the collective life, eventually “eliminating violence from social, political and economic
Social activism based on religious conviction and the ethic of Ahimsa was also
linked intimately in Gandhi’s ethos with courage.
One of the keys to Gandhi’s success in mobilizing the Indian
Freedom Movement and other movements for radical social change during his
lifetime -- and another major component of the Gandhian paradox -- was his
ability to envision and present his revolutionary aspirations by means of an
appeal to tradition. This mode of presentation was not merely a manipulative
strategy; it was the way he himself framed the world and the issues with
which he struggled. At the core of Gandhi’s life and thought was a deep
spirituality that drove him. It had a Hindu foundation from his childhood but
was forged out of encounters between that indigenous tradition and a variety
of others, notably Jainism and Buddhism but also Islam and Christianity.
Gandhi’s Hinduism was not entirely “orthodox,” if I may use a rather
non-Hindu concept. It did not contradict to many of the currents of Vedic
tradition’s transformation on the subcontinent during the colonial period, but
it did stand in sharp contrast to a number of traditional schools of thought and
practice. Gandhi’s relationship to religious traditions was thus consistent with
other paradoxical elements of his legacies: he drew upon the tradition in deep
and rich ways and incorporated it as his own, but he also transformed key
elements of it to weave it into his own unique worldview. Consequently,
despite the fact that Gandhi was neither a spiritual guru nor a religious
scholar, he had a substantial impact on the tradition itself.
7
Mohan 1978:93.
Convention