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