{
  "book_metadata": {
    "book_name": "History of Christianity in India: Source Materials",
    "book_author": "M. K. Kuriakose",
    "publisher": "Indian Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge",
    "published_on": 2011
  },
  "chunks": [
    {
      "chunk_index": 1,
      "chapter_name": "c.1920. Gandhi’s Attitude to Christianity: Polak Interview",
      "page_numbers": [
        321
      ],
      "image_paths": [
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      ],
      "chunk_title": "Polak Interview Introduction",
      "chunk_data": "155. GANDHI'S ATTITUDE TO CHRISTIANITY: POLAK INTERVIEW (c. 1920 A.D.)\n\nIn an interview with Mrs. Polak, conducted some time around 1920, Mahatma Gandhi explains why he himself did not become a Christian and his attitude towards conversion. From Gandhi, The Man, p. 40. Cited in A. T. Hingorani, ed., The Message of Jesus Christ, pp. 23-25.",
      "time": {
        "start_year": 1920,
        "start_month": null,
        "start_date": null,
        "end_year": 1920,
        "end_month": null,
        "end_date": null,
        "time_display": "c. 1920 AD"
      },
      "meta": {
        "people": [
          "Mahatma Gandhi",
          "Mrs. Polak",
          "A. T. Hingorani"
        ],
        "places": [],
        "event": "An interview with Mrs. Polak records Mahatma Gandhi’s views on Christianity and conversion.",
        "tags": [
          "Religion",
          "Christianity",
          "Interviews"
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "chunk_index": 2,
      "chapter_name": "c.1920. Gandhi’s Attitude to Christianity: Polak Interview",
      "page_numbers": [
        321
      ],
      "image_paths": [
        "raw\\pages\\00345-063c15eac66bb5fc288f.webp"
      ],
      "chunk_title": "Gandhi Considers Christianity",
      "chunk_data": "Gandhiji: I did once seriously think of embracing the Christian faith. The gentle figure of Christ, so patient, so kind, so loving, so full of forgiveness that he taught his followers not to retaliate when abused or struck, but to turn the other cheek—I thought it was a beautiful example of the perfect man.",
      "time": {
        "start_year": 1920,
        "start_month": null,
        "start_date": null,
        "end_year": 1920,
        "end_month": null,
        "end_date": null,
        "time_display": "c. 1920 AD"
      },
      "meta": {
        "people": [
          "Mahatma Gandhi",
          "Jesus Christ"
        ],
        "places": [],
        "event": "Mahatma Gandhi recalls seriously considering embracing the Christian faith and describes Jesus Christ as an example of the perfect man.",
        "tags": [
          "Christianity",
          "Religion",
          "Jesus Christ"
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "chunk_index": 3,
      "chapter_name": "c.1920. Gandhi’s Attitude to Christianity: Polak Interview",
      "page_numbers": [
        321
      ],
      "image_paths": [
        "raw\\pages\\00345-063c15eac66bb5fc288f.webp"
      ],
      "chunk_title": "Polak Questions Gandhi",
      "chunk_data": "Mrs. Polak: But you did not embrace Christianity, did you?",
      "time": {
        "start_year": 1920,
        "start_month": null,
        "start_date": null,
        "end_year": 1920,
        "end_month": null,
        "end_date": null,
        "time_display": "c. 1920 AD"
      },
      "meta": {
        "people": [
          "Mrs. Polak",
          "Mahatma Gandhi"
        ],
        "places": [],
        "event": "Mrs. Polak asks Mahatma Gandhi whether he embraced Christianity.",
        "tags": [
          "Christianity",
          "Religion",
          "Interviews"
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "chunk_index": 4,
      "chapter_name": "c.1920. Gandhi’s Attitude to Christianity: Polak Interview",
      "page_numbers": [
        321
      ],
      "image_paths": [
        "raw\\pages\\00345-063c15eac66bb5fc288f.webp"
      ],
      "chunk_title": "Gandhi Explains His Faith",
      "chunk_data": "Gandhiji: No. I studied your Scriptures for some time and thought earnestly about them. I was tremendously attracted to Christianity, but, eventually I came to the conclusion that there was nothing really in your Scriptures that we had not got in ours, and that to be a good Hindu also meant that I would be a good Christian. There was no need for me to join your creed to be a believer in the beauty of the teachings of Jesus or to try to follow his example.",
      "time": {
        "start_year": 1920,
        "start_month": null,
        "start_date": null,
        "end_year": 1920,
        "end_month": null,
        "end_date": null,
        "time_display": "c. 1920 AD"
      },
      "meta": {
        "people": [
          "Mahatma Gandhi",
          "Jesus Christ"
        ],
        "places": [],
        "event": "Mahatma Gandhi explains that studying Christian Scriptures attracted him to Christianity, but he believed that being a good Hindu also made him a good Christian.",
        "tags": [
          "Christianity",
          "Hinduism",
          "Religion"
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "chunk_index": 5,
      "chapter_name": "c.1920. Gandhi’s Attitude to Christianity: Polak Interview",
      "page_numbers": [
        321
      ],
      "image_paths": [
        "raw\\pages\\00345-063c15eac66bb5fc288f.webp"
      ],
      "chunk_title": "Polak Asks About Conversion",
      "chunk_data": "Mrs. Polak: Of course, it is what a man is that counts, not what he calls himself. But, tell me, do you believe in conversion, in changing from one form of faith to another?",
      "time": {
        "start_year": 1920,
        "start_month": null,
        "start_date": null,
        "end_year": 1920,
        "end_month": null,
        "end_date": null,
        "time_display": "c. 1920 AD"
      },
      "meta": {
        "people": [
          "Mrs. Polak",
          "Mahatma Gandhi"
        ],
        "places": [],
        "event": "Mrs. Polak asks Mahatma Gandhi whether he believes in religious conversion.",
        "tags": [
          "Religion",
          "Conversion",
          "Christianity"
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "chunk_index": 6,
      "chapter_name": "c.1920. Gandhi’s Attitude to Christianity: Polak Interview",
      "page_numbers": [
        321
      ],
      "image_paths": [
        "raw\\pages\\00345-063c15eac66bb5fc288f.webp"
      ],
      "chunk_title": "Gandhi Invites Her View",
      "chunk_data": "Gandhiji: What do you feel yourself?",
      "time": {
        "start_year": 1920,
        "start_month": null,
        "start_date": null,
        "end_year": 1920,
        "end_month": null,
        "end_date": null,
        "time_display": "c. 1920 AD"
      },
      "meta": {
        "people": [
          "Mahatma Gandhi",
          "Mrs. Polak"
        ],
        "places": [],
        "event": "Mahatma Gandhi asks Mrs. Polak for her personal view on conversion.",
        "tags": [
          "Religion",
          "Conversion",
          "Interviews"
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "chunk_index": 7,
      "chapter_name": "c.1920. Gandhi’s Attitude to Christianity: Polak Interview",
      "page_numbers": [
        321
      ],
      "image_paths": [
        "raw\\pages\\00345-063c15eac66bb5fc288f.webp"
      ],
      "chunk_title": "Polak Rejects Conversion",
      "chunk_data": "Mrs. Polak: It does not please me, somehow. I could not do it.",
      "time": {
        "start_year": 1920,
        "start_month": null,
        "start_date": null,
        "end_year": 1920,
        "end_month": null,
        "end_date": null,
        "time_display": "c. 1920 AD"
      },
      "meta": {
        "people": [
          "Mrs. Polak"
        ],
        "places": [],
        "event": "Mrs. Polak says that religious conversion does not appeal to her and that she could not convert.",
        "tags": [
          "Religion",
          "Conversion"
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "chunk_index": 8,
      "chapter_name": "c.1920. Gandhi’s Attitude to Christianity: Polak Interview",
      "page_numbers": [
        321
      ],
      "image_paths": [
        "raw\\pages\\00345-063c15eac66bb5fc288f.webp"
      ],
      "chunk_title": "Many Paths to One God",
      "chunk_data": "Gandhiji: I think that is right. If a man reaches the heart of his own religion, he has reached the heart of the others, too. There is only one God, but there are many paths to Him.",
      "time": {
        "start_year": 1920,
        "start_month": null,
        "start_date": null,
        "end_year": 1920,
        "end_month": null,
        "end_date": null,
        "time_display": "c. 1920 AD"
      },
      "meta": {
        "people": [
          "Mahatma Gandhi"
        ],
        "places": [],
        "event": "Mahatma Gandhi affirms that sincere devotion to one’s own religion reaches the heart of other religions because there is one God and many paths to Him.",
        "tags": [
          "Religion",
          "Hinduism",
          "Interfaith"
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "chunk_index": 9,
      "chapter_name": "c.1920. Gandhi’s Attitude to Christianity: Polak Interview",
      "page_numbers": [
        321
      ],
      "image_paths": [
        "raw\\pages\\00345-063c15eac66bb5fc288f.webp"
      ],
      "chunk_title": "Polak Discusses Karma",
      "chunk_data": "Mrs. Polak: If Karma and reincarnation be true, we are born into the faith to which we belong, and the one most suitable at the moment for our development. So, we should not change.",
      "time": {
        "start_year": 1920,
        "start_month": null,
        "start_date": null,
        "end_year": 1920,
        "end_month": null,
        "end_date": null,
        "time_display": "c. 1920 AD"
      },
      "meta": {
        "people": [
          "Mrs. Polak"
        ],
        "places": [],
        "event": "Mrs. Polak argues that karma and reincarnation place people in the faith most suitable for their development, so they should not change religions.",
        "tags": [
          "Hinduism",
          "Religion",
          "Reincarnation"
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "chunk_index": 10,
      "chapter_name": "c.1920. Gandhi’s Attitude to Christianity: Polak Interview",
      "page_numbers": [
        321
      ],
      "image_paths": [
        "raw\\pages\\00345-063c15eac66bb5fc288f.webp"
      ],
      "chunk_title": "Essential Christian Teaching",
      "chunk_data": "Teaching of Christianity\n\nGandhiji: What do you think is the essential lesson for man in the teaching of Christianity?",
      "time": {
        "start_year": 1920,
        "start_month": null,
        "start_date": null,
        "end_year": 1920,
        "end_month": null,
        "end_date": null,
        "time_display": "c. 1920 AD"
      },
      "meta": {
        "people": [
          "Mahatma Gandhi",
          "Mrs. Polak"
        ],
        "places": [],
        "event": "Mahatma Gandhi asks Mrs. Polak to identify the essential lesson of Christianity.",
        "tags": [
          "Christianity",
          "Religion",
          "Interviews"
        ]
      }
    },
    {
      "chunk_index": 11,
      "chapter_name": "c.1920. Gandhi’s Attitude to Christianity: Polak Interview",
      "page_numbers": [
        321
      ],
      "image_paths": [
        "raw\\pages\\00345-063c15eac66bb5fc288f.webp"
      ],
      "chunk_title": "Love as Christian Lesson",
      "chunk_data": "Mrs. Polak: I could think of two or three but the one that stands out strongest in my mind at the moment is Love, which is expressed in the words: 'One is your Master, Christ, and all ye are brethren.'",
      "time": {
        "start_year": 1920,
        "start_month": null,
        "start_date": null,
        "end_year": 1920,
        "end_month": null,
        "end_date": null,
        "time_display": "c. 1920 AD"
      },
      "meta": {
        "people": [
          "Mrs. Polak",
          "Jesus Christ"
        ],
        "places": [],
        "event": "Mrs. Polak identifies love and universal brotherhood under Christ as the strongest lesson of Christianity.",
        "tags": [
          "Christianity",
          "Love",
          "Jesus Christ"
        ]
      }
    }
  ]
}