Vaishali Institute Research Bulletin 4

Author(s): R P Poddar
Publisher: Research Institute of Prakrit Jainology & Ahimsa Mujjaffarpur

Page 72

MAHATMA GANDHI'S VIEW ON HINDUISM
Dr. (Mrs) VIJAYSHREE
In this paper I have made an attempt to present Gandhi's view on Hindu'sm. Mahātmā Gandhi claimed himself to be an orthodox Hindu. His claim was disputed by the so-called orthodox Hindus. I think that his sanātana Hinduism is different from the conventional Hinduism because of the fact that he championed the cause of the depressed and oppressed castes of India. He was also not a conformist and dogmatic in his approach to other religions. Though he was a Hindu by birth and conviction yet he does not decry other religions.
Gandhi's conception of Hinduism is not the same as the Hinduism of history. His conception has nothing to do with any dogma, custom or rituals. He gives a new dimension to Hinduism by relating it to evolving and advancing truth. He parts with the conventional saying that "God is truth" and establishes that "Truth is God."
Gandhi is fully conscious of the elements in Hinduism that are obsolete and out-dated in the context of new times. Hinduism that he adheres is a purified Hinduism. He writes, "what we see today is not pure Hinduism, but often a parody of it." He also makes it clear in what sense he is an orthodox Hindu. "If orthodox Hinduism can mean an incessant striving to live Hinduism to the best one's lights, then I do claim to be an orthodox Hindu. I am also an orthodox Hindu in the sense in which the author of the Mahabharata, the great Vyasa, would have it. He has said somewhere in Mahabharata to this effect. Put Truth in one scale and all sacrifices whatever in the other, that scale which contains truth will outweigh the one that contains all the sacrifices put together, not excluding Ra jasuya and Asvamedha ya jna. And if Mahabharata may be accepted as the fifth Veda, then I claim to be an orthodox Hindu because every moment of the twentyfour hours of my life, I am endeavouring to follow Truth counting no cost too great." He further writes, "I call myself a Sanatani Hindu because (1) I believe in the Vedas, the Upanisads, the Purāṇas and all that goes by the name of Hindu scriptures, and therefore In Avataras and re-birth; (2) I believe in the Varnasrama Dharma in a
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