Is a Muslim Gandhi possible?

Iranian scholar Ramin Jahanbegloo's visit to Europe resurrected the idea that the real clash is not between Islam and the West but between absolutist and pluralist Muslims

Mehru Jaffer Vienna

Iranian scholar Ramin Jahanbegloo's visit to Vienna coincided with the International Day of Non-Violence, observed around the city for the first time this year, on October 2, the birth anniversary of Mohandas Karmachand Gandhi. Jahanbegloo's topic at the Karl Kahane Lecture Series 'Talking for Peace' was titled: 'Is a Muslim Gandhi Possible?' 

Introducing Jahanbegloo at the Bruno Kreisky Forum for International Dialogue, Patricia Kahane, president, Karl Kahane Foundation, said that the 51-year-old liberal philosopher was expected last year to give audiences a glimpse of what life is like in Iran since much of what is known about the Muslim world from other sources is not quite true. But in April 2006, Jahanbegloo was arrested and detained for 125 days in Tehran's notorious Evin prison on charges of spying and preparing a 'velvet revolution'.

Jahanbegloo is a great admirer of Gandhi. "Gandhi did not force upon others what he believed was the truth," he says.

Gandhi celebrated diversity, encouraged dialogue and refused to politicise religion. He introduced a spiritual dimension into politics and practised morality and ethics publicly, away from the hypocrisy of organised religion. Without moralising, Gandhi stressed the strength of moral cohesion and the absolute sharing of social responsibilities. He had the courage to listen to his inner voice that remained the principle guiding force throughout his life. This internal dialogue with the self perhaps helped him to keep alive that restless activity of ceaselessly questioning the nature of evil confronted in political life.

Ramin Jahanbegloo was born in Tehran and studied at the Sorbonne University, Paris. He is currently the Rajni Kothari Professor of Democracy at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies in Delhi. Prior to this he was a post-doc at Harvard University and then headed the department for contemporary studies at the Cultural Research Bureau, Iran. Among his twenty books in English, French and Persian are Conversations with Isaiah Berlin (Phoenix, 2000), and (as editor) Iran: Between Tradition and Modernity (Lexington Books, 2004).

Jahanbegloo's reputation as a Gandhi expert soared, particularly in Europe, after he published a biography in French in 1998 to mark 50 years of the Mahatma's assassination (Gandhi — Aux sources de la non-violence: Thoreau, Ruskin, Tolstoy). The book is a study of Gandhi's political thought, the philosophy of non-violence and its relevance today. Gandhi's ideas of diversity and dialogue are similar to a world created by Islam between the 9th and 13th century in Andalusia, in Cordoba, around a population of about a million people. At that time there was no separation of scientific study from philosophy and religion. The East was not excluded here from the West, neither Muslim from Jew or Christian. Together, people from different communities contributed their thoughts to give birth to the renaissance in Europe based on a set of absolute and universal moral values agreed upon by all.

Gandhi's vision of freedom from colonial oppression included tolerance of faiths different to his own. He was civilised for making a conscious effort to respect the beliefs of others. Gandhi was rational and looked upon all acts of violence as unreasonable. Gandhi is inspiring for his original ideas of self-sufficiency and non-imitative attitude towards modernity. It is out of the non-violent, pluralist and inclusive ideas of Gandhi that a modern India emerged as a secular State enabling diversity  to sprout forth, less visible in other parts of the world.