E-Book - Mahatma Gandhi

Five Fallacies … 141Allies, and supporting it; the attitude he took in the Warbetween Italy and Ethiopia, the attitude he took to the despatchof Indian troops to Kashmir; the stand that is taken in supportof struggles against Imperialism or Colonialism, or racialdiscrimination in South Africa etc. .Let us look at Gandhi's own words, "whilst all violenceis bad and must be condemned in the abstract, it is permissiblefor, it is even the duty of, a believer in ahimsa to distinguishbetween the aggressor and the defender. Having done so, hewill side with the defender in a non-violent manner, ... give hislife in saving him. His intervention is likely to bring a speedierend to the dual, and may even result in bringing about peacebetween the combatatants". 21 Or, "My non-violence doesrecognise different species of violence-defensive and offensive.It is true that in the long run the difference is obliterated, butthe initial merit persists. A non-violent person is bound, whenthe occasion arises, to say which side is just. Thus I wishedsuccess to the Abyssinians, the Spaniards and the Czechs, andthe Poles, though in each case I wished that they could haveoffered non-violent resistance." 22 "If a War is itself a wrong act,how can it be worthy of moral support or blessings? I believeall War to be wholly wrong. But if we scrutinise the motives oftwo warring parties, we may find one to be in the right and theother in the wrong ... B, whose cause is just, deserves my moralhelp and blessings." 23 It is not necessary to adduce furtherarguments to show that this logic applies not only to cases ofconflict between nations, but also to conflicts between groupsor between a group and the state, or an individual and the state,or between two political parties. One can not, thus, take theview that since one is not a member of any political party, onehas no responsibility to say which one of them is right on agiven issue. One may not join anyone of them, but one has todistinguish between the one that is in the right and the one thatis in the wrong. And it is the duty of the Satyagrahi to place his