“Truth resides in every human heart, and one has to search for it there, and to be guided by truth as one sees it. But no one has a right to coerce others to act according to his own view of truth.” Mahatma Mohandas K. Gandhi, (1869-1948) Leader of the Indian independence movement in British-ruled India.
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Deepak Gupta
Saturday April 18th, 2026 at 12:15 PMThis maxim sits on a dangerous precipice.
The issue its omission: it speaks of “truth” without specifying its source. Once truth is framed as “as one sees it,” it is no longer something objective and binding, but something internal and variable.
At that point, the statement quietly shifts from protecting conscience to legitimising relativism-while still trying to retain a universal moral claim (“no one has a right to coerce others”).
That tension is unresolved. Either truth is objective and can adjudicate between views, or it is subjective and cannot ground any universal principle at all.