the way back to the Delhi Sultanate established in the 13th century. To combat this, Akbar abolished the jizya. 

Until Akbar’s time, non-Muslims had always been forced to pay a head tax, called the jizya, the refusal of which would result in harsh punishments, from house arrest to enslavement. Akbar also appointed many Hindu officials to the government and military, amplifying Hindu influence. Akbar even tried to synthesize the many religions within his empire into the Din-i Ilahi, Akbar’s religious movement. While unsuccessful in gathering followers, the attempt alone is a testament to Akbar’s zeal to reduce the violence in his empire. 

I personally love this story because it shows that it only took one person to undo centuries of injustice. Granted, that one person, in this case, was an emperor, but we too are the emperors of our spaces, and we can make change around us, no matter how deeply rooted the problem is. Akbar’s reforms were the tower upon which Gandhi would promote his peacemaking ideals, built on Ashoka’s foundation. 

Gandhi fought for a unified India, with all religions living at peace with one another in the same country, and though the area was eventually split into India and Pakistan against Gandhi’s will, it’s certain that the disagreeable terms on which they separated would have been much worse had Akbar not built interreligious peace centuries prior. 

This journey of 2000 years is what preceded Gandhi’s nonviolent movement in India. While Gandhi was no trailblazer, there is no doubt he took the nonviolent movement to new heights. If Ashoka was the foundation and Akbar was the tower, Gandhi was the beacon at the top of the lighthouse, shining the nonviolent movement’s light across the world. We so often forget the aftermath of Gandhi’s campaign, though.

We all know of the many civil rights movements across the world inspired by Gandhi, but the original nonviolent movement in South Asia itself found a new face in the Non-Aligned Movement. Amid the Cold War, India led many countries around the world in forming the Non-Aligned Movement, where countries could find solace in not supporting either side. Among the 120 countries still in the organization, every single South Asian country is listed.

It is clear to me that though our history may not be the prettiest, we have held an ideal of peacekeeping for millennia. Our methods have varied over time, but it is evident that Gandhi’s ideas weren’t unknown to our land. What Gandhi did was stand at the top of the lighthouse thousands of years in the making and call us to our nonviolent roots, just as our forefathers Ashoka, Akbar, and many others have done throughout history. These traditions inspire me since we so often look at history as a tapestry of brutal bloodshed and injustice, a lesson of what never to repeat, but when viewed through a positive lens, we can also find what our ancestors did right and learn what we can emulate.

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Jacob Sajan, is a junior graduating high school a year early. He is drum major of the Centennial Marching Band, mainly playing alto saxophone out of the seven instruments he’s played. He is a hip-hop dancer and has a black belt in TaeKwonDo. He has worked with 11 programming languages and plans to go into cybersecurity. He is based in Phoenix, Arizona.