Dharma and Karma in Gandhi’s Moral Philosophy

Gandhi’s philosophical framework provides for a set of principles and a search for practices considered as principles in the making. This chapter explores Gandhi’s cardinal principles, which constitute the ethical ideal from which human values are derived. In discussing Gandhi’s dharma, we focus on the relativity and context-relatedness of values and the existential base of morality. We emphasize Gandhi’s relentless search for the appropriate moral act in a given situation. Our approach in this regard is somewhat at variance with that of those who see in Gandhi a fixed moral order. We locate Gandhi’s dharma in Hindu thought and Buddhist teachings. However, it is not difficult to find a similar base in Christianity and fit Gandhi into a more comprehensive ideological framework. Our focus by choice is limited to Gandhi’s native traditions.