2007 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Religious Thought and Principles of Mahatma Gandhi
| Project/Area Number |
18520067
|
|---|
| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
|
| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
|---|
| Section | 一般 |
|---|
| Research Field |
History of thought
|
|---|
| Research Institution | Kagawa University |
|---|
Principal Investigator |
ISHII Kazuya Kagawa University, Faculty of Law, Associate Professor (70294741)
|
|---|
| Project Period (FY) |
2006 – 2007
|
| Keywords | Gandhi / India / Society / Religion / Thought / Weber |
|---|
| Research Abstract |
The main purpose of this research project is to investigate how Mahatma Gandhi formed his principles such as ahimsa (non-killing), satya (truth), asteya (non-possession), brahmacharya (continence) and aparigraha (non-possession) under the influence of Hinduism, Buddhism Jainism and Christianity As them principles clearly oppose modern values like self-interest and materialism, it is important for us to understand Gandhi's religious thought in light of Max Weber's concepts of "weltfluchitige Kontemplation" and "innerweltliche Askese". Weber observed types of "weltfluchitige Kontemplation" in these Indian religions and that of "innerweltliche Askese" in Christianity, especially Protestantism, and concluded that it was only the West that could bare capitalism where rational attitudes of life stemmed from "innerweltliche Askese".
Gandhi extracted elements from thirsts four religions, but his thought is unique since it does not completely fall into any of those types that Weber mined. Gandhi dun did contemplation, but unlike a Hindu, a Buddhist or a Jain ever remained in a worldly life to tackle actual sociopolitical problems. He remained in a worldly lie, but unlike a Protestant did not really pursue "rational attitude of life". His principles would rather welcome a person to control his or her want and live simple with the sense of love, in order for him to find-to borrow Margaret Chatterjee's terminology-a "hope for the future of the human family".
While a paper (Ishii, 2008) constitutes the main part of the research result, two related papers (Ishii, 2007a: Ishii, 2007b) were also published, one of which (Ishii, 2007a) was presented at an annual conference of the Japanese Association for South Asian Studies in October 2007.
|
