Gandhi on the authority of the shastras

 From the digital version of the Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi:

205. THE PUNDIT SABHA OF KASHI 

When I was in Kashi, three questions were sent to me on behalf of the Kashi Pundit Sabha. I considered it my duty to answer these questions, but I did not then have time to do so. Later the questions lay in my file. I could not attend to them during my tour either. Now I am cleaning up my file. The questions are:

1. How can a sanatani Hindu who is well versed in the doctrines of sanatana dharma and accepts the Vedas and the smritis based on them as an infallible authority, contend that there is no untouchability in Hinduism or lend his support to freely mixing with untouchables, excepting on the occasions enumerated in the well-known verse: “In religious processions, marriages, emergencies, rebellions and in all festivals, contact with untouchables does not polllute”? 

2. Your work is among the people of India who are predominantly sanatana dharmis and who implicitly believe in the Gita dictum: “Let the Shastras, therefore, be they authority in deciding what is to be done and what is to be shunned.” How can you then effectively carry on the work of eradicating untouchability till you have proved that this work is in conformity with the Shastras? 

3. The Muslim Ulemas are firmly convinced that there is merit in killing all those who follow any religion other than Islam for they are Kaffirs, and that Muslims can mingle with them only when they accept Islam. So long as all Muslims are under the influence of these Ulemas, how can Hindus make friends with Muslims while protecting the Hindu dharma? 

A few things Mahatma Gandhi almost certainly never said

 It is very hard to prove that somebody did not say or write something; absolute certainty is not possible.  But one can be very confident when the citations don't work out, reasonable alternatives to the citations don't work out, when it can be shown the person did say something rather different in the same time frame when the alleged statement was made, or best when the "quote" can be traced to its original source.

None of these following were said by Mahatma Gandhi, with high confidence.

This first one was current around 1990, during the height of the dispute over the Ramajanmabhoomi site in Ayodhya where Babur or someone had built a mosque.

"The mosques built over the destroyed temples are a sign of slavery and the Muslims should hand over the same to Hindu Society."  Mohandas K. Gandhi,  'Navajivan' July 17, 1937. 

I had done an extensive search for this back then (1990-92) and pretty much showed that Mahatma Gandhi didn't say or write that.  The details are buried somewhere in my boxes of notes.

""Hitler is not a bad man"  - Mahatma Gandhi never said or wrote that either, see here for details of why I think so.

"Mahatma Gandhi said: “The press is called the Fourth Estate. It is definitely a power, but, to misuse that power is criminal." - this was actually used by PM Narendra Modi in a tweet.

It is supposedly from a prayer speech, April 12, 1947.  But it is really from a newspaper report of that prayer speech. The transcript of the speech says no such thing.  The original quote is: "In the English language the Press is called the Fourth Estate. The Press can help or harm the country in so many ways. If the newspapers do not maintain a healthy attitude, what purpose would be served by India becoming free?"  Gandhi had said earlier in that speech ".....it is a trick of their trade to create panic among the people and thus increase their sales.  It is a very wicked thing to indulge in order to fill this wretched tummy. ...If for earning their livelihood these people fill he pages of their newspapers and thereby harm the interests of India, then, they must give up journalism and find some other occupation." 

However much of Gandhiana takes this quote to be accurate.

Two paths through the woods

Ross Douthat, conservative columnist for the New York Times, October 2016, about American conservative intellectuals (don't laugh at the oxymoron) who have lost their way:

History does not stand still; crises do not last forever. Eventually a path for conservative intellectuals will open.

But for now we find ourselves in a dark wood, with the straight way lost.

Mahatma Gandhi, conservative Hindu, September 1929:

"The Shastras have taught us both our ideal dharma and our practical dharma....

"However, we do not seek solutions to [such] problems by regarding them as matters of absolute dharma. Relative dharma does not proceed on a straight path like a railway track. It has, on the contrary, to make its way through a dense forest where there is not even a sense of direction. Hence in this case, even one step is sufficient. Many circumstances have to be considered before the second step is taken and, if the first step is towards the north, the second may have to be taken towards the east. In this manner, although the path may appear crooked, since it is the only one which is correct, it can also be regarded as the straight one. Nature does not imitate geometry. Although natural forms are very beautiful, they do not fit in with geometrical patterns."

 Commentary:  The real world is complicated.  Gandhi acknowledges this, finds it natural.  American conservatives like Douthat do not.

Mahatma Gandhi's laissez-faire!

Alan Campbell Johnson, in "Mission with Mountbatten", reports in his entry for December 26th, 1947:

On the ultimately decisive economic front the Government has added to its own burdens by its blind and bland acceptance of Gandhi's policy towards decontrol.  The Mahatma's approach to economics is unashamedly pre-feudal, and he has converted the doctrine of laissez-faire beyond the dreams of Adam Smith into what is little less than a branch of metaphysics.   We now have the spectacle of a Government trying to create a modern State and depriving itself of the power to tackle food-hoarders and price-ring profiteers save through appeals to their social conscience, the one commodity in which they are totally lacking.   The decontrol policy has been opposed by Mountbatten as well as by all responsible Civil Service advisers without exception.  It is the outcome solely of the Government's awe of Gandhi.  It is causing almost at once a vicious spiral of inflation, and will involve an extra eight crores of rupees on Civil Service salaries alone to meet the rise in prices.  Altogether it is estimated that some one hundred and ten crores of rupees will need to be pumped in to meet the cost of Gandhi's economic ideas.   Sugar and salt have both rocketed up to one rupee eight annas a seer - the rise in the price of salt being no less than five hundred per cent.