How Gandhi Was Changed By Two Events A Century Ago

Inventure to suggest to those who are professors of Hinduism, who hold Hinduism as dear as life itself, that Hinduism like every other religion has got to submit itself to the test of universal reason.

- S Gopalakrishnan

In this age of reason, in this age of universal knowledge, in this age of education and comparative theology, any religion which entrenches itself behind Shastric injunctions and authority is, in my humble opinion, bound to fail — Gandhi, speaking at public meeting on March 10, 1925, in Vaikom, Kerala.

The year 2025 marks the centenary of a characteristic phase of evolution in Mahatma Gandhi’s life. The 26th volume of The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi offers a glimpse of this. A 100 years ago, in February and March, two occurrences shaped Gandhi’s evolution. The first was his maiden encounter with Hindu-Muslim conflict in the subcontinent and the second was an engagement with a grotesque manifestation of casteism. The first happened in the north-western part of British India, in Kohat (in present-day Pakistan) and the latter in Vaikom, in the princely state of Travancore (now Kerala).

In 1915, in an interview with Madras Mail, Gandhi affirmed something that speaks plainly about the making of his worldview:

Madras Mail: Was this period of probation imposed on you by Mr Gokhale (Gopal Krishna) because you had been away from India for so very many years?