I1IATRED	in  the   air  and ,\m-
I -*1 patient lovers of India will ■gladlv take advantage of it, if they ■can, through violence, to further the ■cause of independence. That is wrong Hat any time and everywhere, but it is Rnore Wrong in a country where Kighters for frelom have declared to Hhe world that their policy is truth Bind non-violence.
Those    who    believe    in    violence laturally will use it by saying: " Kill ^•our enemy;  injure him and his pro-|>erty    wherever    you    can,    whether penly    or    secretly     as    necessity ?quires."    The result will be deeper Jitred and counter-hatred,  and ven-L'ance let loose on both sides.     The ■cent   war.   whose embers  have   yet hardly   died,    loudly    proclaims    the lankruptcy of this use of hatred.    It mains  to be  seen  whether the  soiled   victors   really   have   won   or rhether    they    have    not    depressed iemselves in trying   o depress their lemies.
The use  of non-violence
Some    philosophers    of   action    in ni-ia   improve   upon  the   model   and >y. " We shall never kill our enemy it  we  shall   destroy- his   property." "lhaps I do them an injustice when call   it " his property," for the so-JCalleil enemy has brought no property his own   and   what   little   he has •ought he makes us pay for.   Therein'  wh.i!   we   destroy  is   really our Yet for the destruction too we ive to   pay,   and  it  is  the innocent 10■ are made to pay.      That is the plication of the punitive tax and all ies wiith it.
Non-violence in the sens< oj m non-illing does not upturn   to me,
therefore, to be any improvement on the technique of violence. It means slow torture, and when slow-becomes ineffective we shall immediately revert to killing and t<> the atom bomb, which is the last ivord in violence today.
V^OR such reasons I suggested in 1920 the use of nonviolence and its inevitable twin companion truth for canalizing hatred into the pi-oper channel. The hateo-hates not for the sake of hatred, but because he wants to drive away from his country the hated being or beings. He will, therefore, achieve his end as readily by non-violence as by violent means.
For the past twenty-five years, willingly or unwillingly, the Congress has spoken to. the masses in favour of non-violence as against violence for regaining our lost liberty. We have discovered through our progress that in the application of non-violence we have been able to reach the mass mind far more quickly and far more extensively than ever before. Yet, if truth is told as it must be, our nonviolent action has .been half-hearted. Many have preached non-violencv through the lips while harbouring violence in the breast.
The unsophisticated mass mind has read the secret meaning hidden in our breasts and the unconscious reaction has not been altogether as it might have been. Hypocrisy has . acted as an ode  to  virtue, but   it could   never
take its place. So I plead now for non-violence and yet more non-vio-lence. I do so not without knowledge, but with sixty years' experience behind me. This is the critical mo i ; he dumb masses   ire si
Present needs
rPHERE   are   many   ways   to apply   the  canons   of  non-i e to  the   present needs of the country.    The hypnotism of the INA J i-i   its spell upon us.    NetajiV -name   is  one  to conjure  with.       His patriotism is second to none.    (I use the present tense intentionally.)     His ery shines through all bis actions. He aimed high but failed.    Who has not failed?    Ours is tia aim high and hi well.   It is not given to everyone to command success.
Mj prais and admiration can go no further. I knew that bis action doomed to failure, and I would have said so exen if he had brought his INA victorious to India, because the masses would not have come into their own in this manner. The lesson that Netaji and his army bring to us is one of self-Sacrifice, unity irrespective of class and community, and discipline.    If  our   adoration   will   be
1	The     Indian     National     Army,     sponsored
during the war by the Japanese for ihe avowed
I     liberating    India.      Some    20.000 Indian   volunteers   joined  it.
2	Netaji    is    Hindese    for    " leader,"   but    in
context    ii    is   being   used,   as   by
millions   of    Indians,    in    reference    I"    Subhas
Chandra   Bose,   leader   of   the   Indian  National
Army   and   of   the   puppet    Indian   government
li'   Japanese.   Hose was reported by
i   have   been   killed   in   a  plane
crash   while   flying   from   Tokyo  to   Singapore,
on    August   19,    1945.     However,    he   is   widely
lidi   ved    to   be   still    alive    and    to   'nave   gone
underground.      In     this    connection.     Gandhi's
;  i berate   reference  to   his   use  of  the present
n  speaking of  Bose is highly significant.
highly   regarded   in   India   as   a   patriot,
if    m sgu ded,    and    a    demonstration    on    his
h  birthday  touched off ihe  riots  in  Bom-
ii January.     Ed.,  Fellowship.
May   3,   1946,   PEACE   NEWS—3
The popular acclaim among Indians for the Japanese-sponsored Indian National Army has demonstrably added a new factor to the context in which " non-violence " in India now appears.
In this article, reprinted with acknowledgments from Fellowship, Mahatma Gandhi himself assesses the new situation.
wise and discriminating, we will rigidly copy tihiis trinity of virtues, but we will as rigidly abjure violence.
I would not have the INA man think or say that he and his ever can deliver the masses of India from bondage by force of arms. But if ha is true to Netaji and still more so to the country, he will spend himself in teaching the masses, men, women, and children to be brave, self-sacrificing and united. Then we will be able to stand erect before *he world. But if he will merely act the armed soldier, ■he will only lord it over the masses and the fact that he will be a volunteer will not count for much.
For that reason I welcome the declaration made by Captain Shah Nawaz s that to be worthy of Netaji, on having come to Indian sod1!, he will act as a humble soldier of non-violence in Congress ranks.
3 Captain Shah Nawaz Khan, one of the three INA officers court-martialled in Calcutta and Bombay last November, and sentenced to transportation for life, -a sentence later   remitted.