Gandhi would not have agreed with today's Indian seculars
Mahatma Gandhi is often portrayed as the ideal secular leader in India. Yet in the West, few people would point to Mahatma Gandhi as an example of secularism. In the West, secular means having no regard for religion. Gandhi was obviously a religious figure.
Gandhi's title as Mahatma is not a term of secular recognition but the honouring of a religious teacher. Gandhi held no political post, and was not identified by academic or secular credentials. His authority was of a spiritual nature only, enforced by prayer, meditation and fasting.
Can we call Gandhi's dress of wearing a loin cloth as secular? Clearly it is the garb of a Hindu religious sadhu, whose traditional authority he adopted. No secular person today in the West or India would appear this way.
Gandhi organised numerous religious prayer meetings around him. Secularists do go to such events, much less direct them. The Mahatma was a guru or spiritual guide who gave blessings and invoked the name of Ram as his mantra. His ideal for India was Rama Rajya or the rule of Rama, which has obvious religious overtones. He called the Bhagavad Gita his favourite book and the main source that he looked to for guidance. It would be difficult to find any secularists today who would place the Gita among their recommended readings on secularism.
Gandhi proudly called himself a Hindu and defined Hinduism as a "relentless pursuit after truth". He stated that, "I can no more describe my feelings for Hinduism than for my own wife. She moves me as no other woman in the world can." Indian secularists today do not make such positive remarks about Hinduism, particularly the Marxists, but like to insult Hindu practises to prove their secular credentials.
While Gandhi emphasised respect for all religions, he adamantly criticised the Christian missionaries who made numerous attempts to convert him, reflected in his recorded debates with them. Indian secularists today defend missionary activity, while criticising Hindu reconversion efforts as unwarranted or intolerant.
Gandhian values and lifestyle
Gandhi was a staunch vegetarian and actively promoted cow protection, which was part of his ashram practices. This is very different from Indian secularists who pride themselves on eating beef and promote meat eating as a sign of progress and tolerance. Gandhi would not endorse beef eating as a human right or as a mere freedom of choice. He had great compassion for animals, and was against vivisection and animal testing. He was similarly against the drinking of alcohol.
Gandhi was opposed to Marxism and communism and criticised them as violent and unspiritual. He criticised Western socialism for its materialistic view of life, just as he criticised Western capitalism. Gandhi was no great follower of the Left during his times, though the Left today likes to expropriate his image - even though those on the Left do not live like Gandhi, follow his values, or take up his spiritual practises.
Gandhi had socially conservative views about sexuality, promoting brahmacharya or celibacy, and opposing abortion. He would be appalled by the glorification of sexuality in the Indian media. He would not likely defend viewing pornography as a human right or freedom.
Religion and politics
If it is wrong to bring religion into politics, we must remember that Gandhi did so, as did many other leaders in the Independence movement like Tilak and Aurobindo. Yet they did not bring in the Western idea of religion as a conversion based belief system, but the Indian approach to spirituality and dharma that can encompass all existing beliefs in a universal vision of truth.
Of course, one may disagree with Gandhi, who was humble enough to recognise his own Himalayan blunders, but we should recognise that secularism in India today is very different than the Gandhian ideal.