Question

If you were in Gandhiji’s place, what would you have done on being

asked to remove your turban?​

Answer 1

• Gandhiji said that removing the turban was an act of nonviolence.
• Over the course of a lifetime, he spoke many times of the great virtue of nonviolence.
• However, his philosophy did not stop him from defending his decision to wear a turban.
• He believed that he should wear the turban not only to be a sign of his religious beliefs, but also to remind people of the sacredness of all life, of the use of nonviolence, and of our need to practice it.
• I would have tied it into a knot.  
• “This is the turban of a Hindu,” he would have said, “and I will not remove it.”
• The other side would have seen him as a “Hinduphobe” and would have pushed for his turban to be removed.  
• However, the knot would have remained, and Gandhiji would have stressed that this was symbolic of his refusal to succumb to the pressure to conform to the outside world and that his untying of the knot would have been an act of his ultimate freedom.