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Re-thinking Religious Pluralism pp 111–119Cite as

A Gandhian Solution to the Problem of Religious Intolerance

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Abstract

This essay is an attempt to solve the problem of religious intolerance by the Gandhian notions of Truth, Non-violence, and interdependence. Various thinkers have attempted to solve this problem by presenting the notion of tolerance. I wish to argue that those who believe in the notion of tolerance as the sufficient solution of religious intolerance seem to be mistaken. We live in a plural society and the mere condition of equality of all values and tolerance towards them would not suffice to stop religious conflicts. In this essay, I would like to focus on how the notion of tolerance is a necessary but not sufficient condition for the solution of this problem. Tolerance is only the means to achieve the ultimate end, it cannot be the ultimate end. We need to find some end which can be the ultimate value of these religions and which can solve the problem of religious intolerance. I have made an attempt to argue that the Gandhian conceptions of interdependence, realization of imperfection of all religions, and understanding of the ordered moral government of the universe could be used to solve this problem.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    His views are presented in his various works e.g.. Hick (1980, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1989).

  2. 2.

    To read more on this point see Gandhi (1949).

  3. 3.

    Akeel Bilgrami has discussed this aspect of Gandhi's views in detail in his articles “Gandhi: the philosopher” and “Gandhi’s Integrity: the philosophy behind the politics”. To study the detailed analysis of this point refer to (Bilgrami 2003, 2006).

References

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  • Bilgrami, A. (2003, Sept 27). Gandhi, the Philosopher. Economic and Political Weekly, 38(39). https://www.epw.in/journal/2003/39/special-articles/gandhi-philosopher.html.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Philosophy, University of Delhi, Delhi, India

    Reetu Jaiswal

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  1. Reetu Jaiswal
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Correspondence to Reetu Jaiswal .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Philosophy, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India

    Bindu Puri

  2. Centre for Philosophy, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India

    Abhishek Kumar

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Jaiswal, R. (2021). A Gandhian Solution to the Problem of Religious Intolerance. In: Puri, B., Kumar, A. (eds) Re-thinking Religious Pluralism. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-9540-0_9

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