"Renounce and Enjoy": The Pursuit of Happiness Through Gandhi's Simple Living and High Thinking

It can be tempting to separate Gandhi’s ideas on simplicity and nonviolence, but his views on simplicity and non-violence interlock within a larger framework for human action. In this Article, I explain how Gandhi’s advocacy of both material simplicity and non-harm emerges from a love for the world, aids the pursuit of happiness, and calls for a new economic order based on contentment rather than growth. Gandhi’s renunciative lifestyle implicitly connects simplicity and non-harm and stands in stark contrast to the current production-consumption paradigm under which global inequality and poverty continue to remain unabated. In Part I, I begin by connecting Gandhi’s view of renunciation to simplicity and the desire to not harm. Then, in Part II, I discuss modern consumption patterns that seem inapposite to Gandhi’s advocacy of material simplicity. By discussing current scientific research on satisfaction and happiness, I explain how Gandhi’s material simplicity is a better path to a happy and satisfied world than the current production-consumption paradigm. Finally, in Part III, I discuss recent efforts to shift the dominant production-consumption paradigm toward a focus on happiness, and how these efforts are a resurrection of Gandhi’s call to happiness through simplicity.