Mahatma Gandhi Quotes on Justice
Mahatma Gandhi's conception of justice was inseparable from his philosophy of nonviolence, and the quotes gathered here set out its main elements. For Gandhi an unjust law is not merely a flawed rule but a species of violence, and resisting it through disciplined, civil disobedience becomes a sacred duty. He appealed beyond the formal legal system to what he called the court of conscience, which he held to supersede all other courts. Gandhi also insisted on the unity of moral life, that one cannot do right in one sphere while doing wrong in another, making personal integrity the basis of any just public order. Drawn largely from his journal Young India and his political correspondence, these passages present justice as something pursued through truthful, nonviolent action rather than retribution; the widely quoted line about an eye for an eye is marked as attributed.
Quotes
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Attributed to Mahatma Gandhi:
“An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.”
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“The Indians do not regret that capable natives can exercise the franchise. They would regret if it were otherwise. They, however, assert that they too, if capable, should have the right. You, in your wisdom , would not allow the Indian or the native the precious privilege under any circumstances, because they have a dark skin .”
Wikiquote -
“You say that the magistrate's decision is unsatisfactory because it would enable a person , however unclean, to travel by a tram, and that even the Kaffirs would be able to do so. But the magistrate's decision is quite different. The Court declared that the Kaffirs have no legal right to travel by tram. And according to tram regulations, those in an unclean dress or in a drunken state are prohibited from boarding a tram. Thanks to the Court's decision, only clean Indians or coloured people other than Kaffirs, can now travel in the trams.”
Comments on a court case in The Indian Opinion (2 June 1906) -
“Disobedience is a right that belongs to every human being, and it becomes a sacred duty when it springs from civility.”
1920s | Young India (4 January 1926) -
“For one man cannot do right in one department of life whilst he is occupied in doing wrong in any other department. Life is one indivisible whole.”
1920s | Young India (27 January 1927) -
“"An unjust law is itself a species of violence. Arrest for its breach is more so."”
1930s | From a letter to the Viceroy, 1930, published in The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi , Vol. 49, p. 180. -
“There is a higher court than courts of justice and that is the court of conscience . It supersedes all other courts.”
1920s | Young India (15 December 1921) -
“Palestine belongs to the Arabs in the same sense that England belongs to the English or France to the French . It is wrong and in-human to impose the Jews on the Arabs.”
1930s | Gandhi's Collected Works , Vol 74 (1938)