Author: Thomas Weber Publisher: Roli Books Private Limited ISBN: 9351940640 Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 239
Book Description
‘Meeting the Mahatma’ was a special moment for most of the people who captured it later in memorable prose. Gandhi at First Sight is a collection of such heartfelt moments of people from Sarojini Naidu to Katherine Mayo and from Romain Rolland to Charlie Chaplin, of an experience that was profound and sometimes even life-changing. ‘In Gandhi at First Sight, Tom Weber has executed a simple yet brilliant concept with a masterly touch, an impressive understanding of the varied individuals whose first impressions of Gandhi he has included, and an enriching introduction.’ —Rajmohan Gandhi ‘Weber... shows with an astonishing array of first meeting accounts precisely how Gandhi forged relationships from the beginning by making indelible initial impressions. This book... brings us incomparably closer to comprehending Gandhi’s extraordinary personal power.’ —Dennis Dalton, Columbia University, New York ‘Thomas Weber brings to life the memories of meetings. These firstperson, autobiographical accounts provide glimpses of the private world of friendship, of being a disciple and a pathfinder.’ —Tridip Suhrud, Director, Sabarmati Ashram Preservation Memorial Trust ‘With Gandhi gone two-thirds of a century, we have been in danger of losing touch with a man who was the most intriguing figure of his time. Now, however, we have these unique accounts of encounters with him that allow Gandhi to reach across the decades with a message that endures through time.’ —Charles DiSalvo, West Virginia University, West Virginia
Author: Joseph Lelyveld Publisher: Vintage ISBN: 0307389952 Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 450
Book Description
A highly original, stirring book on Mahatma Gandhi that deepens our sense of his achievements and disappointments—his success in seizing India’s imagination and shaping its independence struggle as a mass movement, his recognition late in life that few of his followers paid more than lip service to his ambitious goals of social justice for the country’s minorities, outcasts, and rural poor. “A revelation. . . . Lelyveld has restored human depth to the Mahatma.”—Hari Kunzru, The New York Times Pulitzer Prize–winner Joseph Lelyveld shows in vivid, unmatched detail how Gandhi’s sense of mission, social values, and philosophy of nonviolent resistance were shaped on another subcontinent—during two decades in South Africa—and then tested by an India that quickly learned to revere him as a Mahatma, or “Great Soul,” while following him only a small part of the way to the social transformation he envisioned. The man himself emerges as one of history’s most remarkable self-creations, a prosperous lawyer who became an ascetic in a loincloth wholly dedicated to political and social action. Lelyveld leads us step-by-step through the heroic—and tragic—last months of this selfless leader’s long campaign when his nonviolent efforts culminated in the partition of India, the creation of Pakistan, and a bloodbath of ethnic cleansing that ended only with his own assassination. India and its politicians were ready to place Gandhi on a pedestal as “Father of the Nation” but were less inclined to embrace his teachings. Muslim support, crucial in his rise to leadership, soon waned, and the oppressed untouchables—for whom Gandhi spoke to Hindus as a whole—produced their own leaders. Here is a vital, brilliant reconsideration of Gandhi’s extraordinary struggles on two continents, of his fierce but, finally, unfulfilled hopes, and of his ever-evolving legacy, which more than six decades after his death still ensures his place as India’s social conscience—and not just India’s.
Author: Ashwin Desai Publisher: Stanford University Press ISBN: 0804797226 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 442
Book Description
A biography detailing Gandhi’s twenty-year stay in South Africa and his attitudes and behavior in the nation’s political context. In the pantheon of freedom fighters, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi has pride of place. His fame and influence extend far beyond India and are nowhere more significant than in South Africa. “India gave us a Mohandas, we gave them a Mahatma,” goes a popular South African refrain. Contemporary South African leaders, including Mandela, have consistently lauded him as being part of the epic battle to defeat the racist white regime. The South African Gandhi focuses on Gandhi’s first leadership experiences and the complicated man they reveal—a man who actually supported the British Empire. Ashwin Desai and Goolam Vahed unveil a man who, throughout his stay on African soil, stayed true to Empire while showing a disdain for Africans. For Gandhi, whites and Indians were bonded by an Aryan bloodline that had no place for the African. Gandhi’s racism was matched by his class prejudice towards the Indian indentured. He persistently claimed that they were ignorant and needed his leadership, and he wrote their resistances and compromises in surviving a brutal labor regime out of history. The South African Gandhi writes the indentured and working class back into history. The authors show that Gandhi never missed an opportunity to show his loyalty to Empire, with a particular penchant for war as a means to do so. He served as an Empire stretcher-bearer in the Boer War while the British occupied South Africa, he demanded guns in the aftermath of the Bhambatha Rebellion, and he toured the villages of India during the First World War as recruiter for the Imperial army. This meticulously researched book punctures the dominant narrative of Gandhi and uncovers an ambiguous figure whose time on African soil was marked by a desire to seek the integration of Indians, minus many basic rights, into the white body politic while simultaneously excluding Africans from his moral compass and political ideals. Praise for The South African Gandhi “In this impressively researched study, two South African scholars of Indian background bravely challenge political myth-making on both sides of the Indian Ocean that has sought to canonize Gandhi as a founding father of the struggle for equality there. They show that the Mahatma-to-be carefully refrained from calling on his followers to throw in their lot with the black majority. The mass struggle he finally led remained an Indian struggle.” —Joseph Lelyveld, author of Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle with India “This is a wonderful demonstration of meticulously researched, evocative, clear-eyed and fearless history writing. It uncovers a story, some might even call it a scandal, that has remained hidden in plain sight for far too long. The South African Gandhi is a big book. It is a serious challenge to the way we have been taught to think about Gandhi.” —Arundhati Roy, author of The God of Small Things
Author: Stanley Wolpert Publisher: Oxford University Press ISBN: 0199923922 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 337
Book Description
More than half a century after his death, Mahatma Gandhi continues to inspire millions throughout the world. Yet modern India, most strikingly in its decision to join the nuclear arms race, seems to have abandoned much of his nonviolent vision. Inspired by recent events in India, Stanley Wolpert offers this subtle and profound biography of India's "Great Soul." Wolpert compellingly chronicles the life of Mahatma Gandhi from his early days as a child of privilege to his humble rise to power and his assassination at the hands of a man of his own faith. This trajectory, like that of Christ, was the result of Gandhi's passion: his conscious courting of suffering as the means to reach divine truth. From his early campaigns to stop discrimination in South Africa to his leadership of a people's revolution to end the British imperial domination of India, Gandhi emerges as a man of inner conflicts obscured by his political genius and moral vision. Influenced early on by nonviolent teachings in Hinduism, Jainism, Christianity, and Buddhism, he came to insist on the primacy of love for one's adversary in any conflict as the invincible power for change. His unyielding opposition to intolerance and oppression would inspire India like no leader since the Buddha--creating a legacy that would encourage Martin Luther King, Jr., Nelson Mandela, and other global leaders to demand a better world through peaceful civil disobedience. By boldly considering Gandhi the man, rather than the living god depicted by his disciples, Wolpert provides an unprecedented representation of Gandhi's personality and the profound complexities that compelled his actions and brought freedom to India.
Author: David Arnold Publisher: Routledge ISBN: 1317882342 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 237
Book Description
Gandhi's is an extraordinary and compelling story. Few individuals in history have made so great a mark upon their times. And yet Gandhi never held high political office, commanded no armies and was not even a compelling orator. His 'power' therefore makes a particularly fascinating subject for investigation. David Arnold explains how and why the shy student and affluent lawyer became one of the most powerful anti-colonial figures Western empires in Asia ever faced and why he aroused such intense affection, loyalty (and at times much bitter hatred) among Indians and Westerners alike. Attaching as much influence to the idea and image of Gandhi as to the man himself, Arnold sees Gandhi not just as a Hindu saint but as a colonial subject, whose attitudes and experiences expressed much that was common to countless others in India and elsewhere who sought to grapple with the overwhelming power and cultural authority of the West. A vivid and highly readable introducation to Gandhi's life and times, Arnold's book opens up fascinating insights into one of the twentieth century's most remarkable men.
Author: Margaret Chatterjee Publisher: Springer ISBN: 134912740X Category : Social Science Languages : en Pages : 196
Book Description
Most of Gandhi's associates in South Africa were Jewish. They were brought together through a common interest in theosophy and became deeply involved in Gandhi's campaigns, looking after his affairs when he was away in London or India. This book looks at the association between the two groups.
Author: Charlotte Alston Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing ISBN: 1350040398 Category : Philosophy Languages : en Pages : 313
Book Description
Portraits of Integrity depicts more than 20 historical, fictional and contemporary figures whose character or life raises questions about what integrity is and how it is perceived. Integrity might be culturally bound, but this diverse set of portraits demonstrates that it is not the special preserve of any one culture. Portraits of Socrates, Mencius, Rama and Job, alongside the aspirational 16th-century couple John and Dorothy Kaye, civil rights activist Ella Baker and an anonymous banker, highlight the persisting – sometimes conflicting – features of a life lived with integrity. An introduction identifies and discusses the key questions and themes raised by the case studies, encouraging the reader to determine for themselves the weight and significance of the recurring topics integrity brings up - truth, awkwardness, goodness, and charisma. For anyone looking to learn more about this elusive virtue, Portraits of Integrity is an essential collection. It uncovers the manifold aspects of integrity, illustrates the various possibilities for its expression in a life and asks whether living a life of integrity means living a life of isolation and hardship, or if it is possible to live with integrity without jeopardising all else.
Author: Uma Majmudar Publisher: State University of New York Press ISBN: 0791483517 Category : Religion Languages : en Pages : 297
Book Description
Millions around the world revere Mahatma Gandhi, yet only a few know the man Mohandas Gandhi and the internal journey of his soul. This pioneering book fills the spiritual void in Gandhian literature by focusing on the soul and the substance of the man. Uma Majmudar shows that, contrary to popular belief, Gandhi's rise to greatness was not meteoric; it was, rather, a continuous process of faith development, punctuated by conflicts, crises, and turning points. Using James W. Fowler's theory of "Stages of Faith" as a guide, Majmudar undertakes the first developmental study to analyze the fundamental role of faith in transforming Gandhi's life. She proposes that the power that nourished Gandhi's soul was his ever-growing faith in the ultimate triumph of Truth and in the innate Godliness of the human soul. Along with making an invaluable contribution to numerous cross-cultural disciplines, the book also offers something special to those wishing to embark on their own faith developmental journey, guided by Gandhi's example. "Majmudar wants us to touch and feel Gandhi. He is not on a pedestal, he is not made of granite or bronze, he is warm and vulnerable." — from the Foreword by Rajmohan Gandhi
Author: Erik H. Erikson Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company ISBN: 0393310345 Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 477
Book Description
In this study of Mahatma Gandhi, psychoanalyst Erik H. Erikson explores how Gandhi succeeded in mobilizing the Indian people both spiritually and politically as he became the revolutionary innovator of militant non-violence and India became the motherland of large-scale civil disobedience.
Author: Thomas Weber
Author: Joseph Lelyveld
Author: Ashwin Desai
Author: Stanley Wolpert
Author: David Arnold
Author: Margaret Chatterjee
Author: René Fülöp-Miller
Author: Charlotte Alston
Author: Uma Majmudar
Author: Erik H. Erikson