Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi,  who considered himself a sanatani Hindu, went through three stages in his understanding of Christianity. Encounters he had with Christians and their teachings in India (1869-1887), England (1888-1891), and South Africa (1893-1899), during the first thirty years of his life prompted his own enquiry. Guided by his worldview, an amalgam of what he thought was best in various eastern religions, Gandhi wrongly perceived more continuity than discontinuity between Christianity and his own worldview.  Led by his notion of inclusiveness, Gandhi rejected the exclusive claims of Christianity as abusive.