Gandhi's Diction

Gandhi’s policy of non-violence extends from his life into his writing, carefully constructing his sentences with positive words, only using violent diction to refer to the actions of others; even when describing acts of great violence, or using the diction of aggression. Gandhi uses these words in the inverse implying both the denouncement of aggression and the aversion to violence involved in the philosophy of non-cooperation. Thus, in addition to using softer diction, Gandhi cleverly subverts violence with violent words: “My co-operation was not based on the fear of the punishments provided by your laws or any other selfish motives.” Here Gandhi immediately distances himself from the qualities of the empire that he denounces through the …show more content…
But Gandhi goes further still: he reinforces the divide with positive diction and uses the language of friendship and comradery to supersede that violence, revealing the true power of non-cooperation: First he declares the positivity of his actions and his motives using carefully selected words to connotatively reinforce his message; at the same time he invokes positive diction in the inverse when describing the actions of the Empire to distance it’s actions from positivity the same way he distanced his own actions from negativity, allowing him to use only positive words to show the negativity of the Empire: “trustful co-operation,” “faith,” “good intentions,” “bravery.” Then, he begins to list his grievances, specifically emphasizing the negativity of the empire with his word choice: “emasculation,” “imperil,” “utter disregard,” “suppress,” “dominions.” Ultimatlely, to supersede the violence and negativity of the empire, he focuses on the positivity of non-cooperation: “I am engaged in evoking that bravery,” reflects the nobility of Gandhi and his goals, and his final, most powerful line, “your faithful friend,” cleverly uses humble, brotherly language to “thwart” the Empire in its campaign to hold India for itself; he uses the second person to engage the Englishmen against the empire, using “you” to directly involve them to “thwart” the