The Danish Peace Academy, Mohandas Gandhi and Nordic countries, Letter 18 to Esther Faering, August 3, 1917

You have raised big questions. I think the command of Jesus is unequivocal. All killing is bad for one who is filled with love. He will not need to kill. He will not kill. He who is filled with pity for the snake and does not fear him will not kill him and the snake will not hurt him. This state of innocence is the one we must reach. But only a few can reach it. It seems to me to be impossible for nations to reach it. Equal progress in all is an inconceivable situation. Nations will therefore always fight. One of them will be less wrong than the other. A nation to be in the right can only fight with soul-force. Such a nation has still to be born. I had hoped that India was that nation. I fear I was wrong. The utmost I expect of India is that she may become a great restraining force. But she must acquire the ability to fight and suffer before she can speak to the world with any degree of effect.

The pertinent question for you and me is what is our duty as individuals. I have come to this workable decision for myself, ‘I will not kill anyone for any cause whatsoever but be killed by him if resistance or his will render my being killed necessary.’ I would give similar advice to everybody. But where I know that there is want of will altogether, I would advise him to exert his will and fight. There is no love where there is no will. In India there is not only no love but hatred due to emasculation. There is the strongest desire to fight and kill side by side with utter helplessness. This desire must be satisfied by restoring the capacity for fighting.^³⁴ Then comes the choice.

Yes, the very act of forgiving and loving shows superiority in the doer. But that way of putting the proposition begs the question, who can love? A mouse as mouse cannot love a cat. A mouse cannot be commonly said to refrain from hurting a cat. You do not love him whom you fear. Immediately you cease to fear, you are ready for your choice - to strike or to refrain. To refrain is proof of awakening of the soul in man; to strike is proof of body-force. The ability to strike must be present when the power of the soul is demonstrated. This does not mean that we must be bodily superior to the adversary.

This is not a satisfactory letter but I think you will follow my argument. But in matters such as these, prayer is the thing.

34 Gandhi had at the time retained faith in the British Empire, and encouraged recruitment of Indian soldiers during the first World War. He became an absolute pacifist in later years.

The Danish Peace Academy

GANDHI AND NORDIC COUNTRIES