Talk:Pacifism/removed
|
|
Criticisms of pragmatic pacifism
Critics of this kind of pacifism claim that being non-violent in the face of violent criminals or armies tacitly or explicitly encourages more violence. They claim that the main reason why Gandhi succeeded was because the British were hypocrites, who preached democracy in their own country while denying self-determination to Indians, and that Gandhi turned this hypocrisy against the British. Gandhi advocated that Europeans - even Jews - should not resist the Nazis. His opponents argued that in this situation non-violence fails as the Third Reich - an openly evil empire which felt no 'need' to be liked - could murderously crush any opposition to their rule without compromising its own ideology. The science fiction author Harry Turtledove wrote a short story "The Last Article" in which Gandhi attempts to use non-violent resistance against India's Nazi occupiers after an Axis victory in World War II. According to Harry Turtledoves story, such a resistence would have failed.
It is also said that Ghandi's doctrines were apparently incapable of preventing violence during the partition of British India into today's India and Pakistan.