MAHATMA GANDHI : PHILOSOPHYAND INFLUENCES

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, the Mahatma Gandhi of India, was one of the greatest political thinkers of all time. Gandhi was influenced by many streams of political philosophy and ideas. But, most of the time, he is misunderstood by scholars from various quarters. Three groups are interpreting Gandhi in three different ways. The first group sees Gandhi mainly as a Western thinker. A. L. Herman argues that Gandhi was not truly an Indian-Hindu thinker because his concept of Satyāgraha comes from Western influences, especially from reading Henry David Thoreau's 'Civil Disobedience' and Leo Tolstoy's 'The Kingdom of God Is within You'. The second group, represented by A. L. Basham, believes that Gandhi's political ideas are entirely based on Hindu traditions. Basham says that Gandhi's main idea, Satya or truth, does not come from Western sources. The third group, in a way gives a balanced opinion by citing the cross-cultural influences on Gandhian political thought. Anthony Parel and Bhikhu Parekh are the main proponents this view. The present paper attempts to understand the various philosophies that influenced the Gandhian thought.