GANDHI

ON NQN,

VIOLENCE

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THOMAS MARK

MERTON KURLANSKY
 POLITICAL SCIENCE

GANDHI ON NON-VIOLENCE
SELECTED TEXTS F RO M GANDHI'S

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NON-VIOLENCE IN PEACE AND WAR

GdJ'Iec/, {[)i/h an Ynlroduclion, b'y P

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T H OMA S MERTON MARK KUR L AN S K Y

"One has t o speak out and stand up for one's convictions. Inaction at a

time of conflagration is inexcusable." -MAHATMA GANDHI

The basic principles of Gandhi's philosophy of non-violence (ahimsa) and

non-violent action (satyagraha) were chosen by Thomas Merton for this
compendium in 1965. In his challenging Introduction, Merton emphasizes
action rather than pacifism as essential to non-violence, and illustrates how
the foundations of Gandhi's universal truths are linked to traditional Hindu
Dharma, the Greek philosophers, and the teachings of Jesus Christ. '

Educated as a Westerner in South Africa, it was Gandhi's desire to end

the caste system in India that led him to discover the dynamic power of non­
cooperation. Gandhi's politics of spiritual integrity have influenced genera­
tions of people around the world, as well as civil rights and political leaders
from Martin Luther King, Jr. and Steve Biko to Vaclav Havel and Aung San
SuuKyi.
For Gandhi non-violence was also very personal, as Merton observes:
"the spirit of non-violence sprang from an inner realization of spiritual uni­
ty in himself." Kurlansky's new Preface offers further insight into Gandhi's
character as well as the relevance of his ongoing political legacy.

"My nomination for the most influential political leader of the twentieth cen-
tury would be MohandasK. Gandhi." -MARK KURLANSKY

./

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THOMAS MERTON titles
available from New D i rections

T H E ASIAN JOURNAL

BREAD IN THE WILDERNESS

COLLECTED POEMS

GANDHI ON NON-VIOLENCE

THE GEOGRAPHY OF LOGRAIRE

LITERARY ESSAYS

MY ARGUMENT WITH THE GESTAPO

NEW SEEDS OF CONTEMPLATION

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GANDHI ON NON -VIOLENCE

S EL E CT ED T EXT S
'
FROM MOH AND A S K. G ANDH I S

Non-Violence in Peace and War

Edited,
with an introduction, by
THOM A S M ERTON

Preface by
M ARK KURL AN SKY

A NE W DIRECTIONS PAPE RBOOK

Copyright@ 1964,1965 by New DirectionsPublishing Corporation.

Preface copyright (C) 2007 by Mark Kurlansky

Frontispiece: linoleum block print of Gandhi by Mark Kurlansky.

All rights reserved. Except for bl"ief passages quoted in a newspaper, magazine, radio,

or television review, no part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means,

electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information

storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from thePublisher.

This book is published by the permission of the Navajivan T•·ust, P. 0. Navajivan,

Ahmedabad-14 ( India), which controls the copyright in all works by M. K. Gandhi.

The excerpt from the poem "In Silence" by Thomas Me•·ton, from The Collected Poems of
Thomas Merton, copyright@ 1957 by The Abbey of Gethscmmani. Reprinted by permission

of New Directions Publishing Corp.

First published as New DirectionsPaperbook197 in1965.

Reissued as New DirectionsPaperbook1090 in 2007.

Manufactured in the United States of America.

New Di1·ections Books are printed on acid-f1·ec paper.

Published in Canada by Penguin Books Canada Limited.

Library of Conb'l"ess Catalob>ing-in-Publication Data

Gandhi, Mohandas, 1869-1948

Gandhi on non-violence: selected texts from Mohandas K. Gandhi's

non-violence in peace and war / edited with an introduction by Thomas Merton

: preface by Mark Kurlansky/

p. cm.

Originally published: New York: New Directions, 1965.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-8112-1686-9 (alk. paper)

I. Nonviolence. I. Merton, Thomas,1915-1968 II. Gandhi, Mahatma,

1869-1948. Non-violence in peace and war 1942-1949. III. Title.

HMI28l.G34 2007

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2007932262

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NEW DIHECTIONS BOOKS AHF. PUIJL.ISHED FOH JAMES LAUGHLIN

BY NEW DIRECTIONS PUBLISHING COHI•OR/\TION

80 EIGHTH AVENUE, NEW YORK, NEW YORK 10 011

 CONTENTS

I Preface XI

II Introduction: Gandhi and the One-Eyed Giant 3

I1I Selections from Gandhi's Non-Violence in Peace and War

Section One. Principles of Non-Violence 35

Section Two. Non-Violence: True and False 49
Section Three. The Spiritual Dimensions of Non-Violence 57
Section Four. The Political Scope of Non-Violence 65

Section Five. The Purity of Non-Violence 79

Notes 95

Index 97
Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer. I JOHN,3:15

Men who fear to make the sacrifice of love will have to fight.
TOYOHIKO KAGAWA

The great tasks of magnanimous men-to establish with truth,

j ustice, charity and liberty, new methods of relationships in
human society-the task of bringing about true peace in the
order established by God. We publicly praise such men and
earnestly invite them to persevere in their work with ever
greater zeal. It is an imperative of duty; it is a requirement of
love. PoPE JoHN x xI I r, Pacem in Terris
 PREFACE

I AM u s E MY s E L F speculating what Sigmund Freud would

have made of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi had he gotten him
on his couch. The two lives did overlap in time if not in geographic
or intellectual space. Gandhi seems like a Freudian feast, starting
with his life-long guilt over having been engaged in sex with his
wife at the moment of his father's death. His life was a constant
illustration of Freud's thesis that we cannot be happy because our
inherent nature is contrary to the demands of our conscience or,
as Freud put it, our ego is at war with our superego.
Engaged in this struggle, Gandhi chastised and denied him­
self in a variety of ways. His meager vegetarian diet of only raw
food was j ustified because his nourishment was taken "in its
vital state even as animals do"-but, of course only herbivorous
animals. Carnivorous beasts were far too indulgent for his taste.
He even regularly fasted from this uncooked unseasoned diet.
At the time of his famous salt march-when he rallied common
I ndians against British restrictions on making salt-he was per­
sonally eliminating salt from his diet. He persuaded attractive
young women to sleep with him so that he could refrain from
touching them (certainly this would have gotten Dr Freud's at­
tention). He also rejected earthly possessions and at his death
owned a pair of glasses, a pair of sandals, a bowl-few enough
PREFACE

items to be gathered in two hands. The closest he had to a friv­

olous possession was statues of the "three wise monkeys"­
Hear No Evil, See No Evil, and Speak No Evil-a Buddhist motif
from Japan.
It seems certain that Freud would, at the least have found
Gandhi either ignorant of, or willfully ignoring, the nature of
the human psyche. For Freud opined:

The commandment "Love thy neighbor as thyself" is the

strongest defense against human aggression and an excellent
example o f the unpsychological manner in which the cultural
super-ego proceeds. It is impossible to keep this command­
ment; such a huge inflation of love can only lower its value, not
remove the problem.

Yet Gandhi also knew the commandment was impossible to

keep. He wrote, "There will never be an army of perfectly non­
violent people. It will be formed of those who will honestly en­
deavor to observe non-violence."

After Martin Luther King Jr. was killed in 1968, a cartoon by

Bill Mauldin ran in The Chicago Sun Times showing Gandhi
talking to King. The caption read, " The odd thing about assas­
sins, Dr. King, is that they think they've killed you." By the time
of King's death it was obvious that the Hindu who had ended
Gandhi's life twenty years before, an assassin whose name was
already l argely forgotten, had failed to end the role in the world
of the man who Nobel Prize winning writer, Rabindranath
Tagore had dubbed mahatma, the great soul.
My nomination for the most influential political leader of
the twentieth century would be Mohandas K. Gandhi. The first
thing that seems slightly jarring about this proposal is that most
people do not customarily think of Gandhi as a political leader.

Xll
 PREFACE

There is a tendency to think of him as a religious or spiritual

leader. This is the odd thing about political assassinations: they
tend to turn political leaders into spiritual ones, even into
saints-it makes them less threatening. King has suffered the
same fate. But Gandhi, like King, was first and foremost a man
of political action. He profoundly believed in the moral obliga­
tion to act. To Gandhi, the greatest sin is to fail to act. "Violence
is any day preferable to impotence," he wrote. "There is hope
for a violent man to become non-violent. There is no hope for
the impotent."
Who, if not Gandhi, might be the most important political
leader of the twentieth century? Political leaders, on the whole,
are not an imaginative lot. Now that we live in an age of film and
recordings, the tendency is to openly imitate successful prede­
cessors. American leaders cannot do Lincoln impressions, but
they can try to sound like Roosevelt or Kennedy. British prime
ministers do their Churchill and French presidents flirt with
De Gaulle mimicry. Indians leaders try to sound like Gandhi,
though unfortunately they do not think or act like him. But
among all these political leaders, both the originals and the im­
itations, there is very little that is new. Only Gandhi represents
a completely different way of pursuing political objectives.
As with most successful political leaders, confidence and op­
timism were among his most powerful attributes. The tendency
is to say that Gandhi's ideas are noble but impossible. This
misses the entire point. In 1931 Gandhi wrote, "Whether
mankind will consciously follow the law of love, I do not know.
But that need not perturb us. The law will work, just as the law
of gravitation will work whether we accept it or not. And just as
a scientist will work wonders out of various applications of the
l aws of nature, even so a man who applies the law of love with
scientific precision can work great wonders."
Because Gandhi was a pragmatist, not a dreamer, he then pro-

xiii
PREFACE

ceeded to prove his point. Armed with "the law of love," he over­
threw the British Empire in its most coveted colony. There are
those-and predictably most of them are British-who claim that
Gandhi was only successful because his adversary was the kindly
British and not some brutal power. But the kindly British did not
hesitate to shoot children point blank in a public square, to spray
crowds with machine-gun fire. In a 1948 essay George Orwell ex­
pressed this idea that Gandhi's actions would only work against
the British and even stated that they would never work against
the Soviet Union. Less than half a century later Central European
dissidents such as Vaclav Havel proved Orwell wrong.
But the Central Europeans might never have hatched their
non-violent resistance to the Soviet Union if they had not had
the example of Gandhi, which they studied. Most of the many
successful non-violent campaigns of the late twentieth century
were in some degree influenced by the fact of Gandhi's success.
Richard Gregg, an American disciple of Gandhi, informed radi­
cal leader A. J. Muste who taught James Farmer and Bayard
Rustin who instructed young Martin Luther King, Jr. on the
ways of Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi was part of the inspiration in
South Africa that turned a failed campaign of violence against
apartheid into a successful non-violent one. And it is extremely
likely that future movements faced with oppression will study
Gandhi and learn to "work great wonders." The important
point is that, like gravity, it works.

To get Gandhi through the filter of Thomas Merton is in itself

an intriguing paradox. Merton was the opposite of Gandhi, or
perhaps the mirror image. He was a Westerner fascinated by
Eastern thought and religion. Once asked what he thought of
Western civilization, Gandhi mischievously replied, "I think it
would be a great idea." But in truth Gandhi was an Asian fasci­
nated by Western thought and religion. His religious views took

xiv
 PREFACE

in not only his own Hinduism, as well as Buddhism and Jain­

ism, and Christianity was also a strong influence. He studied
the New Testament and corresponded with novelist Leo Tol­
stoy, who demanded that Christians return to the non-violent
teachings of Jesus Christ. Henry David Thoreau was another
source of inspiration to Gandhi. As Merton wrote, "he was an
alienated Asian." Like many middle-class Indians of his gener­
ation, he was an Anglicized Indian, the product of a B ritish ed­
ucation. Even his vegetarianism did not have the Hindu roots
commonly supposed. As a child of a Hindu family he had defied
his parents and eaten meat so that he could be as strong as the
large and carnivorous British. But studying in England, he
learned from the British, not the Hindus, the rigid vegan raw
food diet of sprouted wheat that became his austere suste­
nance. He was to state that by avoiding cooking he was remov­
ing fire from food preparation, thus making his diet himsa free,
without violence. These ideas did not trace back to India, but to
the circle of the poet Shelley and his good friends J. F. Newton
and William Lambe, whose ideas Gandhi found in Ethics ofDiet
by Howard Williams.
Merton was a Trappist monk who, unlike Gandhi, had a
strong urge to withdraw from the world. Even within the set­
ting of his ascetic order he was considered a recluse. And yet,
like Gandhi, he felt an obligation to speak out. Merton was
deeply concerned with issues of social justice, especially the
American civil rights movement and opposition to nuclear
weapons programs. In 1962 he wrote, "The world is full of great
criminals with enormous power, and they are in a death strug­
gle with each other. It is a huge gang battle, using well-meaning
lawyers and policemen and clergymen as their front, control­
ling papers, means of communication, and enrolling everybody
in their armies."
But Merton was a monk and not a political activist like

XV
PREFACE

Gandhi and shied away from the Indian leader's style of direct
action. He wrote:

I will try like them

To be my own silence:
And this is difficult. The whole
World is secretly on fire. The stones
Burn, even the stones
They burn me. How can a man be still or
Listen to all things burning? How can he dare
To sit with them when
All their silence
Is on fire?

Merton acknowledged the publicness of Gandhi's life. He wrote

that it was "eminently active rather than contemplative." But he
termed this way of life "public to the point of being excruciat­
ing." Merton found it to be so but Gandhi probably did not.

Merton wrote fi fty books, including poetry, essays and theology.

In everything he did he was rapidly recognized as brilliant. Yet
he often frustrated his admirers, withdrawing where he could
have engaged. Merton, the brilliant Catholic theologian and
scholar of Eastern thought seemed, the perfect person to sort
through the ninety volumes of Gandhi's writings, to analyze
and interpret them. But instead he chose to create this brief an­
thology of one and two line observations. In its monk-like
starkness it gives us an unusual insight into Gandhi's genius,
and his gift for consistently issuing short statements of such
depth. Almost any of the quotes in this book makes a weighty
epigraph. Merton did a Catholic thing; he took Gandhi's writ­
ings and cooked them down into a catechism, a clear, brief, and
uncomplicated guide to the teachings of the Great Soul. But

XVI
 PREFACE

Merton's followers wanted more, they wanted Merton to tell

them, to explain. The fact that Merton's introduction is one of
the best essays ever written on Gandhi adds to the frustration
of Merton enthusiasts. But it may be inevitable that his admir­
ers suffer from a sense of unfulfillment, for Merton died ab­
surdly just before his 54th birthday, electrocuted by a badly
wired fan while stepping out of a bathtub.

Freud believed that just as the human superego is a voice seek­

ing to curb the unsocial urges of the ego, society has a superego
that tries to curb its unsocial behavior. This societal superego,
Freud maintained, came from "the impression left behind by
the personalities of great leaders, people who were endowed
with immense spiritual or intellectual power. . . ."

Mohandas K. Gandhi was such a person. He imbued culture

and civilization with a sense of non-violence, and his impact is
permanent. Freud wrote, "There are some individuals that are
venerated by their contemporaries, but whose greatness rests
on qualities and achievements that are quite foreign to the aims
and ideals of the many." If a filmmaker wanted to give visual ex­
pression to this idea, a camera could be moved through govern­
ment offices in India where pictures of Gandhi hang in rooms
where the militarized Indian state is guided and the Indian nu­
clear weapons program nurtur ed.
How India has turned out, or for that matter how Gandhi
turned out, is not relevant. The fact that the Indian state that
Gandhi so brilliantly struggled to create has not lived up to his
ideals, by no means marks Gandhi's life as a failure. To think so
is to completely misunderstand the significance of the man.
India had in Gandhi a founding father of enormous ambition,
someone who sought to change the nature of human beings and
the nature of society. That he did not succeed in doing so is not

xvii
PREFACE

surprising. He often commented that he did not think the In­

dian population was suitably prepared for his plans to succeed.
The sig11ificance of Gandhi, the reason why he was the sin­
gle most important political leader of the twentieth century, is
that he demonstrated by his non-violent overthrow of British
rule, that the most natural human urge, aggression, directed by
that equally natural impulse to take charge of one's own destiny,
to change things, could be effectively, in fact far more effec­
tively, accomplished without the use of violence.

That he was engaged in an unnatural struggle with human na­

ture, Gandhi, and for that matter Freud, might have agreed. They
both believed that the purpose of civilization was to engage in
such unnatural struggles, which make life better. To Freud the
struggles of the individual psyche do not work together but inde­
pendently, like the earth orbiting and at the same time spinning
on its axis. To Freud the personal struggle of the man, Mohandas
K. Gandhi, to make himself better and purer would not be rele­
vant to the struggle of Mahatma Gandhi, the great leader, to make
the world better. But to Gandhi it was very relevant. He wrote,
"Non-violence implies a complete self-purification as is humanly
possible" and "If one does not practice non-violence in one's per­
sonal relations with others and hopes to use it in bigger affairs,
one is vastly mistaken." He struggled with his own imperfection,
frustrated that he could never be the saint that he is now remem­
bered as. "Imperfect as I am;' he wrote, "I started with imperfect
men and women and sailed on an uncharted sea."

He charted that sea for us all.

MARK KURLANSKY
New York City
April,2007

XVI I I
 AN INTRODUCTION TO

SELECTIONS FROM GANDHI

 GANDHI AND THE ONE-EYED GIANT

T H E w H 1 T E MA N, says Laurens Van Der Post(l) came into

Africa (and Asia and America for that matter) like a one-eyed
giant, bringing with him the characteristic split and blindness
which were at once his strength, his torment, and his ruin. With
his self-isolated and self-scrutinizing individual mind, Western
man was master of concepts and abstractions. He was the king
of quantity and the driver of those forces over which quantita­
tive knowledge gave him supremacy without understanding.
Because he ruled matter without understanding it, he faced his
bodily self as an object which he could not comprehend though
he could analyze and tamper with its every part. He submitted
to passions which, though he no longer regarded them as dev­
ils, were nevertheless inscrutable and objective forces flying at
him from the dark outside the little circle illumined by a prag­
matic and self-complacent moral reason. The one-eyed giant
had science without wisdom, and he broke in upon ancient civ­
ilizations which (like the medieval West) had wisdom without
science: wisdom which transcends and unites, wisdom which
dwells in body and soul together and which, more by means of
myth, of rite, of contemplation, than by scientific experiment,
opens the door to a life in which the individual is not lost in the
cosmos and in society but found in them. Wisdom which made
G A N D H I O N N O N -VIOLE N C E

all life sacred and meaningful-even that which later ages came
to call secular and profane.
It is true that neither the ancient wisdoms nor the modern
sciences are complete in themselves. They do not stand alone.
They call for one another. Wisdom without science is unable to
penetrate the full sapiential meaning of the created and mate­
rial cosmos. Science without wisdom leaves man enslaved to a
world of unrelated objects in which there is no way of discov­
ering (or creating) order and deep significance in man's own
pointless existence. The vocation of modern man was to bring
about their union in preparation for a new age. The marriage
was wrecked on the rocks of the white man's dualism and of the
inertia, the incomprehension, of ancient and primitive soci­
eties. We enter the post-modern (perhaps the post-historic!)
era in total disunity and confusion. But while the white man has
always, naturally, blamed the traditional ancient cultures and
the primitive "savage" whom he never understood, it is cer­
tainly clear that if the union of science and wisdom has so far
not been successful it is not because the East would not listen
to the West: the East has been all too willing to listen. The West
has not been able to listen to the East, to Africa, and to the now
practically extinct voice of primitive America. As a result of this
the ancient wisdoms have themselves fallen into disrepute and
Asia no longer dares listen to herself!
The split of the European mind has become universal. All
men (says L. L. Whyte) are caught in the "fundamental d ivision
between deliberate activity organized by static concepts, and
the instinctive and spontaneous life." (2) This dissociation,
which was fruitful in the Renaissance, has now reached a point
of mad development, of "behavior patterns unrelated to organic
needs" and a "relentless passion for quantity" . . . "uncontrolled
industrialism and excess of analytical thought" . . . "without the
catharsis of rhythmic relaxation or satisfying achievement." (3)

4
 GA N D H I A N D T H E O N E- EY E D G I A N T

This [Whyte continues] is the moment of uninhibited perver­

sions which can now ally themselves with technical power . . .
in a brief period of dominance. This short reign o f Antichrist
depends on the fusion of two principles which are both vicious
because they represent only a part of European or Western
human nature: instinctive vitality distorted into sadism, and
differentiating human vital ity distorted into quantitative ex­
pansion. (4)

Whyte was writing this in the days of Hitler, Mussol ini, and
Stalin, at the beginning of the Second World War. The "short"
reign of Antichrist would soon, he believed, give way to a
reign of light, peace, harmony, and reconstruction. The end of
the war would begin a better era. Or at least so he hoped,
though not without reservations, for he added: "one more
dark decade would disprove my j udgment, revealing a rot
deeper than I have seen." (5) We are now in the third d ark
decade since his words were written.
Ananda Coomaraswamy, writing about the same time as L.
L. Whyte, viewed the sickness of civilization in more religious
terms, and with much the same seriousness. The problem of
the whole world was the problem of Western man: for every­
where the one spiritual illness was now rampant, and malig­
nancies, which in the West were perhaps endemic, were
proliferating in the most alarming fashion in the East and in
Africa.
"East and West," Coomaraswamy wrote, "are at cross pur­
poses only because the West is determined, i.e., at once resolved
and economically 'determined,' to keep on going it knows not
where, and it calls the rudderless voyage ' Progress.' (6) "

He wrote before the days of Red China and of postwar Japan,

both of which now lead scores of other nations in carrying the
logic of the Western split to its most extreme dissociation. Today

5
GA N D H I O N N O N -V I O L E N C E

it is not only the West that is "determined" on its rudderless voy­

age; all, down to the newest African nation, are in the same cen­
trifugal flight, and the itinerary points to outer space.
The question remains the same. It is a crisis of sanity first of
all. The problems of the nations are the problems of mentally
deranged people, but magnified a thousand times because they
have the full, straight-faced approbation of a schizoid society,
schizoid national structures, schizoid military and business
complexes, and, need one add, schizoid religious sects. "We are
at war with ourselves," said Coomaraswamy, "and therefore at
war with one another. Western man is unbalanced, and the
question, Can he recover himself? is a very real one." (7)
The question is all the more urgent now that it concerns not
only Western man but everybody.
There have of course been spurious attempts to bring East
and West together. One need not review all the infatuated
theosophies of the nineteenth century. Nor need one bother to
criticize the laughable syncretisms which have occupied the
talents of publicists (more often Eastern than Western) in
which Jesus, Buddha, Confucius, Tolstoy, Marx, Nietzsche, and
anyone else you like join in the cosmic dance which turns out to
be not Shiva's but just anybody's. However, the comparison of
Eastern and Western religious philosophy is, in our time, reach­
ing a certain level of seriousness, and this is one small and
hopeful sign. The materials for a synthesis of science and wis­
dom are not lacking.

One of the most significant facts about the life and vocation of
Gandhi was his discovery of the East through the West. Like so
many others of India, Gandhi received a completely Western
education as a young man. He had to a great extent renounced
the beliefs, the traditions, the habits of thought, of India. He
spoke, thought, and acted like an Englishman, except of course

6
 GAN D H I AN D TH E ON E - EY E D G I A NT

that an Englishman was precisely what he could never, by any

miracle, become. He was an alienated Asian whose sole func­
tion in life was to be perfectly English without being English at
all: to prove the superiority of the West by betraying his own
heritage and his own self, thinking as a white man without
ceasing to be "a Nigger." The beauty of this (at least to Western
minds) was that it showed Western culture to be a pearl of such
great price that one could reasonably sell the whole of Asia in
order to acquire it, even though the acquisition was not that of
a new being, or even of a new identity, but only of a new suit.
Gandhi was unusual in this. Instead of being fooled by the
Western costume, and instead of being persuaded that he no
longer really existed as an Asian, he recognized that the West
had something good about it that was good not because it was
Western but because it was also Eastern: that is to say, it was
universal. So he turned his face and his heart once again to
India, and saw what was really there. It was through his ac­
quaintance with writers like Tolstoy and Thoreau, and then
his reading of the New Testament, that Gandhi rediscovered
his own tradition and his Hindu dharma (religion, duty).
More than a tradition, more than a wisdom handed down in
books or celebrated in temples, Gandhi discovered India in
discovering himself. Hence it is very important indeed to un­
derstand Gandhi's political life, and particularly his non­
violence, in the light of this radical discovery from which
everything else received its meaning. Gandhi's dedicated
struggle for Indian freedom and his insistence on non-violent
means in the struggle-both resulted from his new u nder­
standing of India and of himself after his contact with a uni­
versally valid spiritual tradition which he saw to be common
to both East and West.
The Christianity, the spiritual and religious humanism, of
the West opened his eyes to forces of wisdom and of love which

7
G A N DH I O N N O N - V I O L E N C E

were closer to his own heart because they were expressed in

the symbols and philosophic language of his own people, and
they could be used immediately to awaken this sleeping and en­
slaved people to an awareness of its own identity and of its his­
toric vocation. He neither accepted Christianity nor rejected it;
he took all that he found in Christian thought that seemed rel­
evant to him as a Hindu. The rest was, at least for the time
being, of merely external interest.
Here was no syncretism and no indifferentism. Gandhi had
the deepest respect for Christianity, for Christ and the Gospel.
In following his way of satyagraha *he believed he was follow­
ing the Law of Christ, and it would be difficult to prove that this
belief was entirely mistaken-or that it was in any degree insin­
cere.
One of the great lessons of Gandhi's life remains this: through
the spiritual traditions of the West he, an Indian, discovered his
Indian heritage and with it his own "right mind." And in his fi­
delity to his own heritage and its spiritual sanity, he was able to
show men of the West and of the whole world a way to recover
their own "right mind" in their own tradition, thus manifesting
the fact that there are certain indisputable and essential values­
religious, ethical, ascetic, spirih�al, and philosophical-which
man has everywhere needed and which he has in the past man­
aged to acquire, values without which he cannot live, values
which are now in large measure lost to him so that, unequipped
to face life in a fully human manner, he now runs the risk of de­
stroying himself entirely.
Call these values what you will, "natural religion" or "nat­
ural law," Christianity admits their existence at least as pream­
bles to faith and grace, if not sometimes vastly more (Romans
2:14-15, Acts 17:22-31). These values are universal, and it is hard
' A term coined by Gandhi. Its root meaning is "holding on to truth,'" and, by extension,
resistance by non-violent means.

8
 G AN D H I A N D TH E O N E- EY E D GI A N T

to see how there can be any "catholic-ity" (cath-holos means

"all-embracing") that even implicitly excludes them. One of the
marks of catholicity is precisely that values which are every­
where natural to man are fulfilled on the highest level in the
Law of the Spirit. And in Christian charity. A "charity" that ex­
cludes these values cannot claim the title of Christian love.
In rediscovering India and his own "right mind," Gandhi
was not excavating from libraries the obscure disputed ques­
tions of Vedantic scholasticism (though he did not reject
Vedanta). He was, on the contrary, identifying himself fully
with the Indian people, that is to say not with the Westernized
upper classes nor with the Brahmin caste, but rather with the
starving masses and in particular with the outcaste "untouch­
ables," or Harijan.
This again is a supremely important fact, without which
Gandhi's non-violence is incomprehensible. The awakening of
the Indian mind in Gandhi was not simply the awakening of his
own spirit to the possibilities of a distinctly Hindu form of "in­
terior life." It was not just a question of Yoga asanas and Vedan­
tic spiritual disciplines for his own perfection. Gandhi realized
that the people ofIndia were awakening in him. The masses who
had been totally silent for thousands of years had now found a
voice in him. It was not "Indian thought" or "Indian spiritual­
ity" that was stirring in him, but India herself. It was the spiri­
tual consciousness of a people that awakened in the spirit of
one person. But the message of the Indian spirit, of Indian wis­
dom, was not for India alone. It was for the entire world. Hence
Gandhi's message was valid for India and for himself in so far as
it represented the awakening of a new world.

Yet this renewed spiritual consciousness of India was entirely

different from the totalitarian and nationalist consciousnesses
that came alive in the West and in the East (Japan) to the point

9
GA N D H I O N N O N -V I O L E N C E

of furious and warlike vitality_ The Indian mind that was awak­
ening in Gandhi was inclusive, not exclusive. It was at once In­
dian and universal. It was not a mind of hate, of intolerance, of
accusation, of rejection, of division. It was a mind of love, of un­
derstanding, of infinite capaciousness. Where the extreme na­
tionalisms of Western Fascism and of Japan were symptoms of
paranoid fury, exploding into alienation, division, and destruc­
tion, the spirit which Gandhi discovered in himself was reach­
ing out to unity, love, and peace. It was a spirit which was, he
believed, strong enough to heal every division.
In Gandhi's mind, non-violence was not simply a political
tactic which was supremely useful and efficacious in liberating
his people from foreign rule, in order that India might then
concentrate on realizing its own national identity. On the con­
trary, the spirit of non-violence sprang from an inner realization
of spiritual unity in himself The whole Gandhian concept of
non-violent action and satyagraha is incomprehensible if it is
thought to be a means of achieving unity rather than as the fru it
of inner unity already achieved.
Indeed this is the explanation for Gandhi's apparent failure
(which became evident to him at the end of his own life). He
saw that his followers had not reached the inner unity that he
had realized in himself, and that their satyagraha was to a great
extent a pretense, since they believed it to be a means to achieve
unity and freedom, while he saw that it must necessarily be the
fi"uit of inner fi"eedom.
The first thing of all and the most important of all was the
inner unity, the overcoming and healing of inner division, the
consequent spiritual and personal freedom, of which national
autonomy and liberty would only be consequences. However,
when satyagraha was seen only as a useful technique for attain­
ing a pragmatic end, political independence, it remained almost
meaningless. As soon as the short-term end was achieved,

10
 G AN D H I AN D T H E ON E - EY E D G I A N T

satyagraha was discarded. No inner peace was achieved, no

inner unity, only the same divisions, the conflicts and the scan­
dals that were ripping the rest of the world to pieces.

This, then, is the second crucially important principle that we

discover in Gandhi. Contrary to what has been thought in re­
cent centuries in the West, the spiritual or interior life is not an
exclusively private affair. (In reality, the deepest and most au­
thentic Western traditions are at one with those of the East on
this point.) The spiritual life of one person is simply the life of
all manifesting itself in him. While it is very necessary to em­
phasize the truth that as the person deepens his own thought in
silence he enters into a deeper understanding of and commun­
ion with the spirit of his entire people (or of his Church), it is
also important to remember that as he becomes engaged in the
crucial struggles of his people in seeking j ustice and truth to­
gether with his brother, he tends to liberate the truth in himself
by seeking true liberty for all. Thus Plato taught that "to philos­
ophize and concern oneself with politics is one and the same
thing, and to wrestle with the sophist means at the same time to
defend the city against tyranny." (8)
So true was this that Socrates would not turn his back on the
equivocation of his fellow citizens and their betrayal of truth,
even when their hatred of reason meant his own death.
The "spiritual space" created by the Polis was still, in any
event, the only place for the philosopher. True, in an imperfect
city a fully human life was not possible, and hence a fortiori the
perfect philosophical life was out of the question. "The philoso­
pher has no place in the city except at its helm." Yet if he is not
only silenced but even condemned unjustly to death, it remains
his function as philosopher to teach the city truth by his death
rather than fly into exile or withdraw into private life, since a
purely private existence could not be fully "philosophical." This

11
GA N D H I O N N O N -V I O L E N C E

was Gandhi's view also, and we know that he had no illusions

about the perfection of the Indian Polis.
Gandhi's career was eminently active rather than contem­
plative. Yet his fidelity in maintaining intact the contemplative
element that is necessary in every life was well known. How­
ever, even his days of silence and retirement were not days of
mere "privacy"; they belonged to India and he owed them to
India, because his "spiritual life" was simply his participation
in the life and dharma of his people. Their liberation and the
recovery of their political unity would be meaningless unless
their liberty and unity had a dimension that was primarily
spiritual and religious. The liberation of India was to Gandhi a
religious duty because for him the liberation of India was only
a step to the liberation of all mankind from the tyranny of vio­
lence in others, but chiefly in themselves. So Gandhi could say,
"When the practice of ahimsa becomes universal, God will
reign on earth as He does in heaven." (See below, page 37.)

The life of the Indian sage, or guru, is in any case public to the
point of being excruciating. Day and night Gandhi was sur­
rounded not only by respect but by worship. Somewhere in The
Human Condition Hannah Arendt speaks of the Greek citizen's
"merciless exposure to the Polis." It was in the life of the Polis
that the citizen manifested his deeds and his courage, above all
his reason. "No activity can become excellent if the world does
not provide a proper space for its exercise." (9)
This does not mean that the classical idea allows no "space"
for what is hidden and private. There is the economy of private
life in the home. But this is not the proper sphere of man's ac­
tivities as a being of logic, of courage, and of wisdom. It is in the
public and political realm that he shares words and deeds, thus
contributing his share of action and thought to the fabric of
human affairs. Now, the public and political realm is that where

12
 G A N D H I AN D TH E O N E - EY E D G I AN T

issues are decided in a way worthy of free man: by persuasion

and words, not by violence. Violence is essentially wordless,
and it can begin only where thought and rational communica­
tion have broken down. Any society which is geared for violent
action is by that very fact systematically unreasonable and inar­
ticulate. Thought is not encouraged, and the exchange of ideas
is eschewed as filled with all manner of risk. Words are kept at
a minimum, at least as far as their variety and content may be
concerned, though they may pour over the armed multitude in
cataracts: they are simply organized and inarticulate noise des­
tined to arrest thought and release violence, inhibiting all de­
sire to communicate with the enemy in any other way than by
destructive impact.
Though there are at best only analogies between the Greek
concept of the Polis and the entirely hierarchical structure of
ancient Indian society, it is instructive to see how these basic
ideas are illustrated in Gandhi. It cannot too often be repeated
that with him non-violence was not a simply marginal and
quasi-fanatical indulgence of personal religious feeling. It be­
longed to the very nature of political life, and a society whose
politics are habitually violent, inarticulate, and unreasonable is
a subpolitical and therefore subhuman society. This of course
was a truth that Gandhi had learned not from books but from
experience-in South Africa!

In any case Gandhi's public life was one of maximum exposure,

and he kept it so. For him the public realm was not seculm� it was
sacred. To be involved in it was then to be involved in the sacred
dharma of the Indian people. Surrender to the demands of that
dharma, to the sacred needs of the Harijan (outcastes, untouch­
ables) and of all India, was purely and simply surrender to God
and to His will, manifested in the midst of the people. When
friends tried to dissuade Gandhi from fasting for the people

13
GAN D H I O N N O N -V I O L E N C E

(and Gandhi's fasts were completely public, political acts in the

highest sense of the word) he replied: "God's voice has been in­
creasingly audible as years have rolled by. He has never for­
saken me even in my darkest hour. He has saved me often
against myself and left me not a vestige of independence. The
greater the surrender to Him, the gTeater has been my joy." (10)
Yet it would be a mistake to think of these fasts only as
means of applying political (in the lowest and current sense)
pressure to achieve short-term ends.
Fasting remained primarily an act of worship and an act of
witness to universal truth. It formed part of the Hindu dharma
and therefore of India's witness to the religious truths implicit
in the very structure of cosmic reality. Hence for Gandhi to
speak, write, fast, and exercise nonviolent resistance in behalf
of the Harijan and of Indian freedom was at the same time to
bear witness to the chief truth of Hinduism: "The belief that
ALL life (not only human beings but all sentient beings) is one,
i.e., all life coming from the One universal source, call it Allah,
God or Parameshwara . . ."(ll)
Gandhi adds an interesting commentary to this. His immedi­
ate conclusion is one that is full of social and moral conse­
quences: "Hinduism excludes all exploitation" (hence it
follows implicitly that the caste structure in so far as it rested
upon a basis of crass injustice toward the Harijan was in fact a
denial of the basic truth of Hinduism). Gandhi's sense of the
Hindu dharma demanded, then, that this be made clear and
that all Hindus should collaborate in setting things right. This
fundamental re-establishment of justice was essential if India
was to have the inner unity, strength, and freedom to profit by
its own political liberation.
At the same time, the cooperation of the whole Indian peo­
ple in the sacrificial and religious art of non-violent self­
liberation was a necessary sign to the rest of the world-a

14
 G A N D H I A N D TH E O N E- E Y E D G I A N T

witness that would enable all peoples, especially those subject

to colonialist exploitation, to take the same measures for the
restoration of the order willed by God.
Gandhi continues:

There is no limit whatsoever to the measure of sacrifice that

one may make i n order to realize this oneness with all life, but
certainly the immensity of the ideal sets a limit to your wants.
That, you will see, is the antithesis of the position of the mod­
ern civilization which says "Increase your wants." Those who
hold that belief think that increase o f wants means an increase
of knowledge whereby you understand the Infinite better. On
the contrary, Hinduism rules out indulgence and multiplication
of wants, as these hamper one's growth to the ultimate identity
with the Universal Self. (12)

Gandhi therefore did not identify the "private" sphere with the
"sacred" and did not cut himself off from public activity as "sec­
ular." Yet he did on the other hand look upon certain cultures
and social structures as basically "secular" in the sense that
their most fundamental preconceptions were irreligious (even
though they might, on occasion, appeal to the support of reli­
gious cliches). Some of the most characteristic and least under­
stood elements in his non-violent mystique follow from this
principle which implies a rejection of the basic idea of the afflu­
ent industrial society. A society that lives by organized greed or
by systematic terrorism and oppression (they come to much the
same thing in the end) will always tend to be violent because it
is in a state of persistent disorder and moral confusion. The
first principle of valid political action in such a society then be­
comes non-cooperation with its disorder, its injustices, and
more particularly with its deep commitment to untruth. Satya­
grah a is meaningless if it is not based on the awareness of pro-

15
G A N D H I O N N O N - V I O L E N C E

found inner contradiction in all societies based on force. "It is

not possible for a modern state based on force non-violently to
resist forces of disorder, whether external or internal" (see
below, page 44). Hence satyagraha according to Gandhi cannot
seriously accept claims advanced by a basically violent society
that hopes to preserve order and peace by the threat of maxi­
mum destruction and total hate. Satyagraha must begin by put­
ting itself against this claim in order that the seriousness of
one's dedication to truth may be put to the test. It is not possi­
ble for the truly nonviolent man simply to ignore the inherent
falsity and inner contradictions of a violent society. On the con­
trary, it is for him a religious and human duty to confront the
untruth in that society with his own witness in order that the
falsity may become evident to everyone. The first job of a satya­
grahi is to bring the real situation to light even if he has to suf­
fer and die in order that injustice be unmasked and appear for
what it really is.

All the political acts of Gandhi were, then, at the same time
spiritual and religious acts in fulfillment of the Hindu dharma.
They were meaningful on at least three different levels at once:
first as acts of religious worship, second as symbolic and educa­
tive acts bringing the Indian people to a realization of their true
needs and their place in the life of the world, and finally they
had a universal import as manifestations of urgent truths, the
unmasking of political falsehood, awakening all men to the de­
mands of the time and to the need for renewal and unity on a
world scale.
In Gandhi the voice of Asia, not the Asia of the Vedas and Su­
tras only, but the Asia of the hungry and silent masses, was
speaking and still speaks to the whole world with a prophetic
message. This message, uttered on dusty Indian roads, remains
more meaningful than those specious promises that have come

16
 GAN D H I A N D T H E ON E - EY E D G I A N T

from the great capitals of the earth. As Father Monchanin, the

French priest and scholar who became a hermit in India, de­
clared at Gandhi's death: "When we hear the voice of Gandhi
we hear the voice of his Mother [India] and of his nurse. We
hear the voice of all the peasant masses bending over the rice
fields of India." (13)

"Man cannot be free if he does not know that he is subject to ne­

cessity, because his freedom is always won in his never wholly
successful attempts to liberate himself from necessity." (14)
We have seen that Gandhi's political philosophy was based
on this principle, because his religious intuition of the Hindu
dharma saw all life as one in a sacred cosmic family in which
each member helped to elevate the whole from a selfish and de­
structive to a spiritual and productive level through sacrificial
participation in the common needs and struggles of all. Hence
the cornerstone of all Gandhi's life, action, and thought was the
respect for the sacredness of life and the conviction that "love
is the law of our being." For he said, "If love or non-violence be
not the law of our being, the whole of my argument falls to
pieces." (See below, page 37.) Note he also says that "Truth is
the law of our being." But obviously Gandhi's life was without
meaning unless we take into account the fact that it was lived in
the face of untruth and hatred, the persistent and fl agrant de­
nial of love.
Sometimes the idea of non-violence is taken to be the result
of a purely sentimental evasion of unpleasant reality. Foggy
cliches about Oriental metaphysics leave complacent Western­
ers with the idea that for the East (and as everyone knows, the
Easterners are all "quietists" besides being "enigmatic") noth­
ing really exists anyway. All is illusion, and suffering itself is il­
lusion. Non-violence becomes a way of "making violence stop"
by sitting down in front of it and wishing it was not there. This,

17
G A N D H I O N N O N -V I O L E N C E

together with the refusal to eat meat or to kill ants, indeed even
mosquitoes, is supposedly thought to create an aura of benevo­
lence which may effectively inhibit the violence of Englishmen
(who are in any case kind to dogs, etc.) but cannot be expected
to work against Nazis and Russians. So much for Western eval­
uations!
Gandhi knew the reality of hatred and untruth because he
had felt them in his own flesh: indeed he succumbed to them
when he was assassinated on January 30, 1948. Gandhi's non­
violence was therefore not a sentimental evasion or denial of
the reality of evil. It was a clearsighted acceptance of the neces­
sity to use the force and the presence of evil as a fulcrum for
good and for liberation.

All forms of necessity can contribute to man's freedom. There

is material and economic need. There is spiritual need. The
greatest of man's spiritual needs is the need to be delivered
from the evil and falsity that are in himself and in his society.
Tyranny, which makes a sagacious use of every human need and
indeed artificially creates more of them in order to exploit them
all to the limit, recognizes the importance of guilt. And modern
tyrannies have all explicitly or implicitly in one way or another
emphasized the irreversibility of evil in order to build their
power upon it.
For instance, it is not unusual in all political life, whether to­
talitarian or democratic, to incriminate the political novice in
order to test his mettle and make sure of his commitment. He
must be willing to get his hands dirty, and if he is not willing he
must be framed so that he will have a record that can, when
necessary, be used against him. Then he will be a committed
man. He will henceforth cooperate with acts which might have
given him pause if he were not himself marked with guilt. Who
is he to complain of certain shady actions, certain discreet

18
 GAN D H I A N D T H E O N E - EY E D G I A N T

deals, certain white lies, when he knows what is i n his own file
at headquarters?
It is no accident that Hitler believed firmly in the unforgiv­
ableness of sin. This is indeed fundamental to the whole men­
tality of Nazism, with its avidity for final solutions and its
concern that all uncertainties be eliminated.
Hitler's world was built on the central dogma of the irre­
versibility of evil. Just as there could be no quarter for the Jews,
so the acts that eliminated them were equally irreversible and
there could really be no excuse for the Nazis themselves. Even
the arguments of an Eichmann, pleading obedience, suggest
deep faith in an irreversible order which could not be changed
but only obeyed. Such was the finality of Hitler's acts and or­
ders that all the trials of all the Nazis who have been caught,
whether they have been executed or liberated or put in prison
for short terms, have changed absolutely nothing. It is clear that
Hitler was in one thing a brilliant success: everything he did
bears the stamp of complete and paranoid finality.
In St. Thomas Aquinas, we find a totally different view of
evil. Evil is not only reversible but it is the proper motive of that
mercy by which it is overcome and changed into good. Replying
to the objection that moral evil is not the motive for mercy since
the evil of sin deserves indignation and punishment rather than
mercy and forgiveness, St Thomas says that on the contrary sin
itselfis already a punishment "and in this respect we feel sorrow
and compassion for sinners." (15) In order to do this we have to
be able to experience their sin as if it were our own. But those
who "consider themselves happy and whose sense ofpower de­
pends on the idea that they are beyond suffering any evil are not
able to have mercy on others" by experiencing the evil of others
as their own. (16)
This is a splendid analysis of the mentality of power and
greed which makes evil irreversible! Such a mentality lacks the

19
G A N D H I O N N O N -VIOLENCE

interior strength necessary to assume the suffering of another

as its own and thus to change his condition by forgiveness and
acceptance. Instead of seeing the sin of another as punishment
and suffering, and as motive for compassion, it looks on that
evil as a despicable moral blemish which must be eliminated
and punished, removed from sight and from experience. Only
the admission of defect and fallibility in oneself makes it possi­
ble for one to become merciful to others.
St Thomas continues this remarkable analysis by consider­
ing those who are "obsessed" with the notion of insult, either
because they have suffered a humiliation or because they in­
tend to humiliate another.

They are provoked to anger and aggression, which are virile

passions. These make a man think that he is in danger of suffer­
ing some future evil (which he intends to resist). When men are
so disposed, they do not have mercy on others. Likewise the
proud do not have mercy because they despise others and look
upon them as evil, taking it for granted that these people de­
serve to suffer whatever they have to suffer.(l7)

A belief in the finality and irreversibility of evil implies a refusal

to accept the precariousness and the risk that attend all finite
good in this life. Indeed, the good that men do is always in the
realm of the uncertain and of the fluid, because the needs and
sufferings of men, the sins and failures of men, are constant,
and love triumphs, at least in this life, not by eliminating evil
once for all but by resisting and overcoming it anew every day.
The good is not assured once for all by one heroic act. It must
be recaptured over and over again. St. Peter looked for a limit to
forgiveness. Seven times, and then the sin was irreversible! But
Christ told him that forgiveness must be repeated over and over
again, without end.

20
 G A N D H I A N D TH E O N E - EY E D G I ANT

The "fabric" o f society is not finished. It i s always "in be­

coming." It is on the loom, and it is made up of constantly
changing relationships. Non-violence takes account precisely
of this dynamic and non-final state of all relationships among
men, for non-violence seeks to change relationships that are
evil into others that are good, or at least less bad.
Hence non-violence implies a kind of bravery far different
from violence. In the use of force, one simplifies the situation
by assuming that the evil to be overcome is clear-cut, definite,
and irreversible. Hence there remains but one thing: to elimi­
nate it. Any dialogue with the sinner, any question of the irre­
versibility of his act, only means faltering and failure. Failure to
eliminate evil is itself a defeat. Anything that even remotely
risks such defeat is in itself capitulation to evil. The irreversibil­
ity of evil then reaches out to contaminate even the tolerant
thought of the hesitant crusader who, momentarily, doubts the
total evil of the enemy he is about to eliminate.
Such tolerance is already complicity and guilt, and must be
eliminated in its turn. As soon as it is detected it becomes irre­
versible.
Fortitude, then, equals fanaticism. It grows with unreason.
Reasoning itself is by its very nature tinged with betrayal.
Conscience does indeed make cowards. It makes Judases.
Conscience must be eliminated.
This is the familiar mental machinery of tyrannical oppres­
sion. By reducing necessities to simple and irreversible forms it
simplifies existence, eliminating questions that tend to embar­
rass minds and slacken the "progress" of the relentless and in­
tolerant apparatus. Sin is thus prevented from entering into the
living dialectic of society. And yet a dialectic that ignores the
presence of evil is itself dead because it is untrue. The greatest
of tyrannies are all therefore based on the postulate that there
should never be any sin. That therefore what happened either

21
G A N D H I O N N O N - V I O L E N C E

was not a sin ("Dallas has no sins," as we all were quasi­

officially informed at the end of 1963) or else it has been imme­
diately wiped out (by a lynch mob, or a Jack Ruby). Since sin is
what should never be, then it must never be, therefore it will
never be. The most awful tyranny is that of the proximate
Utopia where the last sins are currently being eliminated and
where, tomorrow, there will be no more sins because all the sin­
ners will have been wiped out.

Non-violence has a different logic. It recognizes that sin is an

everyday occurrence which is in the very nature of action's con­
stant establishment of new relationships within a web of rela­
tions, and it needs forgiving, dismissing, in order to make it
possible for life to go on by constantly releasing men from what
they have done unknowingly. Only through this constant mu­
tual release from what they do can men remain free agents, only
by their constant willingness to change their minds and start
again can they be trusted with so great a power as that to begin
something new. (18)

This remarkable statement of Hannah Arendt's shows the inher­

ent relation between non-violence and the renewal of India for
which Gandhi lived and died. A violent change would not have
been a serious change at all. To punish and destroy the oppressor
is merely to initiate a new cycle of violence and oppression. The
only real liberation is that which liberates both the oppressor and
the oppressed at the same time from the same tyrannical automa­
tism of the violent process which contains in itself the curse of ir­
reversibility. "The freedom contained in Jesus' teaching of
forgiveness is thefreedom from vengeance, [italics mine] which en­
closes both doer and sufferer in the relentless automatism of the
action process, which by itself need never come to an end." (19)
True freedom is then inseparable from the inner strength

22
 GA N D H I A N D T H E ON E - EY E D G I A N T

which can assume the common burden of evil which weighs

both on oneself and one's adversary. False freedom is only a
manifestation of the weakness that cannot bear even one's own
evil until it is projected onto the other and seen as exclusively
his. The highest form of spiritual freedom is, as Gandhi be­
lieved, to be sought in the strength of heart which is capable of
liberating the oppressed and the oppressor together. But in any
event, the oppressed must be able to be free within himself, so
that he may begin to gain strength to pity his oppressor. With­
out that capacity for pity, neither of them will be able to recog­
nise the truth of their situation: a common relationship in a
common complex of sins.
When asked if it was lawful to overcome force with force,
Erasmus answered that this might be permissible according to
"Imperial laws" but he wondered how it could be relevant for a
Christian, who is bound to follow the law of Christ,

granted that human laws do not punish what they have permit­
ted. Yet what is Christ your leader going to do if you defraud
this law . . . If your enemy is hungry, give him to eat . . . In so
doing you will heap coals of fire upon his head, that i s to say,
you will enkindle the fire of love in him.

To the objection that rendering good for evil only lays one open
to greater evil, Erasmus replied:

I f you can avoid evil by suffering it yourself, do so. Try to help

your enemy by overcoming him with kindness and meekness. If
this does not help, then it is better that one perish than both o f
you. It is better that y o u be enriched with t h e advantage o f pa­
tience than to render evil for evil. It is not enough to practice
the golden rule in this matter. The greater your position the
more ready you ought to be to forgive another's crime. (20)

23
G A N D H I O N N O N -VIOLENCE

Here, as usual i n Erasmus, one finds no platitudes. The appar­

ently simple suggestion that one can avoid evil by suffering it
contains an arresting paradox. One can overcome evil by taking
it upon oneself, whereas if one flies from it he is not certain to
escape and may, even if he seems to escape, be overwhelmed.
The only way truly to "overcome" an enemy is to help him be­
come other than an enemy. This is the kind of wisdom we find
in Gandhi. It is the wisdom of the Gospels.
It is also the wisdom of the Apostolic Fathers. We read in the
Shepherd ofHermas:

For, if you are long-suffering, the Holy Spirit dwelling in you

will be clear, unobscured by any other spirit of evil. Dwelling in
a spacious place, He will rejoice and be glad with the lodging in
which He finds Himsel f. Thus, He will serve God with abun­
dant cheerfulness, because He has His well-being within
Himel f. However, if violent anger enters, the good spirit in His
sensitiveness is immedi ately confined, since He has not a clean
habitation. So, He tries to withdraw from the place. . . . For, the
Lord dwells amid long-suffering, but the Devil has his abode in
anger. . . . Take a little wormwood and pour it into a jar of honey.
Is not the honey spoiled altogether? Even a great quantity of
honey is ruined by the smallest amount of wormwood and its
sweetness is lost. It is no longer pleasant to the owner, because
it has been mixed and it is no longer enjoyable. Now, if no
wormwood is put into the honey, it turns out to be sweet and
becomes useful for the owner. You see, then, that long-suffering
is very sweet, far more than honey, and useful to the Lord. His
dwelling is in long-suffering. (21)

Gandhi took upon himself the evil of India, not in a spirit of

masochism or with the spiritual frivolity of self-punishment
that believes itself to have a magic efficacy over sin. Nothing is

24
 GA N D H I A N D T H E O N E - EY E D G IA N T

more deeply serious than the Gandhian fast unto death for the
recognition of the Harijan and for their admission to the tem­
ple, in a word their integration into the sacred public life of the
Indian people.
He did not seek to reproach and confound others with the
spectacle of his own penitence for their sin. He wanted them to
recognize from his example that they could learn to bear and
overcome the evil that was in them if they were willing to do as
he did. Gandhi's symbolic acts (which were meaningful as sym­
bols only because they marked his own flesh with the stamp of
their acute reality) were aimed at three kinds of liberation.
First, he wanted to deliver Indian religious wisdom from the
sclerosis and blindness into which it had sunk by reason of the
gross injustices of a system which had become untrue to itself.
Second, he wanted to liberate the untouchables, the Harijan,
not only from political and economic oppression, but from the
incubus of their own self-hate and their despair. And, finally, he
wished to liberate the oppressors themselves from their blind
and hopeless dependence on the system which kept things as
they were, and which consequently enslaved everybody both
spiritually and materially.
What is most striking in this concept of Gandhi's is its
breadth, its integrity, and its unity. This is his lesson and his
legacy to the world: The evils we suffer cannot be eliminated by
a violent attack in which one sector of humanity flies at another
in destructive fury. Our evils are common and the solution of
them can only be common. But we are not ready to undertake
this common task because we are not ourselves. Consequently
the first duty of every man is to return to his own "right mind"
in order that society itself may be sane.
Coomaraswamy, in an important article (22), once outlined
the meaning of the process called metanoia, or recovery of one's
right m ind, the passage from ignorance of self to enlightened

25
G A N D H I O N NON-VIOLENCE

moral awareness. "Repentance," he said, quoting Hermas (23),

"is a great understanding" (and by no means an emotional cri­
sis!). It is the ability to cast off the intolerable burden of the past
act, no longer seen as irreversible. But obviously no man en­
closed in himself can utter an omnipotent word of command
and abolish his own sin. The "knowledge" and "understanding"
which is truly the "great [and repentant, liberated] understand­
ing" is therefore "understanding-with" or "con-scientia" (con­
science). "A kind of synthesis or agreement by which our
internal conflict is resolved and 'all the knots of the heart are
loosed.' " It is to understand "with" our inmost self "in a union
transcending consciousness of a within or a without."
This is obviously something much deeper than a mere inte­
riority or a form of pious and introverted recollection. It is
supraconscious and suprapersonal. And it obviously implies the
ability to come into unity with the prajnatman (the solar spirit),
or what the Greek Fathers would call the pneuma.
We find St. Thomas speaking somewhat in these terms in an
interesting question in the Summa on blindness of mind.(24)
There is, he says, a principle of intellectual vision in man, and
man can give his attention to this principle or turn away from
it. He turns away either by willful refusal to acknowledge its au­
thority, or by becoming absorbed in the love of other things
which he prefers to the intellectual light. And St. Thomas
quotes Psalm 57:9-Fire hath fallen on them (the fire of desire)
and they shall not see the sun.
The Shepherd of Hermas speaks of the Spirit of Truth as a
trust given by God to man, living and dwelling in him in order
to be returned to the Lord undefiled by any lie. "Love truth and
let nothing but the truth issue from your mouth, in order that
the spirit which God has settled in this flesh of yours may be
found truthful in the sight of men. . . . Liars ignore the Lord and
defraud Him since they do not return the Spirit received from

26
 G AN D H I A N D TH E O N E - EYE D G I A N T

Him, namely a Spirit in which there is no lie." Hearing this,

Hermas weeps and declares: "I have not yet spoken a true word
in all my life!" And the Angel then tells him that this declaration
is the beginning of truth in himself.(25) Of course in this con­
text truth and forgiveness go together, and there must be one
truth and one forgiveness both for myself and my brothers.
Both truth and mercy are falsified when I judge by a double
standard.

The capacity for forgiveness and for understanding in this

highest sense makes men able to transcend the limitations of
that self which is the subject of evil. St. Cyprian says, "If no one
can be without sin . . . how necessary and how beneficent is di­
vine clemency which, since it recognizes that even those who
are healed still retain some wounds, has granted health-giving
remedies to be used in curing the wounds that remain to be
healed." (26) But this is not a merely mental operation, a manip­
ulation of "pure intentions" and the excitation of subjective
benevolence toward offenders. It means an immolation of one's
empirical self, by mercy and sacrifice, in order to save and lib­
erate oneself and the other. Coomaraswamy here quotes the
Maitri Upanishad: 'When the mind has been immolated in its
OWn SOUrCe for love of truth, THEN THE FALSE CONTROLS OF AC­
TIONS DONE WHEN IT WAS DELUDED BY SENSIBILIA LIKEWISE PASS

"
AWAY. This is the mystical basis of Gandhi's doctrine of free­
dom in truth as end, and of satyagraha (the vow of truth) as the
means of attaining the end. Coomaraswamy also quotes a few
lines from Jakob Boehme which throw l ight on this idea which
is, of course, fundamentally Christian. Boehme says:

Thou shalt do nothing but forsake thy own will, viz., that which
thou callest "I" or "thyself." By which means all thy evil proper­
ties will grow weak, faint and ready to die, then thou wilt sink

27
G A N D H I O N N O N -V I O L E N C E

down again into that one thing from which thou art originally
sprung.

To forgive others and to forget their offense is to enter with

them into the healing mystery of death and resurrection in
Christ to return to the source of the Spirit which is the Heart of
Christ. And by this forgiveness we are ourselves cleansed: Unde
vulneratus fueras, inde curare, says Cyprian. (27)

It should be quite obvious that satyagraha has nothing in it of

Western middle-class banality. It does not mean "honesty is the
best policy," because it is far more than honesty and it is infi­
nitely more than a policy. One does not obey the prajnatman, or
intellectual principle, the "spirit of truth," simply in order to get
something out of one's obedience.
The truth may turn out in terms of the current moods and
trends of a blind society to be supremely unprofitable. In that
case, when truth becomes absolutely the worst policy, one fol­
lows it anyway, even when it leads to death.
The "vivisection" of liberated India into two hostile states was
in fact the rending of Gandhi's own heart. Though India was
technically "free," it was not free because it was not united. It was
indeed placed in a situation of mortal danger, in which the per­
petual threat of violence made true freedom and true unity im­
possible. It remained for Gandhi to start all over again as a
solitary. "The interior voice tells me to go on fighting against the
whole world, even though I am alone. It tells me not to fear this
world but to advance, having in myself nothing but the fear of
God." At the same time he did not give up hope for India, because
the truth of the Hindu dharma remained what it had always
been, and iflndia wished to fulfill the conditions of fidelity to her
dharma, she could recover this truth.
"A man ends by becoming what he thinks," Gandhi said, "and

28
 GAN D H I A ND T H E O N E-EYED G I A N T

it will be the same for India if she remains firmly attached to

Truth by means of Love [satyagraha]." But he himself recog­
nized that politically his battle had really been lost. Without
complacency, without self-pity, he faced the truth that there was
only one thing left. He must lay down his life for India, and he
was in fact killed by a brother "whom he had failed to convince."

Whether we may think he succeeded or failed, Gandhi never

ceased to believe in the possibility of a love of truth so strong
and so pure that it would leave an "indelible impress" upon the
most recalcitrant enemy, and awaken in him a response of love
and truth. Such an attitude cannot be understood within the
context of pragmatism, because what matters is the devotion to
truth which it implies, not its actual impact on other men.
In retrospect one wonders how deeply India herself under­
stood Gandhi and believed in him. Tagore himself, one of the
greatest Indian minds of our time, doubted the Mahatma and
leveled against him the accusation with which we are all too fa­
miliar in the West. "Non-cooperation" (with the British)
seemed to Tagore to be nothing but negation, defeatism, passiv­
ity, and so on. The standard and lasting objection to Gandhi has
always been that he was retreating into the past. He is accused
of not seeing that there was no alternative for India but accept­
ance of the values and methods of the West with all their impli­
cations, including the rejection of what was most
fundamentally and characteristically Eastern.
Thus, for Tagore, the refusal to attend English Government
schools (suggested by Gandhi) was nothing more than a with­
drawal into a kind of Hindu ghetto. One should do all one pos­
sibly could to acquire the techniques and attitudes of Western
man, and then turn these against the oppressor. This has been
the formula adopted wholeheartedly, for example, by Commu­
nist C hina.

29
G A N D H I O N N O N -VIOLENCE

Gandhi's idea was quite different. "Non-cooperation," he de­

clared, "is a protest against an unwitting and unwilling partici­
pation in evil." The institutions of colonialism were in reality
not intended to elevate and liberate the Indian. On the contrary,
"the Government schools have unmanned us, rendered us help­
less and Godless. They have filled us with discontent, and pro­
viding no remedy for the discontent have made us despondent.
They have made us what we were intended to become: clerks
and interpreters." (28)
How clear this has since become in the predicament of the
new nations of Asia and Africa, suddenly liberated from colo­
nial tutelage! Having accepted the white man's "culture" in
their status as vassals, and still remaining intellectual and spir­
itual vassals after their liberation, they have entered a world of
frustration, self-contradiction, resentment, and violence be­
cause the guilt of the colonial powers has been inherited, by
them, as a tenfold self-hate, an incapacity to understand them­
selves, and a limitless fear and suspicion of everyone else. This
is neither liberty nor civilization. It is the barbarism of post­
historic man! A barbarism that can be avoided only by princi­
ples and policies like those of Gandhi or John XXIII.
Gandhi knew enough to see that to be "civilized" by force
was in reality to be reduced oneself to barbarism, while the
"civilizer" himself was barbarized. Can anyone deny that this
has happened?
In conclusion, Gandhi's "vow of truth" and all the other
ashram vows, which were the necessary preamble to the awak­
ening of a mature political consciousness, must be seen for what
they are: not simply ascetic or devotional indulgences that may
possibly suit the fancy of a few religious pacifists and confused
poets, but precepts fundamentally necessary if man is to re­
cover his right mind.
Gandhi's principles are, then, extremely pertinent today,

30
 G A N D H I AN D TH E O N E - EY E D G I A NT

more pertinent even than when they were conceived and

worked out in practice in the ashrams, villages, and highways of
India. They are pertinent for everybody, but especially for those
who are interested in implementing the principles expressed
by another great religious mind, Pope John XXIII, in Pacem in
Terris. Indeed this encyclical has the breadth and depth, the
universality and tolerance, of Gandhi's own peace-minded out­
look. Peace cannot be built on exclusivism, absolutism, and in­
tolerance. But neither can it be built on vague liberal slogans
and pious programs gestated in the smoke of confabulation.
There can be no peace on earth without the kind of inner
change that brings man back to his "right mind."
Gandhi's observations on the prerequisites and the disci­
plines involved by satyagraha, the vow of truth, are required
reading for anyone who is seriously interested in man's fate in
the nuclear age.

THOMAS MERTON

Abbey of Gethsemani
April, 1964

31
SELECTIONS FROM GANDHI ' S

Aon - V/olence /n Y-Jeace andWar

 SECTION ONE

YJrincip/es of Xon - Violence

A H I M s A (non-violence) is for Gandhi the basic law of our

being. That is why it can be used as the most effective principle

for social action, since it is in deep accord with the truth of
man's nature and corresponds to his innate desire for peace,
justice, order, freedom, and personal dignity. Since himsa (vio­
lence) degrades and corrupts man, to meet force with force and
hatred with hatred only increases man's progressive degenera­
tion. Non-violence, on the contrary, heals and restores man's
nature, while giving him a means to restore social order and
justice. Ahimsa is not a policy for the seizure of power. It is a
way of transforming relationships so as to bring about a peace­
ful transfer of power, effected freely and without compulsion
by all concerned, because all have come to recognize it as right.
Since ahimsa is in man's nature itself, it can be learned by all,
though Gandhi is careful to state that he does not expect every­
one to practice it perfectly. However, all men should be willing to
engage in the risk and wager of ahimsa because violent policies
have not only proved bankrupt but threaten man with extinction.
G A N D H I O N N O N -V I O LE N C E

There is no half way between truth and non-violence on the

one hand and untruth and violence on the other. We may never
be strong enough to be entirely non-violent in thought, word
and deed. But we must keep non-violence as our goal and make
steady progress towards it. The attainment of freedom,
whether for a man, a nation or the world, must be in exact pro­
portion to the attainment of non-violence by each. I -58*

Non-violence is not a garment to be put on and off at will. Its

seat is in the heart, and it must be an inseparable part of our
very being. I -61

The acquisition of the spirit of non-resistance is a matter of long

training in self-denial and appreciation of the hidden forces
within ourselves. It changes one's outlook on life. . . . It is the great­
est force because it is the highest expression of the soul. I -63

If one is to combat the fetish of force, it will only be by means

totally different from those in vogue among the pure worship­
pers of brute force. I -65

P RIN C IP LE S
Non-violence implies as complete self-purification as is hu­
manly possible.
Man for man the strength of non-violence is in exact propor­
tion to the ability, not the will, of the non-violent person to
inflict violence.
* References throughout are to the two-volume edition of Non- Violence in Peace and
War. published by Navajivan Publishing House, Ahmedabad, 1948.

36
 P R I N C I PLES O F N O N - V I O L E N C E

The power at the disposal of a non-violent person is always

greater than he would have if he were violent.
There is no such thing as defeat in non-violence. I-ll1

AHIMSA ( n o n - v i o l e n c e )
It is the only true force in life. I-ll4

This is the only permanent thing in life, this is the only thing
that counts; whatever effort you bestow on mastering it is well
spent. I-ll4

If love or non-violence be not the law of our being, the whole of

my argument falls to pieces. I -121

When the practice of ahimsa becomes universal, God will reign

on earth as He does in heaven. I-121

I know this cannot be proved by argument. It shall be proved by

persons living it in their lives with utter disregard of conse­
quences to themselves. I-122

Given the proper training and proper generalship, non-violence

can be practiced by the masses of mankind. I-168

Non-violence is the supreme law. During my half a century of ex­

perience I have not yet come across a situation when I had to

37
G A N D H I O N N O N -V I O LENCE

say that I was helpless, that I had no remedy in terms of non­

violence. I-172

Belief in non-violence is based on the assumption that human

nature in its essence is one and therefore unfailingly responds
to the advances of love. . . . The non-violent technique does not
depend for its success on the goodwill of the dictators, for a
non-violent resister depends on the unfailing assistance of God
which sustains him throughout difficulties which would other­
wise be considered insurmountable. I -175

Jesus lived and died in vain if He did not teach us to regulate

the whole of life by the eternal law of love. I -181

If one does not practice non-violence in one's personal rela­

tions with others and hopes to use it in bigger affairs, one is
vastly mistaken . . . . Mutual forbearance is not non-violence.
Immediately you get the conviction that non-violence is the law
of life, you have to practice it towards those who act violently
towards you; and the law must apply to nations as to individu­
als. If the conviction is there, the rest will follow. I -187

My optimism rests on my belief in the infinite possibilities of the

individual to develop non-violence. The more you develop it in
your own being, the more infectious it becomes till it overwhelms
your surroundings and by and by might oversweep the world.
I-190

38
 P R I N C I PLES O F N O N - V I O L E N C E

The Congress can remain non-communal only if it becomes

truly nonviolent in all matters. It cannot be non-violent only to­
wards the rulers and violent towards others. That way lie dis­
grace and disaster. I-261

I believe that a state can be administered on a non-violent basis

if the vast majority of the people are non-violent. So far as I
know, India is the only country which has a possibility of being
such a state. I am conducting my experiment in that faith.
I-265

[In non-violence] the bravery consists in dying, not in killing.

I-265

For me non-violence is a creed. I must act up to it whether I am

alone or have companions. Since propaganda of non-violence is
the mission of my life, I must pursue it in all weathers. I -275

Non-violence, which is a quality of the heart, cannot come by

an appeal to the brain. I-276

I claim to be a passionate seeker after truth, which is but an­

other name for God. In the course of that search the discovery
of non-violence came to me. Its spread is my life mission. I have
no interest in living except for the prosecution of that mission.
I-282

39
G A N D H I O N N O N -V I O L E N C E

There will never be an army of perfectly non-violent people. It

will be formed of those who will honestly endeavor to observe
non-violence. I -300

Those who are attracted to non-violence should, according to

their ability and opportunity, join the experiment. I-307

Man as animal is violent but as spirit is non-violent. The mo­

ment he awakes to the spirit within he cannot remain violent.
Either he progresses towards ahimsa or rushes to his doom.
I-311

Imperfect as I am, I started with imperfect men and women

and sailed on an uncharted ocean. I -396

In the empire of non-violence every true thought counts, every

true voice has its full value. I-399

I claim to be a votary of truth from my childhood. It was the

most natural thing to me. My prayerful search gave me the re­
vealing maxim "Truth is God" instead of the usual one, "God is
Truth." That maxim enables me to see God face to face as it
were. I feel Him pervade every fiber of my being. I -414

A non-violent revolution is not a program of seizure of power.

It is a program of transformation of relationships, ending in a
peaceful transfer of power. II -8

40
 P R I N C I P LES OF N O N -V I O L E N C E

Prayer from the heart can achieve what nothing else can in the
world. I I-19

In satyagraha the cause has to be just and clear as well as the

n1eans. II-33

The i deal of satyagraha is not meant for the select few-the

saint and the seer only; it is meant for all. II -34

The true soldier of India is he who spins to clothe the naked and
tills the soil to grow more food to meet the threatening food crisis.
II-35

To me it is a self-evident truth that if freedom is to be shared

equally by all-even physically the weakest, the lame and the
halt-they must be able to contribute an equal share in its de­
fense. How that can be possible when reliance is placed on ar­
maments, my plebeian mind fails to understand. I therefore
swear and shall continue to swear by non-violence, i.e., by
satyagraha, or soul force. In it physical incapacity is no handi­
cap, and even a frail woman or a child can pit herself or himself
on equal terms against a giant armed with the most powerful
weapons. II -35

In non-violence the masses have a weapon which enables a

child, a woman, or even a decrepit old man to resist the might­
iest government successfully. If your spirit is strong, mere lack
of physical strength ceases to be a handicap. II-41

41
G A N D H I O N N O N -V I O L E N C E

No man has ever been able to describe God fully. The same is
true of ahimsa. II -45

The first principle of non-violent action is that of non­

cooperation with everything humiliating. II -53

One has to speak out and stand up for one's convictions. Inac­
tion at a time of conflagration is inexcusable. II -56

To lay down one's life for what one considers to be right is the
very core of satyagraha. II -59

The sword of the satyagrahi is love, and the unshakable firm­

ness that comes from it. II-59

The training of satyagraha is meant for all, irrespective of age or

sex. The more important part of the training here is mental, not
physical. There can be no compulsion in mental training. II -60

Satyagraha is always superior to armed resistance. This can

only be effectively proved by demonstration, not by argu­
ment . . . . Satyagraha can never be used to defend a wrong
cause. II -60

Satyagraha is a process of educating public opinion such that it

covers all the elements of society and in the end makes itself ir­
resistible. II -61

42
 P R I N C I PLES O F N O N - V I O L E N C E

The conditions necessary for the success of satyagraha are:

1) The satyagrahi should not have any hatred in his heart
against the opponent.
2) The issue must be true and substantial.
3) The satyagrahi must be prepared to suffer till the end.
Il-61

The root of satyagraha is in prayer. A satyagrahi relies upon

God for protection against the tyranny of brute force. II-62

The art of dying for a satyagrahi consists in facing death cheer­

fully in the performance of one's duty. II-63

It is a bad outlook for the world if the spirit of violence takes

hold of the mass mind. Ultimately it destroys the race. II -75

[Moral] practice has not been able to keep pace with the mind.
Man has begun to say, "This is wrong, that is wrong." Whereas
previously he justified his conduct, he now no longer j ustifies
his own or his neighbor's. He wants to set right the wrong but
does not know that his own practice fails him. The contradic­
tion between his thought and conduct fetters him. II-76

Non-violence will prevail-whatever man may or may not do . . .

It will have its way and overcome all obstacles irrespective of
the shortcomings of the instruments. II-76

43
GAN D H I O N N O N - V I O L E N C E

Prayer is the first and the last lesson in learning the noble and
brave art of sacrificing self in the various walks of life culminat­
ing in the defense of one's nation's liberty and honor. II-77

Undoubtedly prayer requires a living faith in God. Successful

satyagraha is inconceivable without that faith. God may be
called by any other name so long as it connotes the living Law
of life-in other words, the Law and the Lawgiver rolled into
one. II-78

The virtues of mercy, non-violence, love and truth in any man

can be truly tested only when they are pitted against ruthless­
ness, violence, hate and untruth. II-85

The independence of my dreams means Ramarajya, i.e., the

Kingdom of God on earth . . . The independence should be
political, economic and moral. "Political" means the removal
of the control of the British army. "Economic" means enti re
freedom from British capitalists and capital, as also from
their Indian counterparts. "Moral" means freedom from
armed defense forces. II-88

It is not possible for a modern state based on force non­

violently to resist forces of disorder, whether external or inter­
nal. A man cannot serve God and Mammon, nor be temperate
and furious at the same time. II -90

44
 P R I N C I PLES O F N O N - V I O L E N C E

A non-violent state must be broad-based on the will of an intel­

ligent people well able to know its mind and act up to it. II -91

No man can stop violence. God alone can do so. Men are but in­
struments in His hands. . . . The deciding factor is God's grace.
He works according to His law and therefore violence will also
be stopped in accordance with that law. Man does not and can
never know God's law fully. Therefore we have to try as far as
lies in our power. II-95

Ahimsa is one of the world's great principles which no force on

earth can wipe out. Thousands like myself may die in trying to
vindicate the ideal, but ahimsa will never die. And the gospel of
ahimsa can be spread only through believers dying for the
cause.
II-96

It has been suggested by American friends that the atom bomb

will bring in ahimsa as nothing else can . . . This is very like a
man glutting himself with dainties to the point of nausea and
turning away from them only to return with redoubled zeal
after the effect of nausea is well over. Precisely in the same
manner will the world return to violence with renewed zeal
after the effect of disgust is worn out. II-96

So far as I can see, the atomic bomb has deadened the finest
feeling that has sustained mankind for ages. There used to be
the so-called l aws of war which made it tolerable. Now we
know the naked truth. War knows no law except that of might.

45
G A N D H I O N N O N - V I O L E N C E

The atom bomb brought an empty victory to the allied arms,

but it resulted for the time being in destroying the soul of
Japan. What has happened to the soul of the destroying nation
is yet too early to see. II -96

Mankind has to get out of violence only through non-violence.

Hatred can be overcome only by love. Counter-hatred only in­
creases the surface as well as the depth of hatred. II -97

I regard the employment of the atom bomb for the wholesale

destruction of men, women and children as the most diabolical
use of science. II -98

Non-violence is the only thing the atom bomb cannot de­

stroy . . . Unless now the world adopts non-violence, it will spell
certain suicide for mankind. II-98

Non-violent defense neither knows nor accepts defeat at any

stage. Therefore a nation or a group which has made non­
violence its final policy cannot be subjected to slavery even by
the atom bomb. II-141

A non-violent man or woman will and should die without retal­

iation, anger or malice, in self-defense or in defending the honor
of his women folk. This is the highest form ofbravery. If an indi­
vidual or group of people are unable or unwilling to follow this
great law of life, retaliation or resistance unto death is the sec­
ond best though a long way off from the first. Cowardice is im-

46
 P R I N C I P L E S OF N O N - V I O L E N C E

potence worse than violence. The coward desires revenge but

being afraid to die, he looks to others, maybe to the government
of the day, to do the work of defense for him. A coward is less
than a man. He does not deserve to be a member of a society of
men and women. II-148

Satyagraha is never vindictive. It believes not in destruction but

in conversion. Its failures are due to the weaknesses of the
satyagrahi, not to any defect in the law itself. II-149

Where there is ahimsa there is Truth and Truth is God. How He

manifests Himself I cannot say. All I know is that He is all­
pervading and where He is all is well. II-151

Truth never damages a cause that is just. II-162

Unless big nations shed their desire of exploitation and the

spirit of violence, of which war is the natural expression and
the atom bomb the inevitable consequence, there is no hope for
peace in the world. II -163

[Jesus-] a man who was completely innocent, offered himself

as a sacrifice for the good of others, including his enemies, and
became the ransom of the world. It was a perfect act. II -166

Goodness must be joined with knowledge. Mere goodness is

not of much use, as I have found in life. One must cultivate the

47
G A N D H I O N N O N - V I O L E N C E

fine discriminating quality which goes with spiritual courage

and character. II-195

The people of Europe are sure to perish if they continue to be

violent. I I-200

God alone knows the mind of a person; and the duty of a man of
God is to act as he is directed by his inner voice. I claim that I
act accordingly. II -204

I ask nobody to follow me. Everyone should follow his own

inner voice. II -205

If we knew the use of non-violent resistance which only those

with hearts of oak can offer, we would present to the world a to­
tally different picture of a free India instead of an India cut in
twain. I I -281

No man, if he is pure, has anything more precious to give than

his life. II -349

48
 SEC T ION T WO

Xon - V/o/ence: Jrue and Yafse

I N T H I s s E c T I o N we have statements which clearly distin­

guish between the non-violence (ahimsa) of the strong and that of
the weak. True nonviolence not only implies the highest form of
bravery: it is a kind of charismatic gift, a "creed" and a "passion,"
for which one sacrifices everything: it is a complete way of life, in
which the satyagrahi* is totally dedicated to the transformation of
his own life, of his adversary, and of society by means of love.
The non-violence of the weak is rather a policy of passive
protest, or even a cloak for impotent hatred which does not
dare to use force. It is without love. It seeks to harm the adver­
sary in ways that do not involve force, and it may resort to se­
cret sabotage or even terrorism. Such conduct is not worthy of
the name of non-violence. It is demoralizing and destructive.
To this false and cowardly non-violence Gandhi says he would
prefer an honest resort to force. Hence those who cannot prac­
tice a really dedicated non-violence should defend their rights
and justice by force, if no other means are available. Gandhi does
not preach the passive surrender of rights or of human dignity.
On the contrary, he believes that nonviolence is the noblest as
well as the most effective way of defending one's rights.
Jesus is presented as the model of non-violent resistance.
r A satya,':,rra h i is one who is consecrated ro non-violent defense of the truth.
G A N D H I O N N O N - V I O L E N C E

Non-violence is not a cover for cowardice, but it is the supreme

virtue of the brave . . . Cowardice is wholly inconsistent with
non-violence. . . . Non-violence presupposes ability to strike.
I-59

He who cannot protect himself or his nearest and dearest or

their honor by non-violently facing death may and ought to do
so by violently dealing with the oppressor. He who can do nei­
ther of the two is a burden. I -77

One who having retaliation in his breast submits to violence out

of policy is not truly non-violent, and may even be a hypocrite if
he hides his intention. It should be remembered that non­
violence comes into play only when it comes in contact with vi­
olence. I -99

Without a direct active expression of it, non-violence, to my

mind, is meaningless. I-113

[Non-violence and pride] If one has pride and egoism, there is no

nonviolence. Non-violence is impossible without humility. My
own experience is that whenever I have acted non-violently I
have been led to it and sustained in it by the higher promptings
of an unseen power. Through my own will I should have miser­
ably failed. I-187

[To a Chinese-1939-re Japan.] In a position of hopeless minor­

ity [i.e., the non-violent are very few] you may not ask your peo-

50
 N O N - V I O L E N C E : T R U E A N D FAL S E

pie to lay down their arms unless their hearts are changed and by
laying down their arms they feel the more courageous and
brave. But while you may not try to wean people from war, you
will in your person live non-violence in all its completeness and
refuse all participation in war. You will develop love for the
Japanese in your hearts . . . . You must be able to love them in
spite of all their misdeeds. If you have that love for the Japan­
ese in your hearts, you will proceed to exhibit in your conduct
that higher form of courage which is the true hallmark of non­
violence. I -189

[To Chinese Christians in 1939.] If China wins, you will go to the

gallows in the attempt to wean China from copying Japan's
methods. I-192

It is better to be violent, if there is violence in our hearts, than

to put on the cloak of non-violence to cover i mpotence. Vio­
lence is any day preferable to impotence. There is hope for a vi­
olent man to become nonviolent. There is no such hope for the
impotent. I-240

Ahimsa is an attribute of the brave. Cowardice and ahimsa do

not go together any more than water and fire. I-243

I want the non-violence of the weak [many] to become the non­

violence of the brave. It may be a dream, but I have to strive for
its realization. I -245

51
G A N D H I O N N O N -V I O L E N C E

[Hijrat-self-imposed exile] My advice to migrate is for all who

feel oppressed and cannot live without losing self-respect in a
particular place. . . . My advice is meant for those who, though
they are conscious of self-respect, lack the strength that comes
from non-violence or the capacity to return blow for blow.
I-255

If the capacity for non-violent self-defense is lacking, there

need be no hesitation in using violent means. I-260

War is an unmitigated evil. But it certainly does one good thing.

It drives away fear and brings bravery to the surface. I-270

Non-violence of the strong cannot be a mere policy. It must be

a creed, or a passion . . . . A man with a passion expresses it in
every little act of his. Therefore he who is possessed by non­
violence will express it in the family circle, in his dealings with
neighbors, in his business . . . in his dealings with opponents.
[Because the Congress members did not show this in their lives
it was rightly concluded that they were not ready for non­
violence.] I -276

In ahimsa it is not the votary who acts in his own strength.

Strength comes from God . . . Never have I attributed any inde­
pendent strength to myself. I-321

The votary of non-violence has to cultivate his capacity for sacrifice

of the highest type in order to be free from fear. . . . He who has not

52
 NON-VI O L E N C E : T R U E A N D FA L S E

overcome all fear cannot practice ahimsa to perfection. The votary

of ahimsa has only one fear, that is of God. He who seeks refuge in
God ought to have a glimpse of the Atman (the transcendent self)
that transcends the body; and the moment one has glimpsed the
imperishable Atman one sheds the love of the perishable body. . . .
Violence is needed for the protection of things external; non­
violence is needed for the protection of the Atman, for the protec­
tion of one's honor. I -335

We should learn to dare danger and death, mortify the flesh,

and acquire the capacity to endure all manner of hardships.
I-335

It is likely that what we believe to be an act of ahimsa (non­

violence) is an act of himsa (violence) in the eyes of God. I-338

Non-violence that merely offers civil resistance to the authorities

and goes no further scarcely deserves the name ahimsa. You may,
if you like, call it unarmed resistance. . . . To quell riots non­
violently there must be true ahimsa in one's heart, an ahimsa that
takes even the erring hooligan in its warm embrace. Such an atti­
tude cannot be cultivated. It can only come as a prolonged and
patient effort which must be made during peaceful times. The
would-be member of a peace brigade should come into close
touch and cultivate acquaintance with the so-called goonda
[hooligan] element in his vicinity. He should know and be known
to all and win the hearts of all by his living and selfless service. No
section should be regarded as too contemptible or mean to mix
with. Goondas do not drop from the sky, nor do they spring from
the earth like evil spirits. They are the product of social disorgan-

53
G A N D H I O N N O N -V I O L E N C E

ization, and society is therefore responsible for their exis­

tence. . . . Let everyone who is interested in removing this disease
make a prompt beginning in his own neighborhood. I -344

[Injustice must be resisted] No doubt the non-violent way is al­

ways the best, but where that does not come naturally the vio­
lent way is both necessary and honorable. Inaction here is rank
cowardice and unmanly. It must be shunned at all cost. I -402

Sabotage is a form of violence. People have realized the futility

of physical violence but some people apparently think that it
may be successfully practiced in its modified form as sabotage.
It is my conviction that the whole mass of people would not
have risen to the height of courage and fearlessness that they
have but for the working of full non-violence. How it works we
do not yet fully know. But the fact remains that under non­
violence we have progressed from strength to strength even
through our apparent failures and setbacks. On the other hand
terrorism resulted in demoralization. Haste leads to waste.
II-2

No secret organization, however big, could do any good. Se­

crecy aims at building a wall of protection around you. Ahimsa
disdains all such protection. It functions in the open in the face
of odds, the heaviest conceivable. We have to organize for ac­
tion a vast people that have been crushed under the heel of un­
speakable tyranny for centuries. They cannot be organized by
other than open, truthful means. I have grown up from youth to
seventy-six years in abhorrence of secrecy. There must be no
watering down of the ideal. II-2

54
 N O N - V I O L E N C E : T R U E A N D FA L S E

On India rests the burden of pointing the way to all the ex­
ploited races. She won't be able to bear that burden if non­
violence does not permeate us more than today. . . . India will
become a torch bearer to the oppressed only if she can vindi­
cate the principle of non-violence in her own case, not j ettison
it as soon as independence of foreign control is achieved. II-13

Jesus was the most active resister known perhaps to history.

This was non-violence par excellence. II-16

Non-violence in the sense of mere non-killing does not appear

to me to be any improvement on the technique of violence. It
means slow torture, and when slowness becomes ineffective
we shall immediately revert to killing and to the atom bomb.
II-29

So long as one wants to retain one's sword, one has not attained
complete fearlessness. II -38

A satyagrahi may never run away from danger, irrespective of

whether he is alone or in the company of many. He will have
fully performed his duty if he dies fighting. II -59

In life it is impossible to eschew violence completely. The ques­

tion arises, Where is one to draw the line? The line cannot be the
same for everyone. . . . Meat-eating is a sin for me. Yet for another
person who has always lived on meat and never seen anything
wrong in it, to give it up simply to copy me will be a sin. II-69

55
G A N D H I O N N O N -V I O L ENCE

To allow crops to be eaten up by animals in the name of ahimsa

while there is a famine in the land is certainly a sin. II -69

Fear of the foreigner is what gives rise to hatred. Fear gone, there
can be no hatred. Thus his conversion implies our conversion too.
If we cease to be inferiors, he cannot be our superior. His arsenals
and his weapons, typified in their extreme by the atom bomb,
should have no terror for us. It follows that we should not covet
them. II-74

If non-violence does not appeal to your heart, you should dis­

card it. I I -134

If the people are not ready for the exercise of the non-violence
of the brave, they must be ready for the use of force in self­
defense. There should be no camouflage. . . . It must never be
secret. Il-146

To take the name of non-violence when there is a sword in your

heart is not only hypocritical and dishonest but cowardly.
11-153

There is nothing more demoralizing than fake non-violence of

the weak and impotent. II-153

56
 SECTION THREE

Jbe c5pinlua/ 7Jimensions oj Xon - Violence

GA N D HI F I RMLY B E L I E V E S that non-violence is actually

more natural to man than violence. His doctrine is built on this
confidence in man's natural disposition to love. However, man
finds himself deeply wounded, and his inmost dispositions are
no longer fully true to themselves. In man's disordered condi­
tion, violence seems to be the very foundation of social order
and is "enthroned as if it were an eternal law," so that man is
called upon by society to reject love and enter into a mysterious
"higher duty," presented as sacrificial and inscrutable, and de­
manded by the law of force. Hence the extraordinary difficulty
of non-violence, which requires a supernatural courage only
obtainable by prayer and spiritual discipline. This courage de­
mands nothing short of the ability to face death with complete
fearlessness and to suffer without retaliation. Such a program is
meaningless and impossible, Gandhi thinks, without belief in
God.
In any case, violence is actually the expression of weakness
and confusion. A weak man, inclined to violence, acts justly
only by accident. It is the non-violent man (and, by extension,
the non-violent society) which is consistently fair and just.
Therefore a truly free and just society must be constructed on a
foundation of non-violence.
G A N D H I O N N O N -V I O L E N C E

Non-resistance is restraint voluntarily undertaken for the good

of society. It is, therefore, an intensely active, purifying, inward
force . . . It pre-supposes ability to offer physical resistance.
.

I-63

Non-violence is the greatest and most active force in the world.

One cannot be passively non-violent. . . . One person who can ex­
press ahimsa in life exercises a force superior to all the forces of
brutality. I -113

Non-violence cannot be preached. It has to be practiced. I-129

[Human society is naturally non-violent.] All society is held to­

gether by non-violence, even as the earth is held in her position
by gravitation. But when the law of gravitation was discovered
the discovery yielded results of which our ancestors had no
knowledge. Even so when society is deliberately constructed in
accordance with the law of non-violence, its structure will be
different in material particulars from what it is today. . . . What
is happening today is disregard of the law of non-violence and
enthronement of violence as if it were an eternal law. I-198

I know that the progress of non-violence is seemingly a terribly

slow progress. But experience has taught me it is the surest way
to the common goal. I-211

My faith in the saying that what is gained by the sword will also
be lost by the sword is imperishable. I-212

58
 T H E S P I R ITUAL D I M E N S I O N S OF N O N - V I O L E N C E

Non-violence is impossible without self-purification. I-245

My greatest weapon is mute prayer. I-251

In the composition of the truly brave there should be no malice,

no anger, no distrust, no fear of death or physical hurt. Non­
violence is certainly not for those who lack these essential qual­
ities. I -253

Mental violence has no potency and injures only the person

whose thoughts are violent. It is otherwise with mental non­
violence. It has potency which the world does not yet know.
And what I want is nonviolence of thought and deed. I-256

Self-respect and honor cannot be protected by others. They are

for each individual himself or herself to guard. I -260

If we remain non-violent, hatred will die as everything does,

from disuse. I-263

It is the law of love that rules mankind. Had violence, i.e., hate,
ruled us, we should have become extinct long ago. And yet the
tragedy of it is that the so-called civilized men and nations con­
duct themselves as if the basis of society was violence. I -266

59
G A N D H I O N N O N - V I O L E N C E

Democracy can only be saved through non-violence, because

democracy, so long as it is sustained by violence, cannot provide
for or protect the weak. My notion of democracy is that under
it the weakest should have the same opportunity as the
strongest. This can never happen except through non­
violence. . . . Western democracy, as it functions today, is diluted
Nazism or Fascism. I-269

Non-violent defense presupposes recklessness about one's life

and property. I -271

The immovable force of satyagraha-suffering without retalia­

tion. I-272

Those who die unresistingly are likely to still the fury of vio­
lence by their wholly innocent sacrifice. I-278

He who meets death without striking a blow fulfills his duty

cent per cent. The result is in God's hands. I-284

If intellect plays a large part in the field of violence, I hold that

it plays a larger part in the field of non-violence. I-291

As non-violence admits of no grossness, no fraud, no malice, it

must raise the moral tone of the defenders. Hence there will be
a corresponding rise in the moral tone of the "weak majority"
to be defended. I -307

60
 T H E S P I R I T UAL D I M E N S I O N S OF N O N -V I O L E N C E

Moral support cannot really be given in the sense of giving. It

automatically comes to him who is qualified to take it. And such
a one can take it in abundance. I-315

A satyagrahi is dead to his body even before his enemy attempts

to kill him, i.e., he is free from attachment to his body and only
lives in the victory of his soul. Therefore when he is already
thus dead, why should he yearn to kill anyone? To die in the act
of killing is in essence to die defeated. I -318

The general of a non-violent army has got to have greater pres­

ence of mind than that of a violent army, and God would bless
him with the necessary resourcefulness to meet new situations
as they arise. I -325

A non-violent army need not have the resourcefulness or un­

derstanding of its general, but they will have a perfect sense of
discipline to carry out faithfully his orders. I -326

In this age of democracy it is essential that desired results are

achieved by the collective effort of the people. It will no doubt
be good to achieve an objective through the effort of an
supremely powerful individual, but it can never make the com­
munity conscious of its corporate strength. I-342

If freedom has got to come, it must be obtained by our own in­

ternal strength, by our closing our ranks, by unity between all
sections of the community. 1-351

61
G A N D H I O N N O N -V I O L E N C E

A weak man is just by accident. A strong but non-violent man is

unjust by accident. I-354

If liberty and democracy are to be truly saved, they will only be

by nonviolent resistance no less brave, no less glorious, than vi­
olent resistance. And it will be infinitely braver and more glori­
ous because it will give life without taking any. I-357

When in the face of an upheaval such as we are witnessing

there are only a few individuals of immovable faith, they have
to live up to their faith even though they may produce no visi­
ble effect on the course of events. They should believe that their
action will produce tangible results in due course. I-381

Such non-violent resisters will calmly die wherever they are

but will not bend the knee before the aggressor. They will not
be deceived by promises. They do not seek deliverance from the
British yoke through the help of a third party [the Japanese].
They believe implicitly in their own way of fighting and no
other. Their fight is on behalf of the dumb millions who do not
perhaps know that there is such a thing as deliverance. They
have neither hatred for the British nor love for the Japanese.
They wish well to both as to all others. They would like both to
do what is right. They believe that non-violence alone will lead
men to do right under all circumstances. I-398

The task before the votaries of non-violence is very difficult,

but no difficulty can baffle men who have faith in their mission.
I-398

62
 T I-l E S P I R I TUAL D I M EN S I O N S O F N O N - V I O L E N C E

The best preparation for and even the expressiOn of non­

violence lies in the determined pursuit of the constructive pro­
gram . . . . He who has no belief in the constructive program has,
in my opinion, no concrete feeling for the starved millions. He
who is devoid of that feeling cannot fight non-violently. In actual
practice the expansion of my non-violence has kept exact pace
with that of my identification with starved humanity. I-399

Non-violence knows no defeat. It must, however, be true non­

violence, not a make-believe. II-8

A satyagrahi must always be ready to die with a smile on his

face, without retaliation and without rancor in his heart. Some
people h ave come to have a wrong notion that satyagraha
means only jail-going, perhaps facing blows, and nothing more.
Such satyagraha cannot bring independence. To win independ­
ence you have to learn the art of dying without killing. II-21

Must I do all the evil I can before I learn to shun it? Is it not
enough to know the evil to shun it? If not, we should be sincere
enough to admit that we love evil too well to give it up. II-74

A satyagrahi cannot wait or delay action till perfect conditions

are forthcoming. He will act with whatever material is at hand,
purge it of dross and convert it into pure gold. I I-llO

Truth and non-violence are not possible without a living belief

in God, meaning a self-existent, all-knowing, living Force

63
G A N D H I O N N O N -V I O L E N C E

which inheres in every other force known to the world and

which depends on none, and which will live when all other
forces may conceivably perish or cease to act. I am unable to ac­
count for my life without belief in this all-embracing living
Light. II-112

Crime is a disease like any other malady and is a product of the

prevalent social system. Therefore [in a non-violent India] all
crime including murder will be treated as a disease. II-123

Murder can never be avenged by either murder or taking com­

pensation. The only way to avenge murder is to offer oneself as
a willing sacrifice, with no desire for retaliation. II-131

In this age of the atom bomb unadulterated non-violence is the

only force that can confound all the tricks of violence put to­
gether. II-143

The lawlessness, if it can be so described, that I have advocated

is like prescribing wholesome and necessary food for the body.
Behind my "lawlessness" there is discipline, construction and
well-being of society. It is an effective protest against an unjust
and injurious law or act. It can never take the form of selfish
evasion of duty. II-152

64
 SECT ION FOUR

Jbe ?o/Iiica!Ocope of Xon - Violence

GAN D H I D O E S N O T E N V I S AG E a tactical non-violence

confined to one area of life or to an isolated moment. His
non-violence is a creed which embraces all of life i n a consis­
tent and logical network of obligations. One cannot be vio­
lent, for example, in interpersonal or family relations, and
nonviolent with regard to conscription and war. Genuine
non-violence means not only non-cooperation with glaring
social evils, but also the renunciation of benefits and privi­
leges that are implicitly guaranteed by forces which con­
science cannot accept.
Austere political implications of the non-violent way of life
are suggested in some of these texts.
G A N D H I O N N O N - V I O L E N C E

So long as I lived under a system of government based on force

and voluntarily partook of the many facilities and privileges it
created for me, I was bound to help that government to the ex­
tent of my ability when it was engaged in a war, unless I non­
cooperated with that government and renounced to the utmost of
my capacity the privileges it offered me. I-73

There is no escape for any of us save through truth and non­

violence. I know that war is wrong, is an unmitigated evil. I
know too that it has got to go. I firmly believe that freedom won
through bloodshed or fraud is no freedom. I-75

Merely to refuse military service is not enough. . . . This is [to

act] after all the time for combating evil is practically gone.
I-106

Non-cooperation in military service and service in non-military

matters are not compatible. I-108

Non-violence to be a creed has to be all-pervasive. I cannot be

nonviolent about one activity of mine and violent about others.
That would be a policy, not a life force. [1935] I -no

(NON - V IO L E N C E IN GRE A T N A T ION S ? ]

I f they can shed the fear o f destruction, i f they disarm them­
selves, they will automatically help the rest to regain their san­
ity. But then these great powers will have to give up their
imperialistic ambitions and their exploitation of the so-called

66
 THE P O L I T ! C i\ L S C O P E O F N O N - V I O L E N C E

uncivilized or semi-civilized nations of the earth and revise

their mode of life. It means a complete revolution. I-158

The states that are today nominally democratic have either to

become frankly totalitarian or, if they are to be truly demo­
cratic, they must become courageously non-violent. I -159

Peace will never come until the great powers courageously de­
cide to disarm themselves. I-176

Don't listen to friends when the Friend inside you says "Do
this!"
I-182

Without the recognition of non-violence on a national scale

there is no such thing as a constitutional or democratic govern­
ment. I-199

Democratic government is a distant dream so long as non­

violence is not recognized as a living force, an inviolable creed,
not a mere policy. I-200

[ T RU E D E M O C R A C Y )
The true democrat is he who with purely non-violent means
defends his liberty and therefore his country's and ultimately
that of the whole of mankind. In the coming test pacifists have

67
G A N D H I O N N O N- VIOL ENCE

to prove their faith by resolutely refusing to do anything with

war, whether of defense or offense. But the duty of resistance
accrues only to those who believe in non-violence as a creed­
not to those who will calculate and will examine the merits of
each case and decide whether to approve or oppose a particu­
lar war. It follows that such resistance is a matter for each per­
son to decide for himself and under the guidance of an inner
voice, if he recognizes its existence. I -204

You cannot build non-violence on a factory civilization . . . .

Rural economy as I have conceived it eschews exploitation al­
together, and exploitation is the essence of violence. You have
therefore to be ruralminded before you can be non-violent, and
to be rural-minded you have to have faith in the spinning wheel.
I-243

Morality is contraband in war. I-268

The cause of liberty becomes a mockery if the price to be paid

is the wholesale destruction of those who are to enjoy liberty.
I-272

[ F I E L D S OF NON - V I OL E N C E ]
1) Resistance to constituted authority.
2)Ahimsa in civil (internal) disturbances.
3) External invasion. I-284

68
 T H E POLI T I CA L S C O P E OF N O N - V I O L E N C E

Nobody can practice perfect non-violence. . . . We may not be

perfect in our use of it, but we definitely discard the use of vio­
lence and grow from failure to success. I -292

Not all legislation is violence. Legislation imposed by people

upon themselves is non-violence to the extent that it is possible
in society. . . . That state is perfect and non-violent where the
people are governed the least. The European democracies are
to my mind the negation of democracy. I-292

Not to yield your mind means that you will not give way to any
temptation . . . A weak-minded man can never be a satyagrahi.
.

The latter's "no" is invariably a "no" and his "yes" an eternal

"yes." Such a man alone has the strength to be a devotee of truth
and ahimsa. But here one must know the difference between
steadfastness and obstinacy. If after having said "yes" or "no"
one finds out that the decision was wrong and in spite of that
knowledge clings to it, that is obstinacy and folly. I-317

The meaning of refusal to own allegiance is clear. You will not

bow to the supremacy of the victor. You will not help him to at­
tain his object. I-317

The ideally non-violent state will be an ordered anarchy. I-324

If this conflagration [World War II] is to be put out through

nonviolent effort, it will be done only by India. I-342

69
G A N D H I O N N O N - V I O L E N C E

The leaders of course know what they are fighting for [World
War I I] . I make no admission that they are right. But neither
the English nor the Germans nor the Italians know what they
are fighting for except that they trust their leaders and there­
fore follow them. I submit that this is not enough when the
stake is so bloody and staggering as during the present war. . . .
When I asked the British soldiers in South Africa during the
Boer War they could not tell me what they were fighting for.
I-356

What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the
homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the
name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democ­
racy? I-357

Liberty and democracy become unholy when their hands are

dyed red with innocent blood. I -357

Non-cooperation with evil is a sacred duty. I-358

A soldier of peace, unlike the one of the sword, has to give all
his spare time to the promotion of peace alike in war time as in
peace time. His work in peace time is both a measure of preven­
tion of, as also that of preparation for, war time. I -366

I see coming the day of the rule of the poor, whether that rule
be through force of arms or of non-violence. I -373

70
 T H E P O L I T I CA L SCOPE OF N O N - V I O L E N C E

You cannot successfully fight them [the Big Powers] with their
own weapons. After all, you cannot go beyond the atom bomb.
Unless we have a new way of fighting imperialism of all brands
in place of the outworn one of violent rising, there is no hope
for the oppressed races of the earth. II -8

[To Africans] The moment the slave resolves that he will no

longer be a slave, his fetters fall. He frees himself and shows the
way to others. Freedom and slavery are mental states. There­
fore the first thing is to say to yourself, "I shall no longer accept
the role of a slave. I shall not obey orders as such but shall dis­
obey when they are in conflict with my conscience." The so­
called master may lash you and try to force you to serve him.
You will say, "No, I will not serve you for your money or under
a threat." This may mean suffering. Your readiness to suffer will
light the torch of freedom which can never be put out. I I-10

One day the black races will rise like the avenging Attila against
their white oppressors unless someone presents to them the
weapon of satyagraha. I I -12

The real "white man's burden" is not insolently to dominate

colored or black people under the guise of protection, it is to
desist from the hypocrisy which is eating into them. It is time
white men learned to treat every human being as their equal.
II-16

The West is passing through a purgatory today [1946]. Those

who have won the war have found that they are no more victors

7l
G A N D H I O N N O N -V I O L E N C E

than those who have lost it. Yet it is not in World War I I that
Western civilization will have met its grave. It is being dug in
South Africa. The white civilization in South Africa looks black
in contrast with the colored or Asiatic civilization which is
comparatively white. If our people remain steadfast and non­
violent till the end, I have not a shadow of a doubt that their
heroic struggle will drive the last nail in the coffin of Western
civilization, which is being found out in its true colors in South
Africa. I I-24

Jesus was an Asiatic. If He was reborn and went to South Africa

today and lived there, He would have to live in a ghetto. II-25

Those who agree that racial inequality must be removed and

yet do nothing to fight the evil are impotent. I cannot have any­
thing to say to such people. After all, the underdogs will have to
earn their own salvation. II-28

No government on earth can make men who have realized free­

dom in their hearts salute against their will. II-38

A reformer has to sail not with the current. Very often he has to
go against it even though it may cost him his life. 11-39

The real love is to love them that hate you, to love your neigh­
bor even though you distrust him. I have sound reasons for dis­
trusting the English official world. If my love is sincere, I must
love the Englishman in spite of my distrust. Of what avail is my

72
 T H E P O L I T I CAL SCOPE O F N O N - V I O L E N C E

love if it be only so long as I trust my friend? Even thieves do

that. They become enemies immediately, their trust is gone.
II-42

As the author of fasting as a weapon in satyagraha I must state

that I cannot give up an opinion honestly held even if the whole
world fasts against me. I might as well give up my belief in God
because a body of atheists fasted against such belief. II-46

I do not appreciate any underground activity. Millions cannot

go underground. Millions need not. I I-50

Mankind is at the crossroads. It has to make its choice between

the law of the jungle and the law of humanity. II -56

Ahimsa calls for the strength and courage to suffer without re­
taliation, to receive blows without returning any. But that does
not exhaust its meaning. Silence becomes cowardice when oc­
casion demands speaking out the whole truth and acting ac­
cordingly. II -57

You are no satyagrahis if you remain silent or passive spectators

while your enemy is being done to death. You must protect him
even at the cost of your own life. II -63

To benefit by others' killing and delude oneself into the belief

that one is being very religious and non-violent is sheer self­
deception. II-68

73
G A N D H I O N N O N-VIOLENCE

I shall bring about economic equality through non-violence by

converting the people to my point of view by harnessing the
forces of love as against hatred . . . . For that I have to reduce my­
self to the level of the poorest of the poor. II -73

We have all-rulers and ruled-been living so long in a stifling,

unnatural atmosphere that we might well feel in the beginning
that we have lost the lungs for breathing the invigorating
ozone of freedom. II-75

A strike should be spontaneous and not manipulated. If it is or­

ganized without any compulsion there would be no chance for
goondaism [hooliganism] and looting. Such a strike would be
characterized by perfect cooperation among the strikers. It
should be peaceful and there should be no show of force. The
strikers should take up some work either singly or in coopera­
tion with each other in order to earn their bread. II -80

There should be no strike which is not justifiable on merits. No

unjust strike should succeed. All public sympathy must be
withheld from such strikes. II-81

Strikes for economic betterment should never have a political

end as an ulterior motive. II -81

Political strikes must be treated on their own merits and must

never be mixed with or related to economic strikes. II-82

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 T H E P O L I T I C A L S C O P E O F N O N -V I O L E N C E

Under no circumstances can India and England give non­

violent resistance a reasonable chance while they are both
maintaining full military efficiency. II -92

If India became the slave of the machine, then, I say, heaven

save the world. II -99

In this structure [of the new non-violent India] composed of in­

numerable villages, there will be ever widening, never ascend­
ing circles. Life will not be a pyramid with the apex sustained
by the bottom. But it will be an oceanic circle whose center will
be the individual always ready to perish for the village, the lat­
ter ready to perish for the circle of villages, till at last the whole
becomes one life composed of individuals, never aggressive in
their arrogance but ever humble, sharing the majesty of the
oceanic circle of which they are integral units. II -112

["Their Socialism"] Their one aim is material progress. Under

their socialism there is no individual freedom. You own nothing,
not even your body. You may be arrested at any time, though you
may have committed no crime. They may send you wherever they
like. ["My Socialism"] I was a socialist before many of them were
born. My claim will live when their socialism is dead. My social­
ism means "even unto this last." I do not want to rise on the ashes
of the blind, the deaf and the dumb. . . . I want freedom for full ex­
pression of my personality. I must be free to build a staircase to
Sirius if I want to. . . . My socialism means that the state does not
own everything. 11-116-17

75
G A N D H I O N N O N - V I O L E N C E

High thinking is inconsistent with complicated material life

based on high speed imposed on us by Mammon worship.
II-121

Without having to enumerate key industries, I would have

state ownership where a large number of people have to work
together. The ownership of the products of their labor,
whether skilled or unskilled, will vest in them through the
state. I I -121

We are all thieves, but most of us are tolerant towards ourselves

and intolerant towards those that are found out and are not of
the ordinary run. What is a man if he is not a thief who openly
charges as much as he can for the goods he sells? II-124

A satyagrahi will not report a criminal [who has injured him] to

the police. He will not try to ride two horses at a time, viz., to
pretend to follow the law of satyagraha while at the same time
seeking police aid. He must forswear the latter in order to fol­
low the former. . . A reformer cannot afford to be an informer.
.

II-126

It is difficult but not impossible to conduct strictly honest busi­

ness. What is true is that honesty is incompatible with the
amassing of a large fortune. II -127

The democracies regard army men as their saviors. They bring

wealth and subjugate other countries and sustain authority in

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 T H E P O L I T I C A L S C O P E O F N O N - V I O L E N C E

times of civil disturbance. What is therefore to be wished is that

democracy, to be true, should cease to rely on the army for any­
thing whatsoever. 11-139

War is a respectable term for goondaism [hooliganism] prac­

ticed on a mass or national scale. 11-149

You are very much mistaken if you imagine that true democracy
obtains either in America or England. The voice of the people
may be said to be God's voice. . . . But how can there be the voice
of God where the people themselves are the exploiters as Eng­
land and America are? They live on the colored races by ex­
ploiting them. 11-151

I have friends among the Communists. Some of them are like

sons to me. But it seems they do not make any distinction be­
tween fair and foul, truth and falsehood . . . . They seem to take
their instructions from Russia, which they regard as their spir­
itual home rather than India. I cannot countenance this de-
pendence on an outside power. 11-155

Intellectual work is important and has an undoubted place in

the scheme of life. But what I insist on is the necessity of phys­
ical labor. No man, I claim, ought to be free from that obligation.
11-216

The essence of true religious teaching is that one should serve

and befriend all. It is easy enough to be friendly to one's friends.

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G A N D H I O N N O N - V I O L E N C E

But to befriend the one who regards himself as your enemy is

the quintessence of true religion. The other is mere business.
II-248

Rights that do not flow from duty well performed are not worth
having. II -269

Impure means result in an impure end. II-274

Harbor impurity of mind or body and you have untruth and vi­
olence in you. II -274

Only truthful, non-violent and pure-hearted socialists will be

able to establish a socialistic society in India and the world. To
my knowledge there is no country in the world which is purely
socialistic. 11-274

Truth and ahimsa must incarnate in socialism. In order that

they can, the votary must have a living faith in God. Mere me­
chanical adherence to truth and ahimsa is likely to break down
at the critical moment . . . . God is a living Force. . . . He who de­
nies the existence of that great Force denies to himself the use
of that inexhaustible Power and thus remains impotent. . . . The
socialism of such takes them nowhere. II-275

78
 SECTION FIVE

Jbe ?urily of Xon - Violence

N 0 N - V I 0 L E N C E MU S T N 0 T be vitiated by the desire of

human recognition or personal advantage. On the other hand it

must lend itself to every form of service and sacrifice that really
contributes to the preservation and betterment of human life. It
is deeply concerned with the dignity, the freedom, and the well­
being of man, especially of the underprivileged. Non-violence is
not merely a selfish and negative evasion of responsibility. It is
the highest kind of sacrifice for unity and peace.
Gandhi touches on the training of the non-violent resister,
and stresses that the use of certain means such as fasting must
be marked by prudence and flexibility.
The Mahatma finally faces the failure of his non-violent
campaign in India, but declares that the failure was partly his
own, partly the fault of his followers. Their motives and con­
duct were not sufficiently pure. It was, then, not satyagralw
that had failed but those who used it as a policy for pragmatic
ends instead of living by it as a spiritual creed.
Gandhi retained to the end his hope that only genuine non­
violence could guarantee the peace and order of the world. But
he admitted the uselessness of a purely negative and passive re­
sistance lacking the dynamic, positive, and, above all, spiritual
qualities of true ahimsa.
GAN D H I O N N O N - V I O L E N C E

[N O N -V I O L E N T OPPOS I T I O N]
1) It implies not wishing ill.
2) It includes total refusal to cooperate with or participate in
activities of the unjust group, even to eating food that
comes from them.
3) It is of no avail to those without living faith in the God of
love and love for all mankind.
4) He who practices it must be ready to sacrifice everything
except his honor.
5) It must pervade everything and not be applied merely to
isolated acts. I-ll9

[P O L I T I C S A N D R E L I G I O N]
I could not be leading a religious life unless I identified myself with
the whole of mankind, and that I could not do unless I took part in
politics. The whole gamut of man's activities today constitutes an
indivisible whole. You cannot divide social, economic, political and
purely religious work into watertight compartments. I-170

Our experience was that those who went to jail in a prayerful

spirit came out victorious, those who had gone on their own
strength failed. There is no room for self-pitying in it either,
when you say God is giving you the strength. Self-pity comes
when you do a thing for which you expect recognition from
others. But here there is no question of recognition. I -187

While you will keep yourself aloof from all violence you will not
shirk danger. You will rush forth if there is an outbreak of an
epidemic or a fire to be combated and distinguish yourself by
your surpassing courage and non-violent heroism. I-189

80
 T H E P U R ITY O F N O N - V I O L E N C E

There can be degrees in violence, not in non-violence. The con­

stant effort of the votary of non-violence is to purge himself of
hatred toward the so-called enemy. There is no such thing as
shooting out of love. I -190

Non-violence succeeds only when we have a living faith in God.

I-191

Ahimsa is the most efficacious in front of the greatest himsa. Its

quality is really tested only in such cases. Sufferers need not see
the result. . . . I-205

In the dictionary of satyagraha there is no enemy. I-216

Human dignity is best preserved not by developing the capacity

to deal destruction but by refusing to retaliate. If it is possible to
train millions in the black art of violence, which is the law of
the beast, it is more possible to train them in the white art of
non-violence, which is the law of regenerate man. I -228

It is permissible for, it is even the duty of, a bel iever in ahimsa

to distinguish between the aggressor and the defender. Having
done so, he will side with the defender in a non-violent manner,
i.e., give his life in saving him. I-238

It is open to a war resister to judge between the combatants and

wish success to the one who has justice on his side. By so judg-

81
G A N D H I O N N O N - V I O L E N C E

ing he is more likely to bring peace between the two than by re­
maining a mere spectator. I -241

Unless you have nothing but brotherliness for those that de­
spitefully use you, your resolution that you would stand by the
principle of nonviolence through thick and thin will have no
meaning. I -243

Non-violence is not a cloistered virtue confined only to the rishi

[a holy man, sage] . . . . It is capable ofbeing practiced by the mil­
lions, not with full knowledge of its implications but because it
is the law of our species. I-243

The first condition of non-violence is justice all around in every

department of life. Perhaps it is too much to expect of human
nature. I do not however, think so. No one should dogmatize
about the capacity of human nature for degradation or exalta­
tion. I-267

We have to court death without retaliation and with no malice

or anger towards those who bring about disorder. I-277

This truly non-violent action is not possible unless it springs

from a heart belief that he whom you fear and regard as a rob­
ber . . . and you are one, and that therefore it is better that you
should die at his hands than that he, your ignorant brother,
should die at yours. 1-279

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 T H E P U R I TY O F N O N -V I O L E N C E

[Ahimsa] is impossible without charity-unless one is saturated

with charity. It is only he who feels one with his opponent that can
receive his blows as though they were so many flowers. Even one
such man, if God favors him, can do the work of a thousand. It re­
quires soul-force-moral courage-of the highest type. I-284

The best field for the operation of non-violence-the family or

institution regarded as a family. Non-violence between the
members of such families should be easy to practice. If that fails
it means we have not developed the capacity for pure non­
violence. I -299

The alphabet of ahimsa is best learned in the domestic school,

and I can say from experience that if we secure success there
we are sure to do so everywhere else. For a non-violent person
the whole world is one family. He will thus fear none, nor will
others fear him. I-299

Two basic maxims for non-violence:

l)Ahimsa is the supreme Law or Dharma.
2) There is no other Law or Dharma than Truth. I-301

The first step toward non-violence is firmly to resolve that all

untruth and violence shall hereafter be taboo to us, whatever
sacrifice it might seem to involve. I-301

A votary of ahimsa will of course base upon non-violence all his

relations with his parents, his children, his wife, his servants,

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G A N D H I O N N O N -VIOLENCE

his dependents, etc. But the real test will come at the time of
political or communal disturbances or under the menace of
thieves and dacoits. Mere resolve to lay down one's life under
the circumstances is not enough. There must be the necessary
qualification for making the sacrifice. If I am a Hindu, I must
fraternize with the Moslems and the rest. In my dealings with
them I may not make any distinction between my co­
religionists and those who might belong to a different faith. I
would seek opportunities to serve them without any feeling of
fear or unnaturalness. The word "fear" can have no place in the
dictionary of ahimsa. Having thus qualified himself by his self­
less service, a votary of pure ahimsa will be in a position to
make a fit offering of himself in a communal conflagration.
Similarly, to meet the menace of thieves and dacoits he will
need to go among, and cultivate friendly relations with, the
communities from which thieves and dacoits generally come.
1-302

Not to yield your soul to the conqueror means that you will re­
fuse to do that which your conscience forbids you to do. Sup­
pose the "enemy" were to ask you to rub your nose on the
ground or to pull your ears or to go through such humiliating
performances, you will not submit to any of these humiliations.
But if he robs you of your possessions, you will yield them be­
cause as a votary of ahimsa you have from the beginning de­
cided that earthly possessions have nothing to do with your
soul. 1-317

I have known many meat eaters to be far more non-violent than

vegetarians. I -323

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 T H E P U R I TY OF N O N - V I O L E N C E

For the individual [non-violent person] the golden rule is that

he will own nothing. If I decided to settle and walk among the
so-called criminal tribes, I should go to them without any be­
longings and depend on them for my food and shelter. The mo­
ment they feel that I am in their midst in order to serve them,
they will be my friends. In that attitude is true ahimsa. I -328

Just as one must learn the art of killing in the training for vio­
lence, so one must learn the art of dying in the training for non­
violence. I -335

Personally I would not kill insects, scorpions or even snakes.

Nor would I under any circumstances take meat. But I may
not impose the creed of such ahimsa on the Congress. The
Congress is not a religious institution; it is a political organi­
zation. Its non-violence is limited to human beings . . . . Un­
limited ahimsa will take time to be universalized. We will
have ample cause to congratulate ourselves if we learn to
substitute the law of love in society for that of the jungle and
if, instead of harboring ill-will and enmity in our bosoms
against those whom we regard as our enemies, we learn to
love them as actual and potential friends. I -343

Let us be clear regarding the langu age we use and the thoughts
we nurture. For what is language but the expression of
thought? Let your thought be accurate and truthful, and you
will hasten the advent of swaraj [self-rule] even if the whole
world is against you. I -353

85
G A N D H I O N N O N -V I O L E N C E

[Non-violent resistance in case of a Japanese invasion] Non­

violent resisters would refuse them any help, even water. For
it is no part of their duty to help anyone steal their country. . . .
Suppose the Japanese compel the resisters to give them water,
the resisters must die in the act of resistance . . . . The under­
lying belief in such non-violent resistance is that the aggres­
sor will, in time, be mentally and physically tired of killing
non-violent resisters. He will begin to search what this new
(for him) force is which refuses cooperation without seeking
to hurt, and will probably desist from further slaughter. But
the resister may find that the Japanese are utterly heartless
and that they do not care how many they kill. The non-violent
resisters will have won the day inasmuch as they will have
preferred extermination to submission. I -397

There is a natural prejudice against fasting as part of a political

struggle. . . . It is considered a vulgar interpolation in politics by
the ordinary politician, though it has always been resorted to by
prisoners . . . . My own fasts have always been strictly according
to the laws of satyagraha . . . I have been driven to the conclu­
.

sion that fasting unto death is an integral part of the satyagraha

program, and it is the greatest and most effective weapon in its
armory under given circumstances. Not everyone is qualified for
undertaking it without a proper course of training. I -411, 412

A satyagrahi should fast only as a last resort when all other av­
enues of redress have been explored and have failed. II -48

There is no room for imitation in fasts. He who has no inner

strength should not dream of it, and never with attachment to

86
 T H E P U H ITY O F N O N - V I O L E N C E

success. But if a satyagrahi once undertakes a fast from convic­

tion, he must stick to his resolve whether there is a chance of
his action bearing fruit or not. . . . He who fasts in the expecta­
tion of fruit generally fails. And even if he does not seemingly
fail, he loses all the inner joy which a true fast holds. II -48

It is wrong to fast for selfish ends, e.g., for an increase in one's

own salary. Under certain circumstances it is permissible to fast
for an increase in wages on behalf of one's group. II -49

Ridiculous fasts spread like plague and are harmful. II-49

Shopkeepers, traders, mill-hands, laborers, farmers, clerks, in

short, everyone, ought to consider it his or her duty to get the
necessary training in satya�,rra ha. II-60

I am not able to accept in its entirety the doctrine of non-killing

of animals. I have no feeling in me to save the life of these ani­
mals who devour or cause hurt to man. I consider it wrong to
help in the increase of their progeny. . . . To do away with mon­
keys where they have become a menace to the well-being of
man is pardonable. II-67

Prayer is not an old woman's idle amusement. Properly under­

stood and applied, it is the most potent instrument of action.
II-77

87
G A N D H I O N N O N -V I O L E N C E

NON-VIOLENT VOLUNTEER CORPS

They must be small if they are to be efficient.

The members must know one another well.
Each corps will select its own head.
One thing should be common to all members and that is im­
plicit faith in God. He is the only companion and doer. Without
faith in Him these peace brigades will be lifeless.

(R U L E S FOR PEACE BRIGADES]

l) A volunteer may not carry any weapons.
2) The members of a corps must be easily recognizable.
3) Every volunteer must carry bandages, scissors, needle and
thread, surgical knife, etc., for rendering first aid.
4) He should know how to carry and remove the wounded.
5) He should know how to put out fires, how to enter a fire
area without getting burnt, how to climb heights for res­
cue work and descend safely with or without his charge.
6) He should be well acquainted with all the residents of his
locality. This is a service in itself.
7) He should pray [with the Name of God] ceaselessly in his
heart and persuade others who believe to do likewise.
II-86, 87

The positively necessary training for a non-violent army is an

immovable faith in God, willing and perfect obedience to the
chief of the nonviolent army, and perfect inward and outward
cooperation between the units of the army. II -92

An unjust law is itself a species of violence. Arrest for its breach

is more so. Now the law of non-violence says that violence

88
 T H E P U R ITY O F N O N - V I O L E N C E

should he resisted not by counter-violence but by non­

violence. . . . This I do by breaking the law and by peacefully
submitting to arrest and imprisonment. II-150

Fasting cannot be undertaken mechanically. It is a powerful

thing but a dangerous thing if handled amateurishly. It requires
complete self-purification, much more than is required in fac­
ing death with retaliation even in mind. II-165

The minimum that is required of a person wishing to cultivate

the ahimsa of the brave is first to clear one's thought of cow­
ardice and in the light of this clearance regulate his conduct in
every activity, great or small. Thus the votary must refuse to be
cowed down by his superior, without being angry. He must,
however, be ready to sacrifice his post however remunerative it
may be. While sacrificing his all, if the votary has no sense of ir­
ritation against his employer, he has ahimsa of the brave in him.
II-176

Things that have been done under pressure of a fast have been
undone after the fast is over. What a spiritual fast does expect is
cleansing of the heart. II -362

In the secret of my heart I am in perpetual quarrel with God

that He should allow such things [as the war] to go on. My non­
violence seems almost impotent. But the answer comes at the
end of the daily quarrel that neither God nor non-violence is
impotent. Impotence is in men. I must try on without losing
faith even though I may break in the attempt. I -213

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G A N D H I O N N O N - V I O L E N C E

Indian non-violence has brought no relief to the cultured West­

ern powers because it is still poor stuff. Why travel so far to see
its inefficacy? . . . Not until the Congress or a similar group of
people represents the non-violence of the strong will the world
catch the infection. I-267

If I am a true teacher of ahimsa, I am sure you will soon leave

behind your teacher. If that does not happen, it will only mean
that I was an unfit teacher. But if my teaching fructifies, there
will be teachers of ahimsa in every home. I-290

In placing civil disobedience before constructive work I was

wrong, and I did not profit by the Himalayan blunder that I had
committed. I-291

My imperfections and failures are as much a blessing from God

as my successes and my talents, and I lay them both at His feet.
I-291

Today [1940] we are not even within ken of the ahimsa of the
strong [i.e., not ready for civil disobedience]. I-300

The Congress has not had a living faith in non-violence. There­

fore the non-violence of the Congress has really been non­
violence of the weak. I -371

90
 T H E P U R I TY O F N O N -V I O L E N C E

Several lives like mine will have to be given if the terrible vio­
lence that has spread all over is to stop and non-violence reign
supreme in its place. II-133

So long as we have not cultivated the strength to die with

courage and love in our hearts, we cannot hope to develop the
ahimsa of the strong. I I -136

The mind of a man who remains good under compulsion can­

not improve, in fact it worsens. II -138

The more I practice it the dearer I see how far I am from the
full expression of ahimsa in my life. II -143

Non-violence is today [Hindu-Mosle m hostility] rightly

laughed out of court as Utopian. Nevertheless, I maintain that
it is the only way to keep Hinduism alive and India undivided.
II-154

Our non-violence is as yet a mixed affair. It limps. Nevertheless,

it is there and it continues to work like a leaven in a silent and
invisible way, least understood by most. It is the only way.
II-166

[With respect to unrest and riots in India, 1942-1946, had non­

violence failed?] That [violence] can never mean that the creed
of non-violence has failed. At best it may be said that I have not

91
G A N D H I O N N O N - V I O L E N C E

yet found the technique required for the conversion of the mass
mind. II-176

I have no wish to live if India is to be submerged in a deluge of

violence as it is threatening to do. . . . I am in the midst of flames.
Is it the kindness of God or His irony that the flames do not
consume me? (May, 1947) II-257

The future will depend on what we do in the present. II-259

[At the end of his life Gandhi admitted loss of hope of attaining
real non-violence in India.] The loss of hope arises from my
knowledge that I have not attained sufficient detachment and
control over my temper and emotions which entitle one to en­
tertain the hope . . . [but] I do not want to harbor the thought of
hopelessness. II -264

[Apparent failure of non-violence in India] I must confess my

bankruptcy, not that of non-violence . . . . India has no experi­
ence of the non-violence of the strong. II -265

My faith is as strong as ever. It is quite possible that my tech­

nique is faulty. . . . I can say to all my counselors that they should
have patience with me and even share my belief that there is no
hope for the aching world except through the narrow and
straight path of non-violence. Millions like me may fail to prove
the truth in their own lives; that would be their failure, never of
the eternal law. II-266

92
 T H E P U R ITY O F N O N - V I O L E N C E

I have admitted my mistake. I thought our struggle was based

on nonviolence, whereas in reality it was no more than passive
resistance, which essentially is a weapon of the weak. It leads
naturally to armed resistance whenever possible. 11-276

Non-violence is my creed. It never was of the CongTess. With

the Congress it has always been a policy. 11-280

Ahimsa is always infallible. When, therefore, it appears to have

failed, the failure is due to the inaptitude of the votary. 11-294

It is perhaps wrong to describe my present state of mind as de­

pression . . . . I am not vain enough to think that the divine pur­
pose can only be fulfilled through me. It is as likely as not that
a fitter instrument will be used to carry it out and that I was
good enough to represent a weak nation, not a strong one. May
it not be that a man purer, more courageous, more far-seeing is
wanted for the final purpose? This is all speculation. No one has
the capacity to judge God. We are drops in that limitless ocean
of mercy. II -321

Mine must be a state of complete resignation to the Divine Will.

II-321

We are daily paying the heavy price for the unconscious mis­
take we made in mistaking passive resistance for non-violent
resistance. II -325

93
G A N D H I O N NON-VIOLENCE

I failed to recognize, until i t was too late, that what I had mis­
taken for ahimsa was not ahimsa, but passive resistance of the
weak, which can never be called ahimsa even in the remotest
sense. II-327

[The fast unto death, January, 1948] My fast should not be con­
sidered a political move in any sense of the term. It is obedience
to the peremptory call of conscience and duty. It comes out of
felt agony. II -363

94
 NOT E S

1 ) S e e the i m portant book, The Dark Eye in Africa, with its thesis that the
white man's spiritual rej ection and contempt for the African is the result of
his rejection of what is deepest and most vital in himself. Having "lost his
own soul," the materialistic and cunning exploiter of the colonies de­
stroyed the soul of the native. The "one-eyed giant" has "outer vision" only,
no " i nner vision." Therefore, though he tries to take precautions to avoid
spiritual disaster fo r himself amid the races he has subjugated, these pre­
cautions are "without perspective" and in "the wrong di mension of real­
ity."
2) L. L Whyte, The Next Development in Man (New York, 1948), p. 122.
3) Ibid., pp. 148, 149, 1 5 1 .
4) Ibid., p . 169.
5) Ibid., p. 288.
6)Am I My Brother's Keeper? (New York, 1947), p. 67.
7) Ibid., p. 64.
8) A. Koyre, Discovering Plato (New York, 1945), p. 108.
9) Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition (Chicago, 1958), p. 49.
lO) Hindu Dharma (Ahmedabad, 1958), p. 93.
1 1) Ibid., p. 35.
12) Ibid., p. 36.
13) "Allocution du P. Monchanin 20 fevrier 1948," in Appendix to C . Drevet,
Pour Connaitre Ia pensee de Gandhi, 2e edition (Paris, 1954), p. 224.
14) Hannah Arendt, op. cit., p. 121.
15) Summa Theologica, I I , IIae, q. 30, art. 1, ad. l.
16) Ibid., art. 2.
17) Ibid., ad. 3. C f. St. Thomas Aquinas on the "mood of Nemesis" which "re­
joices i n the belief that others justly suffer and grieves when good comes
to the unworthy," art. 3, ad. 2.
18) Hannah Arendt, op. cit., p. 240.
G A N D H I O N N O N - V I O L E N C E

19) Ibid., p. 241.

20) Handbook of the Militant Cl1ristian, trans. with an introduction by John P.
Dolan (Notre Dame, 1962).
21) Shepherd ofHermas (New York, 1948), pp. 267, 268.
22) "On Being in One's Right Mind," Review of Religion, November, 1942.
23) Shepherd ofHermas, Fourth Mandate, II. I, p. 265.
24) Utrum caecitas mentis sit peccatum, Summa Theologica, I I , I l ae, q. 15, art.
I.
25)Shepherd ofHennas, pp. 262-263.
26) Migne, Patro/ogia Latina, 4:604.
27) "Let that by which you were wounded become your own cure." Migne, op.
cit., De Zelo et Livore, 4:649.
28) The Gandhi Reader, ed. by Homer A. Jack (New York, 1961), p. 219.

96
 INDE X

Ahimsa (non-violence as a principle): 12, 35 ff.; distinction be­

tween that of strong and that of weak, 49-53, 56; fields of, 68;
impossible without charity, 83; natural to human society, 58;
principles of, 36-37, 80, 83; and reign of God, 37; secrecy, 40;
spread through believers dying for, 45; as superior force, 58;
universalized, time necessary for, 85
Anarchy, ordered, 69
Animals, harmful, pardonable to kill, 87
Antichrist, 5
Aquinas, St. Thomas, 19-20, 26
Arendt, Hannah, 12; quoted, 22
Asanas (seat; position in sitting): 9
Atman (the transcendent self): 53
Atom bomb, Gandhi's views of, 45-46, 47, 55, 56, 64, 71

Black races, revolt of, 71

Boehme, Jakob, quoted, 27-28
Boer War, 70
Business, honest, 76

Caste structure, and injustice toward Harijan, 14

Catholicity of values, marks of, 9
I N DEX

Charity, ahimsa impossible without, 83

China, 51; Communist, 5, 29
Christ, Jesus, 6, 20, 23, 28, 38, 47, 49, 55, 72
Christianity, and Gandhi, 7-9
Civil disobedience, 90; and Gandhi's blunder, 90
Colonialism, 29-30
Communists, instructed from Russia, 77
Coomaraswamy, Ananda, 5, 6, 25-26, 27; quoted, 5, 26
Cowardice, 46-47, 49, 50, 51, 54, 73, 89
Crime, as disease, 64
Cyprian, St., quoted, 27

Democracy, 60, 61, 67-68, 69, 70, 76

Dharma (law; duty; virtue): 7, 13, 14, 17, 28, 83

Erasmus, Desiderius, 23
Evil: Aquinas' analysis of, 19-20; dogma of irreversibility of, 18;
noncooperation with, 15-16, 29, 66, 70; returning good for, 23

Family, as best field for operation of non-violence, 83

Fascism, 10, 60
Fasts, Gandhi's, 13-14, 25, 73, 86-87, 89, 94
Fear, freedom from, 5, 55, 83
Forgiveness, 27-28
Freedom, Gandhi's doctrine of, 10, 17, 22-23, 28, 41, 61, 71, 72

God, 37, 38, 39, 40, 42, 43, 44, 45, 47, 48, 52, 53, 60, 61, 63-64, 77,
78, 80, 81, 83, 90, 92, 93; and ahimsa, 29, 37, 57; Gandhi's quar­
rel with, 89; Gandhi's resignation to Will of, 93; living faith
in, required by prayer, 44; and peace brigades, 88; and satya­
graha, 43; and socialism, 78; as Truth, 39, 40, 47
Goodness, joined with knowledge, 47, 48
Goonda (hooligan, rowdy): 53-54, 74

98
 I N D EX

Harijan (the untouchables; the outcaste masses): 9, 13-14, 25

Hijrat (self-imposed exile): 52
Himsa (violence): 35
Hinduism, 14, 15, 91
Hitler, Adolf, 5, 19
Human Condition, The, 12
Humility, and non-violence, 50

India, 13, 16-17, 22, 24-25, 28, 29, 64, 69, 75, 77, 90, 91; apparent
failure of non-violence in, 91-92; awakening of spiritual con­
sciousness of, 9-10; Gandhi's struggle for freedom of, 7, 12, 14;
liberated, "vivisection" of, 28, 48; possibilities of non­
violence in, 39; riots in (1942-1946) , 9 1-92; as torch bearer to
oppressed, 55
Indifferentism, 8
Injustice, need for resisting, 54
Intellect, in field of non-violence, 60

Japan, 5, 9-10, 45-46, 51, 86

John XXIII, 31

Labor, physical, necessity of, 77

Law, natural, 8-9

Maitri Upanishad, quoted, 27

Meat-eating, 55, 84, 85
Metanoia, 25-26
Military service, non-cooperation in, 66
Monchanin, Father, 17
Mussolini, Benito, 5

Nationalism, 9-10
Natural law, 8-9

99
I N DE X

Natural religion, 8-9

Nazism, 19, 60
New Testament, 7
Non-cooperation with evil, 15-16, 29, 66, 70
Non-resistance, 36, 48, 75, 86, 93. See also Ahimsa; Satyagraha

Pacem in Terris, 31
Parameshwara, 14
Peace brigades, 88
Peter, St., 20
Plato, 11
Polis, 12-13
Politics, and religion, 80
Prajnatman (the solar spirit): 26, 28
Prayer: as greatest weapon, 59, 87; satyagraha as root of, 43, 44
Pride, and non-violence, 50

Ramarajya (the Kingdom of God on earth): 44

Religion: natural, 8-9; and politics, 80
Renaissance, 4
Rishi (holy man; sage): 82
Rural-mindedness, 68
Russia, Communists instructed from, 77

Sabotage, as form of violence, 54

Sacredness of life, Gandhi's conviction of, 17
Satyagraha (holding on to truth; resistance by non-violent
means): 8 and 11., 10-11, 15-16, 28, 29, 31, 41, 42, 47, 63, 73, 76,
81; and black races, 71; conditions necessary for success of,
43; fasting according to laws of, 86; root of, in prayer, 43, 44;
as suffering without retaliation, 60
Satyagrahi (one adhering to the principle of satyagraha): 42, 43,
47, 49 and 11 . , 55, 61, 63, 69, 73, 76, 86

100
 I N D EX

Science, and wisdom, 4, 6

Secret organization, rejection of, 54, 73
Self-pity, 80
Self-purification, 58, 89
Self-respect, 59; and Hijrat, 52
Shepherd ofHermas, quoted, 24, 26-27
Socialism, Gandhi's views of, 75, 78
Socrates, l l
South Africa, 13, 72
Stalin, Josef, 5
Strike, justifiable, 74
Summa Theologica, 26
Swaraj (independence; political self-rule): 85
Syncretism, 6, 8

Tagore, Rabindranath, 29
Thoreau, Henry David, 7
Tolstoi, Leo, 6, 7
"Truth is God," 39, 40, 47

Understanding, in highest sense, 27

Unity, spiritual, Gandhi's realization of, 10

Van Der Post, Laurens, 3

Vedanta, 9
Volunteer corps, non-violent, 88

War, 66, 68, 77, 81-82; bravery encouraged by, 52; as unmitigated
evil, 52, 66
"White man's burden," 71
Whyte, L. L., quoted, 4-5
Wisdom, and science, 4, 6
World War II, 5, 69, 70, 71-72

101
 BOOKS
by MAHATMA GANDHI

Autobiography
Economic and Industrial Life and Relations (3 volumes)
A Gandhi Anthology (2 volumes)
Hindu Dharma
Non-Violence in Peace and War (2 volumes)
My Non-Violence
The Problem of Education
Satyagraha
Selected Letters (2 volumes)
The Way to Communal Harmony

Published by the
NAVAJIVAN TRUST
Ahmedabad-14, India
 TH OMAS MERTON
N EW S E E D S O F C O N TE M P L AT I O N

Introduction by Sue Monk Kidd

"Destined to go down as one of the great spiritual classics

of our c e n tury."
-Francine du Plessix Gray, The New Rep ublic

"He is an artis t, a Zen." -Thich Nhat Hanh

"Like Walt Whitman, Thomas Merton contained multitudes."

-Ka thleen Norris

New Seeds of Contemplation is one of Thomas Merton's

most widely read and bes t-loved books. Chri s tians and
non-Christians alike have j o ined in prais ing it as a notable
successor in the meditative tradition of St. John of the
Cross, The Cloud or Unknowing, and the medieval mystic s ,
and s o m e have compared M e rton's reflections with tho s e
of Thoreau.
New Seeds of Contemplation seeks to awaken the
dormant inner depths of the spiri t so long negl e c te d in the
West, to nurture a deeply contemplative and mystical
dimension in our lives. For Merton, "Every mome n t and
every event o f every man's life on earth plants some thing
in his s oul. For j u s t as the wind carries thousands o f
winged s e e d s , so each mome n t brings with i t germs of
s p iritual vitality that come to rest impercep tibly i n the
minds and wills of men. Most of these unnumbered s e e d s
p e rish and are los t, because m e n are not prepared to
receive them: for such seeds as these cannot spring up
anywhere except in the soil of freedom, spontaneity and
love ."

SuE MONK Kmo was born in Sylve ster, Georgia. In her

thirties, she became deeply influe nced b y the work of
Thomas Merton and C . G. Jung. She is the author of When
the Heart Waits ( 1 990), The Dance of the Dissiden t
Daughter ( 1 996), The Secret Life o r Bees ( 2 0 0 2 ), The
Mermaid Chair ( 2 0 0 5 ), and Firstlight ( 2 0 06).

A New Directions Paperbook Original • NDP1 091

ISBN 9 7 8-0-8 1 1 2 - 1 72 4-8 $ 1 4 . 9 5 USA / $ 1 8 . 5 0 CAN
 I N T H E D ARK B E F O RE D AW N :
NEW S E LE C TE D P O E M S
O F T H O M A S M E RT O N

Preface by Kathleen No rris

Edited, with a n Introduction, by Lynn R. Szabo

"There was never anyb ody else on earth like Mer ton. I for
one have never known a mind more brilliant, more
beautiful , more s e rious, more playful . " -Mark Van Doren

Until now, n o single selection from M e rton's great b ody of

p oetry has afforded a comprehensive view of his varie d
and progressively innova tive work. In the Dark Befo re
Dawn: New Selected Poems is no t only a gathering double
the s ize of Merton's earlier Selected Poems ( 1 9 6 7), i t also
arranges his poe try both thematically and chronologically,
so that readers can follow the p o e t' s many comp lex,
in terrelated l ines of thought as well as his p o e tic
development over the decades.
"His genius , " writes editor Lynn R. Szab o , "was to
create a n artis tic vision fueled by the conflict b e tween his
calling a s a writer and his vocation as a c o ntemp lative." She
has groupe d her selections under a number o f the mes,
which taken together "represent seminal aspects of
Merton's engaging his inner and outer worl d s throughout
his life . " Included in this broad, new selection are mos t of
the beautiful love poems (previously available only i n a
limi ted e d i tion) that Merton wrote for a young woman to
whom he had formed a brie f a t tachment in the mid-'60s.

Merton scholar LYNN R. SZAB O is a p rofe s sor of American

literature a t Trinity Wes tern University, Vancouver, C anada,
and a m e mber of the boards of the Thomas Merton Society
o f C anada and the International Thomas Me rton Society .

KATHLEEN NoRRIS is o n e of North America's leading s p iri tual

writers. The au thor of such best-selling books as The
Cloister Walk and Dakota: A Spiritual Biography, her work
i s wide l y known for its special affinity with M e r ton's own.

A New Directions Paperbook Original • NDP1 005

I S B N 9 7 8-0- 8 1 1 2 - 1 6 1 3 - 5 $ 1 6 . 9 5 USA / $ 2 0 . 0 0 CA N
MOHANDAS K. GAN D H I (1869-1948) was a British educated l awyer

who became head of the Indian National Congress and lead

campaigns for ending poverty, the liberation of women, the end
of the caste system and "untouchability," inter-religious coop­
eration, and freedom from British rule for India through mass
civil-disobedience. He was deeply influenced by his studies of
the Bhagavad Gita, the Christian Bible, and the writings of
Thoreau, Ruskin, and Tolstoy. Having made an early decision to
forego wealth and lead a simple life-making his own clothes,
eating a vegetarian diet, living in an ashram- Gandhi's persist­
ence in his political beliefs and integrity in his actions gained
worldwide attention. Beloved by the Indian people, he was
given the name Mahatma, meaning "great soul." At the end of a
thirty-year struggle for civic rights, during which he developed
and practiced his theories for non-violence, India gained its
freedom in 1945. Gandhi was killed by an assassin in New Delhi
in 1948.

THOMAS MERTON (1915-1968), poet, Catholic theologian, social

activist and Trappist monk, was one of the most influential re­
ligious thinkers of the twentieth century. Merton entered the
Cistercian Abbey of Gethsemani in Kentucky following his con­
versation to Catholicism in 1949. In the 1960s he was increas­
ingly drawn into a dialogue between Eastern and Western
religions, and domestic issues of war and racism. In 1968, the
Dalai Lama praised Merton for having a more profound know!-
G A N D H I ON N O N - V I O L E N C E

edge of Buddhism than other Christian he had known. His

many books include New Seeds of Contemplation, The Seven
Story Mountain, Bread in the Wildemess, Raids on the Unspeak­
able, My Argument with the Gestapo, The Wisdom of the Desert,
Zen and the Birds ofAppetite, and The Way of Chang Tzu. Mer­
ton died during a trip to Bangkok in 1968.

MARK KURLANSKY is the best-selling author of Nonviolence:

Twenty-five Lessons from the History of a Dangerous Idea with
a foreword by the Dalai Lama, Cod: A Biography of the Fish that
Changed the World which received the James Beard Award for
Excellence in Food Writing and was chosen by the New York
Public Library as one of the Best Books of 1997, Salt: A World
History, 1968: The Year that Rocked the World, The Big Oyster:
History on the Half Shell, as well as books on European Jewry,
the Basques and Caribbean culture. Kurlanksky has also pub­
lished fiction and short stories, and he traveled extensively as a
correspondent for The Intemational Herald Tribune, The
Chicago Tribune and other newspapers. Having previously
lived in Paris and Mexico, Kurlansky now makes his home in
New York City with his wife and daughter.