WARDHA,
December 24, 1940
DEAR FRIEND,
That I address you as a friend is no formality. I own no foes.
My business in life has been for the past 33 years to enlist the
friendship of the whole of humanity by befriending mankind,
irrespective of race, colour or creed.
I hope you will have the time and desire to know how a good
portion of humanity who have view living under the influence of that
doctrine of universal friendship view your action. We have no doubt
about your bravery or devotion to your fatherland, nor do we believe
that you are the monster described by your opponents. But your own
writings and pronouncements and those of your friends and admirers
leave no room for doubt that many of your acts are monstrous and
unbecoming of human dignity, especially in the estimation of men
like me who believe in universal friendliness. Such are your
humiliation of Czechoslovakia, the rape of Poland and the swallowing
of Denmark. I am aware that your view of life regards such spoliations
as virtuous acts. But we have been taught from childhood to regard
them as acts degrading humanity. Hence we cannot possibly wish
success to your arms.
But ours is a unique position. We resist British Imperialism no
less than Nazism. If there is a difference, it is in degree. One-fifth of
the human race has been brought under the British heel by means that
will not bear scrutiny. Our resistance to it does not mean harm to the
British people. We seek to convert them, not to defeat them on the
battle-field. Ours is an unarmed revolt against the British rule. But
whether we convert them or not, we are determined to make their rule
impossible by non-violent non-co-operation. It is a method in its
nature indefensible. It is based on the knowledge that no spoliator can
compass his end without a certain degree of co-operation, willing or
compulsory, of the victim. Our rulers may have our land and bodies
but not our souls. They can have the former only by complete
destruction of every Indian—man, woman and child. That all may not
rise to that degree of heroism and that a fair amount of frightfulness
can bend the back of revolt is true but the argument would be beside
the point. For, if a fair number of men and women be found in India
who would be prepared without any ill will against the spoliators to lay
down their lives rather than bend the knee to them, they would have
shown the way to freedom from the tyranny of violence. I ask you to
believe me when I say that you will find an unexpected number of
such men and women in India. They have been having that training
for the past 20 years.
We have been trying for the past half a century to throw off the
British rule. The movement of independence has been never so strong
as now. The most powerful political organization, I mean the Indian
National Congress, is trying to achieve this end. We have attained a
very fair measure of success through non-violent effort. We were
groping for the right means to combat the most organized violence in
the world which the British power represents. You have challenged it.
It remains to be seen which is the better organized, the German or the
British. We know what the British heel means for us and the
non-European races of the world. But we would never wish to end the
British rule with German aid. We have found in non-violence a force
which, if organized, can without doubt match itself against a
combination of all the most violent forces in the world. In non-violent
technique, as I have said, there is no such thing as defeat. It is all ‘do
or die’ without killing or hurting. It can be used practically without
money and obviously without the aid of science of destruction which
you have brought to such perfection. It is a marvel to me that you do
not see that it is nobody’s monopoly. If not the British, some other
power will certainly improve upon your method and beat you with
your own weapon. You are leaving no legacy to your people of which
they would feel proud. They cannot take pride in a recital of cruel
deed, however skilfully planned. I, therefore, appeal to you in the
name of humanity to stop the war. You will lose nothing by referring
all the matters of dispute between you and Great Britain to an
international tribunal of your joint choice. If you attain success in the
war, it will not prove that you were in the right. It will only prove that
your power of destruction was greater. Whereas an award by an
impartial tribunal will show as far as it is humanly possible which
party was in the right.
You know that not long ago I made an appeal1 to every Briton to
accept my method of non-violent resistance. I did it because the
British know me as a friend though a rebel. I am a stranger to you and
your people. I have not the courage to make you the appeal I made to
every Briton. Not that it would not apply to you with the same force as
to the British. But my present proposal is much simple because much
more practical and familiar.
During this season when the hearts of the peoples of Europe
yearn for peace, we have suspended even our own peaceful struggle.2
Is it too much to ask you to make an effort for peace during a time
which may mean nothing to you personally but which must mean
much to the millions of Europeans whose dumb cry for peace I hear,
for my ears are attended to hearing the dumb millions? I had intended
to address a joint appeal to you and Signor Mussolini, whom I had the
privilege of meeting1 when I was in Rome during my visit to England
as a delegate to the Round Table Conference. I hope that he will take
this as addressed to him also with the necessary changes.
I am,
Your sincere friend,
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