mahatma gandhi and the jewish national home 31that “we are very sorry that we sought” Gandhi’s views.^28 The November
1938 Harijan article eff ectively ended the brief Zionist courtship of the
Mahatma.
But why were the Zionists interested in Mahatma Gandhi in the fi rst
place?
Zionist Courtship: Too Little, Too Late
Nonviolent struggle against colonial rule was a novelty. Thus the
Mahatma’s struggle for India’s freedom attracted widespread interna-
tional attention and admiration, and other movements and leaders who
were seeking to overthrow imperial and colonial rule looked to Gandhi
for inspiration and considered him and his colleagues as friends and
comrades- in- arms. Shared interests, whether in his philosophy of non-
violence or po liti cal struggle against foreigners, resulted in Gandhi being
courted by many diff erent groups, nations, and leaders. Even if material
help was limited, shared human concern and the desire to liberate na-
tional homes from colonialism resonated with many. Even Westerners,
who did not always share his anti- British and anti- imperialist politics,
came to appreciate his nonviolence and spartan lifestyle.
The Zionists were drawn to him for a diff erent reason. Their interest
was belated, short- lived, and ended in acrimony. According to Shimoni,
Gandhi’s “unique moral character could not but evoke sympathy and ad-
miration amongst Jews.”^29 This explanation is applicable only to Gandhi’s
Jewish friends in South Africa and not to those who sought his support
for Zionism in the 1930s. The Zionist interest in the Mahatma was princi-
pally governed by a desire to secure the support of, as Sharett remarked,
“t he greatest of t he liv ing Hindus.”^30 G. H. Jansen, a former Indian foreign-
service offi cial who wrote for international media from Nicosia, suggested
a sinister motive: “the Zionists did not pursue Mahatma Gandhi merely
because he was an infl uence in Asia, [but] rather because he had a large
following in the West.”^31
If one examines the timing and substance of the Zionist contacts, a
more plausible explanation can be found for the sudden interest in the
Mahatma. By the time the fi rst formal but brief contact was made in 1931,
Gandhi had emerged and was recognized as the undisputed leader of a
country that also had the world’s largest Muslim population. This politico-
demographic factor compelled the Zionist leadership to pay attention to