BYGANDHI - FROM HARIJAN, JANUARY 7, 1939
In dealing with my answer to the criticism that the Jews had been non-violentfor 2,000 years, The Statesman says in the course of an editorial:
"The whole world has heard of Pastor Niemoeller and the sufferings of theLutheran Church; here many Pastors and individual Christians bore themselvesbravely before People`s Courts, violence and threats; without retaliation theybore noble witness to the truth. And what change of heart is there in Germany?Buried in prisons and concentration camps are today, and have been for fiveyears, members of the Bible Searchers` Leagues who rejected Nazi militarism asconflicting with Christ`s Gospel of peace. And how many Germans know of them or,if they know, do anything about it?
"Non-violence, whether of the weak or of the strong, seems, except in veryspecial conditions, rather a personal than a social gospel. A man`s salvationmay be left to himself; politicians are concerned with causes, creeds andminorities. It is suggested by Mr. Gandhi that Herr Hitler would bow before acourage 'infinitely superior to that shown by his own Storm Troopers`. If thatwere so, one would have supposed that he would have paid tribute to such men asHerr von Ossietzky.
"Courage to a Nazi, however, seems a virtue only when displayed by his ownsupporters: elsewhere it becomes the impudent provocation of Jewish-Marxistcanaille. Mr. Gandhi has produced his prescription in view of the inability ofthe great Powers effectively to move in the matter, an inability we all deploreand would see remedied. His sympathy may do much for the comfort of the Jews,but seems likely to do less for their enlargement. Christ is the supreme exampleof non-violence and the indignities heaped upon Him at His tortured death provedonce and for all that in a worldly and temporal sense it can fail hopelessly."
I do not think that the sufferings of Pastor Niemoeller and others have been invain. They have preserved their self-respect intact. They have proved that theirfaith was equal to any suffering. That they have not proved sufficient formelting Herr Hitler`s heart merely shows that it is made of a harder materialthan stone. But the hardest metal yields to sufficient heat. Even so must thehardest heart melt before sufficiency of the heat of non-violence. And there isno limit to the capacity of non-violence to generate heat.
Every action is a resultant of a multitude of forces even of a contrary nature.There is no waste of energy. So we learn in the books on mechanics. This isequally true of human actions. The difference is that in the one case wegenerally know the forces at work, and when we do, we can mathematicallyforetell the resultant. In the case of human actions, they result from aconcurrence of forces of most of which we have no knowledge. But our ignorancemust not be made to serve the cause of disbelief in the power of these forces.Rather is our ignorance a cause for greater faith. And non-violence being themightiest force in the world and also the most elusive in its working, itdemands the greatest exercise of faith. Even as we believe in God in faith, sohave we to believe in non-violence in faith.
Herr Hitler is but one man enjoying no more than the average span of life. Hewould be a spent force if he had not the backing of his people. I do not despairof his responding to human suffering even though caused by him. But I mustrefuse to believe that the Germans as a nation have no heart or markedly lessthan the other nations of the earth. They will some day or other rebel againsttheir own adored hero, if he does not wake up betimes. And when he or they do,we shall find that the sufferings of the Pastor and his fellow-workers had not alittle to do with the awakening.
An armed conflict may bring disaster to German arms; it cannot change the Germanheart even as the last defeat did not. It produced a Hitler vowed to wreakvengeance on the victors. And what a vengeance it is! My answer, therefore, mustbe the answer that Stephenson gave to his fellow-workers who had despaired ofever filling the deep pit that made the first railway possible. He asked hisco-workers of little faith to have more faith and go on filling the pit. It wasnot bottomless, it must be filled. Even so I do not despair because HerrHitler`s or the German heart has not yet melted. On the contrary I plead formore suffering and still more till the melting has become visible to the nakedeye. And even as the Pastor has covered himself with glory, a single Jew bravelystanding up and refusing to bow to Hitler`s decrees will cover himself withglory and lead the way to the deliverance of the fellow Jews.
I hold that non-violence is not merely a personal virtue. It is also a socialvirtue to be cultivated like the other virtues. Surely society is largelyregulated by the expression of non-violence in its mutual dealings. What I askfor is an extension of it on a larger, national and international scale.
I was unprepared to find the view expressed by The Statesman writer that theexample of Christ proved once and for all that in a worldly and temporal senseit can fail hopelessly!! Though I cannot claim to be Christian in the sectariansense, the example of Jesus` suffering is a factor in the composition of myundying faith in non-violence which rules all my actions, worldly and temporal.And I know that there are hundreds of Christians who believe likewise. Jesuslived and died in vain if he did not teach us to regulate the whole of life bythe eternal Law of Love.
On the train to Bardoli, January 2, 1939
MahatmaGandhi
Research and Media Service