People's Democracy

Mahatma Gandhi Against Communalism

WITH L K Advani promising during his rath yatra to usher in Ram Rajya as envisioned by Gandhi, it becomes imperative to see what was Gandhi’s vision of Ramrajya. It is all the more essential to see what Gandhi had to say about communal harmony in India in the context of the BJP including Gandhi as one of the five persons who inspire them in their vision document. “Let no one commit the mistake of thinking that Ramrajya means a rule of the Hindus. My Rama is another name for Khuda or God. I want Khudai Raj, which is the same thing as the Kingdom of God on earth.”

February 26, 1947

“Hindustan belongs to all those who are born and bred here and who have no other country to look to. Therefore, it belongs to Parsis, Beni Israels, to Indian Christians, Muslims and other non-Hindus as much as to Hindus. Free India will be no Hindu Raj, it will be Indian Raj based not on the majority of any religious sect or community, but on the representatives of the whole people without distinction of religion. Foreign domination going, we shall laugh at our folly in having clung to false ideals and slogans.”

Harijan, August 9, 1942

“That unity is strength is not merely a copybook maxim but a rule of life is in no case so clearly illustrated as in the problem of Hindu-Muslim unity. Divided we must fall. Any third power may easily enslave India so long as we Hindus and Mussalmans are ready to cut each other’s throats. Hindu-Muslim unity means not unity only between Hindus and Mussalmans but between all those who believe India to be their home, no matter to what faith they belong.”

Young India, May 11,1921

“And there is no religion other than truth. Truth is Rama, Narayana, Ishwara, Khuda, Allah, God. (As Narasinha says, ‘the different shapes into which gold is beaten gives rise to different names and forms; but ultimately it is all gold’)”.

Young India, August 14, 1924

“From Kanyakumari to Kashmir and from Karachi to Dibrugarh in Assam, all Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Parsis, Christians and Jews who people this vast sub-continent and have adopted it as their dear motherland, have an equal right to it. No one has a right to say that it belongs to the majority community only and that the minority community can only remain there as the underdog.”

January 14, 1948