The most amazing case, of course, is Ghaffar Khan, exemplary enough to claim a chapter of his own in this book. But there were several others who deserve to be brought into the limelight. Gandhi himself followed a strand of Hinduism that with its emphasis on service and on poetry and songs bore similarities to Sufi Islam. “The devotional character of Hindu songs and the appeal which the language made to Sufis brought Hindus and Muslims closer together than any other influence,” writes historian Muhammad Mujeeb. Gandhi’s family was very open-minded, and Gandhi himself had an assortment of friends from various religious backgrounds since a young age. His mother, Putlibai, though a Hindu, belonged to the syncretic Pranami sect, which drew a lot from Islam.
When Gandhi went to South Africa to work as a lawyer, he came to know well a number of Muslims, such as his employer, a Muslim-owned business firm. It was here he launched his first campaign, one against discrimination toward Asians in that country—a category that included both Hindus and Muslims. Gandhi attempted to bond both communities together and tried to come up with a Hindu equivalent of jihad defined in the most rightful way. The result was satyagraha (a term now globally famous), literally meaning “truth force” but having connotations of civil disobedience. Here, Gandhi showed his “extraordinary facility in using language to inspire and direct the religious awareness of his hearers,” writes scholar Sheila McDonough. From then on, he was convinced of the need for unity between Hindus and Muslims.
Once Gandhi came back to India, he joined in several movements with a number of Muslims. Although some of these campaigns were more successful than others, he succeeded in forming lasting bonds. He was dogged throughout, however, by his chief adversary, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, whose vision of a separate state for the subcontinent’s Muslims contrasted sharply with his. And when India’s partition came about, the accompanying violence left him distraught. But he never gave up his idea of “heart unity” between Hindus and Muslims, and his last fast was impelled in good part as protest against the forced exodus of Muslims from Delhi. He was assassinated in January 1948 by a Hindu extremist for allegedly being too pro-Muslim.
Gandhi studied the work of Muslim reformer Shibli Numani and through him the lives of early Muslim leaders to understand how to combine piety with creative action. For him, Muslim extremism was based on “a corrupt understanding of Islam.” “Islam is not a false religion,” he said. “Let Hindus study it reverently, and they will love it even as I do. . . . If Hindus set their house in order, I have not a shadow of doubt that Islam will respond in a manner worthy of its liberal traditions.”
Gandhi was adept at using Islamic imagery to inspire Muslims. He thought the Prophet Muhammad’s struggles akin to the efforts of the Hindu God Ram to set up a new society. He compared Muhammad’s exodus to Medina to India’s independence campaign. And he cited the martyrdom of Hasan and Hussain, the grandsons of Muhammad, comparing them to the Hindu notions of self-sacrifice and renunciation. (At a gathering in Baghdad in 2010, Iraqi Member of Parliament Ali al-Allaq proudly noted Gandhi’s invocation of Hussain, proving for the umpteenth time the incredible resonance of a good example.)
Muslims often reciprocated Gandhi’s affection. “Our Hindu brothers . . . are our brothers in all truth, for the Holy Qur’an teaches that the friends of the faith are our brothers,” two Muslim leaders, Hakim Ajmal Khan and Mukhtar Ansari, said in 1922. “Let us remain faithful to our cause, our country, and to the leader we have chosen—Mahatma Gandhi.” Another prominent Muslim, Abid Husain, declared, “In Calcutta and Noakhali, the fire of hatred was put out by the love of by Mahatma Gandhi.” And then there are the various effusive praises that the Muslim personalities profiled in this book heaped on him. “We can suggest that Muslim trust of Gandhi was based on four things: his respect for religion and religious commitment; his regard for Muslims as full members of what he once called India’s ‘joint family’; his peace-loving nature; and his honest friendship,” writes scholar Roland Miller.
Islamic Visual Arts: Phenomenal Vision of the Sacred
