His weekly paper Young India, 23 September 1926
Mutual Toleration
In September 1926 Mahatma Gandhi was living at Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad. He was taking a year off from political travel, but India was not quiet. Street fighting between Hindus and Muslims was spreading through several cities. Leaders pressed him to declare one side right and the other wrong. During that month, a correspondent sent a letter to his weekly paper, Young India. The writer asked for a single rule of life that volunteers of every religion could accept. Gandhiji sat down to explain why that demand would never work.
He printed his answer in the paper: "The golden rule of conduct is mutual toleration, seeing that we will never all think alike and we shall see Truth in fragment and from different angles of vision." He did not ask people to give up what they believed. He pointed out that two people look at the same world and see different parts of it. If two workers disagree about a project, each person usually sees a different part of the problem. Demanding that the other person accept your view turns a shared job into a fight. Toleration means you keep working with someone, even when you know they see things differently.
Therefore
When an argument stops moving forward, stop trying to make the other person agree with you. Look for the small piece of work you can do together, and let the difference remain.
Young India, 23 September 1926
The article appeared in Young India on 23 September 1926 under the title "Religion of Volunteers". The correspondent had hoped to unite everyone behind one common creed. But religious disputes across India grew worse that year, and people on both sides demanded that everyone agree with them. Forcing people to adopt one outlook only drove them further apart. Gandhiji resolved the problem by having volunteers focus on spinning and local relief, while letting each person keep their own faith. The thought behind his action came from Raychandbhai Mehta, a Jain jeweller and poet from Bombay who had mentored him years earlier. Mehta taught him anekantavada (uh-nay-kahn-tuh-VAH-duh), the idea that reality has many sides and every human view is only partial.
A small reminder, on the desk or the shared table, that we only see part of the picture from where we stand.
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Related patterns
pairs with
Mahatma Gandhi Experiments with Truth Writing Slate
Truth as a thing to test, not a creed to enforce.
extends to
Mahatma Gandhi Seed and Tree Quote
Toleration is the seed that allows cooperation to grow.
contrasts with
Mahatma Gandhi Self-Rule Quote
Rule over oneself, not control over the opinions of others.