Narrative, Speech, and Action: Gandhi’s Satyagraha and the Constant Becoming of Truth

In this paper, I explore Gandhi's philosophy of nonviolence, specifically his articulation and understanding of the conception of truth. For Gandhi, truth in the political sphere is not merely a correspondence between a representation and external phenomena, but is constantly in the process of becoming as the political actor "experiments" with different notions of truth and the actions which are derived from them. I use the notion of a narrative as opposed to scientific mode of thought in order to highlight the open-ended, constant becoming nature of Gandhi's understanding of truth in political action. I conclude by arguing that Gandhi's notion of truth widens the sphere of political action to a plurality of individual contributions and voices towards a truly nonviolent and engaged society