This article examines Mahatma Gandhi's sometimes ambivalent and ambiguous position on Hindu image-worship or "idolatry." While personally not disposed towards the practice, he nevertheless defended it against its detractors. The paper notes a shift from the position of prominent nineteenth-century reformers who regarded erasure of idolatry as the precondition of Hindu reform. While Gandhi's own sensibility was predominantly aniconic, he saw no contradiction in pressing for open access to sacred images through temple-entry for Harijans. He bridled at image-worship only when he was himself treated as an icon.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Bharati, Agehananda1970 "Gandhi's interpretation of the Gita: An anthropological analysis." In Sibnarayan Ray (ed.), Gandhi, India and the World57-70. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
2.
Dayananda Sarasvati1984[1882] Light of Truth: Satyarth Prakash. Translated by C. Bharadwaja. New Delhi: Sarvadeshik Arya Pratinidhi Sabha.
3.
Gandhi, Mahatma1958The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi. 100 vols . Delhi: Publications Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India.
4.
1962My God. Ahmedabad: Navajivan.
5.
1982[1925] An Autobiography or the Story of My Experiments with Truth. London: Penguin.
6.
Hacker, Paul1978 [1970] "Aspects of Neo-Hinduism as contrasted with surviving traditional Hinduism." In L. Schmithausen (ed.), Kleine Schriften, 580-608. Wiesbaden: Glasenapp-Stiftung.
7.
Hanmante, S.R.1979 "Social and religious movements: Removal of untouchability and temple-entry movements in Maharashtra (1920-1935)." In S. P. Sen (ed.), Social and Religious Reform Movements in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, 296-312. Calcutta: Institute of Historical Studies .
8.
Jeffrey, Robin1981 "Religious symbolisation of the transition from caste to class: The temple-entry movement in Travancore, 1860-1940." Social Compass, XXVIII, 2-3: 269-91.
9.
Jack, Homer A. (ed.) 1989The Gandhi Reader. New York: Grove.
10.
Lutt, Jürgen1995 " From Krishnalila to Ramarajya: A court case and its consequences for the reformulation of Hinduism." In Vasudha Dalmia and Heinrich von Stietencron (eds.), Representing Hinduism, 142-53. New Delhi: Sage.
11.
Pyarelal1956Mahatma Gandhi: The Last Phase. Vol. 1. Ahmedabad: Navajivan.
12.
1965Mahatma Gandhi: The Early Years. Vol. 1. Ahmedabad: Navajivan.
13.
Rudolph, Lloyd R. and Susanne S.1967The Modernity of Tradition: Political Development in India . Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
14.
Salmond, Noel2003Hindu Iconoclasts: Rammohun Roy, Dayananda Sarasvati and Nineteenth-Century Polemics against Idolatry. Waterloo, ON: Wilfrid Laurier University Press.
