I speak of what faith meant to Gandhi, how he sought to rid his inherited Hinduism of its pervasive hierarchies, how he cultivated a remarkable range of friendships across the boundaries of religion, and finally, of how he worked ceaselessly to build trust between India’s two largest religious communities, Hindus and Muslims”, said Dr. Ramachandra Guha who was delivering the 28th Dr. Asghar Ali Engineer Memorial Lecture titled “Gandhi’s Faith, and Ours”, at the Constitutional Club in Delhi on 22nd August, 2026. Dr. Guha is an eminent historian and author who has contributed seminal work on Gandhi. The Lecture was chaired by Dr. Purushottam Agrawal who is an author of repute and former bureaucrat. The prestigious Dr. Asghar Ali Engineer Memorial Lectures, organized by the Centre for Study of Society and Secularism, take place annually- one in Delhi and another in Mumbai.
Dr. Guha at the Memorial Lecture also examined the opposition to the ideas of Gandhi by religious fundamentalists on the one side and secular socialists on the other. The Lecture ended by talking of the enduring relevance of Gandhi’s ideas to the world we live in today.
Dr. Purushottam Agrawal also resonated with the need to revisit Gandhi and his ideas in the polarized society we live in today. The Lecture was attended by over 200 participants, prominent intellectuals, historians, journalists, students and had a round of lively questions and answers. A vote of thanks was proposed by Adv. Irfan Engineer, the Director of CSSS.
