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GHANDI:
ALL RELIGIONS
ARE TRUE
I hold it as the duty, of every
cultured man and woman, to
read sympathetically the
scriptures of the world. If
we’re to respect others’
religions as we would have
them respect our own, a
friendly study of the world’s
religions is a sacred duty.
MAHATMA GANDHI
“THE GREAT SOUL”
1869-1948
BRITISH EMPIRE
• Longest Empire Rule (at least 1727-1948):
India, Gandhi’s homeland
• By 1921, the British Empire…
– Held sway over about 458 million people, onequarter of the earth’s population
– Covered about 14.2 million square miles, or a
quarter of the Earth’s total land mass
BRITISH EMPIRE
• Encompassed territories on every
continent, including the British Isles,
British North America, British West
Indies, British Guiana, British West
Africa, British East Africa, India,
Australia, and New Zealand
“THE SUN NEVER SET ON
THE BRITISH EMPIRE”
AT ITS PEAK, BECAUSE IT
SPANNED THE GLOBE, THE
SUN WAS ALWAYS
SHINING ON AT LEAST
ONE OF ITS NUMEROUS
COLONIES
DARWINIAN
SOCIAL THEORY
This theory implied that humans, like
every other organism on earth, were
the result of evolution.
Contemporaries used Darwin’s ideas
to promote “Social Darwinism”:
Certain peoples, poorer “quality”
than others, are thus more likely to
be used as slave labor because
they're "less evolved" and therefore
inferior.
http://stephan.grandpre.net/darwin.html
WHAT WAS APARTHEID?
APARTHEID AND
SOUTH AFRICA
Population
Land Allocation
Share of Nat’l Income
Min. Taxable Income
Doctors/population
Blacks
Whites
19 million
4.5 million
13%
87%
<20%
75%
360 Rands
750 Rands
1/44,000
1/400
“EVIL, INJUSTICE, HATRED
EXIST ONLY INSOFAR AS
WE SUPPORT THEM; THEY
HAVE NO EXISTENCE OF
THEIR OWN.”
“It has always been a
mystery to me how men can
feel themselves honored by
the humiliation of their
fellow beings.”
A NEW DEFINITION OF
“COMMUNITY”
“I have ceased for over
forty years to hate anybody.
But I can and do hate evil
wherever it exists.”
“There is no God here. If God were
here, everyone would have access.”
The Hindu caste system is comparable to
class structures in other countries,
except that this Indian system has been
rigidly enforced and has lasted for two or
three thousand years. The caste system
was enforced as law throughout the
subcontinent until the adoption of the
Indian constitution in 1949, which
outlawed the caste system. However, it
remains a deeply ingrained social
structure, particularly in rural India.
The caste system dictated your
occupation, choice of spouse, and
many other aspects of your life. If
you did something outside your caste,
you could be excommunicated from
your caste. That would cut you off
from doing any work to support
yourself because you could only do
the jobs allowed by your caste.
http://ask.yahoo.com/20020722.html
• Brahmins -- the priests, scholars, and
philosophers
• *Kshatriyas -- the warriors and rulers,
those concerned with the defense and
administration of the village or state
• Vaishyas -- traders, merchants, and
agricultural producers
• Shudras -- the laborers and servants for
the other castes
• The “Untouchables” -- performed the most
menial jobs, such as dealing with dead
bodies and cleaning toilets. Higher-caste
people believed that if they touched one of
the caste-less, they would be contaminated
and would need to go through cleansing
rituals.
*Gandhi’s caste
REVOLUTION TRULY
BEGINS AT HOME WITH
“HOME RULE”:
THAT IS, MORAL CHOICE
BEGINS WITH SOMETHING
AS SIMPLE AS WHAT ONE
EATS
SERMON ON THE MOUNT
• Beatitudes (“Blessed are the poor in
spirit for theirs is the kingdom of
heaven”)
• Lord’s Prayer
• Famous admonitions:
– You are the salt of the earth
– Turn the other cheek
– Do not lay up for yourselves treasures of
the earth
– No one can serve two masters
– Judge not that you be judged
– Ask and it will be given to you
GANDHI DID NOT BELIEVE
IN CONVERSION.
INSTEAD, HE REASONED,
WE SHOULD PRACTICE THE
TRADITION INTO WHICH
WE ARE BORN MORE
DEEPLY RATHER THAN
JUMP INTO ANOTHER.
Truth is “experimental,” he
believed, so Gandhi
continuously “tried out” new
“truths”. He even named his
autobiography The Story of
My Experiments with Truth.
Truth is the goal toward
which one works.
ALL RELIGIONS ARE TRUE.
AS SUCH, WE CAN LIVE
THEM OUT “TRULY” IN
OUR LIVES.
RAM
GOD
ALLAH
IF WE’RE TO RESPECT
OTHERS’ RELIGIONS AS
WE WOULD HAVE THEM
RESPECT OUR OWN, A
“FRIENDLY STUDY” OF THE
WORLD’S RELIGIONS IS A
SACRED DUTY.
“I OBJECT TO VIOLENCE
BECAUSE WHEN IT
APPEARS TO DO GOOD,
THE GOOD IS ONLY
TEMPORARY.
THE EVIL IT DOES IS
PERMANENT.”
NON-HARMING:
WE HAVE NO GROUNDS
FOR TAKING ANOTHER’S
LIFE.
Gandhi offered a higher
challenge:
“Refuse to obey such degrading
legislation and accept the
consequences without violent
retaliation but also without
yielding an inch in the demand
for fair and equal treatment
under the law.”
“THE MORAL
EQUIVALENT
OF WAR”
“EVIL, INJUSTICE,
HATRED EXIST ONLY
INSOFAR AS WE SUPPORT
THEM; THEY HAVE NO
EXISTENCE OF THEIR
OWN.”
GHANDI: AN
ACTIVE FORM OF
RESISTANCE
HOLDING FAST
TO TRUTH
EVEN IN HIS GREATEST
CAMPAIGNS, THEN,
GANDHI WAS A GREAT
COMPROMISER, BELIEVING
THAT YOU DID NOT “WIN”
ANY CONFRONTATION IF
YOU LEFT THE OTHER
PERSON FEELING LIKE A
LOSER. THEN, YOU’RE
LEFT WITH AN OPPONENT
EVEN IF YOU’VE WON.
“When all violence subsides
in the human heart, the
state which remains is love.
It is not something we have
to acquire; it is always
present and needs only be
uncovered.”