Gandhi’s Spiritual Politics: Austerity, Fasting and Secularism

This article attempts to explore the connection between Gandhi’s spiritual quest, of which abstinence was a major component, and his politics. Gandhi was a deeply religious person. His politics, however, was secular in that it had little to do with the politics of religious identity. He would have found the notion of engaging in the politics of religious identity revolting, something that is borne out by his political practice. It was at the moment of the greatest crisis during the final phase of the anti-colonial struggle that he articulated his position with great clarity, and then went on to give it meaning through his presence in the countryside of Noakhali, and the refugee camps of Delhi. The influences of the social milieu of his early life in Saurashtra, and the colonial condition, shaped his world view in significant ways. The concrete everyday experiences of his early life are useful for comprehending his ideas about austerity as a moral ideal. There was a close link between austerity and the endeavour to achieve control over the palate. Besides, the story of his long association with his childhood friend Sheikh Mehtab is revisited, in the light of recent research, to see how it might allow a better understanding of this link.