On Resistance

Image: AI generated

As I reflected on the first three imagined conversations between Gandhi and Joanna Macy, I found myself returning to a question that inevitably follows. If we see the crises of our time clearly, and if we allow ourselves to feel our grief and responsibility, what then?

What do we do when the forces causing harm continue unabated? How do we respond when what we love is under threat? What follows is an imagined continuation of the conversation.

The two sit beneath the tree. The images drifting before them have changed once more. A forest stands in the path of a new highway. A river is threatened by pollution. A community gathers in protest. Young people march through city streets carrying handmade signs.

Joanna watches quietly. “Many people who come to this work eventually ask the same question,” she says. “If we care about what is happening, are we not obliged to resist?”

Gandhi nods. “And what do you tell them?”

“I tell them that the Great Turning requires what I call Holding Actions. Actions that slow or prevent further destruction. People standing between what they love and what threatens it.”

Gandhi is silent for a moment. “Standing between.”

“Yes.”

“And what gives them the strength to do so?”

Joanna smiles. “Often love. Sometimes anger. Frequently both.”

Gandhi considers this. “In my experience, anger may awaken us. But it is a poor guide for a long journey.”

Joanna laughs softly. “Then perhaps you would recognise something familiar in many movements today. People often begin by opposing what they do not want. It is harder to remain connected to what they are serving.”

The afternoon breeze moves gently through the branches. “In my time,” Gandhi says, “many imagined resistance as a contest of force. The question was always how to defeat an opponent.”

“And you disagreed?”

“I did. If resistance merely reproduces the habits of domination, what has really changed?”

Joanna looks thoughtful. “That remains a live question.”

The two watch as another image drifts by: a crowd shouting at its adversaries. “Tell me,” Gandhi says, “when people resist, do they still believe their opponents are capable of change?”

Joanna pauses before answering. “Some do. Many do not.”

“And yet,” Gandhi replies, “if we deny the humanity of those we oppose, do we not strengthen the very separation that created the crisis?”

For a while, neither speaks. Finally Joanna says, “There are times when people must act urgently. Forests are being cut down. Communities are being displaced. Species are disappearing.”

“Of course,” Gandhi says gently. “The question is not whether we act. The question is how we act.”

Joanna nods. “Then perhaps Holding Actions and Satyagraha are asking a similar question.”

“And what question is that?”

She smiles. “How do we protect what we love without becoming what we oppose?”

The two sit quietly beneath the tree. Neither seems entirely certain of the answer. Yet both seem convinced that it matters.

This is the fourth in a series of imagined conversations between Mahatma Gandhi and Joanna Macy. In the next instalment, they turn their attention to another question: if resistance alone is not enough, what are we being called to build?

These reflections are part of my own preparation for the six-week course, Swaraj in the Time of the Great Turning. If you would like to explore these questions in community, I would be delighted to have you join us: https://spiraljourneyworkthatreconnects.org/swaraj-in-the-time-of-the-great-turning/

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