by H. Runham Brown

Editor’s Preface: H. Runham Brown was a British anarchist and secretary of War Resisters’ International. He was appointed in 1931, soon after being released from prison, having served two years for conscientious objection. He authored books about peace and the Spanish civil war, and Hitler’s rise. This article is taken from The War Resister: Quarterly News Sheet of the War Resisters’ International, issue XXXI, Summer 1932. Please also see the archive reference information and acknowledgments at the end. JG

Few people in the West can understand why a man should go on a hunger strike. It appears to them that he is only hurting himself and they would rather hurt somebody else. We do not here ask that so strange an action should be understood, but that a fact should be taken notice of. From time to time a man in prison refuses to take food until his objective has been attained. He is forcing the issue. Such action may be wise or foolish; it depends on the man.

Some men can only fight with a bayonet and many have died most heroically trying to stick another fellow through. I cannot understand that, but I have noticed the fact. A few fight differently. It is always a war to end war. The soldier failed. He only sowed the seeds of more war, but Mahatma Gandhi succeeds. We have no power over Mahatma, the Great Spirit. We cannot imprison it. We dare not let it die.

Gandhi is a man without fear. He is the new spirit of India personified. Gandhi cannot be separated from India. In him India is at one. If we cannot understand because we are so different, let us at least ponder over so strange a fact. All his life Gandhi has lived for India as one. Dreams of India’s freedom, of independence from a foreign yoke are second to India’s unity. There could be no unity together with Untouchability. The new Indian Constitution provided separate electorates for the Untouchables and thereby sealed their doom, the doom of India as a people, divided by castes and classes. India’s division must kill the great spirit of India or the Mahatma must be victorious.

Gandhi has achieved a great victory. Had he died [in his 1930 fast] the victory would have been sure also. India is on the road to unity. It will be a long road and a hard road, but it is the road. Given unity, India may have all things; without it she has nothing.

The War Resisters’ International hails Mahatma Gandhi as a great war-resister. He has striven by the intelligent use of the method of nonviolence, of non-cooperation with the tyrant, to bring unity among the Indian peoples. In this last struggle WRI’s call to support Gandhi was answered by all its Sections, appropriately led by the British Section.

On another note: it was fortunate that on the very day that Gandhi declared his intention to fast, Reginald Reynolds, the newly-appointed secretary of the No More War Movement in Britain, started his work. Reginald is the young Quaker who in 1929 went out to help Gandhi and carried his messages to the Viceroy. Before the week was ended Reginald had written and the Movement had published his pamphlet, “Gandhi’s Fast.” We commend this pamphlet to those who want to understand.

Reference: IISG/WRI Archive Box 116p: Folder 1, Subfolder 1. We are grateful to WRI/London and their director Christine Schweitzer for their cooperation in our WRI project.