International Relations and Mahatma Gandhi

[Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav]

Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav

Senior Gandhian Scholar, Professor, Editor and Linguist

Gandhi International Study and Research Institute, Jalgaon, Maharashtra, India

Contact No. – 09404955338, 09415777229

E-mail- [e-mail];

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Mailing Address- C- 29, Swaraj Nagar, Panki, Kanpur- 208020, Uttar Pradesh, India

 

 

International Relations and Mahatma Gandhi

 

 

It is then I hold the duty of Great Britain to regulate her exports with due regard to the welfare of India, as it is India’s to regulate her imports with due regard to her own welfare. That economics is untrue which ignores or disregards moral values. The extension of the law of non-violence in the domain of economics means nothing less than the introduction of moral values as a factor to be considered in regulating international commerce. And I must confess that my ambition is nothing less than to see international relations placed on a moral basis through India’s efforts. I do not despair of cultivation of limited mass non-violence. I refuse to believe that the tendency of human nature is always downward. 1 Let the revolutionary friend know that I have described the disarmament and consequent emasculation of a whole people as the blackest crime of the British. I have not the capacity for preaching universal nonviolence to the country. I preach, therefore, non-violence restricted strictly to the purpose of winning our freedom and, therefore, perhaps for preaching the regulation of international relations by non-violent means. But my incapacity must not be mistaken for that of doctrine of the non-violence.

I see it with my intellect in all its effulgence. My heart grasps it. But I have not yet the attainments for preaching universal non-violence with effect. I am not advanced enough for the great task. I have yet anger within me; I have yet the dwaita bhava duality in me. I can regulate my passions. I keep them under subjection, but before I can preach universal non-violence with effect, I must be wholly free from passions. I must be wholly incapable of sin. Let the revolutionary pray with and for me that I may soon become that. But, meanwhile, let him take with me the one step to it which I see as clearly as day-light, i.e., to win India’s freedom with strictly non-violent means. And, then, under swaraj, you and I shall have a disciplined, intelligent, educated police force that would keep order within and fight raiders from without if, by that time, I or someone else does not show a better way of ealing with either. 2 

My correspondent says these leaflets are issued in the provincial languages and are widely distributed among the villagers. I suggest to the Madras War Committee that they remove Clause 2 altogether as being untrue. For my ideal as put before the British people is well known. If Lord Buddha was on earth in the body at this moment, such a war would be impossible. It is a travesty of truth to call English methods of peace. Asoka’s is perhaps the only instance of a great king having voluntarily abandoned war and adopted peaceful methods. It is no reflection on the British people that they do not accept my advice or follow Asoka’s way. These things cannot be done mechanically. But it is not right to give them the credit they do not deserve or want. Well may the British people who read the leaflet say: ‘Save us from our friends?’

 

References:

 

1. Young India, 26-12-1924
2. Young India, 7-5-1925  
3. Harijan, 1-9-1940