Gandhi and Christ Compared & Contrasted: War and Peace in the Kingdom's of God and Man

To what extent are the efforts to portray Mahatma Gandhi as a “type of Christ” or even an avatar in the spirit of Christ? Yet is has become common to uplift this man, who worked tirelessly for Indian independence, as a Christ-example, a sacrificial archetype whose turn to simplicity and poverty ultimately resulted in his own death. It is also true that Gandhi, who practiced non-violence as a means of protest, also starved himself at times in order to force an end to bloodshed and violence. But as often happens with the Christ comparison, Gandhi’s motivations were not spiritual but political.

Gandhi’s transformation may have begun with his decision to exchange British attire for the simple peasant dhoti, the extended loincloth he would wear for the rest of his life, as well as his reaction to the 1919 Dyer Massacre in which hundreds were senselessly shot by British soldiers. According to Brian Lapping, he adopted a policy of non-violence, possibly having been influenced in early life by the Jains, a Hindu sect that practiced non-violence as a life principle.

Gandhi’s ultimate goal was Indian independence yet he was not prepared to consider the needs of the Muslims, accounting for a quarter of India’s population, living primarily in the northeast regions. Only during the final independence negotiations following World War II with Lord Mountbatten did Gandhi reluctantly concede to a semi-antonymous “Pakistan.” Gandhi never deviated from his Hindu preferences and even rejected treating the untouchables as a separate religious minority. Gandhi supported the caste system.

There are very few substantive comparisons that can be made between Gandhi and Christ. Each man had radically different missions and chose to fulfill them in contrasting ways. Although a pacifist, Gandhi actively supported recruitment during World War II, willing to compromise principle for a higher goal: statehood for India. Christ repeatedly said, “My kingdom is not of this world” and accepted peoples from all social strata including the rich, the poor, the lepers, and the tax collectors. Christ was not caste-conscious and used the Samaritans to demonstrate the true answer to "who is my neighbor?"

Gandhi and the “Quit India” movement

The immediate result of Gandhi’s “Quit India” movement was violence and bloodshed, a standard by-product of several approaches advanced by him over the years. After announcing this initiative, Gandhi stated that he was prepared to accept domestic chaos, bloodshed, and the loss of thousands of lives. Far more serious was the long term impact of “Quit India.” The movement galvanized the Muslim League and its leader, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, who was ultimately responsible for legitimizing the League and sculpting the modern state of Pakistan following years of bloody civil war.

Contrasts of War and Peace

The idea of a hero or of a villain being identified as a “Christ-like” figure spans the decades. There are those who see enough similarities between Christ and Socrates to conclude that the Greek philosopher, who lived long before Christ, was a Christ archetype of sorts. In 1859, when the United States government hung John Brown, sympathetic poets and writers deemed him a sacrificial figure (in the cause of abolition) much like Christ. These comparisons are disingenuous.

Even if the miraculous is eliminated, the historical Christ consistently stands in diametric opposition to the many historical parallels, including that of Gandhi. Gandhi was a type of nationalist whose priorities were founded in Indian sovereignty ruled by a Hindu majority. To achieve this, many bridges were crossed, even if they led to violence or to less acceptable formulas such as the socialism espoused by Nehru, his chief disciple and protégé. The comparison to Christ is at best negligible, at worst a travesty.

Sources:

Lawrence James, The Rise and Fall of the British Empire (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1994).

Dennis Judd, Empire:The British Imperial Experience from 1765 to the Present (Basic Books, 1996).

Peter Townsend, The Last Emperor: An Intimate Account of George VI and the Fall of His Empire (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1976).

Feb 14, 2009 9:26 PM

Hanish Babu :

Most references to Gandhi's beliefs in this article are untrue. The author should have read Gandhi's autobiography The Story of My Experiments With Truth and also referred to books written by some authors from the subcontinent before espousing these points of view.

The truth is that Gandhi, though born and brought up as a high caste Hindu, never supported the caste system. He promoted temple visits to low caste Hindus and called them Hairjan: 'The Children of God'. He even made hos own wife nurse(and even clean the toilets)the Harijans.
It is wrong to say Gandhi supported any kind of violence. His heart blead when violence errupted throughout India after the independence, which was the result of the divide and rule principle of the British, not Gandhi's Quit India! Gandhi wanted India to stay as a whole, far beyond the narrow division of the religions. This was why he objected to Pakisthan, not because he did not care for Muslims.

By retrospect his point of view stands vindicated now. The religious obscurantism that gave birth to Pakisthan is growing as a cancer on the body of earth threatening the very existence of humanity through promotion of terrorism of all types!

Gandhi was a leader par excellence, never to be compared with Christ, Buddha or Mahaveer, he has a unique incomparable greatness of his own. If looked only through the western eyes, this may not be visible.