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Mohandas Gandhi Letter Signed

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:20,000.00 - 25,000.00 USD
Mohandas Gandhi Letter Signed

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Auction Date:2021 May 12 @ 18:00 (UTC-5 : EST/CDT)
Location:15th Floor WeWork, Boston, Massachusetts, 02108, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
LS signed “M. K. Gandhi,” four pages on two sheets, 5.5 x 8.75, Sevagram, Wardha, C.P. letterhead, December 10, 1940. Letter to District Judge Edmund Elmar Mack, in full: "I thank you for your letter of 25th ult. I am sorry I have been late in answering your question but I do not apologise for the delay as I am under medical orders to reduce work to the minimum, if I cannot take complete rest. You have raised a difficult question. Red Cross work I love. I did it during the Boer War & again during what was then called the Zulu Rebellion and yet again during the late war. In order to qualify myself for acceptance during the last war I had to take a short St. John's Ambulance course under Dr. Cantley. Therefore I do not need any demonstration of the value of such work. But organized Red Cross work has as much a humanitarian as a political side to it. It is part of the war machinery. As an out and out war resister I can not identify myself with it. I have, therefore, at the risk of being misunderstood, opposed people [of my way of thinking] joining the Indian Red Cross Society. But I have done no propaganda against it. I have guided those who have asked my opinion. Those who want to do humanitarian service need not join any Red Cross Society. They will take the necessary lessons independently. Like the Good Samaritan they will have excellent opportunities of rendering silent service whenever it comes their way. The case you quote is an unfortunate one. So far as I am concerned there is no question of indiscipline. If Shri T. R. Reddy feels the inner urge, he is free to join the Society. In happier times I should carry on propaganda for introducing genuine Red Cross work as part of the education syllabus at its early stage so that a young lad or lass of 15 years would be able to render first aid to any person who is in need of it." The five words in brackets are in Gandhi's own hand. In fine condition, with scattered light foxing.

In his Autobiography, Gandhi declares that through his work with the Red Cross he participated with the English Army during the Boer War and in the Zulu Rebellion, both of which he knew were being waged for wrong reasons: he believed the Boers were in the right, and that the Zulu uprising was 'no war but a man hunt.' In the latter Gandhi sought to relieve the sufferings of the unfortunate South Africans, but, as he declared in an issue of Young India from September 8, 1928, he recognized that participating in the work of the Red Cross was nothing else but participating in war.

Gandhi was compelled to enlist in the Red Cross in 1914 because he felt that it was the duty of the Hindus to participate in the defense of the British Empire. The principal reason why Gandhi took part—on three different occasions—in British wars and was even pressed to participate in the war conference of the Viceroy of India, was the hope of seeing his loyalty and that of India to the British Empire in time of danger rewarded by the gift of dominion status, a goal that would not obtained until some seven years after this letter was written. An insightful letter from Gandhi, perhaps the first great pacifist of modern times, recounting his wartime years and his mixed feelings towards the Red Cross.