Forgotten Moral Exemplars of the West: A Critique of Akeel Bilgrami’s Projection of Gandhi

Abstract

This chapter focuses on eAkeel Bilgrami’s famous essay on Mahatma Gandhi entitled ‘Gandhi’s Integrity: The Philosophy Behind the Politics’ in the volume in honour of Mrinal Miri. Bilgrami introduces a distinction between universality and universalisability. He defines the former as suggesting that ‘a moral value, whether or not someone in particular holds it, applies to all persons’. While agreeing with Bilgrami’s preference for exemplary lives over moral principles one could wonder how one accounts for morally wrong actions too becoming exemplary lives for others to emulate, using the provision of flexibility. The life of Christ and the morality derived from it has also played an important role in shaping Western moral theory. Gandhi largely avoided offering Indian solutions to Western problems. All major contemporary Indian thinkers in one way or an other fell prey to this temptation: glaring instances are Bankim Chandra, Swami Vivekananda, Sri Aurobindo and even Krishnachandra Bhattacharyya.