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Mahatma Gandhi

In 1918, Mahatma Gandhi issued two public appeals for Indians to enlist in the British army to fight in World War I. He asserted that fighting in the war would provide Indians necessary self-defense skills that had been eroded by the deep-seated influence of India’s ascetic culture, which he disdained.

This advocacy of violence led some of his staunchest supporters, including his nephew, Maganlal Gandhi, to question whether Gandhi was forsaking his non-violent ideals. In a July 1918 letter replying to his nephew, Gandhi stated that any conception of non-violence that prohibited self-defense was erroneous. To support this argument, Gandhi criticized the ethics of love and absolute ahimsa (non-violence) he observed in the teachings of Swaminarayan and Vallabhacharya. According to Gandhi, this love was mere “sentimentalism,” and its concomitant absolute ahimsa “robbed us of our manliness” and “made the people incapable of self-defence.” Gandhi wrote that Swaminarayan and Vallabhacharya had not grasped the essence of non-violence. Instead Gandhi argued for a non-violence that would “permit [our offspring] to commit violence, to use their strength to fight,” since that capacity for violence could be used for the benefit of society, like in “restraining a drunkard from doing evil” or “killing a dog…infected with rabies.”

By 1924, however, Gandhi’s criticism of Swaminarayan and his ethical teachings had turned into admiration. While arguing in a Navjivan newspaper editorial that it was a duty to resort to violence for self-defense against Afghani terrorists, Gandhi admitted that he could not personally adopt this approach because he had chosen the path of love even against his enemies. Gandhi explained that, according to the Hindu scriptures, a single such self-controlled person could eradicate violence from the hearts of one’s opposition. It was through this power of love that Gandhi asserted, “what was accomplished in Gujarat by one person, Sahajanand [Swaminarayan], could not be accomplished by the power of the State.” Moreover, he said that “The Age of Sahajanand has not come to an end. It is only devotion and self-control like his that are wanted.” Ultimately, Gandhi said that while he was attempting Swaminarayan’s approach himself, he did “not have the strength of heart to act upon” it the way that Swaminarayan had successfully done.

Over time, Gandhi’s religious thought showed a further influence of Swaminarayan’s teachings, as, by 1930, he had included many hymns composed by Swaminarayan poets in his Ashram Bhajanavali, a book of prayers which were used in his twice-daily prayer service. In his writings, he often drew inspiration from the spiritual teachings of Swaminarayan saint-poets Nishkulanand Swami and Muktanand Swami, the latter being the author of his most frequently used prayer. Indian sociologist and Gandhian contemporary, N.A. Thoothi, had argued by 1935 that Mahatma Gandhi was “most influenced in his inner-most being… by the teachings of the Swaminarayan Sampradaya above all.” Thoothi concluded that “most of [Gandhi’s] thought, activities, and even methods of most of the institutions which he has been building up and serving, have the flavor of Swaminarayan, more than that of any other sect of Hinduism.”