The political sociology of love in Gandhi's non-violent political culture of Satyagraha

CRISTIANO GIANOLLA^*

• Center for Social Studies, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal

Satyagraha is the philosophy of non-violent resistance and a critical constructivistbuilding on life experience and experimentation -approach to social action. It was delineated by M. K. Gandhi in the first half of the 20th century and characterised the anti-colonial struggle in India. It was also mobilised to overcome polarisation between religious, social and cultural groups in seek of dialogue. Finally, Satyagraha included political-sociological provisions for a democratic system based on duty, empathy and social love. Gandhi's theory and social work implied a critique of individualism, state centralism and representation in liberal-democracy and the development of social love from the community level. He projected a socio-political theory of democratisation through cognitiveemotional liberation from heteronomous processes of subjectivation in favour of the self-construction of subjectivity. Satyagraha elaborates autonomy as individual and collective self-rule or swaraj. On the basis of critical autonomy, it constructs interpersonal and intercultural dialogue and social government outlined by 'welfare for all' or sarvodaya, a duty-based approach to democratisation. This paper analyses the duty-based and love-centred philosophy of Satyagraha, exploring the relevance of its key conceptual constructs in relation to the mobilisation of social emotions, and investigating the way in which it produces a comprehensive theory of social love. Non-violence (ahimsa) is the method based on the duty to achieve truth (satya), which prioritises love and relational emotions over force and one-sided or principled reason. Satyagraha generates social dialogue that promotes liberation from the domination of possession and passion and the achievement of (individual, social and political) swaraj. Ahimsa was both the key to mobilising the entire population from the bottom-up, to ensuring socio-political harmony in a prospective independence, and to building a political system in which means and ends are prefiguratively aligned. Gandhi formulated an original, utopian and thought-provoking political philosophy, which is subject to ambiguities and limitations and stimulates provocative reflections on empathy and social love.