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The Smallest Army Imaginable: Gandhi's Constitutional Proposal for India and Japan's Peace Constitution

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 May 2025

C. Douglas Lummis
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In 1931, on his way to the London Round Table Conference, Mahatma Gandhi was asked by a Reuters correspondent what his program was. He responded by writing out a brief, vivid sketch of “the India of my dreams”. Such an India, he said, would be free, would belong to all its people, would have no high and low classes, no discrimination against women, no intoxicants and, “the smallest army imaginable.” (2)

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Research Article
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Asia-Pacific Journal , Volume 8 , Issue 3 , January 2010 , e2
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This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
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References

Notes

(1) I wish to thank the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies for granting me the position of Rajni Kothari Chair in Democracy for 2004-5, during which this paper was written. In particular I wish to thank Centre Director Suresh Sharma for his many kindnesses. I am of course indebted to the entire faculty of the Center for encouragement and instruction in matters concerning Gandhi and Indian politics. Prof. Ashis Nandy of the Centre, Prof. R. Jeffery Lustig of California State University at Sacramento, and historian Frank Bardacke all read an earlier draft of this paper and offered valuable comments. Prof. Meeta Nath gave me very helpful assistance in identifying and locating resources. But if you don't like what you read here, don't blame them.

(2) The Hindustani Times, 5 Sept., 1931. Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, Electronic Book version, New Delhi: Publications Division, v. 53, p. 312. In citations below, the Collected Works will be referred to as CW.

(3) The countries are, Costa Rica, Dominica, Kiribati, Liechtenstein, Mauritius, Maldives, Monaco, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, San Marino, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Solomon Islands, and Panama.

(4) Koseki Shoichi, The Birth of Japan's Postwar Constitution, Ray A. Moore, tr. Westview, 1997, p. 201.

(5) Max Weber, “Politics as a Vocation”, in H.H. Gerth and C. Wright Mills, tr. and ed., From Max Weber, New York: Galaxy, 1946, p. 78.

(6) R.J. Rummel, Death by Government, Transaction, 1997, p. 14.

(7) Ibid.

(8) Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince and The Discourses, Max Lerner, intro., New York: The Modern Library, 1940, p. 171.

(9) Gene Sharp cites examples of non-violent resistance (not always successful) against Nazi domination in Holland, Norway, Denmark, Bulgaria, Italy and France. Gene Sharp, Civilian-Based Defense; A Post-Military Weapons System, Princeton: Princeton U. Press, 1990, p.9.

(10) Young India, 8 Nov., 1920; CW, v. 21, p. 133.

(11) Speech broadcast on All India Radio. CW vol. 98, p. 113

(12) Speech at a prayer meeting, 27 Sept., 1947. CW, v. 97. p. 5.

(13) Thomas More, Utopia, New York: Everyman, (1910) 1992.

(14) His actual words are that he would be taken as a spy or a traitor, for which the punishment, of course, would be death.

(15) George Orwell, “Reflections on Gandhi”, in Orwell, A Collection of Essays, San Diego: Harvest, 1981, p. 182.

(16) Speech at Prayer Meeting, 4 October, 1947. CW, v. 97, pp. 36-7.

(17) See note (11) above.

(18) Shriman Narayan Agarwal, Gandhian Constitution for Free India, forward by Mahatma Gandhi, Allahbad: Kitabistan Press, 1946.

(19) Harijan, 21 June, 1946. CW vol. 91, p. 325.

(20) Bikhu Parekh, Gandhi's Political Philosophy, Notre Dame, Indiana: U. of Notre Dame Press, 1989, p. 114, italics added.

(21) Op. cit. Agarwal, p. 85, italics in original.

(22) Teodor Shanin, ed., Late Marx and the Russian Road, New York: Monthly Review Press. 1983.

(23) Shriman Narayan Agarwal, The Gandhian Plan of Economic Development for India, Bombay, Padma Publications, 1945 (?).

(24) The Hindustani Times, 17 Oct., 1935; CW, v. 65, p. 318.

(25) Henry Sumner Maine, Village-communities in the East and West; six lectures delivered at Oxford to which are added other lectures, addresses and essays by Sir Henry Sumner Maine. H: Holt, 1889. Gandhi acknowledged his debt to Maine: “Maine has said that India was a congeries of village republics. The towns were then subservient to the villages. They were emporia for the surplus village products and beautiful manufactures. This is the skeleton of my picture to serve as a pattern for Independent India.” “Speech at Meeting of Deccan Princes”, The Hindu, 1 Aug., 1946. CW v. 85, p. 79.

(26) Pyarelal, Mahatma Gandhi: The Last Phase, v. 10, Part II, Ahmedabad: Navajivan Publishing House, 1958, p. 457. CW, v. 97, p. 475.

(27) Louis Fischer, The Life of Mahatma Gandhi, New York: Harper, 1950, p. 447.

(28) Op. cit. Pyarelal, p. 382.

(29) Op. cit. Payne, p. 565.

(30) Manubehn Gandhi, The Miracle of Calcutta, Ahmedabad: Navajivan Publishing House, 1951, p. 50.

(31) Op. cit. Pyaralel, p. 767.

(32) Harijan, 15 Feb., 1948. CW vol. 98, pp. 333-5.

(33) Krishna Nehru Huthseeing, We Nehrus; New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1967, p. 222. Quoted in op. cit. Payne, p. 577.

(34) Op. cit. Payne, p. 630.

(35) Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, India Wins Freedom; An Autobiographical Narrative, Bombay: Orient Longmans, 1959, p. 225.

(36) Ashis Nandy, “Final Encounter; The Politics of the Assassination of Gandhi”, in Nandy, Exiled at Home, Oxford, 1988, p. 76

(37) Vincent Sheean, Lead, Kindly Light, New York: Random House, 1949, p. 183, quoted in op. cit. Payne, p. 576.

(38) Manubehn Gandhi, Last Glimpses of Bapu, Delhi: Agarwala, 1962, p. 297-8.

(39) Ibid. p. 144.

(40) Rajni Kothari, Politics in India, New Delhi: Orient Longman, 1970, p. 75.

(41) Op. cit. Nandy, p. 91.

(42) Op. cit. Machiavelli, p. 405.

(43) Ibid.

(44) Op. cit. Nandy, p. 87.

(45) Nathuram Godse, May it Please Your Honour, Delhi: Surya Bharti Prakashan, 1987, pp 154-5.

(46) Ibid. pp. 155-6.

(47) Op. cit. Payne, p. 593.

(48) Ibid. p. 594.

(49) Ibid. p. 597.

(50) Op. cit. Kothari, p. 75.

(51) Bernard Shaw, Saint Joan; A Chronicle Play in Six Scenes and an Epilogue, Penguin, 2003, p. 163.