Gandhiana: Essays on A Yuga Purush

INTRODUCTION TO VOLUME IX

Gandhi is a yuga purush (man for an epoch) whose life is his message. The essays here rather than attempt an interrogation of the man, reverse the perspective and allow him to interrogate us: what questions does he pose to us in the cascading crises of our violence-ridden time? READ MORE

What response can we make, and how must we contextualise this with a critical discernment without being escapist. To doubt his relevance is to do precisely this. Even his enemies have found it difficult to ignore him and it isn’t for lack of trying.

It is a tragedy for India that the more recent and still relevant Gandhians have been not been from Gandhi’s own country, while others have learnt his truth: Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela, the Dalai Lama. Gandhi remains a national icon, but we pay mere lip service to his ideas and ideals as they are displaced by narrow religious and nationalist ideologies. These essays are meant to mainstream a critical understanding of Gandhi relevant to our times.

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Gandhiana: Essays on A Yuga Purush

1. RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS AND MASS MOVEMENTS: A COMPARISON BETWEEN AMBEDKAR AND GANDHI

Abstract: This paper attempts a comparison between Ambedkar and Gandhi—both of them with strong personal commitments which had crucial social expressions and distinctly religious as well as broadly social dimensions. Its purpose is to raise some soul-searching questions and initiate an honest dialogue in an area that is becoming increasingly strained and conflict-ridden in our society.

2.  TOLERANCE AND DIALOGUE AS RESPONSES TO PLURALISM AND ETHNICITY: THE RELEVANCE OF A GANDHIAN DISCOURSE

Abstract: This study attempts to outline an area of concern and is a beginning rather than a conclusive statement. The inspiration for this venture has come from Gandhi, who by acting locally has challenged us to think globally, even when we think differently from him. This is not merely an intellectual ‘search’, but a spiritual ‘quest’ as well. The attempt here is to orient and focus our response to the increasing ethnification in our plural society.

3.  GANDHI’S HIND SWARAJ: NEED FOR A NEW HERMENEUTIC

Abstract: In our present context of neo-colonialism, post-industrialism and post-modernism, themes of colonial imperialism, industrial capitalism, and rationalist materialism need to be re-appraised with a new hermeneutic. With his critique of modern civilization, Gandhi goes on to make an emphatic affirmation of Indian culture. Here are the major themes for our dialogic encounter: unity and diversity,  swaraj,    swadeshi,  satya and satyagraha with their imperative of ahimsa or non-violence. In rooting such themes in Indian culture, Gandhi is not just re-interpreting and re-appraising our cultural heritage, he is refreshingly relevant to the cascade of contemporary crises, even as he poses a liberating challenge to a deeper self-realisation and the achievement of a more humane and humanising society.

4. GANDHI AND THE MYTH OF PEACE

Abstract: Our understanding of peace necessarily implies the negation of violence, not only unjustified violation, which is obviously the very contradiction of peace, but also what is sometimes considered as justifiable force. An authentic understanding of peace would be premised not on power over, not on power as domination, but on power to, power as enabling. In this context, the Gandhian discourse and praxis has foundational implication for any understanding pursuit of peace.

5.  INTERPRETING GANDHI’S HIND SWARAJ

Abstract:  Gandhi’s Hind Swaraj (HS) is surely a foundational text for any understanding of the man and his mission. In dialogue with the text in its context, with the author and among ourselves, we hope to locate the text within its own horizon of meaning and then interrogate it from within our own contemporary understanding.

6. REVISITING GANDHI, RETHINKING ‘NAI TALIM’: AN APPROACH FOR NON-FORMAL VOCATIONAL EDUCATION

Abstract: The principles of Gandhi’s basic education or ‘nai talim’: bridging the school with the world of work, imparting an activity orientation to the curriculum, and inculcating a sense of self-reliance. It is well served when the learner has both the freedom and the opportunities to learn in a supervised environment. These are further strengthened when classroom activities become the extension of home experiences. 

7.  AUTONOMY AS MOKSHA: THE QUEST FOR LIBERATION

Abstract:  A review article of Gandhi:  Struggle for Autonomy, by Ronald J. Terchek: Vistar Publication, New Delhi, 2000, pp. xiv+265

8.  FAITH, REASON AND RELIGIOUS TRADITION: CELEBRATING GANDHI’S SYNTHESIS

Abstract: The first part discusses the dilemma between ‘faith’ and ‘reason’ in the context of religious tradition and concludes with a dialectical not a contradictory relationship between them. The second part attempts to illustrate this with Gandhi’s religious understanding as a radical and relevant interpretation of beyond conventional orthodoxies.

9. GANDHI’S HINDUISM AND SAVARKAR’S HINDUTVA

Abstract: The present national crisis of violently conflicting communal identities represents a choice between the inclusiveness of Gandhi and the exclusions of Savarkar. This paper argues that the future of our multicultural, pluri-religious people can only be even bloodier with the preclusions of Savarkar’s Hindutva. Only Gandhi’s sarva-dharma samabhava can possibly be an effective basis for a tolerance on which to premise a just inter-religious peace and harmony.

10. GANDHI’S  INTERROGATION

Abstract: Book Review of The Cambridge Companion to Gandhi edited by Judith M Brown and Anthony Parel (New Delhi: Cambridge University Press), 2011.

11. CELEBRATING GANDHI’S PRAXIS: A SYNTHESIS OF HIS LIFE AND MESSAGE

Abstract: This presentation focuses on Gandhi’s praxis in two problematic domains. The first on faith and reason discusses the dialect between ‘faith’ and ‘reason’ in the context of religious tradition.  The second part on peace and power, reconceptualises the moral ambiguities involved as the basis of Gandhi political discourse.

12. INDIA IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY: GANDHI’S DREAM, NEHRU’S VISION OR MODI’S NIGHTMARE ?

Abstract:  Gandhi’s ‘India of My Dreams’ had given way to Nehru’s vision of a multi-cultural, pluri-religious state. More than half a century after Independence will we go back to the terror of Partition, or will we be a nation in the unmaking or a community of communities in peace and harmony.

13. GANDHI: TURNING THE SEARCHLIGHT INWARDS

Abstract: Book Review, Mahatma Gandhi: Nonviolent Power in Action, by Dennis Dalton; New York: Columbia University Press, 2012.

14. REINTERPRETATION AND REFORM: GANDHI’S UNFINISHED TASK

Abstract: Gandhi radically reinterpreted and reformed our ancient Indian traditions and culture, but the task remains unfinished.