A LETTER TOGANDHI
BY HAYIM GREENBERG, 1937
I don`t know how to address you. Some years ago, I might have called youMahatma (great soul) - the name with which millions of your people have crownedyou. But I know that you have forbidden its use, that in a moment of spiritualprotest you declared yourself to be no more than a "scavenger". Nordo I dare call you "teacher". I know of you since the days whenTolstoy addressed his famous "Letter to a Hindu" to you. I havefollowed your work since 1914; I carry sharply engraved in my memory each stepof your martyr`s path - each arrest and trial, each vow, each fast, eachtriumph and each passing defeat which never shook your faith. I have read, inthe languages familiar to me, all that you have written and there has been nosocial-religious thinker who has exerted so fruitful an influence on me. If,despite the fact that in various periods I have been stirred to the deeps of mysoul by your teaching and your life, I am far from being your disciple orfollower, the fault is not yours. You know how hard it is to follow yousincerely and completely in India itself, a land where both racial and culturalheritage have created conditions favourable to the growth of your teachings;still harder is it in the lands of the West, particularly for a man of mygeneration, who grew up in the heroic period of the Russian revolution - anepoch seething with moral conflicts. But it is easy for me to call you"brother", if only because I belong to a people from whose prophetsthousands of years ago there flashed the conception of God`s universalfatherhood, as well as of the brotherhood of all whom He created "in hisimage". Therefore, permit me to use the name of "brother"together with the two names you heard in childhood - Mohandas Karamchand.
But before I take up the purpose of my letter, before I state the request whichwill perhaps sound like a challenge, allow me to congratulate you on the recentgreat victory in your struggle for human equality. I have in mind theproclamation of the young Maharajah of Travancore which ended the religious andpolitical disabilities of the great number of untouchables in that region. Withoutquestioning the noble intentions of the progressive ruler of Travancore, andbelieving that his revolutionary reform sprang from the vigour of his awakenedconscience, we know that the Maharajah would have been unable to immortalisehis name through that greatest reform in the history of new India, if you hadnot for years prepared the soil, if you had not, on the one hand, aroused theuntouchables themselves to struggle for their human dignity, and on the other,stirred the conscience of thousands of members of the privileged castes. Iremember well that throughout those years you were not the only champion of themillions of "unclean". Possibly, Rabindranath Tagore gave moreforceful literary expression to the moral revolt against the ancient wallstanding in India between man and man. I know of a number of significantfigures in your country - men and women - who have gone farther and moredirectly towards the goal of equality. But we may justly ascribe the greatreform which sheds lustre on Travancore primarily to you. All the purelyintellectual arguments for the equalisation of the untouchables, all thetheological proofs and textual criticism which many progressive Hindus haveproffered, pale before your brief words: "I should not like to be bornagain, but if I am fated to enter the world once more, let it be among theuntouchables." Even more influential was the courage you displayed through"direct action", when you adopted a child from among the untouchablesand made it a member of your family. This practical example in the breakingdown of canonised historical walls proved contagious. Hundreds of others of thehighest castes were stirred to a noble defiance which led them to engagepublicly in the "base" work to which Pariahs were doomed, in order toexpunge the stain of "baseness" through their participation. Yourexample gave the untouchables self-respect and moral courage; it made thembraver and more capable of the bloodless uprisings with which they have severaltimes distinguished themselves. If any concrete proofs were needed to show thatnot only exceptionally heroic spirits, but also masses of plain, uneducatedpeople are capable, under certain circumstances, of being aggressive withoutresorting to violence, and that a system of passive resistance may be victorious,the passive fight of the untouchables must be reckoned as among the mostpersuasive. Of greater historic significance is also the fact that if the twomillion former untouchables of Travancore may now enter the temples and praytogether with members of the higher castes, if they may use the public wellsand highways, and send their children to the general schools, the outcome isdue to an inner revolution, a spiritual renewal in India itself, rather than tothe pressure of European "civilisers". I remember that for years youwere unwilling to use English dominion for reforming the inner life of India. Youwould not have been content with a reform that came from above or from outside.You waited for a welling up of fighting energy in the degraded massesthemselves and for a growing sense of repentance among the higher castes. Irejoiced that you have lived to see the first green sprouting on the hard soilyou ploughed and sowed. Without English intervention, without outside pressure,Travancore made its revolutionary beginning. I am sure that the example ofTravancore will affect all of India, and that the natural rights of the sixtymillion untouchables will be restored within our generation.
Those of us in Europe and America who were deeply affected by the intolerableplight of the untouchables, have long been troubled by the peculiar theologicalaspects of the problem. We know that the orthodox Hindus, among them manyindividuals not motivated by selfish caste considerations, opposed emancipationbecause of a dogma of the Hindu religion. According to this dogma, the membersof the lower castes are being penalised for past sins, "judged byGod". If I am not mistaken, orthodox Hindus have attempted through thisspecific interpretation of the caste system, to solve the problem of theodicy -the same problem of vindicating the ways of God to man which agitated theunknown author of Job. According to this interpretation, the oppressed castessuffer for sins committed in past incarnations. They have returned to the worldto expiate a former sin, to purify themselves and perform their period ofKarma. In a later incarnation they may be reborn into a higher caste if theirvirtues warrant this promotion. To emancipate an untouchable thereforeinterferes with the full cycle of expiation and meddles with the plans ofdivine Providence. I am in no position to judge to what extent this dogma ortraditional concept is an organic part of Hinduism. I cannot tell in whatmeasure those untouchables, who some years ago began turning to Christianity orIslam in order to be free of a religion which discriminated not only sociallybut metaphysically against a large number of its adherents, were justified intheir purpose. I am, therefore, not quite clear as to how orthodox Hindus willreconcile their religious integrity with the emancipation of the untouchables. However,I was happy to chance on a publication of the Central Hindu College of Benares(An Advanced Textbook of Hindu Religion and Ethics) which contained asignificant new interpretation of the doctrine of Karma. According to thisviewpoint it is a serious error to explain suffering in terms of Karma, and toabstain from aiding a sufferer so as not to interfere with the process of hisKarma. Our moral ability to help a man is in itself evidence that the Karmaunder which he suffers is fulfilled. Furthermore, by refusing to help afellow-being we commit a sin, and so prepare an evil future Karma forourselves. It is not the task of the stranger to solve the problems of anancient, complex religious system belonging to another people, but I thinkthere are trends in modern India which indicate that the complete emancipationof the untouchables will be achieved without a destruction of the Hindureligious system and without artificial reforms of Hindu doctrine. Jews oncebelieved literally in the Biblical "an eye for an eye, a tooth for atooth". The later Talmudical interpretation of the formula to meanmaterial compensation for an eye or a tooth, in no wise weakened religiousJudaism; on the contrary, it strengthened it. I imagine that similar organicdevelopments will also take place in the religious life of India.
And now to turn to the practical purpose of my letter. May I remind you thatuntouchables exist not only in India? Not everywhere in the same numbers, norof precisely the same status, but nevertheless "untouchables," humanbeings who are persecuted, insulted, starved and frequently slain only becausethey belong to a different ethnic group, or serve God in their own fashion. Thereare still millions of such untouchables in the country from which I write you. Youknow that though many years have passed since slavery was abolished, thepractical emancipation of Negroes in the United States is far from complete. Andthere are still other millions of "untouchables" scattered over allparts of the globe, in dozens of countries: these are the millions of mytormented fellow-Jews. To uncover one`s wounds and seek sympathy is neitherpleasant, nor perhaps even dignified. But no doubt word has reached you of thetorment of my people in countries where they have lived hundreds of years,where the first Jews settled long before their present oppressors, and whichthey enriched with their toil and sweat. After a thousand years of existence inGermany, the remaining 400,000 German Jews find themselves outcast andtormented; their state is made more tragic by the knowledge of the greatcontribution, both material and spiritual, which they and their ancestors havemade to the progress of Germany. Approximately the same thing is happening inPoland and Rumania, and (for the time being) to a less catastrophic degree, ina large number of other countries. Disfranchisement, defencelessness, numerusclausus and numerus nullus in the universities, separate benches and aninferior status for Jewish children in the public schools, economic and socialboycott, murders which are not only tolerated but often encouraged, lynchingswhich anti-Semitic governments do not even trouble to combat, closed doorsfacing Jews who wish to immigrate into new countries - this is our lot in manyparts of the world at the present time. India is remote from Jewishwretchedness. She is taken up with her own great cares and unsolved problems -the destiny of a fifth of the human race - but I am sure that you have heard ofwhat has happened to millions of my fellow-Jews in Europe, North Africa andparts of Asia.
We Jews strive to redeem ourselves from our state of"untouchability". We seek bread, work, freedom and human dignity. Thesewe wish to secure by emerging from that anomalous state to which history hasdoomed us - the state of homelessness and landlessness. For over fifty years,the best of our youth have been devoting the fullness of their energy toward therecreation of our former national centre in Palestine. We need a country forthe millions of persecuted Jews, and this country must be the land whichcradled the civilisation we once created there. This need is more than economicor political in its origin. Among those who are returning to their ancientfatherland are not only refugees driven by alien might but pilgrims inspired byhistoric forces - human beings who seek integrity and harmony in a new life oftheir own. Judaism is not only a religion, a system of abstract thought, or aseries of tenets and commandments. It is also, perhaps primarily, a particularway of life, action and self-expression. Our particular genius, our capacityfor self-expression is throttled in us because we live amid alien environmentsand cultures. We are always adapting ourselves to our stronger neighbours,existing in a state of perpetual mimicry dangerous to our spirit. Zionism isnot only a movement for the hungry and persecuted. It draws to itselfincreasing numbers of courageous Jews even in those countries which are freefrom brutal anti-Semitism and where Jews are not stigmatised as"unclean". These Jews know - as your great patriot Lajpat once put it- that chains are chains no matter how gilded. You yourself once lived in astrange land, in the small Indian Diaspora of South Africa, and you know howthe spiritual energy of a national or racial group which lives as a minority inan alien environment becomes choked. May I, in this connection, quote the linesof the great modern Hebrew poet Hayim N. Bialik, lines which I believe you willnot misinterpret as evidence of a materialistic attitude: "Each people hasas much heaven over its head as it has land under its feet."
Landless and heavenless, many thousands of my brothers have in recent yearsreturned to the soil of their fathers, laid waste through the neglect ofcenturies. You in India understand how a land may degenerate and grow barren. Onedoes not have to be an expert in Indian history to know that your country wasonce richer, more fertile and more civilised than it is today. The excavationsin Mohandja Dara have clearly demonstrated that the highly developedcivilisation with large cities, industries and comfortable homes existed inyour country 3,500 years before Christ. According to the historian Megasthenes,when the armies of Alexander the Great invaded parts of India over 2,200 yearsago, they found a people no less civilised and artistic than the Greeks of thattime. In Palestine, too, there once existed a higher state of civilisation thanwe found when our generation began to return. The remnants of terraces on themountains, the magnificent synagogues excavated in Capernaum and Beth Alpha,the signs of a former irrigation system, all bear witness to this. During thecenturies of our absence, war and oppression raging for generations reduced ourland to a state of barrenness and decay. This did not dishearten our pioneers. Inevery spot where they were given the chance, they built again prosperingvillages and towns. Where the earth was swampy they drained it; where it wasbarren and parched, they made water spring from hidden deeps. They drove outthe curse of malaria. The mountains of Judea and Galilee had been denuded asfar back as the Roman wars, but this desolation has been lifted by our youth. Inmany places which recently were but sand and rock, the green woods of ancientPalestine bloom resurrected. Within a comparatively short space of time we havedeveloped Jewish agriculture and industry making possible a still larger massimmigration of Jews. At the start of our reconstruction work we hadpsychological as well as physical difficulties. We had the problems resultingfrom a false conception of manual labour. Once a people of shepherds andfarmers and artisans, in the course of our wanderings we had been transformedinto a people of tradesmen primarily. We lost contact with nature, lost thehabit of healthful and cleansing physical labour, and began to look withunjustified, well-nigh sinful, contempt upon so-called "lower" socialfunctions. Our religious cult of learning unfortunately changed into the cultof a pseudo-aristocracy. Many of us ceased to understand the moral andaesthetic worth of simple labour. You are familiar with the paradoxical ways bywhich a people arrives at so corrupt a scale of values. You in India will alsohave to wage a bitter struggle against the social implications of thispseudo-aristocratic scholasticism. We understand the challenge in the title"scavenger" which you assumed. In Palestine and through Palestine weare freeing ourselves from the moral hump which rose on our backs duringcenturies of unsound development. We have given back to physical labour itsdignity and sanctity. We have returned to the truly Jewish, profoundly humanconcept of our Talmudists who taught that "he who does not teach his son amanual trade is like to one who teaches his son robbery". Through ourrenewed understanding of the dignity of labour many of us came to understandthat all kinds of labour are of equal social worth and are to be equallyrewarded. In the same places where the pre-evangelical communities of theEssenes, dedicated to the principle of "mine is thine, and thine ismine", once existed, large villages built on the basis of voluntarycommunism have arisen. I have been told on several occasions that some groupsin India have gathered the impression that our communes are breeding-places ofvulgar materialism and atheism. It would take me far beyond the confines of myletter were I to explain why I regard their irreligion as true religion. Let mesay but one word. Remember the utterances of your great mystic Ramakrishna whodeclared that "religion is not for empty stomachs", and of hisflaming disciple, Vivekananda, who said that "as long as a single hungryman remains in my land, my sole religion will be to feed him"! Such is themotivation of the "materialism" of our communist experiment inPalestine.
Arab enemies of my people, and, I am convinced, also of their own people, havelately mobilised ignorant and fanatical elements against this Jewishrenascence. All impartial observers who have visited Palestine, all honeststudents of the question, have come to the conclusion that our movement has inno way injured the Arab people, that, on the contrary, the mass of the Arabpopulation has profited socially, economically and culturally from Jewishimmigration. If you would care to acquaint yourself with the available data,you would see for yourself that the Arab standard of living has risensignificantly due to the peaceful, progressive methods of Jewishreconstruction. In recent history, Zionism is the first instance ofcolonisation free from imperialist ambition or the desire to rule any part ofthe population. The present Arab rulers know very well that no danger of Jewishdominion threatens the Arab people through Zionism. However, they fear that theinfluence of Zionism on the Arab masses will hasten the process of economic andsocial emancipation in Palestine, and will endanger their selfish casteinterests. For this reason, they kindle the savage passions of national hateand religious fanaticism. They have sent poor ignorant wretches to destroyJewish property, to uproot trees planted by Jews, to set fire to Jewish houses,to murder old and young - men, women and children - to throw bombs into schoolsand kindergartens, and to shoot down Jewish nurses who tended Arab patients inthe hospitals. I am sure that you have heard of the anti-Jewish terror letloose in Palestine for over half a year, and no doubt information has reachedyou of the Arab leaders` intention to renew this terror and increase its scopeso as to attain their goal - the stoppage of further Jewish immigration and theliquidation of Zionism. Whey then, I dare ask you, have you been silent allthis while? Why are you still silent?
I know how small a place the Jewish question must occupy in the consciousnessof the Indian intellectual. I know how enormous are your own problems andcares. But the drama now being enacted in Palestine has its direct and indirectrepercussions in India. A harmful and thoroughly false propaganda against Jewsand Zionism is now being conducted in your Mohammedan communities. Thenone-too-fastidious agents of the present Arab leaders are spreading maliciouslies to the effect that Jews are a menace to Mohammedanism, that they proposeto destroy or tamper with Mohammedan mosques and holy places. An intense hatedof Jews is being fanned among the millions of Mohammedans in India. Pleasebelieve me that I think not only of my own people, when I feel duty bound towarn you against the effects of this incendiary propaganda. Jew-hatred is adangerous poison not only for the hated but for the haters. For the sake ofyour country and your people as well as my own, I would not wish the bacillinow undermining the moral foundations of so many European countries, to befoulthe air of India. I do not understand why you have taken no note of thiskindling of religious fanaticism and blind hate among your Mohammedanfellow-Indians, why you have ignored the effects of Arab incitement whichbecame apparent even in the ranks of the Indian National Congress. You aresilent. Your disciple, Nehru, is silent. And, unless I am mistaken, only yourpoet and noble champion of human rights, Madame Naidu, has raised her voice inbehalf of my people.
Let your clear and courageous voice be heard - for our sake, for your sake, forthe sake of the awakening East to which we return. Do that which is in yourpower to end the venomous anti-Jewish propaganda amid the millions ofMohammedans in India. When Hindus and Mohammedans make murderous attacks uponeach other, you declare a fast in protest against fratricide and false piety. Iremember the strict solemnity of your three weeks` fast. I remember also theeffect of this particular "dictatorial" measure: the two religiouscommunities made peace under the pressure of your prayer and fast. I am not sonaive and egocentric as to assume that you could protest with an equal passionthe onslaught on Jewish work and a Jewish future in Palestine. It is not myright to suggest how you should influence Moslem public opinion andparticularly the leaders of your National Congress. Do what you can to stop theanti-Jewish agitation for which Islam is being exploited cynically anddestructively. I know how greatly you honour Islam and its followers. But allyour life you have shown daring and ability to fight against hypocrisy inreligious life. As the proven friend of the Moslems, you have a particularright to protest against the particular exploitation of Islam and itsinstitutions for unworthy political ends.
May I remind you how a European observer characterised the reaction of a Hinduto the usual sermon of a Christian missionary? His first answer was,"Christianity is not true"; his second, "Christianity is nownew," and his third rejoinder was, "Christianity is not you". Heperceived the truth in Christianity, while realising the untruth in theChristian. The same may be said of Islam and of those who seek to transform anoble doctrine into an instrument for anti-social and anti-religious purposes. Youare the man in India who can challenge the unscrupulous Arab agitators with thecry, "Islam is not you".
Will we hear your voice, the voice of Young India?