The Absurdity of Hinduism: Gandhi’s Ideas on Religion and Truth
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.12726/tjp.29.1Keywords:
Hinduism, Gandhi, religion, truth, deliberation, natural lawAbstract
This paper seeks to provide a renewed meaning to the idea of truth by enclosing it within Gandhi’s rhetorical use of the term religion. The religion that he seeks to present to us as Hinduism is absurd on all fronts, it is argued here. It is through such absurdity that he infuses notions of validity and obeyance on his own terms to take us to profuse criticisms of not only colonial but civilizational modernity as well. Further a newer meaning is given to Hinduism in a rather unexpected manner even in the context of the Indian national movement. The point about political conservatism, the element of exoticism and God takes us to adventures around truth by a thinker-activist speaking as a colonial subject.
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