Hey everyone .....What were Gandhiji's views on religion and politics?
Answers
Gandhiji used to say that religion can never be separated from politics. What he meant by religion was not any particular religion like Hinduism or Islam but moral values that form the basis of all religions. He believed that politics must be guided by ethics drawn from religions.
Mahatma Gandhi said his mission was to win self-rule. He did not mean it as an exclusive term nor did it connote theocracy. Gandhi's vision was broad enough to encompass various faiths.
Those who believe religion cannot play a constructive role in politics must study how Mahatma Gandhi led India to win independence from the British rule with a struggle that was founded on religious beliefs.
Gandhi said his mission was to win Swaraj (self-rule), which he envisioned and portrayed as “Ramarajya”. Ramarajya was not an exclusive term, and nor did it mean theocracy. It called for establishment of a just and humane government and society which, according to him, was realising God on earth. Winning independence politically was only a small part of it.
Gandhi clarified that Ramarajya did not mean a rule of the Hindus. “My Rama is another name for Khuda or God. I want Khudai raj, which is the same thing as the Kingdom of God on earth” (Haimchar, February 26, 1947). He explained that politically translated, it is perfect democracy in which, “inequalities based on possession and non-possession, colour, race or creed or sex vanish; in it, land and State belong to the people, justice is prompt, perfect and cheap and, therefore, there is freedom of worship, speech and the Press—all this because of the reign of the self-imposed law of moral restraint” (The Hindu, June 12, 1945).
Gandhi’s Satyagraha (struggle for truth) movement, which compelled the British to leave the country in 1947, was also grounded on explicit and strong religious beliefs.
Satyagraha involved the use of soul force as against the body force and was characterized by passive resistance and Ahimsa (non-violence). It sought to awaken the inherent virtues in those against whom it was used, and not to suppress perceived evil in them by any physical pressure or force. Besides, it was focused on self-purification rather than judgment of the other.
According to Gandhi, non-violence was a more active force than retaliation, which increases wickedness. “I contemplate a mental, and therefore, a moral opposition to immoralities. I seek entirely to blunt the edge of the tyrant’s sword, not by putting up against it a sharper-edged weapon, but by disappointing his expectation that I would be offering physical resistance” (Young India, October 8, 1925).