Sir — It seems to have become fashionable for a section of the academic and intellectual class to paint Mahatma Gandhi in exclusive ‘secular’ colours, by thoroughly disregarding and willfully ignoring the Mahatma’s own assertion that he was a “Sanatani Hindu”. It was incredible to see Gujarat Vidyapeeth recently attack the Navajivan Publishing House that has dedicated itself for over six decades to bring out books by and on Mahatma Gandhi, for issuing reprints of his writings. It has accused Navjivan of “saffronising Gandhi’s ideology”.
I happen to possess a book titled, Hindu Dharma, by Mahatma Gandhi, first published by Navjivan in August 1950. One wonders whether the Gujarat Vidyapeeth Vice Chancellor is aware of this book, in which the Mahatma articulated his view on “why I am Hindu”, in reply to an American Christian friend’s question: “I call myself a Sanatani Hindu because I believe in the Vedas, the Upanishads and the Puranas and all that goes in the name of Hindu scriptures; because I believe in the protection of cow much in its larger sense than the popular... I have found Hinduism as the most tolerant of all religions...Hinduism believes in the oneness ...of all that lives.”