The letter from Gandhi to Hitler
Mahatma Gandhi was the creator and founder of the modern Indian state and the largest supporter of Satyagraha (principle of non-aggression, non-violent form of protest) as a means of revolution, while Adolf Hitler was the leader of the Nazi Party, responsible for starting the World War II. See what Gandhi tried to avoid this war.
The letter never reached its final destination - and it would be risky to say that if he had come, he would have any chance of changing the course of [terrible] history that was to come. But we can not say he did not try:
Mahatma Gandhi, the pacifist leader who led the process of independence of India, showed that it was able to dream bigger than any music of John Lennon and sent a letter to Adolf Hitler, asking that this would avoid war. The correspondence was written on July 23, 1939, when Hitler’s Germany was about to invade Poland and start World War II.
The letter that never reached its destination, because it was intercepted by the British government, says the following:
India, July 23, 1939
Dear friend,
Friends have been urging me to write to you for the sake of humanity. But I have resisted their request, because of the feeling that any letter from me would be an impertinence. Something tells me that I must not calculate and that I must make my appeal for whatever it may be worth.
It is quite clear that you are today the one person in the world who can prevent a war which may reduce humanity to the savage state. Must you pay that price for an object however worthy it may appear to you to be? Will you listen to the appeal of one who has seliberately shunned the method of war not without considerable success? Any way I anticipate your forgiveneas, if I have erred in writing to you.
I remain,
Your sincere friend
M. K. Gandhi
Source: Superinteressante [http://super.abril.com.br/]
