Niebuhr and Gandhi: Comparative Religious Realism

Can a Hindu and a Christian both be considered “religious realists?”  Here is a tale of two men who “experimented with truth,” trying to find a religious ideal to respond to an unjust real world.  It is the tale of Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971), and Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948).  In their unique ways each was a “religious realist,” insofar as they offered compelling religious solutions to real-world problems.  Their realism is reflected in their confrontations with socialism and pacifism and, for Niebuhr, fascism.