Gandhi - Why Would He Be Considered a Liberal within the Hindu World - Essay Example

Gandhi: Why would he be considered a “liberal” within the Hindu world? Introduction Although Mahatma Gandhi practiced Hinduism throughout his life, Gandhi related with, learned from, and demonstrated immense respect for individuals who practiced different religious beliefs in India and across the world. Gandhi learnt from and associated with Muslims, Christians, individuals who practiced Jainism, Zoroastrianism, and Judaism among other religions. Gandhi significantly interacted with the Western world through education in England besides the British colonial masters who occupied India. As a result, he embraced some of the Western beliefs, against his religious beliefs and practiced them. Gandhi experimented with several ideas, beliefs, and the knowledge he came across in the world regardless of the cultural, political, or religious boundaries. Gandhi, therefore, presented himself to the world as somebody continually evolving through certain principles and beliefs, which guided his behavior during his life against oppression and domination. Gandhi came out as a universal being although his mindset was principally Hindu. This paper demonstrates why Gandhi would be considered a “liberal” within the Hindu world. Gandhi a “liberal” of Hindu Beliefs and Practices Hinduism is considered as the oldest religion in the world. It developed more than 4500 years ago during which the Aryan tribes occupied areas of Middle East with their sacred writings called Vedas. In its emerging times, Hinduism emerged as a religion where the faithful believers worshiped several gods of nature like the gods of fire, sky, war, and storms. Hindu principles include principle of nonviolence, existence of god in everyone and everywhere, and goodness of the soul among others (Himalayan Academy 8). The religion practiced caste system of which Gandhi did not believe in their untouchable practice (Garg 45). Notwithstanding the fact that Gandhi grew up as a Hindu, he only came to fully embrace the religion in early adulthood. Prior to embracing Hinduism, he had considered other religious paths, such as Christianity. However, he realized that all he needed was in Hinduism. Gandhi believed in compassion for living creatures. Gandhi respected and embraced many religions because he believed in many sides of truth sought after by believers in various religious beliefs. Whereas the Hindu temples were decorated in trappings and glitter, these effects were of little appeal to Mahatma. His was a different opinion from what the believers embraced (Sharma 145). In leaving India for England, Gandhi was risking excommunication as spelt by his caste. However, it was his family who struggled to obtain the oath to let him travel off the country. In his years in England, Gandhi did not restrict himself to the teachings and the beliefs of Hindu people alone, he experimented with knowledge from other religion and embraced that which appealed to him. He was, for instance, pleased with the Bible teaching of the Sermon on the Mount (Radhakrishnan 457). The Hindus believed in caste system and practiced it. Hindu custom relegated a group of individuals to untouchable people in the society. These people often worked, lived, and worshiped separately from other Hindus. The dead bodies of the untouchables were even cremated on different grounds. Despite Gandhi being raised in a Hindu family in a region where the practice of untouchable was strong, he was against this practice and contended to campaign against it irrespective of the great odds that lay a head. Unlike Hindus, Gandhi did not hold the same ideas on caste and Varma. Gandhi argued that caste was a misrepresentation of Varma as well as a source of shame to Hinduism and India in general. The caste system in Hinduism did not signify any religious beliefs (Singh & Sundaram 35). Gandhi believed that the Hindu scriptures did not call for sanction of the untouchable and practicing this custom was a sin. To him, the practice was a satanic activity. His position on the untouchable practice in Hinduism sharply contrasted that of the Hindu religion. Gandhi was so touched by the humiliations and the disabilities heaped on the touchable to an extent that he expressed a desire to be reborn touchable in his next life to share in their sorrows and sufferings. Gandhi, therefore, encouraged intermarriage and inter-dining between castes and untouchables in Hinduism (Singh & Sundaram 43). Hinduism believes in the principle of nonviolence of which Gandhi was also a believer of that, and he practiced it. However, critics of Gandhi argue that through civil disobedience Mahatma Gandhi was the source of violence in India between the natives and the British colonial masters. At the end of the war with the Britons, Gandhi admitted guilt and a sense of responsibility for all that had transpired and led to the war, which was against the beliefs of Hindu people (Noble, Strauss & Osheim 760). Gandhi conformed to Hinduism but did not practice all that was in it. He was open to other religions and beliefs because of his belief that all religions were good and therefore, all religions are diverse paths, which led to the same truth and God. Gandhi believed in the unity of all human beings as the truth. He assimilated the knowledge of truth from various religious beliefs as relevant to the truth he sought (Singh & Sundaram 43). In addition, Gandhi came out as a liberal Hindu because he was not an extremist or exclusively practiced what was in the religion. He regarded Islam and Christianity as obstacles to harmonious integration of religions. As a result, he was a liberalist in Hindu world. Gandhi presumed that all religions had the right to be respected and honored because they were avenues to the same course of truth and love. He was a man of all religions, Hinduism included. He did not express contempt to any religion and was irritated by some Christians who expressed contempt toward Hindu in his early years (Singh & Sundaram 43). As a liberalist, Mahatma Gandhi had his roots in Hinduism but still managed to oppose other beliefs in Hindu and spearheaded changes in the religion. His liberal nature in Hindu world is what made him accept the teachings of Jesus as presented in the New Testament Bible (Noble, Strauss & Osheim 760). Gandhi through is continual actions and activities demonstrated that he did not believe in Vedas, therefore, he could not be guided by its interpretation. Gandhi practiced his individual philosophy, which was established in freedom and independent action. According to the Hindu beliefs, Kama sutra is about the art of living as well as sex. This belief is all about sex, the physiological methods, and interpersonal methods related to sex. In Hindu, a man and a woman depend on one another for sex. Sex was used in religious rituals, for instance, in Sahajiya Vaishnavism (Farley 93). Nevertheless, Gandhi practiced a different belief about sex after the death of his father, which he states that occurred when he was having sex with his wife. Since then Gandhi has regarded sex as a sin and argued that sexual abstinence was the path to spirituality through sublimation. Gandhi renounced the belief of sex for pleasure. Gandhi renounced sexual activities and thoughts as a way of searching for the truth. In refraining from sexual practices, he believed that he had control over his thoughts, actions, and words of all his senses anywhere at anytime. Renouncing sex was a means through which Gandhi used to discover his inner self, the spiritual discipline. This would provide him with the inner strength he needed to stand unarmed against the entire world. When the Hindu beliefs did not match his conscience, he let go the religious beliefs and practices and followed what he believed was independent and honest conscience thought (Lal 106). Throughout his life, critics of Gandhi argue that he was of little use to institutional religion, and paid no heed or little heed for caste practice, which was revered by the Hindu. Gandhi indisputably acknowledged that Hindu scriptures’ authority was not to be abrogated in situations in which the scriptures supported positions, which were reprehensible to the conscience (Lal 108). In his quest for reformation, Gandhi significantly contributed to social reform in Hinduism through changing some of the practices and beliefs to accommodate everyone equally. Most important, he is remembered for his immense efforts in improving the position of women and low caste individuals in the Hindu world. Gandhi advocated for religious harmony, which was not supported by Hindu religious community. He went against their beliefs and practices to do desirable and good for him, even though he professed Hinduism (Lal 108). Unlike the custom practices of Hinduism, Gandhi flouted some beliefs and brought the Hindu women to the role of nationalist. Hinduism refined women to the sphere of marriage, domesticity, and motherhood. Gandhi, through his liberal approach to religion, laid a significant background for Hindu women in national movements, stressing on equality of men and women in Hindu world. He deemed the decision by women to sacrifice marriage for other activities as noble and respectable and pushed the community to hold men to similar values of moral demeanor and accountability as their women counterparts (Carter 5). The liberal aspect of Gandhi in Hindu world was predominantly derived from his ideological basis and interpretation based on the humanist-liberal values shaped by his stay and education in Western countries. He had varied opinion on interpretation of the Hindu scriptures, beliefs, and practices which made him, accommodate different beliefs and practices not familiar to the Hindu world. Conclusion Mahatma Gandhi was a reformist who believed in Hinduism but respected other religions of which he learned, practiced, and borrowed several ideas and beliefs during his time. The diversion from Hindu beliefs and practices, together with the changes that Gandhi orchestrated and promoted in Hindu world, point out to the liberal person who Gandhi was. Among the common activities and changes that count for his liberalism include campaigning against the Hindu untouchable practice of people in the lower castes and embracing various teachings in other religions, such as the Sermon on the Mount. They also include change in sex belief and his role in establishing grounds for Hindu women to be involved in nationalist movement in place of the customary domesticity and wifehood arena. Further, according to his critics, he was responsible for the violence in the country during the struggle for independence because of his disobedience to civil rights which was against the principle of nonviolence. Works Cited Carter, April. Mahatma Gandhi: A Selected Bibliography. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1995. Print. Farley, Margaret A. Just Love: A Framework for Christian Sexual Ethics. New York : Continuum International Publication Group, 2007. Print. Garg, Gangā Rām. Encyclopaedia of the Hindu World, Volume 1. New Delhi: Concept Publishing Company, 1992. Print. Himalayan Academy. “The Challenge of Ideas.” Hinduism Today, April 2010: 1-9. Print. Lal, Vinay. “Nakedness, Nonviolence, and Brahmacharya: Gandhis Experiments in Celibate Sexuality.” Journal of the History of Sexuality 9.1/2 (2000): 105-136. Print. Noble, Thomas F. X., et al. Western Civilization: Beyond Boundaries, Since 1560. Wadsworth Publication Company, 2009. Print. Radhakrishnan, Sarvepalli. Mahatma Gandhi. Mumbai : Jaico Publishing House, 1998. Print. Sharma, Arvind. Neo-Hindu Views of Christianity. New York : E.J. Brill, 1988. Print. Singh, Ramjee, and S. Sundaram. Gandhi and the World Order. New Delhi: APH Publishing Corporation, 1996. Print. Read More