Gandhi in His Time and Ours: The Global Legacy of His Ideas / Edition 1

by David Hardiman

Overview

Gandhi was the creator of a radical style of politics that has proved effective in fighting insidious social divisions within India and elsewhere in the world. How did this new form of politics come about? David Hardiman shows that it was based on a larger vision of an alternative society, one that emphasized mutual respect, resistance to exploitation, nonviolence, and ecological harmony.

Politics was just one of the many directions in which Gandhi sought to activate this peculiarly personal vision, and its practice involved experiments in relation to his opponents. From representatives of the British Raj to Indian advocates of violent resistance, from right-wing religious leaders to upholders of caste privilege, Gandhi confronted entrenched groups and their even more entrenched ideologies with a deceptively simple ethic of resistance. Hardiman examines Gandhi's ways of conducting his conflicts with all these groups, as well as with his critics on the left and representatives of the Dalits. He also explores another key issue in Gandhi's life and legacy: his ideas about and attitudes toward women.

Despite inconsistencies and limitations, and failures in his personal life, Gandhi has become a beacon for posterity. The uncompromising honesty of his politics and moral activism has inspired such figures as Jayaprakash Narayan, Medha Patkar, Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela, and Petra Kelly and influenced a series of new social movements—by environmentalists, antiwar campaigners, feminists, and human rights activists, among others—dedicated to the principle of a more just world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780231131148
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	04/07/2004
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	5.68(w) x 8.76(h) x 0.56(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

David Hardiman, who lived for many years in Gandhi's home region ofGujerat, is based at the University of Warwick. He is a founding member of the Subaltern Studies group. His books include Peasant Nationalists of Gujarat, 1917-1934, The Coming of the Devi: Adivasi Assertion in Western India, and Feeding the Baniya:Peasants and Usurers in Western India.

Table of Contents

Preface
1. Introduction: The Gandhian Dialogic
2. An Incorporative Nationalism
Forging a Nationalist Hegemony
The Disciplined Nation
Invented Histories of the Nation
3. Dialogic Resistance
Popular Forms of Mass Resistance in India
Satryagraha
Individual Conscience
Ahimsa
Satryagraha Within the Indian Polity
4. An Alternative Modernity
Hind Swaraj
A Gandhian Civilisation
The Contructive Programme
Gandhi, Socialism, and the Doctrine of Trusteeship
The Gandhian Critique Beyond India
5. Fear of the Nation
Gandhi's Family Life
Gandhi and Sexual Desire
Marriage and Patriarchy
Women and Satyagraha
The Critique of Patriarchy
6. Dalit and Adivasi Assertion
Dalits
Adivasis
Dalits, Adivasis, and the Indian Nation
7. Fighting Religious Hatreds
Gandhi, Muslims, and Hindu Nationalists
The 'National Duty' of the Hindu Patriot
Gandhi and Christianity
Partition and Gandhi's 'Finest Hour'
Gandhian Anti-Communal Work Since Independence
8. Gandhian Activism in India After Independence
The Bhoodan and Gramdan Movements
The Naxalite Alternative
The JP Movement
JP's 'Total Revolution'
The Chhatra Yuva Sangharsh Vahini
Women and Anti-Liquor Movements in India
Vahini and Women's Rights
Chipko Andolan
Narmada Bachao Andolan
Gandhian Activism Since 1980
9. Gandhi's Global Legacy
Some Contemporary Western Reactions
Gandhi and the Pacifist Movement
Gandhian Resistance on a World Stage
The African-American Struggle in the USA
The Revolt Against Apartheid in South Africa
Petra Kelly and the German Greens
10. The Moral Activists' Lonely Path to Martyrdom
Bibliography
Index

What People are Saying About This

Ramachandra Guha

Extremely well written.... Wise, insightful, and, above all, historically subtle.... As a long-time student of the subject, let me say that this book goes on my very short list of indispensable books about Gandhi. Indeed, I would go far as to say that Hardiman's work is one of the five best books ever written about the Mahatma.

— Ramachandra Guha, author of Environmentalism: A Global History

Editorial Reviews

It certainly ranks among the most useful books on Gandhi published in the last decade.

Canadian Journal of History - David M. Fahey

Hardiman's volume is an extremely valuable addition to the already voluminous literature on Gandhi, offering to the novice a rich introduction to the man and his work and to the expert a series of thought-provoking arguments and insights.

Journal of Asian Studies - Stephen P. Blake

Well written and well documented...Very highly recommended.

Choice

Hardiman's book is an excellent review and synthesis of the literature and a sober evaluation of Gandhi's legacy in India and beyond.

History - Kaushik Bagchi

This well-documented and hard-bitten investigation presents Gandhi's principles... using accessible prose and factual analysis.

Peace & Change

This excellent volume by Hardiman... Will be an invaluable resource.

John E. Cort

It certainly ranks among the most useful books on Gandhi published in the last decade.

— David M. Fahey

Canadian Journal of History

This excellent volume by Hardiman... Will be an invaluable resource.

— John E. Cort

Religious Studies Review

Hardiman's volume is an extremely valuable addition to the already voluminous literature on Gandhi, offering to the novice a rich introduction to the man and his work and to the expert a series of thought-provoking arguments and insights.

— Stephen P. Blake

Journal of Asian Studies

Hardiman's book is an excellent review and synthesis of the literature and a sober evaluation of Gandhi's legacy in India and beyond.

— Kaushik Bagchi

History