M K Gandhi And The Gandhian Legacy

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Mahatma Gandhi on Christian Missionaries

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• My quarrel with missionaries is that they think no religion other than Christianity is true.
  
  
  
  
• If Jesus came to earth again, he would disown many things that are being done in the name of Christianity.
  
  
  
  
• If instead of confining themselves purely to humanitarian work such as education, medical services to the poor and the like, they would use these activities of their for the purpose of proselytising, I would certainly like them to withdraw. Every nation considers its own faith to be as good as that of any other. Certainly the great faiths held by the people of India are adequate for her people. India stands in no need of conversion from one faith to another.
  
  
  
  
• It is not unusual to find Christianity synonymous with denationalization and Europeanization.
  
  
  
  
• Though I admire much in Christianity, I am unable to identify myself with orthodox Christianity. I must tell you in all humility that Hinduism, as I know it, entirely satisfies my soul, fills my whole being, and I find a solace in the Bhagvadgita and Upanishads that I miss even in the Sermon on the Mount.
  
  
  
  
• If a person, through fear, compulsion, starvation or for material gain or consideration, goes over to another faith, it is misnomer to call it conversion... Real conversion springs from the heart and at the prompting of God, not a stranger. The voice of God can always be distinguished from the voice of man.
  
  
  
  
• It was more than I could believe that Jesus was the only incarnate son of God, and that only he who believed in Him would have everlasting life..... I could accept Jesus as a martyr, an embodiment of sacrifice and a divine teacher, but not the most perfect man ever born. His death on the Cross was a great example to the world, but that there was anything like a mysterious or miraculous virtue in it, my heart could not accept. The pious lives of Christians did not give me anything that the lives of men of other faiths had failed to give. I had seen in other lives just the same reformation that I had heard of among Christians. Philosophically there was nothing extraordinary in Christian principles. From the point of view of sacrifice, it seemed to me that the Hindus greatly surpassed the Christians. It was impossible for me to regard Christianity as a perfect religion or the greatest of all religions.
  
  
  
  
• Just now Christianity comes to yearning mankind in a tainted form. Fancy bishops supporting slaughter in the name of Christianity.
  
  
  
  
• Is it not super-arrogation to assume that you alone possess the key to spiritual joy and peace, and that an adherent of a different faith cannot get the same in equal measure from a study of his scriptures? I enjoy a peace and equanimity of spirit which has excited the envy of many Christian friends. I have got it principally through the Gita.
  
  
  
  
• You cannot serve God and Mammon both. And my fear is that Mammon has been sent to serve India and God has remained behind, with the result that He will one day have His vengeance.
  
  
  
  
• If you feel that India has a message to give to the world, that India's religions too are true and you come as fellow-helpers and fellow-seekers, there is a place for you here. But if you come as preachers of the 'true gospel' to a people who are wandering in darkness; so far as I am concerned, you have no place.
  
  
  
  
• If I had power and could legislate, I should certainly stop all proselytising. In Hindu households, the advent of a missionary has meant the disruption of the family, coming in the wake of change of dress, manners, language, food and drink.
  
  
  
  
• I hold that proselytising under the cloak of humanitarian work is, to say the least, unhealthy...Conversion nowadays has become a matter of business, like any other. I remember having read a missionary report saying how much it cost per head to convert and then presenting a budget for 'the next harvest'. 
  
  
  
  
• As I wander about throughout the length and breadth of India, I see many Christian Indians ashamed of their birth, certainly of their ancestral religion, and of their ancestral dress. The aping of Europeans by Anglo-Indians is bad enough, but the aping of them by the Indian converts is a violence done to their country and, shall I say, even to their new religion. Is it not truly deplorable that many Christian Indians discard their own mother tongue, bring up their children only to speak in English? Do they not thereby completely cut themselves adrift from the nation in whose midst they have to live?
  
  
  
  
• Today, I rebel against orthodox Christianity, as I am convinced that it has distorted the message of Jesus. He was an Asiatic, whose message was delivered through many media; and when it had the backing of a Roman Emperor it became an imperialist faith as it remains to this day.
  
  
  
  

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