Gandhi and the Gender of Nonviolent Resistance

Bibliographic Data

ID4874849
AuthorsL Du Toit (0000-0002-7983-6534, Stellenbosch University, corresponding author)
Year2022
Volume13
Issue5
Pages467
Publication date2022-05-23
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueReligions (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2077-1444 • E-ISSN: 2077-1444
PublisherMDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT)
DOI10.3390/rel13050467
OpenAlexW4293062046
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited7

The special issue of which this article forms a part looks at human violence and tries to investigate religious potentials to strengthen the case for nonviolence as the preferred method of social change. This article's focus is on Gandhi's version of a faith-based form of nonviolent resistance, called Satyagraha, and its relation to gender. In particular, the article asks whether this Gandhian tradition holds any value for women's struggles and for contemporary feminist politics. The first section follows the historical development of Gandhi's thinking on women's participation in Satyagraha, from South Africa to India. The second section gives a brief overview of the recent empirical work conducted by Erica Chenoweth on the impact of women's participation on the outcomes of mass movements over the past century. The final section places these two thinkers in conversation and draws out the value and limitations of Gandhi's thinking for contemporary women's struggles and feminist resistance. Although the direct focus is on the relation between women and nonviolent revolutionary campaigns and movements, indirectly the unstable gendered dichotomies, male-female, masculine-feminine, and violence-nonviolence, will be simultaneously drawn upon and problematised

Conversation · Dichotomy · Epistemology · Faith · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Gender Studies · Indian History and Philosophy · Law · Peace and Human Rights Education · Political Philosophy and Ethics