Martin Luther

MARTIN LUTHER: THE RELUCTANT REVOLUTIONARY
PROF. M. M. NINAN
After a few months Luther decided to write a formal explanation, in an open letter to Caspar Muller,
entitled “An Open Letter on the Harsh Book Against the Peasants.” This gives the summary of his
theological reason:
It is the duty of a Christian
to "suffer injustice,
not to seize the sword and take to violence".
Hence:
“A rebel is not worth rational arguments,
for he does not accept them.
You have to answer people like that with a fist,
until the sweat drips off their noses”.
Throughout later history, this was quoted everywhere in the world to oppose any attempt on the
part of the exploited and down trodden to find release and get justice.
In memory of the Punnapra Vayalar Worker’s uprising in 1947 which was in an exact replication of the German Peasant
uprising, stopped by a masacre by the State Forces.
They were trying to establish an egalitarian society.
I was a teen ager at that time and my family was involved in it.
I remember them sealing my father’s Printing Press so that we wont print palmlets for the revolutionaries.
I have heard Luther’s argument repeated over and over again during this period.
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