The Logics of Multiple Belonging

The chapter discusses Gandhi moving from a synthetic Hinduism in the 1910s/20s to a discourse of multiple belonging in the 1940s, however permeated by tensions. The chapter takes Gandhi as standing in a line with earlier thinkers such as Ibn al-‘Arabi and Bulhe Shah. Gandhi attempted to formulate a set of ethical and metaphysical universals that were common to all religions. In Gandhi’s view, none had the right to condemn or reform the elements of any religion but his/her own. The author sees Gandhi attempting to devise a non-sectarian Hinduism that was inclusive of all that was exemplary in other religions. In the 1940s, Gandhi’s earlier intuition of simultaneously belonging to all religions grew into greater prominence and he denied the view that religions were the exclusive property of those born into them. However, when Gandhi tried claiming a special universalizeability for Hinduism, he too fell victim to the idea of Hindu exceptionalism.