Gandhi's views on Liberalism and Constitutionalism

Gandhi accepted those ideas of liberalism which he found worth imbibing and modified the others to the extent needed to make that consistent with his own understanding. Core concepts of Gandhi on liberalism are:


1. Individuals: According to him, individuals constitute the society and freedom, liberty and self-respect of each individual should be respected. 

Read also to Gandhi's View on Structural Violence

2. Equality: For Gandhi, equality lies in the right of every individual having full access to his or her community's social, economic, political, cultural, moral and other developmental resources. So that he or she can develop his or her potential to the full without being constrained by unavailability of such facilities. 


3. Rationality: Gandhi thinks that each culture, civilisation, religion and morality had rights and wrongs, therefore each society should have flexibility in the ideas to judge them.


4. Rights and Duties: To Gandhi, right cannot be understood as absolute and isolated. He argued that right can be enjoyed in a socially meaningful and responsible manner only if it is packaged along with the idea of duty. 

Read also to Gandhi's View on Structural Violence

5. Justice: Gandhi advocated that justice should be neutral from external interferences, like castes, color, race, religion, regions etc, and each and every individual has right of Natural Justice. 


Concepts of Gandhi on Constitutionalism


Gandhi suggested that the idea of citizenship need to be grounded in the holistic comprehension of the life of people encompassing not only political domain in terms of participation in political processes but also over-spilling in other domains of life, like self-discipline, social responsibilities, concern for others, and moral dimensions.