Book Description

In this book the author relates Gandhi's response to the challenge of religious diversity to his awareness of other pluralities - social, economic and political. To Gandhi, religion was not an isolated marker of identity. Beginning with his own Hindu heritage, his relations with Muslims, Christians, Jains and Jews are presented as the basis for his faith that separate heritages could be shared and all could engage in common tasks. His early contact with non-theist thought systems in fin de siècle London, his strong reaction to Curzon's Convocation address in Calcutta University, the pedagogic implicate of the prayer meetings, his attitude to conversion, his special relation to Quakers, and why toleration was not enough, are some of the fresh perspectives offered. Philosophers of religion who analyse religious pluralism, students of modern Indian history, and the general reader concerned about the conflictual role that religion appears to have in the contemporary world, will not fail to find this new study of Gandhi fascinating.