Gandhi on Islam and Christianity: Insights into Brotherhood and Sacrifice

Mahatma Gandhi’s religious worldview extended far beyond the boundaries of his Hindu faith. Throughout his life, Gandhi engaged deeply with both Islam and Christianity, finding in each tradition profound truths that resonated with his philosophy of truth and non-violence. His respectful study of these Abrahamic faiths not only enriched his spiritual life but also shaped his approach to India’s freedom struggle and his vision of communal harmony.

Islam: a religion of peace and brotherhood 🔗

Gandhi’s appreciation for Islam was both intellectual and deeply personal. He extensively studied the Quran and viewed Islam as a faith that actively promoted peace. His understanding was that non-violence held a prominent place in Islamic teachings, contrary to the stereotypes that often surrounded the religion.

What particularly impressed Gandhi about Islam was its strict monotheism and the concept of complete submission to God. He regarded Islam as a religion of peace and maintained that there was nothing in the Quran to warrant the use of force for conversion. Gandhi often defended Islam against charges of fanaticism, arguing that the faith spread not through the sword but through what he called the “prayerful love” of saints and the exemplary conduct of early Muslims.

Gandhi was particularly drawn to the character of Prophet Muhammad. He argued that Islam’s place in world history was won not by military conquest but by the Prophet’s simplicity, self-effacement, and scrupulous regard for pledges. The Prophet’s intense devotion to his followers, his fearlessness, and his absolute trust in God deeply moved Gandhi. He saw in Muhammad an example of patient suffering that aligned with his own philosophy of bearing injustice with dignity.

Early influences and personal connections 🔗

Gandhi’s connection with Muslims began in his childhood in Gujarat, where Hindu-Muslim friendships were a natural part of life. His family had long-standing bonds with Muslim neighbors, and a Muslim soldier had once died protecting his grandfather’s house. This memorial, preserved in the family’s Vaishnava temple, stood as a testament to interfaith solidarity.

During his time in South Africa, Gandhi worked as a lawyer for a Muslim firm and lived among Muslims for twenty years. They treated him as a family member, and Muslim women were told they need not observe purdah with him. This experience strengthened his belief in Hindu-Muslim unity and formed the foundation of his later political work for communal harmony.

Gandhi was also acquainted with Sufi Islam’s Chishti Order during his South African years. He attended Khanqah gatherings and found in Sufism values that resonated with his own Vaishnava Hindu background, including humility, devotion, and brotherhood with the poor. Several prominent Muslim leaders, including Maulana Abul Kalam Azad and Abdul Ghaffar Khan, became his close allies in the non-violent resistance movement.

The blending of politics and religion in Islam 🔗

Scholar K.N. Tiwari observed that Gandhi found particular reassurance in Islam’s historical blending of political and religious life. This integration affirmed Gandhi’s own conviction that politics and religion could not be separated. For Gandhi, authentic political action had to be grounded in spiritual principles, and he saw Islamic history as validating this approach.

Gandhi believed that Islam in the days of Harun-al-Rashid and Mamun represented remarkable tolerance among world religions. Though he acknowledged a later reaction against this liberalism, he remained confident that Islam possessed the resources to purge itself of illiberalism and intolerance.

The Islamic emphasis on prayer, fasting, almsgiving, and ethical conduct resonated deeply with Gandhi’s own spiritual discipline. He admired the Sufi aspect of Islam, which emphasized patience, self-discipline, and spiritual devotion. Gandhi believed these qualities were essential for personal and social transformation, aligning closely with his Satyagraha philosophy.

Gandhi’s support for the Khilafat Movement demonstrated his commitment to Hindu-Muslim unity. In 1919, he joined the All-India Khilafat Committee and served as its president, recognizing the emotional significance of the caliphate for Indian Muslims. This collaboration produced a genuine patriotic upsurge in which Muslims and Hindus joined ranks against colonial rule.

Christianity: the gospel of love and sacrifice 🔗

Gandhi’s engagement with Christianity began during his law studies in London, where Christian friends introduced him to the Bible. While the Old Testament sent him to sleep, the New Testament produced an entirely different impression. The Sermon on the Mount, he wrote, “went straight to my heart” and gave him “comfort and boundless joy.”

What drew Gandhi to the Sermon on the Mount was its remarkable similarity to a Gujarati didactic stanza by the medieval poet Shamal Bhatt, which he had learned in childhood. Both texts taught the principle of returning good for evil. Gandhi found in Jesus’ teaching to turn the other cheek a confirmation of his own developing philosophy of non-retaliation.

The passage that particularly moved Gandhi was Matthew 5:39: “Resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.” Gandhi declared that the Sermon on the Mount was the whole of Christianity for anyone who wanted to live a truly Christian life. He considered Jesus to be a supreme artist who saw and expressed Truth, and he regarded Christ’s teachings as the gift that Christianity offered to the world.

Jesus and the philosophy of Satyagraha 🔗

The Sermon on the Mount became a significant source for Gandhi’s philosophy of Satyagraha. He described Jesus as a “heroic satyagrahi” who represented the principle of non-violence in its purest form. Christ’s example of overcoming evil with good, hatred with love, and his preference for gentleness and forgiveness over vengeance deeply influenced Gandhi’s approach to resistance.

Gandhi famously compared the Sermon on the Mount with the Bhagavad Gita, finding them mutually complementary. He observed that while the Sermon describes truth in a graphic manner, the Gita reduces it to a scientific formula. The spirit of both texts competed for the domination of his heart, and he drew equal inspiration from each.

The concept of meeting hatred with unarmed love, as exemplified by Jesus on the cross, had a profound impact on Gandhi’s thinking. He saw in Christ’s willing sacrifice a model for the kind of suffering that could transform oppressors and liberate the oppressed. This understanding became central to his campaigns of non-violent resistance in South Africa and India.

Critique of Western Christianity 🔗

While Gandhi revered Jesus’ teachings, he was sharply critical of what he saw as the practical failures of Western Christianity. He believed that much of what passed as Christianity was a negation of the Sermon on the Mount. Gandhi accepted Christianity but rejected what he called “churchianity,” the institutional forms that he felt had betrayed Christ’s original message.

Gandhi’s early encounters with Christianity in India included memories of missionaries who stood at school corners, loudly deriding Hindu gods and beliefs. He was greatly disturbed when Christians dismissed the Sermon on the Mount as impractical or mere idealism. In his view, Christianity had become associated with cultural imperialism and the destruction of Indian traditions.

Gandhi did not support proselytization. He believed that if all religions teach the same fundamental message of love and peace, there is neither rationale nor need for converting people from one faith to another. He maintained that missionary activity should focus on helping people become better human beings within their own traditions rather than changing their religious affiliation.

Gandhi’s famous remark to missionary E. Stanley Jones captures his critique succinctly: he loved Christ but found that too many Christians were unlike Christ. He observed that Christians did not practice what the Sermon taught, failing to identify with the poor, love their enemies, or absorb insults while returning love. Yet he maintained hope, urging Christians to become worthy of the message embedded in the Sermon on the Mount.

Influential interactions with Christians 🔗

Gandhi’s understanding of Christianity was shaped by meaningful friendships and correspondence with Christian figures who embodied the values he admired. Among the most significant was his exchange with Leo Tolstoy, particularly regarding the Russian writer’s book, “The Kingdom of God Is Within You.”

Gandhi wrote in his autobiography that Tolstoy’s book “overwhelmed” him and “left an abiding impression.” He listed it among the three most important modern influences on his life. Reading Tolstoy opened Gandhi’s mind to the possibilities of non-violent resistance based on Christian principles. In 1909, Gandhi wrote to Tolstoy, and the two continued corresponding until Tolstoy’s death in 1910. Their letters addressed practical and theological applications of non-violence, and Tolstoy’s last letter was reportedly addressed to Gandhi.

Charles Freer Andrews, an Anglican priest, became perhaps Gandhi’s closest Christian friend. Andrews came to see Gandhi as Christ-like and called him a twentieth-century St. Francis. Gandhi affectionately named him “Christ’s Faithful Apostle” based on his initials C.F.A. Their friendship deepened both men’s understanding of each other’s traditions and demonstrated the possibility of genuine interfaith brotherhood.

Other Christian figures who influenced Gandhi included Henry Polak, who introduced him to Ruskin’s “Unto This Last,” and S.K. Rudra, the first Indian principal of St. Stephen’s College, whose inner life had been transformed by Christ though he remained Hindu in outward practice. These relationships helped Gandhi appreciate the diversity of Christian expression beyond colonial Christianity.

A universal seeker of truth 🔗

Gandhi’s engagement with Islam and Christianity reflected his conviction that all religions contain essential truths. During his prayer meetings, he always included verses from the Quran along with the Gita and Bible, believing it foolish to consider one religion better than another. When traveling to quell Hindu-Muslim riots in Bengal, he carried all three sacred texts with him.

Gandhi’s approach to religion was not syncretistic confusion but disciplined openness. He remained a devoted Hindu while insisting that a reverential study of other faiths could only strengthen one’s own. As he famously declared, he wanted the cultures of all lands to blow through his house as freely as possible, for his religion was not a prison-house.

What do you think? Can Gandhi’s approach to interfaith understanding offer guidance for today’s world, where religious divisions often fuel conflict? How might his vision of finding common ethical ground across traditions help address contemporary challenges of communal harmony?

References

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Practices_and_beliefs_of_Mahatma_Gandhi
2. https://www.mkgandhi.org/articles/gandhi-on-theory-and-practice-of-islam.php
3. https://www.islamicity.org/3910/gandhi-and-islam/
4. https://www.isas.nus.edu.sg/wp-content/uploads/media/isas_papers/ISAS Insights 25 – Email – The Legacy of Gandhi.pdf
5. https://www.mkgandhi.org/articles/mahatma-gandhi-and-sermon-on-the-mount.php
6. https://publicseminar.org/2018/12/mahatma-gandhi-what-jesus-means-to-me/
7. https://www.mkgandhi.org/africaneedsgandhi/gandhis_message_to_christians.php
8. https://christianethicstoday.com/wp/jesus-and-gandhi-a-study-in-commonalities/
9. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Kingdom_of_God_Is_Within_You
10. https://www.faena.com/aleph/gandhi-and-tolstoy-the-correspondence-that-changed-the-fate-of-a-country
11. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Freer_Andrews
12. http://www.theinterfaithobserver.org/journal-articles/2016/1/27/c-f-andrews-gandhis-friend.html
13. https://www.barnabastoday.com/2023/10/mahatma-gandhi-and-his-christian-friends/