Gandhiji on proselytization and cow slaughter

What Mahatma Gandhi said about proselytization:

The proselytization activities of foreign-funded Christian missionaries have remained a sticking point in India – both before Independence and after. Even Mahatma Gandhi, who cannot be accused of having any ill-will towards Christianity, was constrained to say the following:

"I disbelieve in the conversion of one person by another. My effort should never to be to undermine another's faith. This implies belief in the truth of all religions and, therefore, respect for them. It implies true humility." (Young India: Apr. 23, 1931)

"It is impossible for me to reconcile myself to the idea of conversion after the style that goes on in India and elsewhere today. It is an error which is perhaps the greatest impediment to the world's progress toward peace. Why should a Christian want to convert a Hindu to Christianity? Why should he not be satisfied if the Hindu is a good or godly man?" (Harijan: January 30, 1937)

"I hold that proselytisation under the cloak of humanitarian work is unhealthy to say the least. It is most resented by people here. Religion after all is a deeply personal thing. It touches the heart… Why should I change my religion because the doctor who professes Christianity as his religion has cured me of some disease, or why should the doctor expect me to change whilst I am under his influence?" (Young India: April 23, 1931)

"As I wander about through the length and breadth of India I see many Christian Indians almost ashamed of their birth, certainly of their ancestral religion, and of their ancestral dress. The aping of Europeans by Anglo-Indians is bad enough, but the aping of them by Indian converts is a violence done to their country and, shall I say, even to their new religion." (Young India: August 8, 1925)

"My fear is that though Christian friends nowadays do not say or admit it that Hindu religion is untrue, they must harbour in their breast that Hinduism is an error and that Christianity, as they believe it, is the only true religion. So far as one can understand the present (Christian) effort, it is to uproot Hinduism from her very foundation and replace it by another faith." (Harijan: March 13,1937)

"If I had the power and could legislate, I should stop all proselytizing. In Hindu households the advent of a missionary has meant the disruption of the family coming in the wake of change of dress, manners, language, food and drink." (Harijan: November 5, 1935)

What Gandhiji said on Cow and Cow Protection

(From his Collected Works)

PLACE OF THE COW

"THE COW is a poem of pity. One reads pity in the gentle animal. She is the mother to millions of Indian mankind. Protection of the cow means protection of the whole dumb creation of God. The ancient seer, whoever he was, began with the cow. The appeal of the lower order of creation is all the more forcible because it is speechless."

"I worship it and I shall defend its worship against the whole world."

THE COW IN HINDUISM

"The central fact of Hinduism is cow protection. Cow protection to me is one of the most wonderful phenomena in human evolution. It takes the human being beyond this species. The cow to me means the entire sub-human world. Man through the cow is enjoined to realize his identity with all that lives. Why the cow was selected for apotheosis is obvious to me. The cow was in India the best companion. She was the giver of plenty. Not only did she give milk, but she also made agriculture possible….."

"Cow protection is the gift of Hinduism to the world. And Hinduism will live so ling as there are Hindus to protect the cow……"

COW-SLAUGHTER

"Cow protection to me is not mere protection of the cow. It means protection of that lives and is helpless and weak in the world."

"Cow-slaughter and man-slaughter are in my opinion the two sides of the same coin."