AUTHOR: Dezső SZENKOVICS
GANDHI’S VISION OF PEACE IN TWO LETTERS TO HITLER
Danubius, XXXIX, Galaţi, 2021, pp. 255-264.
Abstract
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi or the Mahatma could be considered one of the most important and well-known personalities of the 20th century. During his life he was apostrophized as “the Apostle of Nonviolence” and even nowadays we look at him as a symbol of peace. Reading up on his more than 50.000-page spiritual heritage, we will find that one of the core concepts, central categories of his thinking is ahimsa, which could be translated as non-violence, a concept in a very close relationship with the expression of peace. Satyagraha, another important category of the Gandhian thinking and at the same time a method of acting is in fact the way which leads to a peaceful resistance, which – in the Gandhian perspective – could be a real alternative in order to obtain a given goal or cause by violence, aggression or bloodshed.
In my paper I will try to summarize the importance and the relevance of the two letters written by the Mahatma and addressed to the leader of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party, Adolf Hitler. The starting point will be the analysis of these two letters, the first one written in July 23, 1939 and the second one in December 24, 1940. Even though we know that the first letter never came to Hitler because of the simple fact that it was intercepted by the British authorities, and the second one wasn’t answered by the addressee, I think that this two documents are the most important testimonies of his unquestionable faith in its theory and method.