The following article was published in February 1943 in The Jaina Gazette, Vol. XXXX (No. 2), p. 21-22. As a document of contemporary history this paper is of special interest since it describes Radhakrishnan's attitude of towards Gandhi and his liberation movement. When Radhakrishnan held this lecture, Gandhi was under arrest in Pune since four months and has been released only two years later due to health reasons.
On December 12, 1942 at Calcutta, in his last lecture as Kamala Lecturer of the Calcutta University, Sir Radhakrishnan observed that one day the world would look back upon Gandhi and salute him as one born out of his time, as one who had seen the light in a dark and savage world.
According to the Hindu view, non-violence as
a mental state was different from non-resistance. It was absence of malice and
hatred. Himsa or violence was different from danda or
punishment, which was the legal restraint of the guilty. Force is not the
law-giver, but the servant of the law in such cases. Even ascetics are obliged
to use violence; only by great effort they reduce it to a minimum. Our endeavor
should be to substitute persuasion for force, and reduce the scope for the
employment of force as much as possible. Man was not a beast of prey. Human behavior
was full of acquired attitudes. Man was the only animal that killed for reasons
which were more or less metaphysical. Once upon a time war might have been
relatively cleaner, when it was conducted according to rules. But now we have
moved from flint to steel, gun-powder, poison gas, and disease germs; and we
are called upon to fight with hatred for our enemy, with our heads full of
scientific cunning and our hearts full with savage hatred. We throw ourselves against
masses of humanity for attaining national aggrandizement. We cannot say that
our wars are always just. In this war all the belligerents appeal to God and
look upon their case as absolutely just. Humility becomes us all. A new
technique which will break the vicious circle of hate is to be devised. The
League of Nations failed because it did not give up rights acquired by the use
of violence; it did not involve the instrument of peaceful change, and it had
not an effective sanction. It was just like a gun that fired blank
cartridges. We must set up a world organization with a world court, and an
international police to support it.
Paying a glowing tribute to
Mahatma Gandhi, he said that, now and then, there arose above a common level
some rare spirit who reflected more clearly the divine purpose and put into
practice more courageously the divine guidance. Gandhiji's suffering embodies
the wounded pride of India and in his Satyagraha is reflected the
eternal patience of her wisdom. Ghandhiji admits that submission to injustice
is worse than suffering it. He tells us that we can resist even through an act
of non-violence which is an active force. If blood is to be shed, let it be our
blood. Cultivate the quiet courage of dying without killing, for many lives
freely only by his readiness to die, if need be, at the hands of his brother,
never by killing him. Those few who practice this ought not merely to talk of
peace and think of it, but will it with all their soul. When faced by a
crisis they would prefer the four walls of a cell to a seat in the cabinet or a
tent in the battlefield. They would be prepared to stand against a wall to be
spit upon, to be stoned, to be shot. Gandhiji today is not a free man, but the
light in him which is from the divine flame of truth and love cannot be put
out.
