Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi led India's freedom struggle through satyagraha — non-violent resistance grounded in truth. He was also a deeply religious Hindu who called the Bhagavad Gita his "mother", began and ended his day with prayer, and died with the name of Rama on his lips. His Hinduism was personal, ethical and inclusive, and it remains widely admired and fiercely debated.
Life
- 1869Born in Porbandar, Gujarat, on 2 October.
- 1888–91Studies law in London, where he first reads the Gita in English with Theosophist friends.
- 1893–1914In South Africa; thrown off a train at Pietermaritzburg in 1893; develops satyagraha from 1906.
- 1909Writes Hind Swaraj.
- 1915Returns to India; founds an ashram at Ahmedabad.
- 1917–22Champaran satyagraha; Non-Cooperation Movement.
- 1930The Salt March to Dandi.
- 1932Fasts against separate electorates for the depressed classes; the Poona Pact with Dr Ambedkar; founds the Harijan Sevak Sangh.
- 1942Launches the Quit India Movement.
- 1948Assassinated in Delhi on 30 January by Nathuram Godse.
A sanatani Hindu
Gandhi described himself as a sanatani Hindu who believed in the Vedas, the Upanishads, the Puranas and the doctrine of rebirth, while rejecting any scriptural sanction for untouchability. He read the Gita as an allegory of the inner battle between good and evil and as a call to selfless action; his Gujarati translation of it was titled "Anasakti Yoga" — the yoga of non-attachment. Daily prayer, the repetition of Ramanama and the singing of bhajans such as "Vaishnav Jan To" were central to his life.
I call myself a Sanatani Hindu, because I believe in the Vedas, the Upanishads, the Puranas and all that goes by the name of Hindu scriptures.
Truth, non-violence and service
For Gandhi, truth (satya) was God, and non-violence (ahimsa) the means of reaching it. Satyagraha applied these to politics: resisting injustice by willing self-suffering rather than force. He held that all religions contain truth (sarva dharma samabhava), worked for Hindu–Muslim unity, and saw the service of the poorest — the "last person" — as the test of every action.
Criticism and debate
Dr B. R. Ambedkar criticised Gandhi's defence of varna and his opposition to separate electorates, arguing that his campaign against untouchability left the caste order intact; Gandhi's views on caste did move over his life towards supporting inter-caste marriage. Hindu nationalists, for their part, criticised his support for the Khilafat movement and what they saw as concessions to Muslim political demands before Partition. Others have questioned aspects of his personal experiments and his views on modern technology.
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Frequently asked questions
What did Gandhi call the Bhagavad Gita?
He called it his "mother" and translated it into Gujarati as "Anasakti Yoga", the yoga of non-attachment.
Was Gandhi a practising Hindu?
Yes. He called himself a sanatani Hindu, prayed daily, repeated Ramanama and drew his ethics from the Gita, while rejecting untouchability.
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Read nextSri AurobindoSources & copyright status
- M. K. Gandhi, Young India (1921); Hind Swaraj (1909); An Autobiography or The Story of My Experiments with Truth (1927–29) — public domain
- The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi (Publications Division, Government of India) — government publication
- Historical facts: not subject to copyright.
- Commentary and translations on this page: original to The Hindu Book. © The Hindu Book, all rights reserved.
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