We are not inclined to think of Mahatma Gandhi, first and foremost, as a philosopher (if, indeed, we regard him as a philosopher at all). According to S., this is a mistake resulting from our failure to appreciate the degree to which Gandhi insisted upon subjecting his worldview, his theories and his methods of socio-political engagement to stringent analysis and public criticism. S.'s introduction begins:
Was Gandhi a philosopher? Yes. He was forever seeking a consistent rationale for all that he did, and, more than any philosophers I have encountered, he subjected his views to relentless criticism, sometimes his own, but more often that of other people, which he published voluminously in his weekly newspaper. (p. 1)
Much as Socrates engaged in sustained critical analysis of prevailing attitudes and beliefs in ancient Athens, Gandhi scrupulously presented his beliefs to the public, and offered them up for dissection by any detractors willing to engage with his theories of morality, public counsel and socio-political leadership. In this respect, he not only continues in the tradition of Socratic analysis, but also revives the Roman Stoic practice of serving as public intellectual and counsellor to his culture, its most influential citizens, leaders and institutions. Musonius Rufus, Seneca and Epictetus sought, each after his own fashion, to counsel the public (at least those willing to listen) and persons of influence and, in Seneca's case, even attempted directly to enlighten the Emperor Nero himself. These efforts met with (to put it gently) varying degrees of success – Nero ultimately ordered Seneca to commit suicide because of allegations that the latter had plotted against him and behaved inappropriately with Nero's wife. Gandhi was, of course, ultimately assassinated by one of his detractors. It is not, however, their respective positions of political or cultural influence that most closely associates the Stoics with Gandhi, but rather a shared understanding of certain fundamental elements of the human condition, the well-lived life and principles of good citizenship that unite the Stoic Sages across the centuries separating their lives from the Mahatma who stood non-violently athwart British rule and domination of his beloved India.
Much as did the Stoics before him, Gandhi understood the development of psychological and emotional self-discipline to be indispensable to the success of his socio-cultural endeavours. If he could not master his own ignoble impulses and unhealthy desires, he could hardly hope to inspire rational self-restraint and active compassion in others. Epictetus not only taught doctrines and methods, but he also lived a life intended to serve an exemplary function for students, seekers and anyone else for whom a handy paragon might supply some aspirational function. He hoped to exemplify the philosophical life as fervently as he tried to explain and describe the theories underpinning it. Epictetus was also fond of citing prior champions of the Stoic approach to life and its challenges. He often appealed to Socrates, Heraclitus, Diogenes and even mythical figures such as Achilles in his exhortations to focus single-mindedly on developing the virtues of wisdom, courage, fortitude, simplicity, detachment and persistence. Similarly, Gandhi sought to personify a simple life of rational self-governance, compassion, generosity and resilience in the face of long-term challenges inevitably confronting the oppressed and impoverished. His commitment to non-violent resistance exhibited the critical relationship between self-rectification and the challenges of social engagement. Tremendous self-mastery is necessary to maintain the practice of non-violent acts of resistance against the occupiers, as well as a commitment to the renunciation of ill will towards even those who harm one's family, and one's nation, culture and heritage. Without assiduous cultivation of the ‘inner’ attitude of harmlessness, the ‘outer’ mode of non-violent behaviour would be, for all practical purposes, unsustainable. Gandhi, and the Stoics, understood the nexus between inner serenity and outer harmony between persons, institutions and intermingling cultures. Figures such as Gandhi and Tolstoy may be historically and culturally crucial antecedents to recent, and expanding, attempts at revivification of a Stoic ethos and worldview.
S.'s book may be understood, at least in part, as a contribution to the contemporary revival of interest in Stoicism that includes L. Becker's A New Stoicism, W.B. Irvine's A Guide to the Good Life: the Ancient Art of Stoic Joy, A.A. Long's Epictetus: a Stoic and Socratic Guide to the Good Life and even T. Wolfe's Stoic-themed novel A Man in Full. As long as the world surrounding us remains intractable in the face of our unenlightened, self-centred desires, we can expect Stoic and Gandhian counsel to retain both value and efficacy for those pursuing self-governance in response to the vicissitudes of a reality that seems utterly indifferent to our interests, our suffering and our ephemeral lives. We may need first to turn ‘inward’ and establish a degree of rational self-governance and resilient equanimity before directing any energy ‘outward’ in the hope of improving the cultural milieu in which we find ourselves embedded. S. highlights this, and other, similarities between Gandhi's attempts to reconcile his pursuit of emotional composure with a life of political engagement, and frequent Stoic admonitions to focus on the development of an ‘inner citadel’ of psychological self-discipline, with the careers of exemplars such as Seneca, Cato the Younger and other Stoic practitioners involved in affairs of state:
I think that Gandhi's attitude to politics may have been like that of the Stoic Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius in the second century c.e. Marcus said to himself, ‘If you had a stepmother and a mother, you would serve the first, but you would still continually be returning to your mother. These are what the Palace and Philosophy are for you. So return often and take your rest in her through whom palace affairs appear bearable, and you appear bearable in palace affairs. (p. 55)
Without rigorous self-rectification, we stand little chance of helping others. Hence Gandhi's oft-misquoted admonition: ‘If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change’, recalls Stoic counsel regarding the application of our mental energy to the ‘inner’ sphere of phenomena that conform to the agent's will combined with codes of interpersonal conduct that stress renunciation of blame or disapprobation directed at others. It is one thing to offer counsel, but quite another to insist that others heed one's counsel. The wise insist only that they learn to live their own lives, both the ‘internal’ and ‘external’ components, in accordance with the principles they have embraced. We must govern ourselves, we must not coerce others – nor should we submit to coercion at their hands. Gandhi was willing to die for his principles – but not to kill for them.
The Stoic Epictetus describes two Stoic senators who defied emperors, Quintus Paconius Agrippinus and Helvidius Priscus, Helvidius appealing to his role as senator. Helvidius' father-in-law, the Stoic Senator Thrasea Paetus, from whose Life of Cato the Younger Plutarch drew, had also stood up conspicuously to the emperor … But history is full of surprises, and in the next century, the Roman emperor himself was a practicing Stoic, Marcus Aurelius. So politics was still a Stoic duty, and a duty no longer simply for the emperor's subjects, but for the emperor himself. (p. 188)
As the British Empire receded, Gandhi found himself in a position to deploy his principles not in defiance of occupation forces, but in the constructive role of encouraging a new regime to govern in accordance with the values he had long espoused. Hence, Gandhi could test his views in the crucible of political power – as well as in a condition of political powerlessness. The Stoic Emperor, Marcus Aurelius, and the Stoic slave, Epictetus, were afforded similar opportunities respectively. Perhaps the truest test of convictions is consistent application irrespective of worldly status. Self-mastery is no less crucial for a life on the throne than it is for a life in chains.
