By – Mahatma Gandhi, first published in ‘Young India’, March 26, 1931.
You claim to be Communists, but you do not seem to live the life of Communism. I may tell you that I am trying my best to live up to the ideal of communism in the best sense of the term. And communism does not, I fancy, exclude courtesy. If you want to carry the country with you, you ought to be able to react on it by reasoning with it. You cannot do so by coercion. You may deal destruction to bring the country round to your view. But how many will you destroy? Not tens of millions. You may kill a few thousands, if you had millions with you. I ask you to convert the Congress if you can, and to take charge of it. But you cannot do so by bidding good-bye to the elementary rules of courtesy. And there is no reason why you should be lacking in ordinary courtesy, when it is open to you to give the fullest vent to your views, when India is tolerant enough to listen patiently to anyone who can talk coherently.
I must warn you that I do not bear any ill to the capitalists; I can think of doing them no harm. But I want, by means of suffering, to awaken them to their sense of duty. I want to melt their hearts and get them to render justice to their less fortunate brethren. They are human beings, and my appeal to them will not go in vain. During the last ‘Satyagraha’, quite a number of capitalists went in for considerable sacrifice, went to jail and suffered. Do you want to estrange them? Don’t you want them to work with you for the common end? God has given you intellect and talent. Turn them to proper account. I beseech you not to lay an embargo on your reason.
You claim to be Communists, but you do not seem to live the life of Communism. I may tell you that I am trying my best to live up to the ideal of communism in the best sense of the term. And communism does not, I fancy, exclude courtesy. If you want to carry the country with you, you ought to be able to react on it by reasoning with it. You cannot do so by coercion. You may deal destruction to bring the country round to your view. But how many will you destroy? Not tens of millions. You may kill a few thousands, if you had millions with you. I ask you to convert the Congress if you can, and to take charge of it. But you cannot do so by bidding good-bye to the elementary rules of courtesy. And there is no reason why you should be lacking in ordinary courtesy, when it is open to you to give the fullest vent to your views, when India is tolerant enough to listen patiently to anyone who can talk coherently.
I must warn you that I do not bear any ill to the capitalists; I can think of doing them no harm. But I want, by means of suffering, to awaken them to their sense of duty. I want to melt their hearts and get them to render justice to their less fortunate brethren. They are human beings, and my appeal to them will not go in vain. During the last ‘Satyagraha’, quite a number of capitalists went in for considerable sacrifice, went to jail and suffered. Do you want to estrange them? Don’t you want them to work with you for the common end? God has given you intellect and talent. Turn them to proper account. I beseech you not to lay an embargo on your reason.
(However, I must admit that, majority of politicians, who are wearing & using the name of Gandhi in Indian Politics are also not living the life and idealism of Gandhi. Communist may accuse that ultimate result of ‘Gandhian bourgeoisie politics’ has to result in these outcomes. But communists are also far away from serving people engaged in serving themselves and involved in ‘strategic ploy’ for short cut routes to capture state power like bringing new theory of ‘capitalist communists’. In brief the difference between Gandhi and Marx was that, Gandhi had been first ‘a human being’, then Gandhi and Marx was first ‘communist’ then Marx. – Mr. Vijay ‘Bidrohi’)
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