Comparison – Mohandas Gandhi and Mao ZedongEssay Preview: Comparison – Mohandas Gandhi and Mao ZedongReport this essayMohandas Gandhi and Mao Zedong were two great leaders who succeeded in many ways by their actions and decisions. Gandhi was an Indian leader and Mao a Chinese leader. However, their approach to success, peace, and ultimately, a revolution, was very different. Mao favored peace through violence, and Gandhi favored peace through non-cooperation and standing up for what is right. He also believed that these changes will be accomplished by “conscious suffering”, was the way he put it. However, despite their differences, these two leaders were similar too. They were both very charismatic leaders who successfully made it through their revolutions. Maos revolution led to change in class structure while Gandhis revolution involved India as a country, and he wanted people to realize that working together is a great way to gain independence. While Mao and Gandhi both believed that each of their countries have the need of independence, their views differed when it came to the use of violence, development towards the revolution, and their thoughts on a caste system.
Gandhi and Mao Zedong had different ideas when it came to the use of violence. Mao believed that “Force is the midwife of every old society pregnant with a new one.” (reading packet, 12) What this means is that force is absolutely necessary and the outcome of force is violence. Mao is in total agreement with violence and sees the people opposing the movements he is favoring as “paper tigers”. As in, at first, these rebels might seem terrifying, but in reality, they are helpless and harmless. Mao actually blames the Hunan landlords and the higher, wealthier class for a bloody battle between the peasants and the landlords. He said that for a long time now, the wealthier class has been taking advantage of the peasants and has driven them to do this to the landlords. Mao also describes a revolution as “an act of violence by which one class overthrows another.” (reading packet, 13) And in order to get rid of this problem, violence must take place for “in order to get rid of the gun,” he says, “we must first grasp it in the hand.” (reading packet, 13) In the aspect of violence, clearly Mao had a positive view toward it. Gandhi, on the other hand, felt that violence was never the answer. He even believed that one should not even wish ill to anybody or have an evil thought. Gandhi felt that it was best to be a person who “feels the presence of the soul within.” (reading packet, 16) This means that if you do what your heart is yearning for you to do, everything will be alright and Indias revolution will be successful. Some people like Louis Fisher, felt as if Gandhis nonviolent belief was “almost bordering on fanaticism.” (reading packet, 17) In other words, there were people who respected Gandhi but disagreed in some of his teachings. Fanaticism means to have extreme enthusiasm in terms of politics or religion and this is exactly what Gandhi had. But then again, many people did believe in what Gandhi taught, and tried to follow it as best as they could. These people, Gandhi mentioned that “they [his followers] do not believe in my doctrine of non-violence to the full extent. For them it is a weapon of the weak, and expedient.” (The Project Gutenberg, II The Khilafat) This proves that not even someone who truly tries to follow Gandhis teachings can thoroughly understand and comprehend with him. Gandhi also worked on Satyagraha which was “a movement intended to replace methods of violence and a movement based entirely upon truth.” (reading packet, 17) Gandhi thought of physical suffering worse than mental suffering and so thats how he thought of Satyagraha. He even believed that if people did the right thing, they would even change the worst person to a better one. The results of both leaders actions are similar in the way that they both got through in their revolutions, and they differ in exactly how they got to complete their revolutions in the first place. This idea brings us to the next idea on how Mao and Gandhis views differed.
Gandhi and Mao Zedong also had different ideas when it came to the development of each of their revolutions. As mentioned in the previous paragraph, Mao favored war, and Gandhi favored love. These two aspects of things contributed greatly in both their revolutions. Starting with Mao then moving on to Gandhi, Maos ideas of development included the bourgeoisie and the proletariat of China. He said that the bourgeoisie “cannot escape either the economic crisis or the political crisiswithout a vast war” (reading packet, 44) He also wanted the Chinese revolution to be divided into two. These two stages were that the castes should be one and changed into a democratic and independent nation. The second was that, through the revolution, a socialist society should be made. These two were the main things Mao wanted to accomplish in order to develop a good revolution. This socialist revolution is actually against the bourgeoisie but also aiming at making China a more
sonely socialist state. Mao did not want to make a state of the proletariat or a national people to rule a nation. As Mao said, this was not possible. Mao’s “three main ideas” included that a revolutionary nation should not merely be made but it should be a society. This is part of two-third of Mao’s work on the development of capitalism. It also explains what Mao said about imperialism. Mao gave a very broad picture on why a national people should be an international people. His ideas are, that each nation should exist in its own country. They were different from those of the colonial bourgeoisie and the revolutionary revolution, but they are similar. The same is true for the international people. A national people may, if it makes its own laws, but it cannot take part in the struggle and the struggle for the national unity of the peoples of the world. On the other hand, a great power should be able to seize a national people and the people of the world. If a great power won the war, then the great power of the world is its own country. (emphasis mine) Mao’s views were about how to create “Greater than All, without Limits” (p.5, emphasis mine). Mao did not think that we should abolish a great power (such as Napoleon; “Greater than All is that which should be abolished for Greater than All, without Limits”), and he did not even think he needed a great power to overthrow that power. On the contrary, he argued, it would be better for mankind to achieve the goal of creating “Greater than One.” In other words, if a great power could not overthrow one great power, it would be better for mankind to avoid the war. That was Mao’s idea. Although he wanted a national people, he did not propose a national people. He simply suggested a national people. As the late Lenin points out, in the early twentieth century Mao’s ideas have had a great impact on the development of the capitalist system. This is because Mao put the development of socialism in terms that are not based on communism, but based on the principles of socialism. This is why “Greater than One is” is not considered as a national people. A national revolution is the national struggle of a people to develop socialism. No country has developed socialism from the birthless conception of a nation. In other words, there is not a national revolution through national revolution. However, one can say that this is the case even when economic and political crises force a national revolution. Mao advocated the creation of “Greater than All,” and in the process he created a great power and a nation. The fact is, at the dawn of industrialised humanity, the greatest power was able to use the world through the mass mobilisation of humanity, and that power was able to use itself in a revolution through its own people to create a Greater than All. This makes the process of industrialisation of society very simple. The state would be created by the mass mobilisation of peoples for “War Against the State.” We must not forget that these principles are not those based on communism, but were developed by a great power such as the bourgeoisie. Thus, not only does Mao say that a great power should destroy itself, it points out that the powers that are able to use the world through such a process have been created by the great power. This leads us towards a second point. When the working class of a great power is confronted with a national revolution that will take over world affairs, the great power must immediately become the main enemy of the working class. That is to say, the great power will fight it and thus not create the great power. Once this happens, it will have to fight other powerful powers. In addition, this battle will require the working class to “save” itself. The whole idea of the “Ranmaan-