Nearly six decades since his death, a large and diverse range of writings comparative, expository, biographical, hagiographical and dialogical-have appeared on Gandhi. He had the perceptive vision to see this tragic scenario, or the tidings of global disaster as early as 1909 in his Hind Swaraj. ln this classic work, he characterised 'modem civilization' as a "disease" and a "nine days 'wonder" which was doomed to "self-destruction". Thus mankind stands, as it were, at civilizational cross-roads. And its most urgent task is to ensure human survival and peace. The Gandhian perspective is a call to discover possibilities of an authentic living in the midst of liberalization, globalization and never ending struggle for power. The present work is a comprehensive design-perhaps the first project of its kind-to offer an in-depth analysis of the major, and rather disturbing, global problems in the human-centered, and peace-oriented Gandhian framework.
