www.dakurajsingh.com
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DISARMAMENT
"If Germany today changed her policy and made a determination to use her freedom, not
for dividing the commerce of the world but for protecting, through her moral superiority,
the weaker races of the earth, she could certainly do that without armament. It would be
found that before general disarmament in Europe commences, as it must some day, unless
Europe is to commit suicide, some nation will have to dare to disarm herself and take
large risks. The level of non-violence in that nation, if that event happily comes to pass,
will naturally have risen so high as to command universal respect. Her judgements will
be unerring, her decisions will be firm, her capacity for self-sacrifice will be great,
and she will want to live as much for other nations as for herself."
Mahatma Gandhi, "Young India", 8th of October 1925, page 345.
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"Not to believe in the possibility of permanent peace is to disbelieve in the godliness
of human nature. Methods hitherto adopted have failed because rock-bottom sincerity
on the part of those who have striven has been lacking. Not that they have realized this
lack. Peace is unattainable by part performance of conditions, even as chemical combination
is impossible without complete fulfilment of conditions of attainment thereof. If recognized
leaders of mankind who have control over engines of destruction were wholly to renounce their
use with full knowledge of implications, permanent peace can be obtained. This is clearly
impossible without the great powers of the earth renouncing their imperialistic designs.
This again seems impossible without these great nations ceasing to believe in soul-destroying
competition and to desire to multiply wants and therefore increase their material possessions.
It is my conviction that the root of the evil is want of a living faith in a living God.
It is a first-class human tragedy that peoples of the earth who claim to believe in the
message of Jesus whom they describe as the Prince of Peace show little of that belief
in actual practice. It is painful to sincere Christian divines limiting the scope of
Jesus's message to select individuals. I have been taught from my childhood, and I have
tested the truth by experience, that primary virtues of mankind are possible of cultivation
by the meanest of human species. It is this undoubted universal possiblity that distinguishes
the human from the rest of God's creation. If even one great nation were unconditionally
to perform the supreme act of renunciation, many of us would see in our life-time visible
peace established on earth."
Mahatma Gandhi, "Harijan", 16th of May 1936, page 109.
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"It is open to the great powers to take up non-violence any day and cover themselves with glory
and earn eternal grtitude of posterity. If they or any of them can shed the fear of destruction,
if they disarm themselves, they will automatically help the rest to regain their sanity. But
then these great powers have to give up imperialistic ambitions and exploitation of the so-called
uncivilized or semi-civilized nations of the earth and revise their mode of life. It means
a complete revolution. Great nations can hardly be expected in the ordinary course to move
spontaneously in a direction the reverse of the one they have followed and, according to their
notion of value, from victory to victory. But miracles have happened before and may happen
even in this very prosaic age. Who can dare limit God's power of undoing wrong? One thing is
certain. If the mad race for armaments continues, it is bound to result in a slaughter such
as has never occured in history. If there is a victor left, the very victory will be a living death
for the nation that emerges victorious. There is no escape from the impending doom save through a
bold and unconditional acceptance of the non-violent method with all its glorious implications."
Mahatma Gandhi, "Harijan", 12th of November 1938, page 328.
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