RELIGION AND POLITICS
INTERPRETATIONS OF GANDHI, NEHRU AND AMBEDKAR
Keywords:
RELIGION, POLITICS, GANDHI, NEHRU, AMBEDKARAbstract
Today we witness a number of inter-religious conflicts, international disputes, socio-economic inequalities, social prejudices, north-south division of nations for world market and superpower and excessive exploitation of nature. The ideal of peaceful co-existence of nations under the political principle of panchasila is threatened by ever increasing fanatical terrorist groups organized on the basis of colour, race, ethnicity, class, caste, religion and nation. The growing cult of violence along with the degeneration of moral values does not auger well for the whole of mankind. Racial discrimination, suppression of freedom of opinion, religious intolerance, criminalization of politics, tacit sanction given to consumerism and corruption are the present day social evils with which we can have no compromise. In the history of the Indian struggle for independence several great statesmen who reflected seriously on these have offered their own vision for a better society where religion and politics play their own proper role. We select Gandhi,Nehru and Ambedkar, representatives of different or even opposing line of thinking for our special study.
References
Mahatma Gandhi, Collected Works, Vo1.47, 388-389. First appeared in the Hindustan Times (Daily), September 5, 1931.
Davis Kavungal, The Philosophical Foundation of Mahatma Gandhi's Vision of Sarvodaya.
The Hindu (Daily) Madras, June 12, 1945.
Speech at Annamalai University, February 16, 1934 (Collected Works, vol 58, PMO).
Verinder Grover (ed.) Political Thinkers of Modem India: Jawaharlal Nehru, Deep and Deep Publications, Delhi, 1990, p. 15.
Interview, November 29, 1933, The Bombay Chronicle (Dec.,2, 1933).
Nehru and Minorities, S.Gopal, Political Thinkers of Modem India, p.209.
Nehru, Secularism and Nation-Building, Asghar Ali Engineer, op.cit., pp.220- 233.
Socialistic Trends in Nehru's Philosophy', Mahendra Kumar, op.cit., p.147
G.S. Lokhande, Ambedkar and Socialism, Political Thinkers of Modem India, Verinder Grover, Deep and Deep Publicatoins, Delhi, 1990, p.274.
F.H. Bennur, Ambedkar's Concept of Religion, Verinder Grover, op.cit., pA17.
M.S. Gore, The Social Context of an Ideology: Ambedkar's Political and Social Thought (New Delhi: Sage Publications, 1993), p.225.
"In Search of a New Religioin," J.xavier llango, Little Traditions and National Culture, Dhannaram Publications, Bangalore, 2000
