What was the full the context of this Gandi quote and what did he mean?
Is he saying that it is wrong to fight and cause destruction for any reason? Whether a person is fighting for a totaliarian government for fighting for freedom it is always wrong?
IMHO, I would say that he is basically saying “What difference does it make to those that suffer or die WHAT your belief or motive is?”
Basically that death and suffering is death and suffering. Whether it happens in the name of democracy, religious belief, liberation of the people, etc… it doesn’t matter…innocent people still die, lose their homes, suffer loss that had no involvement or interest…
Remember, Gandhi was a pacifist…
Just my two cents…
D.
No, Gandhi was NOT a pacifist. He was an advocate of non-violence. There is a difference.
Many times during his life he stated publicly that evil must be fought wherever it is found. The point of the statement you’re asking about is NOT whether one should fight against evil–of course you should!–but in what way should you fight it.
According to Ganndhi, yes, destruction is always bad and murder, for whatever cause, is always bad. However, one can fight evil without destruction and one should always do so. In a quote made famous by the movie: “Do we fight to punish or do we fight to change things? Speaking for myself, I’ve been such a sinner that I’ve always felt we should leave punishment to God.” He then went on to rock the British empire through entirely non-violent means.
I’ll google around to see if I can find the longer context of that quote. As a quick and easy overview of Gandhi’s meaning, I would recommend the movie.
The quote is from Non-Violence in Peace and War (1942) vol. I, ch. 142.
I don’t have time right this minute to go looking.
The Google response is clogged with repetitions of the unattributed quotation, including one prolific message board poster who uses it as a sig. Forgive me, I don’t feel inclined to wade through umpteen thousand hits to see if one of them includes the full article from which the quote is taken. Since Gandhi spent decades writing and editing several newspapers in various languages, the scope of the search field is tremendous.
But I am certainly willing to discuss and debate the meaning of the quotation. 
samclem, you’re a better googler than I…
Maybe not. I just have a few more Dictionaries of Quotations that you, probably.
I’ve read different times that Gandhi suggested to the Czechs or Jews (pending which version) that they should commit mass suicide rather than resist the Germans. What’s the veracity of this?