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Both iconoclast and idolater: Gandhi on the worship of images

This article examines Mahatma Gandhi's sometimes ambivalent and ambiguous position on Hindu image-worship or "idolatry." While personally not disposed towards the practice, he nevertheless defended it against its detractors. The paper notes a shift from the position of prominent nineteenth-century reformers who regarded erasure of idolatry as the precondition of Hindu reform. While Gandhi's own sensibility was predominantly aniconic, he saw no contradiction in pressing for open access to sacred images through temple-entry for Harijans. He bridled at image-worship only when he was himself treated as an icon.