E-Book - Mahatma Gandhi

Gandhi and the Encounter …. 21but the wise talk about it differently - says the Upanishad. InJainism the same idea is formulated as anekantavada, the manysidedness of truth which naturally justifies different approachesto it. This being so, India did not (and could not) take afundamentalist position regarding truth, religion or culture.That is precisely why Indian culture is eclectic and nonfundamentalist;it never tried to be universalistic. It alwaysrespected pluralism as a given aspect of reality, willed by theSovereign Law or God. The vital significance of the respectingand accepting this diversity of approach to reality has beenfurther underlined in the Upanishads where it is stated: mamasatyam, mamapi satyam, mameva satyam yuddham, which maybe translated as ‘my truth, my truth also, but my truth only iswar’. If you make an absolutist claim with respect to your truth,religion or culture and try to universlise it you are sure to invitewar is what the Upanishad is warning us against.It is in the context of the clash theory of Huntington andagainst the background of the Western and Indian paradigms ofcivilisational encounter that we have to examine Gandhi’sapproach to the same question.Gandhi as a Paradigm for Civilisational EncounterGandhi had the opportunity to live in three differentcontinents – Asia, Europe and Africa – and had, perforce, toencounter different cultures and religions during his eventfulpublic life. How did they impact him and to what extent? Whileprobing this question it is important to note, right at thebeginning, that Gandhi had made his basic positionunequivocally clear thus: “I do not want my house to be walledon all sides and windows to be stuffed. I want the cultures of alllands to be blown about my house as freely as possible. But Irefuse to be blown off my feet by any. I refuse to live in otherpeoples’ houses as an interloper, beggar or slave.” 16 It has beenrightly pointed out that Gandhi is a typical product of Indian