*”In relation to the late war, one question that every pacifist had a clear obligation to answer was: ‘What about the Jews? Are you prepared to see them exterminated? If not, how do you propose to save them without resorting to war?’ I must say that I have never heard, from any western pacifist, an honest answer to this question, though I have heard plenty of evasions, usually of the ‘you’re another’ type. But it so happens that Gandhi was asked a somewhat similar question in 1938 and that his answer is on record in* [*Mr Louis Fischer’s*](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Fischer) [*Gandhi and Stalin*](http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,779350,00.html)*. According to Mr Fischer Gandhi’s view was that the German Jews ought to commit collective suicide, which ‘would have aroused the world and the people of Germany to Hitler’s violence’. After the war he justified himself: the Jews had been killed anyway, and might as well have died significantly. One has the impression that this attitude staggered even so warm an admirer as Mr Fischer, but Gandhi was merely being honest. If you are not prepared to take life, you must often be prepared for lives to be lost in some other way. When, in 1942, he urged non-violent resistance against a Japanese invasion, he was ready to admit that it might cost several million deaths.”*
Star_Wombat33 on
Gandhi was many things, but not a hypocrite.
Not being a hypocrite is not the moral flex people often want it to be.
zoinks48 on
His advice reminds me of the saying “ pity the masochist who meets a REAL sadist”.
john_andrew_smith101 on
Never ask a man his salary, a women her age, or an Indian nationalist’s opinion on the Axis powers.
Ironside_Grey on
Pacifism is a great strategy for dealing with a broke democracy, but not with a totalitarian fascist state. At least he was honest about his beliefs.
samamp on
Considering the usa and britain allied themselves with sovie union doing nothing might not be that bad either
6 Comments
from George Orwell’s 1949 essay[ Reflections on Gandhi:](https://www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-foundation/orwell/essays-and-other-works/reflections-on-gandhi/)
*”In relation to the late war, one question that every pacifist had a clear obligation to answer was: ‘What about the Jews? Are you prepared to see them exterminated? If not, how do you propose to save them without resorting to war?’ I must say that I have never heard, from any western pacifist, an honest answer to this question, though I have heard plenty of evasions, usually of the ‘you’re another’ type. But it so happens that Gandhi was asked a somewhat similar question in 1938 and that his answer is on record in* [*Mr Louis Fischer’s*](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Fischer) [*Gandhi and Stalin*](http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,779350,00.html)*. According to Mr Fischer Gandhi’s view was that the German Jews ought to commit collective suicide, which ‘would have aroused the world and the people of Germany to Hitler’s violence’. After the war he justified himself: the Jews had been killed anyway, and might as well have died significantly. One has the impression that this attitude staggered even so warm an admirer as Mr Fischer, but Gandhi was merely being honest. If you are not prepared to take life, you must often be prepared for lives to be lost in some other way. When, in 1942, he urged non-violent resistance against a Japanese invasion, he was ready to admit that it might cost several million deaths.”*
Gandhi was many things, but not a hypocrite.
Not being a hypocrite is not the moral flex people often want it to be.
His advice reminds me of the saying “ pity the masochist who meets a REAL sadist”.
Never ask a man his salary, a women her age, or an Indian nationalist’s opinion on the Axis powers.
Pacifism is a great strategy for dealing with a broke democracy, but not with a totalitarian fascist state. At least he was honest about his beliefs.
Considering the usa and britain allied themselves with sovie union doing nothing might not be that bad either