Mahatma Gandhi made fervent appeals for peace in the run-up to World War II and during the course of it in numerous letters to world leaders, including one to Adolf Hitler eight days before Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939.
He reached out to Adolf Hitler, "the one person in the world who can prevent a war", as well as China's Gen Chiang Kai-Shek and also penned open letters to the Japanese, the Americans and the British.
On August 23, 1939, Mahatma Gandhi wrote to "dear friend" Hitler from his ashram in Wardha in Maharashtra, stating that people had been urging him to write to the Fuhrer for the "sake of humanity".
"It is quite clear that you are today the one person in the world who can prevent a war which may reduce humanity to the savage state. Must you pay that price for an object however worthy it may appear to you be? Will you listen to the appeal of one who has deliberately shunned the method of war not without considerable success? Any way I anticipate your forgiveness, if I have erred in writing to you."
He ends the letter with "I remain, Your sincere friend, M. K. Gandhi".
On September 1, 1939, Hitler invaded Poland, leading to the outbreak of World War II and changing the course of history. Britain, the US and the USSR were part of the Allied forces and Germany, Italy and Japan part of the Axis forces during World War II. Indian soldiers fought the war as part of the British India empire.
In his appeal to the Britons through a letter on July 3, 1940, he urges them to use nonviolent means to defeat the Nazis. While doing so, let them take whatever they want but not "your souls nor your minds", he writes.
"I would like you to lay down your arms you have, as being useless for saving you or humanity. You will invite Herr Hitler and Signor Mussolini to take what they want of the possession of your beautiful island, with your beautiful buildings. You will give all these, but neither your souls nor your minds.
Gandhi was NOT the guy that Ben Kingsley portrayed in the movie. Look up Bhagat Singh, Rajguru, and Sukhdev... He allowed them to be hanged by the British because they were stealing his thunder. Also, look up his sleeping arrangements......
ReplyDeleteFor some reason, I can hear Winston saying "You're out of your fucking mind"....Ghandi needed to sit down and shut the fuck up, just like every fucking democrat in this country....in William Shakespeare's assessment of saving the country, just substitute democrats for lawyers....or you could just say AND lawyers....
ReplyDeleteGandhi wasn't wrong about Hitler being the one man who could have prevented WWI - but only if he had been a much different man.
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