30 August 2016
4 hours

Peace News starts out as a modest weekly (format: A3, 4 pages per issue), but grows gradually into a more ambitious periodical. At the end of 1937 its circulation is almost 10,000. By then the number of pages has gone up to 16. In November 1938 the circulation surpasses the 20,000 mark, and it reaches its peak in early 1940, with a total circulation of nearly 40,000 copies. The first two years the issues are cramped with very short news articles, mainly on Spain, Germany, the PPU movement and a whole array of other topical subjects, but with a surprising lack of interest in both India and Gandhi. Only after 1937 there is space for longer articles.

- ‘Thoughts on Non-violence’
Peace News, weekly periodical. Author: J. Middleton Murray. Date: May 7, 1938. Format: A2, 16 pages. Page 7, 4 columns.
An article about the difference between ‘Parliamentary Swaraj’ and ‘Real Swaraj’.
In his book Hind Swaraj (Indian Home Rule) Gandhi had taken up the position of Real Swaraj. “This little book has done more to change the hearts and minds of men than any other written in my time. It is thirty years old; it was published and suppressed in 1908. In the new preface thirteen years later he writes: ‘I would warn the reader against thinking that I am today aiming at the Swaraj described therein. I know that India is not ripe for it… It requires a higher simplicity and action than the people are today prepared for. The only part of that programme which is now carried out in its entirety is that of non-violence. But I regret to have to confess that even that is not being carried in the spirit of the book. If it were India would establish Swaraj today’.”
Murray is quite critical of Gandhi’s change of heart and his choice for Parliamentary Swaraj over Real Swaraj. Gandhi’s remarks in his 1921 preface, Murray states, result in a paradox. Gandhi declares that he is working for a Parliamentary Swaraj “in accordance with the wishes of the people”, whereas the book itself “contains a withering attack on parliamentary democracy”. Yet “Real Swaraj is to adopt nonviolence as a condition of being; Parliamentary Swaraj is adopting non-violence as a political technique.” Along these same lines Murray differentiates between real “pacifism” and “political pacifism”, “which is not to say that pacifism has no political expression, and the only non-delusionary political expression of pacifism is unilateral and complete disarmament. Nothing else is pacifist politics.”

- ‘Gandhi’s Plan for a Non-Violent Army: The Way to Indian Independence and Security’
Peace News, weekly periodical. Author: No author. Date: 13 August 1938. Format: A2, 16 pages. Page 15, 2 columns.
‘Mr. M.K. Gandhi is at work on a plan for non-violence on a large scale, which he believes would enable India to obtain full independence and would defend it against aggression from within and without.’
The article quotes Gandhi’s nine essential qualifications for members (‘messengers of peace’) of his peace brigade, which rank from ‘a living faith in non-violence’ and therefore a living faith in God to ‘an equal regard for all principal religions’ to having close relations with the community the peace soldier protects to having a character beyond reproach.

- ‘Czechoslovakia and Non-Violence’
Peace News, weekly periodical. Author: M.K. Gandhi. Date: 29 October 1938. Format: A2, 16 pages. Page 2, 2 columns.
Article based on abstracts from Harijan.
Gandhi sympathizes with the plight of the Czechs, who had just been invaded by the Germans, ‘and yet I have the hardihood to say that had they known the use of non-violence as a weapon for the defence of national honour, they would have faced the whole might of Germany with that of Italy thrown in.’ In terms of military strength the Czechs are far superior to the Indians. So when the Indians will manage to overthrow colonial rule – as they will, Gandhi has no doubts there – through nonviolent means, the Czechs will certainly be able to put an end to the German occupation by using the means of nonviolent resistance.

 - ‘A Bloodless Weapon for Czechoslovakia – Mr. Gandhi’s Alternative to the Science of War’
Peace News, weekly periodical. Author: M.K. Gandhi. Date: 6 November 1938. Format: A2, 16 pages. Page 6, 3 columns.
Article based on abstracts from Harijan.
‘If I were a Czech I would free the British and the French from the obligation to defend my country. And yet I must live. I would not be a vassal to any nation or body. I must have absolute independence or perish. To seek to win in a clash of arms would be pure bravado. Not so, if in defying the might of one who would deprive me of my independence. I refuse to obey his will and perish unarmed in the attempt. In so doing, though, I lose the body. I save my soul, i.e. my honour. “But,” says a comforter, “Hitler knows no pity. Your spiritual effort will avail nothing before him.” My answer is, “You may be right. History has no record of a nation having adopted non-violent resistance. If Hitler is unaffected by my suffering, it does not matter. For I shall have lost nothing of worth. My honour is the only thing worth preserving. That is independent of Hitler’s pity.’

- ‘Mr. Gandhi’s Support for the Peace Pledge: Says Non-Violence can Beat Fascism’
Peace News, weekly periodical. Author: M.K. Gandhi. Date: 12 May 1939. Format: A2, 16 pages. Page 3, 2 columns.
Gandhi’s reply in Harijan to the PPU’s question whether ‘taking the pledge is a right and practical course of action in the present condition of our world.’ Gandhi departs from the criticism that is often heard, ‘that non-violent resistance can only be effective in resisting people who are capable of being moved by moral and humanitarian considerations. Fascism not only is not moved by such considerations, but openly scoffs at them as signs of weakness. It has no scruples in wiping out all resistance and in employing any degree of brutality in order to do so. Non-violent resistance therefore stands no chance whatever against fascism.’
Gandhi replies to this statement by refusing to make an absolute distinction between the present democratic (and colonial) powers and the fascist state. ‘The so-called democracies have before now misappropriated other peoples’ lands and have resorted to ruthless repression. What wonder if Messrs. Hitler & Co. have reduced to a science the unscientific violence their predecessors have developed for exploiting the so-called backward races for their own material gain? It is therefore a matter of rule of three to find out the exact amount of non-violence required to melt the hearts of the Fascists and the Nazis; if it is assumed, as it is, that the so-called democracies melt before a given amount of non-violence. […] After all, what is the gain if the so-called democracies win? War certainly would not end. Democracies will have adopted all the tactics of the Fascists and the Nazis; including conscription and all other forcible methods to compel and exact obedience.’

 - ‘How India will Gain and Hold Independence’
Peace News, weekly periodical. Author: M.K. Gandhi. Date: 9 February 1940. Format: A2, 12 pages. Page 5, 3 columns.
Article based on abstracts from Harijan.
‘Independence will come because India is ripe for it […] It is not a marketable thing. […] The attainment of independence will be through non-violent means. India can settle down for peace only when she has independence which she can hold against any combination. This is possible only on a non-violent basis. […] I would rather have India engaged indefinitely in a non-violent fight for independence than be satisfied with anything less as her goal. […] It may be far off. It may even take a generation. I have patience enough to wait. Joy lies in the fight, in the attempt, in the suffering involved, not in the victory itself. For, victory is implied in such an attempt.’

- ‘How the Nazi’s were defeated in Denmark: a Little-Known Triumph of Non-Violence’
Peace News, weekly periodical. Author: E.D. Chase. Date: 19 April 1940. Format: A2, 12 pages. Front page, 2 columns.
- ‘When Nazi’s were Beaten by Non-Violence
Peace News, weekly periodical. Author: E.D. Chase. Date: 26 April 1940. Format: A2, 12 pages. Page 8, 2 columns.
- ‘How Danes Once Beat Nazi’s by Non-Violence’
Peace News, weekly periodical. Author: E.D. Chase. Date: 3 May 1940. Format: A2, 12 pages. Page 3, 1 column/page 8, 1 column.
One continuing article divided in three parts on how the Danes neutralized Nazi propaganda and pacified the large number of Germans living in the border region with Germany by sending a nonviolent youth border patrol to the region that was to strengthen Danish culture and to instruct the young on how to deal with Nazi propaganda. 

- ‘Non-Violence Alone Can Save Democracy’
Peace News, weekly periodical. Author: M.K. Gandhi. Date: 12 July 1940. Format: A2, 4 pages. Front page, 1 column.
Nonviolence can save democracy by instilling ‘true democracy’. Contrary to the practice of pre-war democracy, true democracy is both anti-war and anti-imperialist. ‘Western democracy today, is diluted Nazism or Fascism. At best it is merely a cloak to hide the Nazi and the Fascist tendencies of imperialism. […] India is trying to evolve true democracy, i.e. without violence. Our weapons are those of Satyagraha. […] Your wars will never ensure safety. India’s experiment can and will, if the people came up to the mark or, to put it another way, if God gives me the necessary wisdom and strength to bring the experiment to fruition.’

- ‘Gandhi Versus Britain’
Peace News, weekly periodical. Author: Wilfred Wellock. Date: 12 July 1940. Format: A2, 4 pages. Page 2, 3 columns.
Short article on the growing power vacuum in India and Gandhi’s position in the new political arena: ‘Gandhi is the permanent thorn in the flesh of Britain, because he is the only great leader in the world who sees life while he has a profound conception of human welfare, interprets the material world through the spiritual and embraces humanity entire in his politics. Gandhi realizes as few men do the inner meaning of imperialism and its soul destroying nature, and understands the strength and weakness of the British character and the British rule.’ According to Wellock the developments of the early forties are the realization of Gandhi’s prophetic book, Indian Home Rule, in which Gandhi rejected British rule on the basis of both its violence and its inhuman commercialism. He goes on to quote a key passage from Gandhi’s Hind Swaraj, ‘You may, if you like, cut us into pieces. You may shatter us at the cannon’s mouth. If you act contrary to our will, we will not help you, and without our help we know that you cannot move one step forward.’ Wellock’s conclusion is that now the glorious British empire is coming to an end, it better lets go of it gracefully and relinquishes its control over India forthwith.