Balans

Is it possible for all types of personality?

Gandhi’s first letter to Hitler:

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.
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I hope you will have the time and desire to know how a good portion of
humanity who have view 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 writings 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 not 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-co-operation. 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 than 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 groping 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 forces 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 your 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 skilfully 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 simple 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. Is it too much to
ask you 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 attended 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