Author: Francis G. Hutchins Publisher: Routledge ISBN: 1351051083 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 150
Book Description
This much anticipated volume compares and contrasts Gandhi’s non-violent leadership during World War II to the military leadership of Arjuna in the war that prompted the Bhagavad Gita dialogue, the Sanskrit text that guided Gandhi’s actions throughout his life. Early in his career as leader of India’s campaign to end British rule, Gandhi resisted terrorist interpretations of the Gita and described the Gita as depicting a metaphorical battle between good and evil impulses within every human heart. Then when India was drawn into a world war not unlike that in which Arjuna reluctantly led his troops into combat, Gandhi embraced his role as battlefield commander of the millions he had trained to be non-violent warriors. Never abandoning his dedication to non-violence, Gandhi stressed to his recruits that they should act as non-violently as possible but should not passively accept injustice. Remaining true to the Bhagavad Gita while responding to urgent hazards affecting all Indians, Gandhi himself became a wartime battlefield commander leading millions in the climactic Quit India conflict that ended British rule. The volume provides an overview of Gandhi’s entire career as leader of the Indian Nationalist Movement, clarifies Gandhi’s approach to acting non-violently when surrounded by violence, and affirms Gandhi’s enduring importance as a source of inspiration around the world. Please note: Taylor & Francis does not sell or distribute the Hardback in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka
Author: Ramin Jahanbegloo Publisher: Taylor & Francis ISBN: 1000223132 Category : Political Science Languages : en Pages : 98
Book Description
This book maps the genesis and development of Gandhi’s idea of non-violence. It traces the evolution of the message of peace from its first expressions in South Africa to Gandhi’s later campaigns against British rule in India, most prominently the Salt March campaign of 1930. It argues that Gandhi’s blueprint for change must be adopted in the present, as the world craters on the precipice of catastrophic climate change, and the threat of nuclear war hangs over our heads. A timely book for uncertain times, this work is a reminder of the value of peace in the 21st century. It will be of great interest to readers, scholars and researchers of peace and conflict studies, politics, philosophy, history and South Asian studies.
Author: Swaran Singh Publisher: World Scientific ISBN: 9811240108 Category : Philosophy Languages : en Pages : 309
Book Description
This book interrogates several strands of Gandhian design, articulations, methods and ideals, through five sections. These include Theoretical Perspectives, Peace and World Order, Revolutionary Experiments, National Integration and Gandhi in Chinese Discourses. The authors seek to provide answers to questions as: Were Gandhian ideas utopian? What is the contemporary relevance of Gandhi? Do his ideas share convergence with theory in world politics and international relations? What was his role in forging national integration? How did his ideologies and experiments with truth resonate with countries as China?The writings also underline that being averse to individualism, for Gandhi it was the realm of societal interests which were significant, encompassing the good of humanity, dignity of labor and village-centric development. Development paradigms and health related challenges are articulated in the book to underline the significance of Gandhi's vision of 'Leave no one behind' to create an egalitarian society with respect and tolerance. The book presents the essential humility and simplicity of Gandhi.This book is a must read for those who seek to understand Gandhi in a way that is candid and inclusive. It's a book that conceals nothing and does not shy away from presenting debates on Gandhi. Moreover, it is a factual account, with contributors having relied extensively on archival materials, essays and an extensive review of literature. Hence, the book is replete with pertinent documentation and scholarship and makes a significant value-addition in the literature on Gandhi.
Author: Arthur Herman Publisher: Bantam ISBN: 055390504X Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 738
Book Description
In this fascinating and meticulously researched book, bestselling historian Arthur Herman sheds new light on two of the most universally recognizable icons of the twentieth century, and reveals how their forty-year rivalry sealed the fate of India and the British Empire. They were born worlds apart: Winston Churchill to Britain’s most glamorous aristocratic family, Mohandas Gandhi to a pious middle-class household in a provincial town in India. Yet Arthur Herman reveals how their lives and careers became intertwined as the twentieth century unfolded. Both men would go on to lead their nations through harrowing trials and two world wars—and become locked in a fierce contest of wills that would decide the fate of countries, continents, and ultimately an empire. Gandhi & Churchill reveals how both men were more alike than different, and yet became bitter enemies over the future of India, a land of 250 million people with 147 languages and dialects and 15 distinct religions—the jewel in the crown of Britain’s overseas empire for 200 years. Over the course of a long career, Churchill would do whatever was necessary to ensure that India remain British—including a fateful redrawing of the entire map of the Middle East and even risking his alliance with the United States during World War Two. Mohandas Gandhi, by contrast, would dedicate his life to India’s liberation, defy death and imprisonment, and create an entirely new kind of political movement: satyagraha, or civil disobedience. His campaigns of nonviolence in defiance of Churchill and the British, including his famous Salt March, would become the blueprint not only for the independence of India but for the civil rights movement in the U.S. and struggles for freedom across the world. Now master storyteller Arthur Herman cuts through the legends and myths about these two powerful, charismatic figures and reveals their flaws as well as their strengths. The result is a sweeping epic of empire and insurrection, war and political intrigue, with a fascinating supporting cast, including General Kitchener, Rabindranath Tagore, Franklin Roosevelt, Lord Mountbatten, and Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan. It is also a brilliant narrative parable of two men whose great successes were always haunted by personal failure, and whose final moments of triumph were overshadowed by the loss of what they held most dear.
Author: Derek Miller Publisher: Cavendish Square Publishing, LLC ISBN: 1502633965 Category : Juvenile Nonfiction Languages : en Pages : 114
Book Description
Mahatma Gandhi's commitment to peace and nonviolent resistance helped to secure India's independence, and came at a great personal cost. Gandhi's writings and protests, including the famed 1930 Salt March, have served as a blueprint for activists who recognize the power of peaceful protest. This book reveals Gandhi's story and includes historical information about Gandhi's effect on India and South Africa.
Author: MAHENDRA MEGHANI Publisher: Prabhat Prakashan ISBN: Category : Self-Help Languages : en Pages : 106
Book Description
GANDHI-GANGA (ABRIDGED) (INSPIRING STORIES) by MAHENDRA MEGHANI: GANDHI-GANGA is a collection of inspirational stories related to Mahatma Gandhi. Mahendra Meghani's book compiles anecdotes, narratives, and incidents from Gandhi's life that exemplify his wisdom, simplicity, and commitment to truth. Key Aspects of the Book GANDHI-GANGA: Anecdotal Insights: The book offers readers glimpses of Gandhi's life through various anecdotes and stories, revealing his character and ideals. Inspiration and Values: It highlights the enduring values of truth and nonviolence that Gandhi lived by, inspiring readers to reflect on their own lives. Accessible Introduction: GANDHI-GANGA provides a concise and accessible introduction to Mahatma Gandhi's life and teachings, making it suitable for a wide audience. Mahendra Meghani was a prolific Gujarati writer, poet, and folklorist. His work, GANDHI-GANGA, aims to keep Gandhi's inspirational stories alive and accessible to generations.
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: Mahatma Gandhi Publisher: North Atlantic Books ISBN: 1556439784 Category : Religion Languages : en Pages : 249
Book Description
Regarded in India as one of the most important books of the 20th century, Gandhi’s commentary on this classic Hindu text addresses the issues he felt most directly affected the spiritual lives of common people. The Bhagavad Gita, also called The Song of the Lord, is a 700-line section of a much longer Sanskrit war epic, the Mahabharata, about the legendary conflict between two branches of an Indian ruling family. Framed as a conversation between Krishna, an incarnation of the god Vishnu, and a general of one of the armies, the Gita is written in powerful poetic language meant to be chanted. Equally treasured as a guide to action, a devotional scripture, a philosophical text, and inspirational reading, it remains one of the world’s most influential, widely read spiritual books. The Bhagavad Gita According to Gandhi is based on talks given by Gandhi between February and November 1926 at the Satyagraha Ashram in Ahmedabad, India. During this time—a period when Gandhi had withdrawn from mass political activity—he devoted much of his time and energy to translating the Gita from Sanskrit into his native Gujarati. As a result, he met with his followers almost daily, after morning prayer sessions, to discuss the Gita’s contents and meaning as it unfolded before him. This book is the transcription of those daily sessions.
Author: Ramachandra Guha Publisher: Vintage ISBN: 038553230X Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 544
Book Description
Here is the first volume of a magisterial biography of Mohandas Gandhi that gives us the most illuminating portrait we have had of the life, the work and the historical context of one of the most abidingly influential—and controversial—men in modern history. Ramachandra Guha—hailed by Time as “Indian democracy’s preeminent chronicler”—takes us from Gandhi’s birth in 1869 through his upbringing in Gujarat, his two years as a student in London and his two decades as a lawyer and community organizer in South Africa. Guha has uncovered myriad previously untapped documents, including private papers of Gandhi’s contemporaries and co-workers; contemporary newspapers and court documents; the writings of Gandhi’s children; and secret files kept by British Empire functionaries. Using this wealth of material in an exuberant, brilliantly nuanced and detailed narrative, Guha describes the social, political and personal worlds inside of which Gandhi began the journey that would earn him the honorific Mahatma: “Great Soul.” And, more clearly than ever before, he elucidates how Gandhi’s work in South Africa—far from being a mere prelude to his accomplishments in India—was profoundly influential in his evolution as a family man, political thinker, social reformer and, ultimately, beloved leader. In 1893, when Gandhi set sail for South Africa, he was a twenty-three-year-old lawyer who had failed to establish himself in India. In this remarkable biography, the author makes clear the fundamental ways in which Gandhi’s ideas were shaped before his return to India in 1915. It was during his years in England and South Africa, Guha shows us, that Gandhi came to understand the nature of imperialism and racism; and in South Africa that he forged the philosophy and techniques that would undermine and eventually overthrow the British Raj. Gandhi Before India gives us equally vivid portraits of the man and the world he lived in: a world of sharp contrasts among the coastal culture of his birthplace, High Victorian London, and colonial South Africa. It explores in abundant detail Gandhi’s experiments with dissident cults such as the Tolstoyans; his friendships with radical Jews, heterodox Christians and devout Muslims; his enmities and rivalries; and his often overlooked failures as a husband and father. It tells the dramatic, profoundly moving story of how Gandhi inspired the devotion of thousands of followers in South Africa as he mobilized a cross-class and inter-religious coalition, pledged to non-violence in their battle against a brutally racist regime. Researched with unequaled depth and breadth, and written with extraordinary grace and clarity, Gandhi Before India is, on every level, fully commensurate with its subject. It will radically alter our understanding and appreciation of twentieth-century India’s greatest man.
Author: Francis G. Hutchins
Author: Ramin Jahanbegloo
Author: Swaran Singh
Author: Richard Grenier
Author: Arthur Herman
Author: Derek Miller
Author: MAHENDRA MEGHANI
Author: Ashwin Desai
Author: Mahatma Gandhi
Author: Ramachandra Guha