The Power of Peace is Greater than the Power of Violence

The Non-Confrontational Methods for Peace completely failed. Subhas Chandra Bose himself died in an accident before he was able to fulfil this goal. Mahatma Gandhi emerged as the true leader of the Indian freedom struggle. But he opted for a different course to achieve his goal—that of peace. His slogan for his people was: ‘Help me in my non-violent activism, and I will give you freedom.’ Gandhi’s peaceful strategy worked and India successfully won its freedom on August 15, 1947. The strategy of Subhas Chandra Bose was based on violent struggle. This strategy was bound to provoke counterviolence from the British rulers, who were in a much stronger position. Therefore, Subhas Chandra Bose’s strategy failed to work and British rule stayed in place. Mahatma Gandhi’s approach was the opposite. When he declared that he would continue the freedom struggle – but by the power of peace and not by the power of violence, the British rulers lost all justification for their violence. It is said that after Gandhi’s announcement, a British collector sent the following message to his secretariat by telegram: ‘Kindly wire instructions how to kill a tiger non-violently.’ The above experience of Indian politics shows that the power of peace is far greater than the power of violence. A parallel historical example is that of the Prophet Muhammad, who started his mission in 610 AD in Arabia. At that time Arabia was tribal in its culture. Due to the conditions prevalent in that age, there were initially some