Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1943-07-30
NOn-ViOlence
Can Conquer
By Mahafn,a Garllihi
(WNU Featme-Through special arrangement
with Golfers Weekly

My principle of non violence
means, in general terms, that men
will deliberately shun all weapons Of
slaughter and the use of force Of
any kind whatsoever.
The most familiar comment on
this principle is that we who believe
in it are naive fools without realistic
knowledge of the world. The criti-
cism is leveled particularly against
me, since it is my name that is
most commonly associated with
non-violence.
1t is said that if were not such
simpletOn, deliberately closing my
eyes to conditions as they really
are, 1 would know that nOn-violence
can never hope to prevail over such
powerful and brutal forces as those
represented by Nazi Germany and
Japan, which are the essence Of un-
scrupulOus armed might. NOn-vio-
lence, it is said, may be all very
well in theory, but in practice, it is
too hopelessly idealistic to have any
chance of success in this modern
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chute troops, dive bombers.
Are we naive fools? Is non-vio-
lence a sort of dreamy wishful
thinking that has never had and
can never have any real success
against the heavy odds of modern
armies and the unlimited applica-
ton of force and frightfulness?
India's recent history gives the
answer to this. We have won con-
siderable victories. We have faced
powerful armed forces and we have
not been swept out of the way. We
still exist; belief in non-violence still
exists. Does not the fact that only
single victory has been won prove
that non violence, developed to
greater perfection, could win great
er victories against greater armed
forces?
But let me describe the true fol-
lower of non-violence-the true nom
violent soldier as I see him.
Ability to Die.
The chief requisite for a soldier
in violent army is physical fit
ness. But in the non-violent army,
the chief requisite is the ability to
die for your belief. This depends
not on physical but on mental fit
ness. Therefore, this army can well
come to its ranks old men, women,
youths, the blind, the sick and the
lame. Thus it follows that the nom
violent army has much greater
mass base; it consists not merely of
a certain section of the population
but of all sections.
The non-violent army has no use
for weapons. 1t beats its swords
into plowshares and it's spears into
pruning hooks. Whereas, the SOL
| der of the violent army is trained
in the use of violence by being
taught how to shoot, the non-violent
| soldier comes through nursing the
sick, saving those in danger at risk
of his own life, and cultivating the
capacity for sacrifice of the highest
type.
He must have the resourcefulness
and capacity to plunge into SEEM
ingly impenetrable scenes of riot
ing, the will and the desire to go to
the rescue of men trapped in burn
ing houses, and the fearlessness to
plunge into a flood to save people
drowning there.
There have been those in India
who had weapons but who threw
them away after embracing nom
violence and offered themselves
freely and unafraid to bullets and
raw steel.
This is the true non-violent SOL
der
l have heard it said that the nom
violent movement has had some ac-
ceptance in India only because the
Indian people are towards who have
no weapons and therefore are in
capable of defending themselves;
that non-violence, therefore, suits
them very well indeed.
On the evidence 1 have given,
are the Indian people towards?
Would a coward have the courage
to bare his breast to a rifle? Is
there any army in the world that
could prevail over such soldiers?
Having no fear themselves, could
Hitler, could Japan conquer them?
Judge if we are naive fools: if
there is no courage in our hearts!
Judge if we who believe in non
violence have no practical concep-
ton of how to overcome the evils
that exist in today's world!
The non-violent soldier recognizes
no such thing as an external enemy.
He has nothing but compassion for
those who consider themselves to
be his enemies. He believes that no
man is Intentionally wicked, that
there is no man who does not have
the faculty to discriminate between
right and wrong, and that if that
faculty were to be fully developed,
it would mature into non-violence.
No men can remain enemies in the
face of such treatment and such a
spirit. They must ultimately be alb
sorbed by this great movement and
become part of it.