WINNING WITHOUT FIGHTING
Peace Out.
Why non-violence is better than the use of force
Disclaimer: Opinions expressed are personal. The purpose of this blog is to rationalize choosing peace over violence, and not to oversimplify or generalize the freedom struggle of India.
Non-violence was one of the characteristic features of the Indian Independence Struggle. It’s the one thing that sets us apart. Led by M.K. Gandhi, the non-violence movement was also met with criticism saying that non-violence is equivalent to “passive acceptance of oppression”. It is also unfair to say that we got independence without violence. All that does is discredit the brave martyrs who lost their lives so that we could have the liberty to be where we are today, doing the things that we’re doing.
However, from a calculative perspective, Game Theory does make a really good case for non-violence. Even the best of military experts, like Sun Tzu, have been great proponents of pacific settlement of disputes, over the choice of war.
“It is best to win without fighting.”
- Sun Tzu
We’ll talk about a couple of concepts in Game Theory that prove why the philosophy of non-violence is better than the use of force. If I have to summarise the reason in one sentence it would be this — war never ends.
Trust is a dangerous game. Most preemptive strikes that occur in war are because of a bilateral fear of an imminent attack. This theory, given by Thomas Hobbes and Thomas Schelling, explains how the chain of events before a war leads both sides to spiral into an arms race leading to mutually assured destruction.
As is clear from the table, the optimal choice for both X and Y is not to attack. However, as I said earlier, trust is a difficult game. The fear that X might attack leads to Y presuming that X will attack. Now, even in this case, Y is at an equal loss by not attacking.
However, Y now has an incentive to attack in order to force X to expend more military resources. At this point, both X and Y are competing against each other to showcase their military prowess, while being wholly aware of the repercussions of this arms race.
By this point, both X and Y are too deep in the fight to realize that they’re harming themselves more than the other side is. The only remedy here is to swallow your pride and call for a truce. However, they have now entered into the classic game of chicken where the only positive payoff is pride.
Just like in the Game of Chicken, the optimal strategy for both X and Y is to stop attacking. That would end the war and neither side would lose anything. However, calling for a truce is not that simple. It has the added effect of displaying weakness, leading to a negative payoff of -1, whereas continuing to attack when the other side calls for a truce has the added effect of displaying greater strength, hence the positive payoff of +1. The idea is that waving the white flag is looked upon as a weakness. Hence the game boils down to a choice between rationality and strength.
In the payoff matrix, this is the case where neither X nor Y stops attacking, leading to a much larger loss of -1000 for both sides — a cost that is often measured in units of lives lost, resources wasted, and economies degrading.
In essence, trust issues lead to preemptive strikes, preemptive strikes lead to an arms race, and an arms race leads to a game of chicken. This is a vicious cycle that never ends because an equilibrium cannot be achieved. The only way this loop will end is when either side exhausts its resources. In military strategy, this is the doctrine of mutually assured destruction. Perhaps that is why Neville Chamberlain said:
“In war, there are no winners, only losers.”
Or better yet — only survivors.
In conclusion, Game Theory sufficiently showcases our independence struggle could have looked like if we didn’t follow Gandhi’s philosophy of non-violence. There would be many more casualties than there were, and as a newfound nation, we couldn’t have possibly afforded that.
However, the use of force was morally and logically warranted in many instances before independence. Many people have sacrificed their lives so that we could be here today, celebrating our 75th Independence Day. This is my tribute to our ancestors — the great minds, the brave souls.
Jai Hind!
Postscript: If you liked this article and are interested in more applications of Game Theory in military situations, check out this article by Sanchit Garg which talks about the Cold War and the use of nuclear weapons as a deterrent:
Understanding The Cold War through Game Theory | by IGTS DTU | Intellectually Yours | Medium
