The Last Article

Infobox short story |
name = The Last Article
title_orig =
translator =
author = Harry Turtledove
country =
language = English
series =
genre = Alternate history
published_in = 1988
publication_type = Print
publisher =
media_type =
pub_date =
english_pub_date =
preceded_by =
followed_by =

"The Last Article" (1988), an alternate history short story by Harry Turtledove,

Plot Introduction

The story describes a Nazi invasion of India and the brutal reaction of the Germans to the nonviolent resistance and pacifism of Gandhi and his followers.

Plot summary

Germany's success in World War II has led to their invasion of the British Raj, and rather than struggling for independence from the Crown, Gandhi and Nehru find themselves in the position of resisting Nazi occupation using the techniques that in our history were successfully employed against the British.

The Nazis, however, led by Field Marshal Walter Model, are completely unmoved by Gandhi's strategy. The Nazis view themselves as a master race and have no moral qualms about killing those who resist non-violently (or even those who do not resist at all, if they are of a certain race). In the end the movement collapses as it proves unable to deal with the savagery of Nazism.

Themes

The story then takes what could be deemed an intensely bleak tone. In the story, Gandhi draws a moral equivalence between the Nazis and British imperialists, something that seems consistent with what the actual Gandhi believed and suggests at best a kind of naivete, and other elements of the story are critical of Gandhi's real-world beliefs.

In large part the story concerns how important Gandhi's, and later Martin Luther King, Jr.'s, non-violence movement required exposing the hypocrisy of the communities that oppressed them. This was a plausible strategy against British imperialism or American institutional racism, as these oppressions were hypocritical given that the United Kingdom and United States societies espoused freedom and equality for all.

In fact, Martin Luther King Jr once said: "If your opponent has a conscience, then follow Gandhi. But if your enemy has no conscience, like Hitler, then follow Bonhoeffer."Fact|date=July 2008

In essence, the story posits that violent resistance to things like Nazism, such as the uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto, is more valid a response than a Gandhi approach.