Gandhi, Christ and Christianity

By Ambassador(Retd) Alan Nazareth,

Managing Trustee, Sarvodaya International Trust

Gandhi’s fundamental contribution in the field of religion was to

give primacy to Truth rather than conformity to traditional practices. In
fact he made Truth the basis of all morality by declaring : “I reject any
religious doctrine that does not appeal to reason and is in conflict with
morality(1)…..God did not create men with the badge of superiority or
inferiority; no scripture which labels a human being an inferior or
untouchable because of his or her birth can command our allegiance. It is
denial of God and Truth which is God” (2).
He affirmed “Independent India as conceived by me will have all
Indians belonging to different religions, living in perfect friendship.” (6) In
1931 he wrote in Young India “It has been said that Swaraj will be the rule
of the majority community i.e. the Hindus….If this were to be true, I for one
would refuse to call it Swaraj and would fight it with all the strength at my
command, For to me Hind Swaraj is the rule of all the people and the rule of
justice…..By Ram Raj I do not mean Hindu Raj. I mean Divine Raj, the
Kingdom of God”(7). On January 23, 1948, just a week before his
assassination he declared “It would spell the ruin of both the Hindu religion
and the majority community if the latter, in the intoxication of power,
entertains the belief that it can crush the minority community and establish
a purely Hindu Rashtra” (8).
Though a deeply devout Hindu, Gandhi’s basic approach to all
religions was ‘sarvadharma samabhava’ (equal respect for all religions) For
him all religions had equal status and were different paths to the same goal
of achieving union with the Divine. His religion was that “which transcends
Hinduism, which changes one’s very nature, binds one indissolubly to the
truth within and ever purifies. It is the permanent element in human nature
which leaves the soul restless until it has found itself” (1). He affirmed “For
me different religions are beautiful flowers from the same garden or
branches of the same majestic tree”(2). He often said he was as much a
Moslem, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain and Parsee as he was Hindu and
added “The hands that serve are holier than the lips that pray” (3). At his
prayer meetings there were readings from all the holy books. His favorite
hymn began with the line “He alone is a true devotee of God who understands
the pains and sufferings of others”. (4) His religiosity is therefore best
described as a “spiritualized humanism” (5).
Lauding this enlightened approach Louis Fischer wrote “Mahatma
Gandhi, a supremely devout Hindu, was incapable of discriminating against
anyone on account of religion, race, caste, colour or anything. His
contribution to the equality of untouchables and to the education of a new
generation which was Indian instead of Hindu or Moslem or Parsee or
Christian has world significance.” (6)
Gandhi’s great respect for Christ and the extent to which he drew
inspiration from him are revealed in his following statements:
“What does Jesus mean to me? To me, he was one of the greatest
teachers humanity has ever had.” (7)
“Jesus lived and died in vain if He did not teach us to regulate the whole
of life by the eternal law of live” (8)
“Jesus, a man who was completely innocent, offered himself as a sacrifice
for the good of others, including his enemies, and became the ransom of the
world. It was a perfect act” (9)
“Jesus was the most active resister known perhaps to history. His was non-
violence par excellence” (10)
“Jesus expressed as no other could, the spirit and will of God. It is in this
sense that I see him and recognize as the Son of God. And because the life
of Jesus has the significance and the transcendence to which I have alluded,
I believe that he belongs not solely to Christianity but to the entire world,
to all races and people. It matters little under what flag, name or doctrine
they may work, profess a faith or worship a God inherited from their
ancestors” (11)
On seeing a painting of the crucified Christ in Rome, Gandhi remarked “What
would not I have given to be able to bow my head before the living image of
Christ crucified. I saw there at once that nations like individuals could only
be made through the agony of the cross and in no other way. Joy comes not
out of infliction of pain on others but out of pain voluntarily borne by
oneself.” (12)
“The New Testament gave me comfort and boundless joy, as it came after
the revulsion that parts of the Old Testament had given me. Today,
supposing I was deprived of the Gita and forgot all its contents but had a
copy of the Sermon on the Mount, I should derive the same joy from it as I
do from the Gita” (13)
 “Jesus never uttered a loftier or a grander Truth than when he said
that wisdom cometh out of the mouth of babes. I believe it. …..If we are to
reach real peace in this world and if we are are to carry on real war against
war, we shall have to begin with the children.” (14)
Gandhi’s knowledge of and respect for Christ however came only after
he went to England and South Africa. In his youth he had felt a strong
aversion to Christianity. In his autobiography he writes that from his
parents, who had many Jain and Moslem friends, he had learnt to respect
religions other than his own but “Christianity at that time was an exception.
I developed a sort of dislike for it and for a reason. In those days Christian
missionaries used to stand in a corner near the high school and hold forth,
pouring abuse on Hindus and their Gods. I could not endure this. I must have
stood there only once but that was enough to dissuade me from repeating
the experiment. About the same time, I heard of a well known Hindu having
been converted to Christianity. It was the talk of the town that when he was
baptized he had to eat beef and drink liquor, change his clothes and
thenceforth go about in English costume including a hat. I also heard that
the new convert had begun abusing the religion of his ancestors, their
customs and their country. All these things created in me a dislike for
Christianity.” (15)
It was in London, towards the end of his second year there, that he was
first introduced to Theosophy, and then to the Gita and Buddhist teachings.
Soon thereafter he met a devout Christian in a vegetarian boarding house,
who spoke to him about Christianity. Gandhi revealed to him his aversion to
it from his school days in Rajkot. The Christian replied “ I am a vegetarian. I
do not drink. Many Christians are meat eaters and drink; but neither meat
eating nor drinking is enjoined by scripture. Do please read the Bible”. (16)
Gandhi accepted his advice and began reading the Bible. The Old Testament
bored and parts of it repelled him, but the New Testament, particularly the
Sermon on the Mount “went straight to my heart” (17) and “ I tried to unify
the teaching of the Gita, the ‘Light of Asia’ and the Sermon on the Mount.
That renunciation was the highest form of religion appealed to me greatly”
(18).
Gandhi’s “closest friend” Rev. C. F. Andrews, in his book 'Mahatma
Gandhi : His Life and Ideas', describes “Satyagraha” as ‘Corporate moral
resistance” (19) and adds “perhaps it would be true to say that since the days
of the early Christian Church, no such effective acts of passive resistance
have been organized as those which Mahatma Gandhi inspired.” (20) To
indicate Gandhi’s attitude to Christian missionaries he gives extracts from
his address to Christian Missionaries at the YMCA in Calcutta on July 28,
1925 : "Not many of you know that my association with Christians - not
Christians so-called but real Christians, dates from 1889, when as a lad I
found myself in London. That association has ripened as the years have
rolled on. In South Africa, where I found myself in the midst of inhospitable
surroundings, I was able to make hundreds of Christian friends. I came in
touch with the late Mr. Spencer Watton, Director of the South Africa
General Mission, and later with the great divine, the Rev. Andrew Murray
and several others. There was even a time when a very intimate friend of
mine, a great Quaker, thought that I was too good not to become a
Christian. I was sorry to have disappointed him.... You missionaries come to
India thinking you have come to a land of heathen, of idolators, of men who
do not know God. One of the greatest Christian divines, Bishop Heber wrote
two lines which have always left a sting with me" Where every prospect
pleases and only Man is vile" . I wish he had not written them. My own
experience in my travels throughout India has been to the contrary. I have
gone from one end of the country to the other, without any prejudice, in a
relentless search after Truth, and I am not able to say that here in this fair
land, watered by the great Ganges, the Brahmaputra and the Jumna, man is
vile. He is not vile. He is as much a seeker after truth as you and I possible
are, possibly more so…..When I travel through India I see many Christian
Indians almost ashamed of their birth, certainly of their ancestral religion
and of their ancestral dress. The aping of Europeans by the Anglo-Indians is
bad enough; but the aping of them by Indian converts is a violence done to
their country, and shall I say, even to their new religion.....Conversion must
not mean denationalization. Conversion should mean a definite giving up of
the evil of the old, adoption of all the good of the new and a scrupulous
avoidance of everything evil in the new. Conversion therefore should mean a
life of greater dedication to one's own country, greater surrender to God,
greater self purification" (21). Andrews then adds “ It must not be thought
that Mahatma Gandhi's attitude towards Indian Christians and
towards European missionaries was always critical. On the contrary, many of
his most devoted followers and friends are among them. In South Africa
some of the noblest of the passive resisters were Indian Christians. Besides
his whole hearted appreciation of Indian Christianity is seen in his deeply
touching tribute to Sushil Kumar Rudra, Principal of St. Stephen's College,
New Delhi, on his demise on January 30, in which he stated "I would ask my
reader to share my grief over the death of an esteemed friend and silent
public servant, Principal Sushil Kumar Rudra. He was a first class
educationist. As principal he made himself universally popular. There was a
kind of spiritual bond between him and his pupils. Though he was a Christian,
he had room in his bosom for Hinduism and Islam, for both of which he had
high veneration. His was not an exclusive Christianity that condemned to
perdition everyone who did not believe in Jesus Christ as the only saviour of
the world. Jealous of the reputation of his own, he was tolerant of other
faiths....Ever since my return home in 1915 I had been his guest whenever I
had occasion to go to New Delhi....The reader might not be aware that my
open letter to the Viceroy giving concrete shape to the Khilafat claim was
conceived and drafted under Principal Rudra's roof. He and Charlie Andrews
were my revisonists. Non- Cooperation was conceived and hatched under his
hospitable roof. He was a silent but deeply interested spectator at the
private conference that took place between the Ali brothers, other Muslim
friends and myself. He exemplified in his life the truth that religious
perception gives one a correct sense of proportion, resulting in a beautiful
harmony between action and belief. " (22)
When Gandhi’s concept of Trusteeship was criticized as too idealistic
and impractical he countered the criticism thus “ The question we are asking
ourselves today is not a new one. It was addressed to Jesus two thousand
years ago. St. Mark has vividly described the scene. Jesus is in a solemn
mood. He talks of eternity but is the greatest economist of his time. He has
succeeded in economizing time and space; he has transcended them. To him
comes a young man, kneels down and asks “Good Master, what shall I do that
I may have Eternal Life ? Jesus replies “Thou knowest the commandments.
Do not commit adultery, do not kill, do not steal, honour thy father and
mother.” The youth answers “Master, all these I have observed from my
youth” The Jesus says to him “ Then go, sell whatever thou hast, give to the
poor and thou shall have treasure in heaven”. At this the youth goes away
grieved for he had great possessions, and Jesus says to his disciples “It is
easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to
enter the Kingdom of God.” Here you have an eternal rule of life stated in
the noblest words in the English language…. I will not insult you by quoting in
support of what Jesus stated, writings and sayings of our own sages which
are even stronger. The strongest testimony in support of it however are the
lives of the greatest teachers of the world, Jesus, Mohammed, Buddha,
Nanak, Kabir, Chaitanya, Shankara, Dayananda, and Ramakrishna. They all
deliberately embraced poverty as their lot”. (23)
In volume 1 of his ten volume ‘The Story of Civilization’ eminent
historian Will Durant lauds Gandhi thus “He did not mouth the name of
Christ, but acted as if he accepted every word on the Sermon on the Mount.
Not since St. Francis of Assisi has any life known to history been so marked
by gentleness, disinterestedness, simplicity and forgiveness of enemies.” (24)
In his book ‘ Strength to Love ‘ Martin Luther King wrote “ A religion
that professes a concern for the souls of men and is not equally concerned
about the slums that damn them, the economic conditions that strangle them
and the social conditions that cripple them , is a spiritually moribund
religion” (25) and added “ The whole Gandhian concept of Satyagraha (which
means Truth Force or Love Force ) was profoundly significant to me. As I
delved deeper into the philosophy of Gandhi, my skepticism concerning the
power of love gradually diminished and I came to see for the first time that
the Christian doctrine of love, operating through the Gandhian method of
non-violence is one of the most potent weapons available to an oppressed
people in their struggle for freedom…..Christ furnished the spirit and
motivation and Gandhi furnished the method” (26)
Of all his Christian disciples, Srampical Kuruvilla George was the most
emphatic about the gratitude which Christianity and the West owed to
Gandhi. He wrote “My proposition that a true Christian in India must
necessarily be a Gandhiite is born of the conviction that Gandhi today is
giving a practical demonstration of the applicability of the teachings of
Jesus the Master, to modern problems. That was a sorely needed
demonstration. The Christian Church despite all its adoration of Jesus, its
exaltation of him to the throne of Divinity, has all along relegated his
teachings as impracticable idealism. His great enunciation of the law of love
as the only rule of life for man as a child of God, though repeated ad
nauseam by professing Christians, has continuously been given the go-by in
Christian practice, corporate and individual. Modern politics and economics,
with their dread alternatives of a unified world order or internecine conflict
in a world made one, and threatened with extinction by science, may yet
compel the West to turn to the teachings of Jesus as offering the only way
out” (27)
Writing from the Abbey of Gethsemani, Thomas Merton concludes his
introduction to ‘Gandhi on Non Violence’ as follows “Gandhi’s principles are
extremely pertinent today, more pertinent even than when they were
conceived and worked out in practice in the ashrams and villages of India.
They are pertinent for everybody but specially for those interested in
implementing the principles expressed Pope John XXIII, in Pacem in Terris.
Indeed this Encyclical has the breadth and depth, the universality and
tolerance of Gandhi’s peace-minded outlook. Peace cannot be built on
exclusivism, absolutism and intolerance; neither can it be built on vague
liberal slogans and pious programs gestated in the smoke of confabulation.
There can be no peace on earth without the inner change that brings man to
his “right mind”. Gandhi’s observations on the prerequisites and disciplines
involved in Satyagraha, the vow of Truth, are required reading for anyone
seriously interested in man’s fate in the nuclear age” (28)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Notes and references :

(i) Strength to Love by Martin Luther King(Collins Fount Paperbacks,Glasgow,1977)Page
153
(2)Young India (10/11/28)/Harijan(7/20/47)
(3)M.K.Gandhi:Autobiography:TheStory of My Experiments with
Truth(Navjivan,Ahmedabad, 1927) Page 266
(4) Louis Fischer The Life of Mahatma Gandhi (Harper & Row,1950) Page 102
(5) Non Violence in Peace &War(Navjivan Pub.House,Ahmedabad 1948)Vol.II,Page 8.
(6) Complete Works of Mahatma Gandhi (CWMG) Vol LXXXII page 278.
(7) Louis Fischer : The Life of Mahatma Gandhi (Harper & Row,1950) Page 335
(8) *M.K.Gandhi: Non Violence in Peace and War, Volume I, Page 181
(9) * ibid, Volume II, Page 166
(10)
(11)
(12) * R.K. Prabhu : This was Bapu ((Navjivan Mudranalaya, Ahmedabad 1954) Page 29
(13)
(14) * M.K.Gandhi : Young India 19/11/1931
(15) * M.K.Gandhi : An Autobiography or The Story of My Experiments with Truth
(Navjivan Mudranalaya, Ahmedabad 1927) Pages 28-29
(16) *ibid Page 58
(17) *ibid Page 58
(18) *ibid Page 58
(19) *C.F.Andrews Mahatma Gandhi:His Life and Ideas'(Jaico Publishing House,2005)
Page 132
(20) *ibid, Page 132
(21) *ibid Pages 38 –41
(22) *ibid Pages 58-60
(23) * Gandhi for the 21st Century : Theory of Trusteeship (Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan.
Mumbai 1998) Pages 1-4.
(24) * Will Durant: The Story of Civilization (Simon & Schuster, New York) Volume 1,
Page 628.
(25) *Martin Luther King : Strength to Love : Pilgrimage to Non Violence (William
Collins Sons Ltd, Glasgow 1981) Page 150,
(26) *ibid; Page 151
(27) *S.K.George : Gandhi’s Challenge to Christianity( Navjivan Publishing House,
Ahmedabad, 1947) Page xi
(28) *Thomas Merton : ‘Gandhi on Non Violence’ (New Directions Publishing Corporation,
New York 1964) Page 20.
(i) Strength to Love by Martin Luther King(Collins Fount Paperbacks,Glasgow,1977)Page
153
(2)Young India (10/11/28)/Harijan(7/20/47)
(3)M.K.Gandhi:Autobiography:TheStory of My Experiments with
Truth(Navjivan,Ahmedabad, 1927) Page 266
(4) Louis Fischer The Life of Mahatma Gandhi (Harper & Row,1950) Page 102
(5) Non Violence in Peace &War(Navjivan Pub.House,Ahmedabad 1948)Vol.II,Page 8.
(6) Complete Works of Mahatma Gandhi (CWMG) Vol LXXXII page 278.
(7) Louis Fischer The Life of Mahatma Gandhi (Harper & Row,1950) Page 335
(8) ibid ; Page 382
(9) Young India (30/4/1931)
(10) Gandhi – Hind Swaraj and other Writings by Antony Parel: (Cambridge University
Press 1997) Page xiii
(11) CWMG Vol LXXXIII page 414
(12) Harijan (28/7/46)
(13) Harijan (18/5/40)
(14) CWMG Vol LXXXVI page 460
(15) Young India (May 15th,1917)
16) CWMG Vol LXXXIX page 125
(17) Young India ( 29/1/25)
(18) CWMG – Vol. 20, p 91
(19) Paul Kennedy:Preparing for the 21st century(Random House,New York1993)Page 11
(20) Young India (16/4/1931)
(21) Outlook Magazine of June 1, 2009; Page 12.
(22) Speech at 95th Indian Science Congress, Visakhapatnam carried Earth Times,
January 4, 2008 :
(23)The Hindu, September 20, 2008, Article titled ‘Burns: U.S. has made ‘political
commitment’ on fuel supply’
(24) Terra Daily. New Delhi (UPI) Jan 25, 2005 ; Tsunami Makes India's Nuke
Workers Jittery

(25) Interview with P. Sainath for Humanscape, and carried by Third World Network
July 1st, 1996,

(26) Article titled ‘The Fruit of Hypocrisy’ in The Guardian, on September 16, 2008
(27) The Economist, Sep 18th 2008,Editorial titled ‘A nuclear winter?’
(28) Article titled ‘Time to Rethink Neo-Liberalism’ in International Herald Tribune,
carried as center page article in Deccan Herald on September 30, 2008
(29) David Hardiman:Gandhi in His Time and Ours (Delhi, Permanent Black, 2003) page
301
(30) Mahatma Gandhi - The Last Phase by Pyarelal(Navajivan Publishing House, 1997
Reprint) Vol.10,Page 552.
(31) Petra Kelly:Non Violence Speaks to Power (Honolulu,Centre for Global Non
Violence, 1992) Page 33.
(32) News report filed by Krishna Kumar in 'Mail Today',19 th April 2009.
(33) Outlook Magazine of June 1, 2009; Page 32.
(34) Deccan Chronicle,May18,2009,P10,Article titled ‘UPA’s agenda for affirmative
action’
(35) Young India, 26-1-1921
(36) Young India, 7-5-1925
(37) Martin Green : The Origins of Non Violence (Harper Collins,New Delhi) Page 50
(38) Samuel Huntington:The Clash of Civilizations(New York,Simon & Schuster 1997),P
217
(39) ‘Islam – A Short History’ by Karen Armstrong (Phoenix Press, London 2000) P.160
(40)‘The Unconquerable World’ by Jonathan Schell(Metropolitan
Books,NewYork,2003)P8-10
(41) Gandhi for the 21st Century : Theory of Trusteeship (Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan.
Mumbai 1998) Page 50.
(42) ibid, Page 51
(43) JRD’s Letter to Shriman Narayan dated 20 August 1973. Quoted by Prof. Sundar
Sarukkai in a lecture on ‘JRD Tata and the Idea of Trusteeship’ at National Institute
of Advanced Studies, Bangalore in May 2005.
(44)IIMB Website/ Gandhi, Governance and the Corporation colloquium/Transcript DVD
2.
(45) Treatise on Money by John Maynard Keynes (Royal Economic Society,
London,1930).
(46) Peter Drucker:The New Realities (New Delhi,Asian Books,1991) Page 229/231
(47) Rotary International Website.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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 BRIEF BIO OF PASCAL ALAN NAZARETH

Pascal Alan Nazareth is a retired Ambassador of India and Managing

Trustee of Sarvodaya International Trust, which is dedicated to promoting,
nationally and internationally the Gandhian values of Truth, non violence,
communal harmony, humanitarian service and peace,and has ten regional
chapters in India. He is the author of the widely acclaimed book ‘Gandhi’s
Outstanding Leadership’ and recipient of the U Thant Peace Award for his
‘Life Time of Dedication and World Service by promoting the Gandhian
Values of Truth, Non Violence, Communal Harmony and Humanitarian
Service’.