In this book the author relates Gandhi’s response to the challenge of religious diversity to his awareness of other pluralities – social, economic and political. To Gandhi, religion was not an isolated marker of identity. Beginning with his own Hindu heritage, his relations with Muslims, Christians, Jains and Jews are presented as the basis for his faith that separate heritages could be shared and all could engage in common tasks. His early contact with non-theist thought systems in fin de siecle London, his strong reaction to Curzon’s Convocation address in Calcutta University, the pedagogic implicate of the prayer meetings, his attitude to conversion, his special relation to Quakers, and why toleration was not enough, are some of the fresh perspectives offered. Philosophers of religion who analyse religious pluralism, students of modern Indian history, and the general reader concerned about the conflictual role the religion appears to have in the contemporary world, will not fail to find this new study of Gandhi fascinating.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Margaret Chatterjee
Margaret Chatterjee taught philosophy at Delhi University from 1956 to 1990, holding a chair in philosophy during part of this time. During her tenure at Delhi she took time off to be Professor of Comparative Religion at Visva-Bharati, Santinikeran for a year. She has held Visiting Professorships at Drew and Calgary Universities, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Bryn Mawr College, and was Visiting Scholar in residence at Pendle Hill, Pa. She was Director of the Indian Institute of Advanced Study at Simla from 1986 to 1989, Spalding Visiting Fellow in Indian Philosophy and Religion at Wolfson College, Oxford in 1991, and from 1992-98 taught philosophy at Westminster College, Oxford. Formerly President of the International Society for Metaphysics, she delivered the Teape Lectures in the University of Cambridge in 1984. She has been researching on Gandhi’s life and thought for many years and has lectured on this subject in many countries. Her publications include Gandhi’s Religious Thought (Macmillan and Notre Dame, 1983) and Gandhi and His Jewish Friends (Macmillan, 1992).
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