Gandhi- the philosophy and making of Mahatma

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( Notes written some years ago- found recently.)


Gandhi, who studied law at London, was based in South Africa- when his elements of his war against the English started to build up. His instinct when being thrown out of the compartment on the train, to hit the constable is well known (popular). After being thrown in jail, he had the opportunity to read among many essays- the Civil Disobedience by Thoreau. This would be a lasting impression on him, along with other influences like Tolstoy etc. 

He was participating in the activism in South Africa against the racial inequality. Back in India, the weapons of Gandhi were his somewhat 'faith' oriented concepts of Ahimsa, Satyagraha which he vouched for and moved into the masses. In fact, the foreign origins of these tools like Tolstoy's advocacy of peace against war into Ahimsa, Socratic dialogues into Satya and Thoureau's Civil Disobedience were successfully employed by Gandhi.

With these and the unquestionable discipline he nurtured, turned him into most respectable and feared anatoganist of the British Raj.

Rabindranath Tagore, who criticized Gandhi's methods, for instance on the Swadesi movement, in his works like Gharo Bhairo  (Home and the World), eventually grew fond of him and entitled him the much to be used synonym - Mahatma- for posterity.

Gandhi had advocated tolerance and peace, rechristened the untouchable classes (deep rooted within the Indian Varna class system)- as Harijans and the tribal populace as Girijans and dreamt of an Utopian society where the country came first over the city- as in the Gram Swarajya. 


However Gandhi showed clear tendencies of his belief in God and was a spiritual being. His ashram at Sabarmathi, his ascetic attire, the bhajans he sang, were indeed examples of his belief in a God.

In terms of his philosophy, Gandhi created a mixture of nuances he took from the Bhagavad Gita and the Western books he read.  

In terms of his politics, he did mention himself to be a philosophical anarchist. He did not believe much in a State controlling masses. .....


(Incomplete)



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