Gandhi, Cialdini, and the Art of Public Engagement

?"..our limbs were paralyzed, our minds deadened. The peasantry were servile and fear ridden; the industrial workers no better. The middle class, the intelligentsia, were themselves submerged in this all-pervading gloom. A few successful lawyers or doctors or engineers or clerks made little difference to the mass.

And then Gandhi came", India's Prime Minister, Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru has written this about the impact of Mahatma Gandhi on Indian freedom struggle in his book "The Discovery of India".

Pt. Nehru continues, " Gandhi for the first time entered the Congress organization and immediately brought about a complete change in its constitution. He made it a democratic and a mass organization. Now the peasants rolled in. Industrial workers also came in but as individuals."

India became a British colony decades before Mahatama Gandhi joined the Indian freedom struggle. Yet, the participation of the common public in large numbers only happened after Gandhi. What did he do differently? What was unique about his methods that attracted so many people towards the common cause?

In the book, Pt. Nehru gave an idea about the success of Gandhi in engaging people. Pt. Nehru wrote, "The acquisition of knowledge, or any achievement, requires restraint, self-suffering, self-sacrifice. This idea of some kind of penance,?tapasya, is inherent in Indian thought, both among the thinkers at the top and the unread masses below. It is necessary to appreciate it in order to understand the psychology underlying the mass movements which have convulsed India under Gandhiji's leadership".

The groundbreaking book, "Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion", by Dr. Robert Cialdini, gives am insight into psychology. This?short video?briefly explains the principles of persuasion. One of the six principles of persuasion is Consistency, a series of small steps that increases the commitment to a cause. As mentioned?here, in a study, in Isreal, a team of researchers asked some residents of an apartment building to sign a petition supporting the construction of a recreation center for differently-abled people. Later, the researchers returned and asked for donations for the construction of the recreation center. This time they asked all the residents. A staggering 92% of the residents who had earlier signed the petition donated. Among the rest, only slightly more than 50% of people donated. Small steps of voluntary contributions, done publicly, increase the commitment to a cause.

A story, written by the famous Hindi writer, Premchand,?Patni se Pati?(From wife to husband), set during the Indian freedom struggle, helps us see this principle in action. The story is about a married couple where the lady, wife of an employee of the British administration, decides to join the Indian freedom struggle. Her first act was to donate a worn-out coin to a blind person singing at a small gathering of freedom fighters. Subsequently, she gave a large sum of money to an association of freedom fighters. After a series of such incidents, ultimately, her husband quits his job and joins her in the freedom movement.

Gandhi made it easy for people to join the freedom movement. It was as easy as giving up English clothes and wearing handspun cotton clothes, known as Khadi. Peaceful methods, Ahinsa or non-violence, were means of protest against the administration. Fasting was also a way of resistance. People were encouraged to develop the habit of speaking the truth. None of these methods required many resources or prior knowledge to participate in the freedom movement, thus made the freedom movement accessible to the masses. However, each of these methods served as a small step to increase the commitment of the public.

These principles are universal and have stood the test of time. Between the principles, used by Gandhi and those written by Cialdini, there is concurrence. Any political movement that aims to engage citizens will do better by adopting these principles.