Sustaining a Nonviolent Self: Mahatma Gandhi, Madeleine Slade, and Manu Gandhi

Abstract

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869-1948) articulated and practised a unique ideology of ahimsa, nonviolence, in his life. Most importantly, ahimsa included refusing the needs and pleasures of the body – sex, food, care, and desire. For Gandhi, embodiment was an intrinsically violent condition, but he ultimately did live in his body. In this paper, I argue that while he perfected a nonviolent selfhood for himself, he relied on the physical and emotional labour of others, particularly the women in his ashrams (and life), to do so. I analyse the writings of two of his women followers, Madeleine Slade (Mirabehn) and Manu Gandhi (his grandniece, with whom he did his infamous experiment of celibacy), to investigate the contours of Gandhi’s selfhood through his interpersonal relationships and quotidian interactions with others. I argue that Gandhi developed a higher-than-human and nonviolent self by denying and repressing his human needs and desires, and by outsourcing some parts of his human self to Madeleine Slade and Manu Gandhi rather violently.