This article examines an interesting question: What lessons can we learn from Gāndhī’s experimental approach to help us cope with COVID-19? Mahātmā Gāndhī, for example, tapped into indigenous sources of knowledge to work for the welfare of society. One of his main approaches to putting his learnings into practice was experimentation or exploration of his perceptions. Those experiments helped him to embody the knowledge that he found in books or inferred from meetings with people. His experimentations informed and gave meaning to the realities he faced.
When Gāndhī wanted to travel to Britain to study law, his mother asked him to take a vow that he will not consume meat or liquor. To keep this promise and survive in the harsh climatic conditions of Britain, he made the necessary effort to get vegetarian food. The next stage of his major experiments came in South Africa, where he protested against the white officers in favour of the Indian community. What were the sources of his inspiration? When he came back to India after a few bitter experiences in South Africa, he met Mr Gopal Krishna Gokhale. When Gāndhī mentioned the state of affairs there, Mr Gokhale understood that the young boy was aware of the ground situation in Africa but ignorant about the scenario of his home country of Bharat (India). Therefore, he recommended Gāndhī to take a sojourn back to India and get to know it by travelling extensively. This was the beginning of the biggest experiment in Gāndhī’s life. He visited villages, met people of diverse cultures, origins, thinking, and language. The summation of his experiments led him to a deeper connection with Hindu spirituality and righteous living (Dharma). On one hand, he read Hindu scriptures such as the Bhagavad Gītā, and the Rāmāyaṇa and could therefore perceive how they resonated in the hearts of the people. He then started living according to those ideas. This approach helped him to learn and grow.
Hind Swarāj as Integrative Intelligence
Gāndhī’s grassroot connection with the masses grew by leaps and bounds through religious devotional songs (bhajans) and other related dimensions of Hindu spirituality. This led to him becoming part of the spiritual awakening within and outside India. People from all age groups could connect with him. Furthermore, the new experiments in the political sphere like the Dāṇḍī Satyāgraha (Salt March), Svadeśī Āndolana (independence), Satyāgraha (non-violence) brought positive change in the freedom movement.
Gāndhī’s book entitled “Hind Swarāj” beautifully integrates the ideas of culture, spirituality, environmental care, economic development and overall growth of society. Seen from this perspective the concept of ‘Hind Swarāj’ can be labelled as Integrative Intelligence as it incorporates multiple purposes of different entities. For him, there was no dichotomy between the several aspects of life such as culture, spirituality, religion and economics. Therefore we can conclude that Mahātmā Gāndhī had a holistic view of society.
Hind Swarāj as Glocal
The concept of Glocal, a key element in Integrative Intelligence theory, comes through strongly in Gāndhī’s work. The lesson which we can draw from his approach is that a local understanding of aspirations and behaviour is an essential aspect of successfully connecting to large numbers of people to move them beyond their self-interests, towards a higher purpose. At the same time, this resonates with the Global approach as his views were accepted globally as well.
Constant Experimentation as Embodied knowing
Embodying knowledge needs constant experimentation. In this process, the person who experiments is the subject as well as the object. With his famous quote, Mahātmā Gāndhī reminds us of the importance of embodied knowing: “try to be the change you want to see in society.” Likewise, future leaders and managers could experiment with embodied knowing, and Integrative Intelligence may provide a base for this approach. Because it aims at coherency and co-existence, it avoids a one-size fits all approach. Furthermore, it is observer-centric, and hence subjective, which gives importance to the ontological perspective needed to deal with circumstances such as VUCA.
References
Gāndhī, M. K. (1983). Autobiography: The story of my experiments with truth. Courier Corp.
Gāndhī, M. K. (1921). Hind Swarāj or Indian home rule. GA Natesan and Company, Madras.
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