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Analysis Of Gandhi 's ' Reclaiming A Tradition And Making It Your Own '

Decent Essays

Ronald Terchek writes this article to describe the viewpoint that Gandhi has on some of the traditions that are present in the Indian culture. The title of his piece ‘Reclaiming a Tradition and Making It Your Own’ is exactly what he writes about, because Gandhi takes his form of Hinduism and he molds the traditions to be more flexible to his own ideas and interests. The reason for this article is to describe how Gandhi and his fellow Indians took parts of their own religion and reformed some of the original traditions which they had believed had become corrupt and ritualized over time. Terchek asks in this article, just why was Gandhi so keen on changing the traditions of his native religion? Before we can start talking about what exactly Gandhi changed, we need to see what Gandhi himself thought about traditions and what they meant to him. Gandhi believes that tradition that is going to be practiced has, “to give meaning beyond convenience and necessity…providing individuals with moral materials to frame their choices…He finds that each tradition speaks to the moral, cooperative nature of men and women and challenges the self-interests that are lodged in every person and any society.” This is what Gandhi sees happening in most of the major faiths and their traditions. Gandhi understands that each religion is different and have their own traditions based on their differences but that all faiths ultimately share common origins and they have the same source although

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