26 mahatma gandhi and the jewish national home
The Mahatma’s views are not a guide to India’s foreign policy. He is
never considered, either by his disciples or by scholars, as a serious thinker
on international aff airs. Though his views at times provided a moral con-
tent, he was not setting the agenda of free India. A number of his posi-
tions were quickly, quietly, and forcefully buried by his colleagues and
po liti cal successors because they were seen as utopian, impractical, un-
scientifi c, and even antimodern. From the nonconsumption of alcohol to
cottage industries and the village- based economic model, a number of
his ideas gradually disappeared from public discourse. One never hears
about the Mahatma’s friendlier overtures to Pakistan in the immediate
aftermath of the partition. It was only after he resorted to a hunger strike
that Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru accepted his demands for an equi-
table distribution of assets of British India. His perceived “appeasement”
toward Pakistan was the “immediate” reason for his assassination on
January 30, 1948.^6
Why are Gandhi’s views on Pakistan irrelevant but what he said about
Palestine in 1938 sacrosanct? Was he aware of the historic suff erings of
the Jews and their longing for a homeland? Did he consider the rival na-
tionalist claims of the Jews and Arabs over Palestine? Was his opinion
colored by his moral commitments to nonviolence and by his wish that
Jews realize their aspirations through nonviolence and cooperation? Was
he aware of the complexities and predicaments of the problem in Pales-
tine? Was he as categorical as he is commonly portrayed? Are the views of
the Mahatma relevant to the understanding of India’s foreign policy or
only to its Israeli policy? Alternatively, if Mahatma Gandhi’s endorse-
ment of the Palestinian claims were unequivocal, how did India square
the circle, when it recognized Israel in 1950 and normalized relations
four de cades later?
In short, is Mahatma Gandhi correct, consistent, or even relevant to
the understanding of India’s Israel policy?
Empathy but Indiff erence
The Mahatma was no stranger to Jews or to their historic suff er-
ings. His personal association with Jews dates back to the late nineteenth
century, and as he admitted, “I have known [the Jews] intimately in South
Africa.”^7 Some of them became his lifelong companions, and one can
identify the following prominent Jewish personalities who interacted