E-Book - Mahatma Gandhi

Gandhi’s Pancha Mahavrat… 65Jewish intellectuals Martin Buber and J.L. Magnus who wrote‘Two Letters to Gandhi’. They asserted that Gandhi wasmistaken in advising Jews to offer non-violent resistance, asthere was no practical feasibility for it in the then prevailingsituation in the Nazi Germany. Anthony Parel finds thatGandhi’s advice to the Jews for the non-violent resistance evenwent against two of his basic pre-requisites for the same. (a) hedid not have enough information on the German situation ingeneral and that of the Jews in particular as was his earlierwont, (b) by demanding voluntary and heroic non-violencefrom the general Jewish masses, he was putting up a tall order,which could be practiced only by exceptional individuals andnot by the common masses. However, Parel ignores Gandhi’sbasic argument that even if the non-violent resistance in theGerman situation would not make much material change, atleast the Jews and the Czechs would be saving their honour andhumanity. And even the possibility of the impact of theoutraged feeling of the world community could not becompletely ruled out. Perhaps, a more glaring contradictioncame, when in the face of a distinct possibility of the Japaneseinvasion on India, he expressed his willingness to allow theBritish and American forces to remain posted in India providedthe Indian independence was accepted by them even inprinciple. A similar contradiction emerged when he launchedthe Quit India Movement. He refused to withdraw theMovement on account of widespread eruption of violence inthe country. Not only that, he even declined to censure, letalone condemn, the socialist leaders like Jayprakash Narayanand others, who were openly working for violent methods tofree the country from the clutches of the British imperialism.But the final test for his absolute personal faith was yet tocome. Once the War ended and there was a change ofgovernment in Great Britain, things moved very fast towardsthe transfer of power to the Indian hands. A serious attempt was