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Religion and human nature combined tend to create a superiority complex among those who perceive themselves as having better, or more, faith. Religion is generally perceived as singular, but humans choose to dynamically express their faith, whether that be by love or war. Gandhi, depicted the movie Gandhi directed by Richard Attenborough, in the face of Muslims protesting Hindus, declared: “I am a Muslim and a Hindu and a Christian and a Jew and so are all of you,” and that perception of himself and others influenced a mass ethnic and religious revolution that enlightened India. Gandhi opened the world to revolutionary ideas -- the strength in tolerance, the pluralism in religion, and the unification of all mankind. In the movie Gandhi, before …show more content…
After the British empire separated itself from India, inner-country religious problems began to arise. The Muslims and Hindus of the liberated India released their pent up anger on each other and combusted into civil war right after they won the peaceful war against Great Britain. This war distressed Gandhi, who has insight into the unity of mankind, and encouraged him to go on a hunger strike until the brutality ceased. While on his near-death bed, he is approached by a Hindu who “killed a child” because the Muslims “killed [his] son,” and in response, Gandhi said that the way out of his “Hell is to “Find a [Muslim] child, a child whose mother and father have been killed and raise him as your own,” therefore the man would be able to see the equality in all religions. Throughout his entire life, Gandhi, though a Hindu, never prosecuted anyone for their religion and was able to see through everyone’s eyes as fellow brother’s and sisters, not enemies. This ability to empathize and recognize the general unity of the human population allowed Gandhi insight into the human …show more content…
Edward Burnett Tylor, who believed that religion will eventually die with science, did not consider the aspect of the power of religious pluralism. People can become more powerful as they are able to open their mind to religious pluralism, so shouldn’t the ultimate evolutionary stage of humans be ultimate religious openness instead of solely science? Although the courseware touches base on the causes of religious wars, it does not develop the reasons behind the violence or the essence of the human condition. The movie Gandhi revealed how religions must be interpreted in order for them to be effective for the entire human race, and not just those who deem themselves
Mohandas Gandhi was born into a Hindu family of the Vaisya caste. This was the third ranking caste in the class structure of Hinduism. This class was for farmers and merchants. The whole system was so complex that in Gandhi’s lifetime it had begun to disintegrate. Gandhi’s father and grandfather were not farmers or merchants. They were prime ministers of the tiny principality of Porbandar in Gujarat. Mohandas was extremely shy. He rushed to and from school, too nervous to talk to any of his classmates. Then a pretty and strong-willed girl was married to him by an arranged marriage at the age of 13. Her name was Kasturbai. A marriage at this age was typical in Hindu custom. He was a strict husband and kept control over actions. Kasturbai disliked this. They didn’t spend more than the first five years of their marriage together, since it was typical for the girl to visit her family. At this point in his life, he was very depressed. He was little and suffered fears that didn’t bother his wife. An athletic and older boy who was Muslim fascinated him. He told Mohandas to eat meat if he wanted to become bigger and stronger. He said the Indians were weak and small people, because they didn’t eat meat, and this is why the British, who did, had the strength to rule over them. This was against his religion, but he tried anyway. He ate the meat in secrecy, but after a few meals he stopped. He didn’t like the taste of meat and fe...
India gained independence from British rule in 1947. The Gandhian strategy is mainly comprised with: Satyagraha, Truth, Nonviolence, non-cooperation and peace and love. Satyagraha, a holistic approach toward life based on the ideals of truth and moral courage. Truth, the most powerful weapon. Gandhi believed "the truth is far more powerful than any weapon of mass destruction. Non-violence, was seen by Gandhi as "everlasting". Gandhi was influenced Jainism and Buddhism, both preached non-violence. Non-cooperation, aimed to resist British rule in India. Non-cooperation included the boycott of councils, courts and schools set up by British and of all foreign cloth. Peace and love, Gandhi stated " peace between countries must rest on the solid foundation of love between
...xtent Gandhi achieved a moral victory as well as a political one. For adherents of faiths that encourage peace, it is also a religious one.
Mohandas K. Gandhi, a great Indian philosopher, wrote the essay “My Faith in Nonviolence”. His essay focuses on the use of nonviolence means on overthrowing the British rule of India. Gandhi’s main claim on this essay is that love is the higher law of life and that “every problem lends itself to solution” (p. 203) , if we followed that law.
...ares Gandhi's Satyagraha to be similar to how Jesus would react towards nonviolence. He assumed that the ethics of Jesus were only effective in individual relationships (264). Gandhi preached about nonviolence and how we should not engage in violent behavior, no matter the issue. King,Jr felt like those claims were invalid until he read about Gandhi and immediately realized how wrong he was. He believed that Gandhi was the first individual in history to use the love ethics of Jesus on a larger scale. In the, "Negro Problem" article, Gunner states that the only way to resolve the problem was to better the conditions of the blacks. However, King, Jr stated that if the American Negro and other victims of oppression succumb to the temptation of using violence in the struggle for freedom, future generations will be the recipients of a desolate night of bitterness (265).
In Wilfred Cantwell Smith’s book The Faith of Other Men he starts by describing his challenge as a teacher in Lahore. He mentions that his colleagues were, like the great majority of the students, a mix of Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhns. As a Christian he and the rest of the community had to work toward the construction and maintenance of a religiously diverse community. The missionary college emphasized the message that faith was a serious and fundamental matter, that could neither be taken for granted nor dismissed. That message for Smith’s can be echoed in the oversimplified religious society of today. The religious life of humanity according to Smith is one that religiously plural, and this is true for all of us. Muslims, Hindus, Confucians, and Buddhists there no longer these far away peoples but rather they have become our neigh...
Over the years, society has come to evolve and progressively become more efficient as society’s viewpoints and perspectives on various aspects of life have also changed. However, the one aspect of life that has stayed constant has been religion. The impact of a constant religious opinion on a changing society has detrimental and benign effects on the populace of such a society.
Gandhi is a strong believer in hinduism and a bit of Jainism. Within both of these religions there is the idea of Ahimsa. Ahimsa means not to kill, it is also the concept of non-violence and the fact that any violence leads to consequences. This is where Gandhi got his ideas of nonviolence and civil disobedience. When the British Government tries to raise land taxes and increase India’s border tax, Gandhi uses the idea of Ahimsa and civil-disobedience to disobey the British Government, yet not violate and laws in a violent way. “‘Ahimsa’ is another Indian word for which there is no exact English word. Ahimsa means nonkilling, but actually it means much more than that. To live according to the doctrine of ahimsa is to feel only love for all living things.”(Gandhi 99) This quote shows what Ahimsa means and how Gandhi would implement it into his everyday life. As Gandhi mainly believes in hinduism, this shows how his religious beliefs affected him and influenced his belief of Ahimsa. Even though Gandhi himself was a Hindu, he did not agree with all of their ideas. He especially did not agree with the Hindu caste system. In which certain castes were assigned certain roles in society, and assigned certain classes of families. Gandhi believed in equality for everyone, and he wanted to rule out the untouchables, the lowest caste of people in hinduism. “Below the four castes are the Untouchables, or outcastes, who
Religion is a system of faith and worship to a personal God or gods and can be found in almost every society throughout history. Thus, it is going to be an inevitable factor in the future as it will always be a part of all cultures in the world. Many of the world’s major wars have been directly or indirectly influenced by religion. Therefore, it is imperative that the world’s future leaders, which are now students in classes, receive an education on all religions. These include the three most dominant being Christianity,
India is the center of a very serious problem in the world today. It’s a very diverse place with people from many different religious backgrounds, who speak many different languages and come from many different regions. They are also separated economically. Two of the country’s religious sects, Muslims and Hindus, have been in conflict for hundreds of years. Their feelings of mistrust and hatred for each other are embedded in all those years and will not leave easily. What’s most disturbing is that there seems to be no plan for reconciliation available. There are numerous reasons for this conflict.
"Mahatma Gandhi 2- Pilgrim of Peace (documentary, 44min 45sec)." GandhiTopia. GandhiServe Foundation, 2013. Web. 06 Dec. 2013.
Religion has the power to bind one to others as well as the aptitude to alienate people with conflicting beliefs. Throughout history, cultures have created several different belief systems, each with its own ideals, to satisfy the typical human curiosity and explain the unclarified events that occur in nature. Inspecting the role of religion from the earliest civilizations to the present, its tendency to divide rather than unify groups becomes apparent.
The impact that religion has by express mankind’s history is a phenomenal trait, even in 21st century human perceptions are beguiled highly on religion than any other episode. Majority of nations base their policies, economic stances and political associations on religion. According to the “Scriptures of the World's Religion”, religion is viewed as a communal system for which peoples believes are channeled to focus on unseen being, supernatural occurrences and revelation of the highest truth.
...tween the Hindus and Muslims, Jinnah felt that Muslims had no future in India (Overfield 216). With the end of British rule in 1947, not only did India gain its independence but also along with it was born an other country, Pakistan where Jinnah served as the first governor (Overfield 216). With the gain of India’s independence, Gandhi was shot the following year in 1948 by a Hindu zealot who resented his commitment to Hindu – Muslim harmony (Overfield 212).
In conclusion, whether religion does lead to conservatism and violence or people who use religion for personal gains solely depends on how they are taught religion. There are people who are very religious yet they are very modern, such as Sheikh Hamza Yousuf, Dalai Lama or Pope Francis. It all depends on the human psychology and with proper knowledge on the subject, religion can surely exist with science and modernism.