Reflections on Gandhi

Describe George Orwell's narrative of Gandhi

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One of Orwell’s central arguments is that Gandhi’s Satyagraha was only effective as a political leveraging tool due to the particular circumstances of his struggle: one such relevant circumstance was the Indian struggle for national self-determination. Orwell argues that Gandhi’s method would not have been effective in other political circumstances, for example, as a method for resisting totalitarianism. Part of what gave leverage to Gandhi’s resistance to British colonial rule was the publicity that he gained from his actions. Under totalitarian circumstances, his actions would have gained no such publicity. On the contrary, Orwell argues, in a totalitarian state where the media is controlled and censored, his actions wouldn’t have been a public sensation at all. No one would have heard of them. Thus, it wasn’t non-violence alone that gave Gandhi leverage. It was the coverage they received in the press.