More Reflections on Gandhi Religiously

I was thinking about Gandhi and how Gandhi's religious life played into his ideas of nonviolence. It relates a lot back to what we were talking about in the civil rights movement with religion acting as an important motivator and inspiration for participants as well as what we were talking about at the beginning of the semester with nonviolence as a personal and principled choice. It seems that Gandhi has a lot to say about the philosophical and abstract idea of God. It all seems to relate and complement his idea of what is good and what is just in addition to not allowing the notion of God to be compatible with the world as it is as opposed to a naïve and idealized view of it.

What I think is even more interesting is Gandhi's idea of how belief was forever tied to actions. For Gandhi, any idea that you could not act out, was not an ideal worth having. I think this in an interesting take on it. It seems that it is less important what you believe, but more important what you do with those beliefs. This theory is what allowed Gandhi to be so productive in his work uniting Hindus and Muslims. He could find common ground among both groups by making the conversation less about what you believe but what you do with it. It is interesting that his mission towards religious tolerance would have been more successful if Gandhi did not already have strong affiliations with Hindus. If Gandhi was more religiously neutral, would that put him on the outside of the conflict, or give him more access to it. How did Gandhi's religious affiliations affect his role in the conflict?