ABSTRACT
In 1945, soon after the defeat of Germany and the end of World War II, Karl Jaspers delivered a series of profound and moving lectures on 'The Question of German Guilt'. Jaspers distinguishes four types and levels of guilt. First, there is criminal guilt, which concerns actual crimes and cognizable offences punishable under existing laws and juridical processes. The second category of guilt according to Jaspers is political guilt. It extends not only to those responsible for Gandhi's security or for law and order in general, but the newly installed government of India itself, at whose helm were Gandhi's own closest disciples, followers and associates. Moral guilt is the third kind that Jaspers identifies. It is in this fourth category of metaphysical guilt that Jaspers comes closest to traditional Christian theology, with its notion of original sin. By being human and participating in the collective human condition, with all its flaws and horrors, people are all 'guilty' metaphysically.
