# Why are the methods of Gandhi and MLJ, Jr. being overlooked? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [January 20, 2008, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-methods-of-gandhi-and-mlj-jr-being-overlooked/434224 "2008-01-20T03:33:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![brickbacon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/898d66/32.png) [@brickbacon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brickbacon)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2008, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-methods-of-gandhi-and-mlj-jr-being-overlooked/434224/61 "2008-01-25T20:55:08Z")
[QUOTE=askeptic] IMHO Wiki is a great jumping off point but it hardly qualifies as authority when facts are in dispute. As for the rest, I will let those who know about the guy argue his merits. [/QUOTE] True. I don’t claim to have definitive sources, but it’s better than nothing. Especially since it’s not my burden to prove. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2008, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-methods-of-gandhi-and-mlj-jr-being-overlooked/434224/62 "2008-01-25T21:29:53Z")
[QUOTE=brickbacon] Any cites for this? I am genuinely curious if he said it, or implied this, and in what context. [/QUOTE] He said it, in a 1938 article in the newspaper Harijan, called “The Jews”, about the Jewish settlement of Palestine, which he was arguing against. The letter says, in part (bolding mine): > [@](#): > > If I were a Jew and were born in Germany and earned my livelihood there, I would claim Germany as my home even as the tallest gentile German may, and challenge him to shoot me or cast me in the dungeon; I would refuse to be expelled or to submit to discriminating treatment. And for doing this, I should not wait for the fellow Jews to join me in civil resistance but would have confidence that in the end the rest are bound to follow my example. If one Jew or all the Jews were to accept the prescription here offered, he or they cannot be worse off than now. And suffering voluntarily undergone will bring them an inner strength and joy which no number of resolutions of sympathy passed in the world outside Germany can. Indeed, even if Britain, France and America were to declare hostilities against Germany, they can bring no inner joy, no inner strength. **The calculated violence of Hitler may even result in a general massacre of the Jews by way of his first answer to the declaration of such hostilities. But if the Jewish mind could be prepared for voluntary suffering, even the massacre I have imagined could be turned into a day of thanksgiving and joy that Jehovah had wrought deliverance of the race even at the hands of the tyrant.** For to the Godfearing, death has no terror. It is a joyful sleep to be followed by a waking that would be all the more refreshing for the long sleep. Here’s a collection of Gandhi’s letters (as well as letters to him) on the Jews and Palestine. You can find the article there, as well as much more: [http://www.gandhiserve.org/information/writings\_online/articles/gandhi\_jews\_palestine.html](http://www.gandhiserve.org/information/writings_online/articles/gandhi_jews_palestine.html) ---
**Author:** ![cosmosdan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a6a055/32.png) [@cosmosdan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cosmosdan)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2008, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-methods-of-gandhi-and-mlj-jr-being-overlooked/434224/63 "2008-01-26T05:13:56Z")
[QUOTE=Captain Amazing] He said it, in a 1938 article in the newspaper Harijan, called “The Jews”, about the Jewish settlement of Palestine, which he was arguing against. The letter says, in part (bolding mine): Here’s a collection of Gandhi’s letters (as well as letters to him) on the Jews and Palestine. You can find the article there, as well as much more: [http://www.gandhiserve.org/information/writings\_online/articles/gandhi\_jews\_palestine.html](http://www.gandhiserve.org/information/writings_online/articles/gandhi_jews_palestine.html) [/QUOTE] Interesting, but it is not telling the Jews to commit mass suicide which was what **furt \*\* had posted. From what I read Gandhi didn’t believe in any war, and saw non violent non cooperation , even in the face of their Nazi horrific treatment of the Jews, as a spiritual practice as well as a political one. That’s indicated by the sentance after your bolded part. You may not agree and might even consider it a ridiculous suggestion, but his intention seem fairly obvious and not what **furt\*\* suggested. I’ll be interested in seeing if** furt** can support his assertions now that they’ve been challenged. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-the-methods-of-gandhi-and-mlj-jr-being-overlooked/434224.md?page=3)