MOHANDAS GANDHI: A HINDU AND MORE

Chapter I; Part I

Mohandas Gandhi was a Hindu who throughout all of his life associated with, learned from, and showed deep respect for people  who embraced the diverse religions of India, including Islam, Jainism, Christianity, Judaism, and Zoroastrianism. Moreover, through his education in England and his association with the British who occupied his countrry, he came into contact with many currents of Western thought and practice. He had an experimental cast of mind: weighing, testing, trying ideas in practice. He ahd an experimental cast of mid: weighing, testing, trying ideas in practice, and judging them simply in terms of whether they imrpved the life of humanity. Consequently, he devoloped for himself a constantly evolving but passionately held set of beliefs and principles that guided his behaviour as he took  on structures of domination and oppression. It was his own personal synthesis rooted in what he found to be universal. Nonetheless, his belief system and mindset were predominantly Hindu. As put it: