ABSTRACT
Chapter 6 is an analysis of Gandhi’s involvement with religion. For Gandhi the issue of religion is not just a question of surrendering to awe regarding creation, life, universe, humanity and so on. It is more like one of basking in this awe. It is in this revelling that he sought insight, clarity, or purpose of living, and ultimately moksha. Gandhi’s essential spiritual quest was to be able to recognize the equilibrium between three seemingly distinct entities: God, the individual, and the community along with it’s alterego the state or hegemonic authority.
Religion obligates conviction. It is this conviction, rather ‘being steeped in conviction’ which Gandhi sought. But convictions come with paradoxes and uncertainties; seemingly conflicting statements may bear out to be well founded. Perhaps this is because religion is the vernacular of the human social narrative, which, when local, retains a certain elemental and significant vibrancy. But it also encourages the upstart in man; and therein rests its appeal and flaw, a characteristic example of which is the caste system.
