Preface

 

The Gandhi Nobody Knew is a uniquely positioned and fresh inside look at Gandhi. He is widely considered to have stood without violence for democracy, equal rights, equality for all people, and within that for women. You decide, but the truth, the reality, suggests that in his search for truth he primarily stood for none of those things. It has been said that anyone who tries to understand him or gain from his example and teaching without first considering and examining his faith needs to realize you cannot separate Gandhi from his faith.

 

While Gandhi got it wrong when it comes to finding spiritual freedom, knowing Gandhi at a deeper level, in ways nobody knew him, can be a guide to finding your personal path to truth, freedom, and peace.

 

This book is inspired by personal stories that have been passed on to the author and documented across three generations by his family in India. These personal observations and awarenesses of Gandhi and of his relationships are framed in scholarly research and presented to inform and challenge you as no other writing on Gandhi has done or can do.

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A One-sentence Description

 

This book uniquely captures background conversations during pivotal moments as Doug Shaw’s family followed the Mahatma’s footsteps and embraced a response to his life and legacy that will inspire how you live today.

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Readers will benefit by:

 

• Realizing that Gandhi is recognized as one of if not the most universally known and revered figures in the world.

• Gaining more insight from Gandhi’s private meetings and the events in his life, to more fully understand his story.

• Knowing how Gandhi viewed justice and the limits to what he believed.

• Exploring his legacy in India and his continuing impact in today’s world.

• Pursuing ways to help others overcome religious and ethnic divisions.

• Becoming a student of Gandhi and starting to explore his widely held religious tolerances and specific replies to Christian leaders.

• Challenging yourself by knowing more about his political life, his personal life, and how his spiritual life guided his interactions.

• Discovering how Gandhi’s journey could inform your journey and your future.

• Being a seeker of truth and winning the battles for what you believe.

• Understanding how Gandhi’s life and legacy can impact you and your world.

• Experiencing how it feels to be a part of something bigger than yourself.

 

The Platform

 

The country of India has 500 million english-speaking, English reading people who still have an ongoing, if not increasing interest in all things Gandhi. Among those are millions of Christians with similar interests, but also an interest in reaching the non Christians that surround them with a viable reply that will come through engaging them in Gandhi’s challenge to Christianity. Within the Christian churches in India the author has direct marketing exposure and access to introduce the book to over 500,000 Christians. He also has access to influential Indian background leaders and entrepreneurs worldwide.

 

In the United States and Internationally outside of India through personal relationships with business and ministry leaders the author will receive endorsements and have marketing and bulk distribution access to over 20,000 evangelistic churches, to entrepreneurs, and additional business leaders. The referrals will include a notable futurist and others with distinct and sizable global audiences.

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Marketing Plan

 

The author’s personal book marketing efforts will include:

 

• Ongoing conversations and engagement with the book endorsers and key leaders to continue securing exposure to their circles of influence which are substantial.

• Exposure on television, radio, blogs and podcasts.

• Increasing distribution potential through appearances, speaking engagements and related interviews in the USA and beginning in February 2025 the author will do introductions and announcements for the upcoming book while in India.

• Promoting M28 introductions, training and coaching opportunities.

• Bringing together a synergy around a greater understanding of Gandhi and his challenge to Christian leaders and Christianity.

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Encouragers and Potential Endorsers

 

The following is an initial list of people who will be encouraged to provide advance praise/blurbs and endorsements for the forthcoming book:

 

• Raymond H. Harris has agreed to read the manuscript and endorse the book. Raymond established one of the country’s largest corporate architectural firms and has capitalized educational, medical, manufacturing, and entertainment businesses in the USA and abroad. Raymond has been an executive producer, founding partner and chairman of the board for Erwin Brothers Entertainment which has now become the largest faith-based movie producer.  His movies include, I Can Only Imagine, American Underdog, Jesus Revolution, Moms Night Out, Woodlawn, I Still Believe, and October Baby. He is an executive producer for Getty Music on the Evensong album. Raymond sits on the board of the Come and See Foundation which owns the rights to the sensational series, The Chosen.​

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• Abraham Sarker is a Business Department Professor at Dallas Baptist University and an author of Understanding My Muslim People. Born and raised a devout Muslim he knows the world’s fastest growing religion-Islam. Has had a ministry outreach in Bangladesh for over 20 years. To date 2.1 million people have been lifted out of poverty and 1.4 million people have been confirmed as Christ followers through his work.

 

• Fred Markert is a YWAM strategist, a previous communist who is now a missionary, a member of the futurist society, and a media personality who speaks on numerous subjects pertaining to the history of the Christian church and the 27 civilizations to date. He draws amazing parallels between historical information and biblical truth and prophecy as a conference speaker. Fred’s ministry has taken him to 150 countries over the past 30 years and allowed him to collaborate on projects with a wide array of churches, denominations, mission agencies, universities and non-profit organizations worldwide. He has active and interactive involvement with over 20,000 churches.

 

• David Garrison retired in 2022 as the executive director of Global Gates to pursue research and writing projects dedicated to the enrichment of Christian missions. He served for 31 years on  the Southern Baptist Convention’s International Mission Board having lived in India and the Middle East, North Africa and Europe. He is a speaker and is presently doing a research project on all the movements to Christianity throughout history. His books have been translated into more than 20 languages and include The Nonresidential Missionary, Church Planting Movements, and A Wind in the House of Islam.

 

• Dr. Faiz Rahman is the president of Good News India. A Muslim convert he has founded 30 children’s centers in India and is also a noted speaker.

 

• Dr. Barry Corey is the President of Biola University, an author and nationally recognized educator and speaker at numerous conferences.

 

• Ben Smith is the former executive vice president of American Express International. He is an estate attorney and public presenter at numerous conferences, including for The National Christian foundation.

 

• Edmund Chan is a leading pastor in Singapore and the author of several books on discipleship. He has a worldwide outreach through a seminar entitled "Mentoring Leaders, Multiplying Disciples.”

 

• Dr. Solomon Kendagor is a global ministry specialist and chaplain, formerly from Kenya. Has a weekly TV program with an audience of 5 million that covers five countries on the continent of Africa and he is a strong practitioner and promoter of M28, the disciple-making movement model that Dr. Shaw pioneered for International Students, Inc.

 

• Derrah Jackson is a former director at International Students, Inc., a researcher who publishes weekly articles and the vice president of the Medical Institute for Sexual Health in Dallas, Texas.

 

• Dr. Gary Benedict is a retired seminary president and former president of the Christian Missionary Alliance. He has served on numerous boards and continues to be a consultant and speaker in demand.

 

• Cris Dornboss is an esteemed publisher and veteran of the Christian communication and publishing industry. He is the former CEO of David C. Cook and presently serves on the board of The Chosen series.​

 

• Dr. David KoilPillai is an esteemed professor at The Indian Institute of Technology in Chennai India with over 20 patents on cell phone components.

 

• Dick Eastman is the retired president and CEO Emeritus of Every Home For Christ. As an iconic prayer movement leader in the USA he has championed vast outreaches worldwide.

 

• Pastor Tong Liu Dash is the pastor in Santa Clara California of the fastest growing Chinese church in the US with extensive outreach in global missions. In the last 25 years he has planted an additional 365 churches in 33 countries around the world. His church attendance in Santa Clara is between seven and eleven thousand and he has an additional outreach on the Internet of up to 100,000.

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• Patrick Moore is the president Hope4America.us in Nashville, Tennessee. Using digital media ads they relate to people at their point of need to offer hope for their challenges and issues. Each month they reach over 50,000 on the Google network.

 

• Dr. Jack Rozell has been a senior pastor of churches and a missionary. He has also been the founder and president of Life Care Network in Washington state. He with his organization has been involved in mentoring leaders who have served in over 95 countries worldwide.

 

• Dr. Glenn Packiam is a music artist and composer who is presently the senior pastor of Rock Harbor Church in Costa Mesa, California.

 

• Dr Pramod Haque is the senior partner of West Partners, LLC in San Jose California. He is listed in the top 25 global venture capitalists. He is also a philanthropist along with his wife and serves on the board of numerous Christian organizations.

 

• Reverend D. Mohan is the senior pastor of the 40,000 member New Life Assembly of God in Chennai, India. He has also held several executive positions in the Christian community in India.

 

• Reverend Paul Thangiah is the pastor of the 30,000 member Grace Church Assembly of God in Bangalore, India.

 

• Reverend Satish Kumar is the pastor of the megachurch Calvary Temple in Hyderabad, India with a church membership of over 300,000.

 

• Dr. Jeff Meyers is president of Summit Ministries in Colorado, USA. As an educator and entrepreneur, Dr. Myers has become one of America’s most respected authorities on youth leadership development and a noted speaker on worldviews.

 

• Dr. Seng Tan is the current President and CEO of International Students Inc. (ISI). A citizen of Singapore, and a previous professor and political scientist, he is an author and former advisor to the Singaporean government for international affairs.

 

• Dr. Hans Finzel is a bestselling leadership author, teacher, podcaster and trusted authority in the field of leadership. He has trained leaders internationally on five continents. Hans recently completed twenty years as President and CEO of the international non-profit WorldVenture and has been an advisor along with Doug Shaw for Global Hope. Today he and his wife Donna oversee a new ministry, HDLeaders. (www.hdleaders.com) He is the author of The Top Ten Ways To Be A Great Leader and a sequel, The Top Ten Mistakes Leaders Make. His books on leadership have sold over 1 million copies over the last two decades.

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Audience

 

Perhaps the most visible voice in Gandhi’s audience and in the potential audience of this book is Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who wrote of Gandhi, “If humanity is to progress, Gandhi is inescapable. He lived, thought, and acted, inspired by the vision of humanity evolving toward a world of peace and harmony. We may ignore him at our own risk.” 

Gandhi has not been and is not being ignored. Historian Ramachandra Guha is the author of the two-volume biography, Gandhi Before India and Gandhi: The Years That Changed the World, 1914-1948. He wrote that, “Gandhi is most famous for his philosophy of nonviolence that has inspired civil rights leaders around the world. But his legacy is facing fresh scrutiny against modern ideas about race, feminism and nationalism.” (https://www.npr.org/2019/09/29/764698947/gandhi-is-an-object-of-intense-debate-a-biographer-reflects-on-the-indian-leader.) Gandhi is today both deeply admired and considered controversial.

 

Unique Angles

 

In Mahatma Gandhi's autobiography, The Story of My Experiments with Truth, he wrote in the Farewell, "My life from this point onward has been so public that there is hardly anything about it that people do not know.” 

 

That would seem to be true, but within the pages of this book there are stories, reflections, and exposures of his life that will give the reader more clarity and understanding. Gandhi went on to write, "My uniform experience has convinced me that there is no other God than Truth.”

 

In the marketplace of books on the life of Mahatma Gandhi, there have been none before this that could capture as fully his adherence to the Hindu faith, his closeness to Muslims, and his belief that Hindus and Muslims could peacefully “live side by side.” Beyond that this book covers in detail the fact that he met and conversed with the Christian leaders of his day and that while they were his best and most trusted friends, even they would admit that they never knew Gandhi.

 

The stories come with the freshness of a classic writing style and present the background stories of three generations in one family that preceded Gandhi, marched with him, and with others went on to serve the Untouchables as they became Christians by the millions. Gandhi failed to defend or even acknowledge that the lives of the very poorest and lowest caste in India were being improved. 

 

Today there is a resurgence of conversions to Christ among the Dalits and Untouchables as illustrated in the book, Bhojpuri Breakthrough: A Movement that Keeps Multiplying. Increasingly in miraculous movements worldwide over the past 25 years and among neighboring Hindu, tribal, marginal, and Muslim people these groups across north India are a graphic reply to Gandhi’s failure to acknowledge the good that comes through the acceleration to and acceptance of the Gospel message. Today the Bhojpuri movement has tens of thousands of leaders and of note the author has ongoing relationships with established international leaders of movements. Dr. Shaw was privileged to pioneer the development of M28, a leading model God is using in these movements, especially in countries that are closed, and in the most difficult places to do disciple-making and advance the Kingdom of God.

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In an article entitled “Is Gandhi still a hero to Indians?” as it was announced in 2015 that Gandhi was being honoured with a statue in London's Parliament Square, then British Prime Minister, David Cameron, said Gandhi's "approach of non-violence will resonate forever as a positive legacy, not just for the UK and India, but the world over.”  However, attitudes are subtly changing in mainstream India as a fast-paced, young generation craves luxury goods and international travel, not the chance to retreat to a village.

 

Now many black Africans have called Gandhi a racist. #MeToo activists have questioned his sexual practices. Hindu nationalists are rejecting Gandhi's vision of a pluralistic India that is strengthened by diversity.

 

While Gandhi is still revered, some of his habits and teachings are facing fresh scrutiny. His life of intrigue is becoming more remembered as contentious than clarion and open to question and debate.

 

The uniqueness in this book is found in the fact that what Gandhi failed in can only be achieved as it was through the author’s Muslim and Hindu ancestors by finding a living and vibrant faith and belief in Jesus Christ.

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Purpose and Need

 

At a much deeper level than in traditional historical-based texts, readers who read this book in a simple and yet profound way can gain from exploring insights into the personal and spiritual life of Mahatma Gandhi. Those gains, the insights and understanding can not only help build a new capacity for non reactive, nonviolent problem-solving, but the revelation in this book can help the reader meet needs and find truth with a new sense of satisfaction and a renewed purpose.

 

​Contents

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Foreword

Gandhi Began Reading the Bible

Starting the Story Near the End

     A Different Gandhi

     A Devastated Gandhi

     A Defeated Gandhi

     Gandhi is Gone!

     Gandhi and God

     Gandhi and Now

The Story in a Momentous Meeting

     The Conversation

     Show Me

The Story Before the Beginning

     Great-Grandfather

Gandhi on Hinduism vs Christianity

     Grandfather’s Reply

     Grandfather’s Reunion and Conversion

     Ishwar’s New Family

     Yogi Evangelist

The Face of Dalits. The untouchables.

     Freedom Year

Of Course, Gandhi was Not Jesus.

     The Salt March

     A Joining of Threads

How Gandhi Understood the Message of Jesus

My Story

     My Childhood

The Christians Above All Others Are Seeking After Wealth

Living Rebuttals, Replies to Gandhi’s Criticism

     The Gold Watch and The Blue Car Incident  

     Later Childhood

     The King’s Man

     The Great Northwest

     Susan

     A Winding Path of Service

What God Had Prepared, What I Was Prepared For

     A Long Path Vindicated

It’s like he said, “So What,” to Christianity.

     The Hypocrisy Fallacy

There Was No Perfection to See.

     The Argument of a Changed World

     Victory Lap

All About Me is Darkness. I am Praying for Light.

     A Chorus of Replies

Epilogue

     7 Universal Truths

Appendices

     Your Online Access to M28

     About the Author

End Notes

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Categories

 

The categories and subcategories the book falls into could include:

• a narrative nonfiction

• a historical cross-section in time

• personal transformation/growth

• philosophy

• religion and spirituality. 

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Quotes

 

The following are inspirational or framing quotes by Mahatma Gandhi in the opening and early pages of the book:

 

“My Life is my message” 

 

“… if you take the position you now take, then most of the objections to Christianity would fade out of the mind of India.” 

 

“I failed completely.”

 

“… I am not only a Christian but a Hindu, a Moslem, a Sikh, a Buddhist, and a Jew. I worship God in the light of the teaching of all these religions. But being an Indian, I prefer to worship God in the Hindu way, especially as Ram or Krishna.”

 

But what about worshipping Jesus? 

Gandhi replied, “I worship Him almost every day, just as I do our Hindu gods.”

 

What about Jesus’ claim to be the one and only Lord and Savior?  

Gandhi shook his head. “That claim I cannot accept. I am sure it was a mistake.” 

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Book Structure Overview

 

The format of the paperback and hard cover book is anticipated to be 5x8. As noted, a working copy of the unpublished manuscript (copy edited, initially proofed, but not in final book design form) can be made available for review, but is not to be copied or distributed in any form to anyone else.

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Descriptive Pullouts from the Chapters:

 

1.  A Different Gandhi

    We know the outcome of history, and the Mahatma’s place in that history, but before we     take this informed journey into his life, let’s look at how his life truly resolved, on the         

    most personal level. 

  

2.  A Devastated Gandhi

    His incessant mantra had always been Ahimsa parama dharma. “Nonviolence is our         

    greatest walk of life.” This meant that independence had never been Gandhi’s ultimate     

    goal, but an essential means to an end.  

 

3.  A Defeated Gandhi

    “Now please listen to me and leave Delhi at once. India needs you. And your life is in         

    great danger.” Pickett’s words seemed to land on the Mahatma with an almost physical 

    impact. Gandhi did not respond, but his eyes went inward. 

 

4.  Gandhi is Gone!

    Before the week was over, Pickett would speak about Gandhi at a total of three 

    memorial services. During the second, a ceremony timed for the moment of Gandhi’s 

    cremation, Pickett led a group of Christian students in singing one of Gandhi’s favorite     

    Christian songs: 

 

5.  Gandhi and God

    Gandhi spoke often and worshipfully about God, but few people realize what he meant 

    by that. He actually said, “I do not regard God as a Person. Truth for me is God…  God 

    is an idea: law Himself.” Elsewhere, he said again: “I do not say God is Truth; I say, Truth 

    is God.”

 

6.  Gandhi and Now

    So you may ask––after all is said and done, why even bother with these replies of 

    Mahatma Gandhi, so many years after his death?

 

7. The Conversation

    Why momentous? Because Pickett himself has claimed that the fate of Hinduism as a 

    force in Indian history actually hangs in the balance of this encounter. 

 

8.  Show Me

    As a result, is Christianity a faith to be examined, affirmed-in-part but ultimately 

    rejected, as Gandhi seems to have done?   

 

9.  Great-Grandfather

    My family’s reply to Gandhi is less a response than a story: a narrative whose roots trail 

    off in directions that are at once historical, geographical, and diversely religious. They 

    burrow deep into the haziest days of my childhood but also earlier still; into family lore, 

    and into generations past. 

 

10. Grandfather’s Reply

    This turn of attention transformed Ishwar into not only an accomplished scholar and 

    student, but a deeply-read and thoughtful Hindu. 

          

11. Grandfather’s Reunion and Conversion

    Now, however, free of the robes and his mantle of Yogi, Ishwar was free to approach 

    and listen for a few stolen moments. 

       

12. Ishwar’s New Family

    “The one for which I left you and my family for so long. The quest to connect with the 

    heart of the divine. An encounter with the Most High God. True, spiritual fulfillment.” 

 

13. Yogi Evangelist

    Ishwar Dawal was now an evangelist and he undoubtably did not yet know that he     

    would be an evangelist to the most downtrodden, underserved, and poorest of his 

    country, the Untouchables.

 

14. Freedom Year

    And through the tumult, he began to hear a name. Gandhi. 

 

15. The Salt March

    They sat in the cool of the evenings and listened to Gandhi’s words––thrilled to hear 

    him not through some report and reprint or rebroadcast but with their very own ears, 

    actually present at the moment of their utterance. 

           

16. A Joining of Threads

    Gandhi had risen to become the most famous and beloved man in India; the face and 

    voice of his people’s quest for independence. But today, the history being made was of 

    a personal, familial nature.  

 

17. My Childhood

    These memories of my family’s faith never stood out as remarkable. They were so 

    seamlessly interwoven into our life that I did not perceive them as noteworthy. 

 

18. The Gold Watch and The Blue Car Incident

    The blue car had been so beautiful! We had no vehicle at all––relying on rickshaws and 

    taxis to get around. Why not do what every other father we knew did––look the other 

    way, and supplement that meager government paycheck with a perk of the position?

 

19. Later Childhood

    I’ll never forget the knot that clenched my stomach the morning I peeled away from my     

    parents’ arms, eyes filled with tears, to climb into that forbiddingly-tall, Calcutta-bound 

    train. 

          

20. The King’s Man

    The God of whom I had heard so much, who had so famously transformed the lives of 

    my grandfather and great-grandfather, now felt more vibrant and relevant in my own 

    existence, as well. 

           

21. The Great Northwest

    These were, after all, the very kind of Westerners Gandhi had so loudly criticized––            western, Protestant Christians. 

   

22. Susan

    This Susan Green quickly grew beyond a winsome encounter and an effervescent 

    presence into someone who dominated my thoughts and emotions. 

        

23. A Winding Path of Service

    My illustrious grandfather and great-grandfather, for their part, seemed to have walked 

    straight from the drama of their conversions into fruitful ministries. But now, I began to 

    wonder. Could either of them, like me, have stumbled awhile at the starting gate? 

 

24. A Long Path Vindicated

    It turned out He did have a reason for letting me pivot between all those seemingly     

    unconnected career paths: stints as pastor, counselor, administrator, business owner, 

    author, publisher, ministry fundraiser, media adviser, strategic planner, and more. 

 

25. The Hypocrisy Fallacy

    I want to say––to the memory of Gandhi, to you, and to all those he influenced with his 

    words––yes, there are in fact many hypocrites, racists and exploiters among those who 

    call themselves Christians. 

 

26. The Argument of a Changed World

    These souls were changed by an encounter with Jesus Christ, but they didn’t stop there. 

    They went on to demonstrate the unique power of His Gospel––His “good news”–– to 

    change others––lives, families, communities, even nations.

 

27. Victory Lap

    We started this journey back on a February day in 1937, with Gandhi’s original reply to     

    Bishops Pickett and Azaria. Now, having followed echoes of that reply down through 

    the lives of my grandfather and great-grandfather, then through my own life until 

    today--it’s time to circle back for closure to the end of Gandhi’s place in that history. 

 

28. A Chorus of Replies

    In many ways, ministry and developing leaders has come full circle for me. Today, it     

    warms my heart to realize that my own work with international students led me to also 

    serve Muslims, Hindus and Christians–– among the Chinese and in many other 

    countries. That means I took a path quite similar to that of my great grandfather and 

    grandfather. 

 

Bonus Content

 

A Bonus Gift, 7 Universal Truths 

 

7 Universal Truths is included in the Epilogue of this book. Readers are encouraged to read it after reading this book and use it as a way of reflecting on what truth is and how to view reality. 

 

M28

 

When When Doug Shaw and his staff set out to build M28 they wanted it to be simple. relevant. and reproducible. M28 (for Matthew 28:18-20) is a strategy designed to identify spiritual seekers, guide them in truth discovery, lead them to a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, and equip them to be disciple-makers in their places of impact. It introduces people to an authentic biblical community experience while allowing them to explore and discover God’s life-changing truth for themselves.

 

M28 Vision

To transform nations by multiplying disciple-making communities in every dimension of society.

 

M28 Lifestyle. 

M28 is a lifestyle, not a program. People who engage in the M28 process are imprinted from the very first day with the DNA of spiritual multiplication. M28 works in any culture and dimension of society.

 

As a bonus, this book introduces access to M28.

 

Readers can take advantage of the God's Story mobile app to access M28 anywhere, anytime. They can explore God's truth found in the God's Story passages today by searching for “God Story” in the Apple App Store or “God’s Story” in the Google Play Store.

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Sample Chapters

 

1. A Different Gandhi

We will start this journey in the moments near the end of Gandhi’s life, then go back to a February day in 1937, with Gandhi’s original reply to bishops Pickett and Azaria. We will set the stage with the history behind that reply through the lives and personal stories of my great-grandfather and grandfather, then through my own until today for a full-cycle look and some closure on the life, influence, and impact of Mahatma Gandhi.

We know the outcome of history, and the Mahatma’s place in that history, but before we take this informed journey into his life, let’s look at how his life truly resolved, on the most personal level. 

And we will explore how the Gandhi Nobody Knew uncovers Gandhi’s greatest challenge and how his famous reply resonated at the end?

Let’s start with his old friend and occasional nemesis: Bishop Pickett.

The year was 1948: only two years after my birth, and only months after the British departure gave India its independence. This historic victory, although hard-won and jubilantly celebrated, had since descended into a blood-soaked nightmare far bloodier than the Calcutta Killings that had darkened my entrance into the world. Yes, England had given Indians their freedom, but it seemed their first use of that freedom was, quite tragically, to slaughter each other. The Partition of 1947 that created separate homelands for Hindu and Muslims also triggered the worst civil war in modern history. 

Euphoria had twisted into rage and revenge.

One night during the worst of the bloodshed, Bishop Pickett (much more about him and his previous relationship and his conversations with Gandhi later) was at home in Delhi preparing for bed when there came an unexpected knock at the door. It was, of all people, the Delhi police commissioner, bearing dire news and a desperate request. 

His men had uncovered a plot to assassinate Gandhi. The great man’s life was in extreme and imminent danger. Worse yet, Gandhi seemed mired in a dark and fatalistic mood, and was refusing to take matters seriously. The commissioner was at wit’s end, trying to avert a tragedy yet feeling unheard and ignored. Even Nehru seemed unable to grasp the threat’s severity. Would Pickett use his influence on the prime minister, and implore him to make Gandhi see reason?

Pickett took the request seriously, and secured a last-minute invitation to speak with Nehru over breakfast the next morning. But when he explained the situation, Nehru merely shook his head with a sigh. “Bishop, I have done my best to persuade Mr. Gandhi to leave Delhi, but he will not listen. Why don't you go to see him? He has great respect for you.” 

The very next morning, in an odd mirror image of their 1937 visit, Bishop Pickett walked straight up to Gandhi's residence. The Mahatma greeted his old friend with affection, but seemed different. The otherworldly glow that had always surrounded Gandhi seemed to be missing. In its place hung an air of resignation and dejection that seemed to linger about him like a shroud. To make matters worse, Gandhi denied Pickett’s pleas and abjectly refused to leave the city. 

“Why should I be afraid to die?” he asked. “I am a failure. I have pleaded for peace and we are having war. Hindus, Sikhs, and Muslims have forgotten their promise and are killing one another. All my hopes for a better India are being destroyed. Perhaps Gandhi dead will be more respected than Gandhi alive.”

 

 

2. A Devastated Gandhi

 

 

Although Pickett fought to hide it, those words shook him to the core. To hear the most influential man of his century, a man who had changed the course of modern history, call himself a failure was too astonishing for words. 

     Long after that day, Pickett would have a chance to reflect on Gandhi and what he stood for,  and find the word failure easier to understand. As boldly as he had stood for his people’s liberation, Gandhi had always done so through an unswerving commitment to Satyagraha––non-violent resistance. The concept was steeped in the word Ahimsa, the ancient eastern term for refusing to harm another living being. His incessant mantra had always been Ahimsa parama dharma. “Nonviolence is our greatest walk of life.” 

     This meant that independence had never been Gandhi’s ultimate goal, but an essential means to an end. By now Pickett knew that end had always been love. Love, in a struggle for justice, always manifested itself as non-violence––but for Gandhi, love was always the higher aim. Love had been the core of Gandhi’s admiration for Jesus. Christ’s unswerving dedication to love, first and foremost, was the one aspect of Jesus’ life the Mahatma admired over all else.

     Still, Gandhi had always found his highest epitome of love in Hinduism; so legendary for serenity and peace that he had spent his life exalting it over Christianity. Now, with political nirvana at hand, his countrymen were discarding love’s spiritual mandate for freedom and plunging into a living hell. Gandhi’s deepest teachings were failing on a national scale, with a death toll in the hundreds of thousands. And practitioners of Hinduism made up a full and bloody half of the war. What a resounding betrayal of everything he had ever fought for. 

     Gandhi had spoken publicly of his devastation, but Pickett had never heard him turn his feelings back on to himself. He had never heard Gandhi call himself a failure. 

     “Mr. Gandhi,” Pickett answered at last, almost to change the subject, “I assure you that Indian Christians are working tirelessly for peace.” He then decided to use this vulnerable moment to gingerly press his advantage. “In my opinion, you have never been fair to the Christians in India.”

     Gandhi’s eyes widened, and Pickett briefly feared a hostile response. But instead, the Mahatma vigorously nodded his head. “That is true,” Gandhi admitted. “I have failed at this too, and I am planning to apologize to the Christian community.” 

     Again, Pickett struggled to maintain his composure. Gandhi seemed to be unleashing one stunning concession after another. Throughout his life, the Mahatma had issued stinging rebukes of Indian Christianity––including denials of how many actually existed. Those criticisms had reverberated throughout Indian society, and often set the tone for how Christians––especially converts among the Untouchables––were treated by their countrymen.

 

3. A Defeated Gandhi

 

 

Pickett probably did not know this, but Gandhi had made another startling private admission on the issue. It had come several years before, during a conversation with E. Stanley Jones, who was continually probing Gandhi’s defenses for signs of softening. 

“Suppose a man should be inwardly convinced that Christ is the one to whom he should give his allegiance,” Jones began. “The man needn’t change his dress, or his name; he could stand in the stream of India’s culture and life and interpret Christ in a framework of India’s heritage. If you will allow such a man to stay in his home without disability as an open, baptized member of the Christian Church, then as far as some of us are concerned—and I think I represent the leading Indian Christians in this—we are willing to see the Christian community as a separate political entity fade out, leaving a moral and spiritual and social entity, the Christian Church, to contribute its power to India’s uplift and redemption.” 

     The Mahatma had thought for a moment, then told Jones: “If my son should become a Christian under the conditions you have mentioned, then I would keep him as a member of my home without penalty or disability.” 

      “That is personal,” Jones countered. “Would you recommend it to India?” 

     “I would. And if you take the position you now take, then most of the objections to Christianity would fade out of the mind of India.”

     It was a stunning admission, and Gandhi’s staff would later try and retract it, for it carried huge political implications. But Jones always believed it represented Gandhi’s true feelings on the matter. 

     But on that day in 1948, Pickett was unaware of that earlier concession. He could only gulp in shock and spit out, “I am delighted to hear you say that. Now please listen to me and leave Delhi at once. India needs you. And your life is in great danger.” 

     Pickett’s words seemed to land on the Mahatma with an almost physical impact. Gandhi did not respond, but his eyes went inward. A moment later, Gandhi looked up at his friend with an even deeper frown. He shook his head, but said nothing more. Instead, they shook hands. As he left, Pickett noted that Gandhi seemed even more gloomy and defeated than when he’d entered.

     Ironically, Pickett would arrive home and sum up the forty-five-minute conversation in three words that ironically, mirrored Gandhi’s own.

     “I failed completely.”

     The path of the other well-known Christian that I just mentioned, is also worth exploring in the context of these final days. Again, his name was E. Stanley Jones, and he was not only a close friend of Gandhi’s, but a legendary evangelist––so famous that Time Magazine had called him “the world’s greatest Christian missionary.” In time, he would be nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize; mainly for his work of framing the Gospel in the context of eastern culture, stripped of western and European trappings. Jones was so dedicated to this pursuit that he founded “Christians Ashrams” throughout India, and in fact throughout the world, blazing the way for a new approach to sharing the Gospel in foreign settings.

     Because of his fame, Jones counted both Gandhi and Nehru as close friends, indeed confidants. And on that day, he came from out-of-town for an appointment with Gandhi. He too, had urgent words to share with the Mahatma. 

I’ll let Jones describe what happened next in his own words.

     “I arrived in Delhi just an hour and a quarter before the tragedy. I had requested a friend to get me an appointment with Gandhi for that afternoon. But my train was five hours late—symbol of India’s internal upset—and when I arrived, I was told that the appointment could not be arranged as he was taking a minimum of interviews since his fast. 

     It was then suggested that we go to the prayer meeting that he held daily and that would possibly give an opportunity for a word at the close. I had often seen him in the post-prayer periods. We had just enough time to make it and get back to a supper meeting at which I was to speak, along with the wife of Acharya Kripalani, the president of the Indian National Congress. We had time to make it, provided we took a taxi. That decided me against it, for the taxi would have to wait, and would be expensive. 

I allowed the expense item to decide the matter. I said to my friend that I could see Gandhi later, on my return to Delhi for a series of lectures, but the real reason was the expense. 

     I am ashamed to confess that a matter of rupees kept me from being at the greatest tragedy since the Son of God died on a cross. In a way I am grateful I was spared the sight; but one would like to have been near him in his last moments. 

I was walking up and down near the Y. M. C. A. building, thinking of what I was going to say in the coming supper meeting, when the playing in the field alongside stopped as if by a silent, but imperious command. An awful hush settled on everything. 

This was a symbol of what had taken place all over Delhi and India.” 

 

 

4. Gandhi is Gone!

 

Minutes before, at 5:17 on a golden afternoon, the now 78-year-old Gandhi had shuffled through shaded light into the gardens of Birla House, his Delhi headquarters. On either side stood his two great-nieces, helping him walk. Gandhi was weak from a fast, begun sixteen days earlier with an ominous announcement: “Death for me would be a glorious deliverance rather than that I should be a helpless witness of the destruction of India, Hinduism, Sikhism and Islam.” He had then explained his dream for all India’s religious factions to live together in friendship.

     On the 20th, a group of Hindu fanatics who hated his stand for tolerance and peace set off a bomb in these same gardens––but failed to carry out their plot. It was far from the first attempt on Gandhi’s life, and it would not be the last. The Mahatma said of the attempt, “If I am to die by the bullet of a madman, I must do so smiling. There must be no anger within me. God must be in my heart and on my lips.”

     Today on the 29th, the fast had taken a clear toll on the Mahatma’s body. His always-thin body seemed emaciated. His eyes seemed sunken in a head that now resembled a skull. As he shuffled through a crowd of well-wishers towards the spot of his daily prayers, a man in his thirties walked up to Gandhi, bowed to him, pulled out a small handgun, and shot him twice point-blank in the stomach and chest.

     Gandhi raised his hands in front of his face––the conventional Hindu greeting––and seemed to almost welcome the man. 

He slumped to the ground. 

     Some bystanders would claim that he had muttered “Ram, ram…” a Hindu name for God, but others denied it, dismissing the claim as wishful thinking. Gandhi had frequently voiced his wish to die with God’s name on his lips. To him, it was the only acceptable sign that he had lived a life worthy of the name Mahatma.

     In the chaos that followed, the gunman attempted to shoot himself, but was quickly subdued and carried away. No one thought to call a doctor or give Gandhi medical aid.

 

Speak for the Christians

That afternoon, Pickett was in Lucknow for a church conference, about to address a committee meeting, when a young man entered the sanctuary and walked briskly up to the platform. Through tears, he muttered to Pickett that he had an urgent message. Seeing the young man’s distraught state, Pickett turned the meeting over to someone else and followed him outdoors.

The young man had heard the phone ringing in Pickett’s office, and taken it on himself to answer. The caller was, of all people, Prime Minister Nehru’s private secretary––asking for the bishop. When informed that Pickett was not available, the secretary had instructed the young man to relay a message. Mahatma Gandhi had been shot and killed a half-hour earlier. Nehru wanted him to fly to Delhi and speak for the Christians at a national memorial service.

     Fighting to speak through his grief, Pickett called Nehru back to decline, on the grounds that he was not Indian and therefore could not speak for India’s believers. Nehru would have nothing of it, and insisted.

     Before the week was over, Pickett would speak about Gandhi at a total of three memorial services. During the second, a ceremony timed for the moment of Gandhi’s cremation, Pickett led a group of Christian students in singing one of Gandhi’s favorite Christian songs: a beloved hymn whose title, and theme, now bore an eerie relationship to the Mahatma’s last words. Called “Lead Kindly, Light,” the song opened with the following lyrics:

     

     Lead, Kindly Light, amidst th'encircling gloom,
     Lead Thou me on!
     The night is dark, and I am far from home,
     Lead Thou me on!
     Keep Thou my feet; I do not ask to see
     The distant scene; one step enough for me.

​

     This song already was famous in its own right. It had been sung in 1909 by English miners waiting in darkness for rescue as one of them lay dying. It was sung by a well-known soprano onboard the Titanic shortly before the great ship struck its iceberg––then sung again the next morning from one of its lifeboats as the rescue ship Carpathia sailed into view. It had been sung in 1915 by British troops with an accompaniment of artillery fire, just before storming the trenches along the Western front. The sister of famed Holocaust survivor Corrie Ten Boom had sung it with a group of Jewish women while being led by S.S. guards into the Ravensbruck death camp where they would die.

     Now it formed an eerie response to Gandhi’s prophetic last words––his description of being surrounded by darkness, praying for light.

 

5. Gandhi and God?

 

Did that light come at the end? Did Gandhi in fact call out to Almighty God, as some suggest, and in his final moments made the confession missionaries had so often prayed for?

     I don’t consider it my business to judge the eternal destiny of another human being, and I don’t consider it a topic worth the time to explore. I can, however, point out the replies he gave to the great questions of human existence, and I will answer them with replies of my own.

     First, let us consider Gandhi’s reply on the nature and identity of God. 

     Gandhi spoke often and worshipfully about God, but few people realize what he meant by that. He actually said, “I do not regard God as a Person. Truth for me is God…  God is an idea: law Himself.” Elsewhere, he said again: “I do not say God is Truth; I say, Truth is God.” 

     In other words, God to Gandhi was not a someone, but a something. Precious and holy perhaps, but a totally impersonal force. Not a person, but an idea. A law.

     The Christian faith tells me that while God is truth, truth is one of His attributes––not His actual identity. A single quality is hardly enough to define the Creator of the universe. Instead, Christians firmly believe God is a someone. In fact, He’s far more. He’s a heavenly Father, so beloved that we sometimes even call Abba, or Daddy. 

     Look at it this way. How likely do you think it is that the creator of consciousness would not Himself be conscious? Or that the creator of love would be just an impersonal and unfeeling force? Or that the maker of the human mind is not Himself a sentient being?

     Doesn’t it make more sense that a creator would actually possess, even embody, the attributes He gave His creation? Doesn’t it follow that the maker of family would also be a loving father? That the maker of love would also be the most loving being in existence? That the maker of beauty would Himself appreciate beauty, and plant that same appreciation in the hearts of His children? 

     Our reply is yes. Christianity affirms that God is a living, breathing father who loves His children so desperately that He became one of us––then sacrificed Himself to pay the penalty for our rebellion, and reconcile us to Himself.

     The contrast could not be more enormous.

     Perhaps Gandhi’s most troubling reply is the one he gave to Jesus about who and what He was. In a nutshell, this is how I would paraphrase Gandhi’s reply to Christ:

 

I admire you.

I love you.

I even revere you.

But I don’t believe you.

I don’t believe your most emphatic, most non-negotiable claims:

Like being be the Son of God.

Or your claim that nobody comes to the Father except through you.

I don’t believe you died so I could be reborn.

I don’t believe you rose again from the dead.

Or that you’re the Savior of the world.

 

     I understand Gandhi’s position, and I do not condemn him for it. It’s a common response––especially today. Like children at a Build-A-Bear store, many people like to customize their version of Jesus with a variety of cherry-picked attributes to suit their personal likes and dislikes. Most of the time, they make Him inspirational but harmless; profound but non-threatening to their current belief, practice, or lifestyle. 

     They turn him into a spiritual Teddy Bear.

     With deep respect for the man Gandhi was and the life he lived, I sadly believe this is how Gandhi, despite being one of His most famous admirers, actually replied to Jesus.

     The sad tragedy is that Gandhi’s own life proved that in order to transform a human soul you need something more powerful than a watered-down Jewish mystic. And to quench the fires of ethnic and religious hatred, you clearly needed a power greater than anything Gandhi could muster. 

 

Hypocrisy is a human disease.

Gandhi’s reply to Christendom included the accusation that it was riddled with hypocrites: people who didn’t practice what they preached. He said Christians only cared about money––about exploiting the poor and helpless for their own financial gain.  

And of course, there was truth in that accusation. Church pews contain many such people.

     But my life’s reply––that of my family, the stories of Esther Harvey that I have included,  my decades of ministry, the countless testimonies I encountered while at ISI––is that every day millions of people perform selfless, life-changing deeds all over the world, in the name of Christ. They do that without any benefit to themselves. 

During my time on earth, I have seen devotion to Jesus inspire acts of sacrifice, love and devotion more astonishing than I could have ever imagined.

     And the following must also be said: however barbed the implications. The darkness Gandhi lamented in his final days was spawned by ethnic and religious violence, most of it perpetrated by his fellow Hindus. Sadly, this was not a one-time aberration. Today, radical Hindus are slaughtering Christians by the hundreds in some of those very same Indian provinces. This is not an indictment of Hinduism. Hypocrisy is unique to neither Christianity or Hinduism, or any other faith. 

     Hypocrisy is not a sectarian problem, but a human disease. It does not afflict a specific faith, but an entire race.

 

6. Gandhi and Now…

 

So you may ask––after all is said and done, why even bother with these replies of Mahatma Gandhi, so many years after his death?

     I offer these replies of mine, and my family’s, because Gandhi’s has been echoed and repeated by generations of people searching for reasons to reject Jesus Christ. I happen to believe that’s a terrible mistake: one with catastrophic and eternal consequences.  Personally, I’m convinced that Jesus is actually the answer. 

     Of course, everyone knows religious arguments are not only bad manners, but notoriously unproductive. This is why I am sharing this journey with you not as an argument, but something hopefully more valid and constructive––I am offering you a testimony. A personal life-story. 

     For me, the proof of who Jesus really was, and what living for Him really means, is best argued through the lens of my own lived experience––something that can’t be denied or argued away. 

     This is, after all, a true story.