ISSN (Print) - 0012-9976 | ISSN (Online) - 2349-8846

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Gandhi and Saintliness

An integrated reading of Gandhi’s ideas, images, personal life, and political activities, at times inflicts considerable damage to the understanding of his thoughts. George Orwell’s (1949–2000) view of Gandhi as a moral saint and his ideas as “anti-humanistic” is a striking example. Adopting Orwell’s image, the philosopher Susan Wolf (1982), in an influential paper, questioned the very idea of moral saints. His saintly image is an important reason why there is little mention of Gandhi in academic moral philosophy. By showing that the image does not apply to his thoughts, we rescue Gandhi’s moral concepts from the perceived image of a saint.

M K Gandhi on Religion and Caste: A Reading List

Not viewing religion as distinct from politics, Gandhi referred to the latter as “applied religion.” However, his religious positioning itself changed throughout the course of his life. What, then, can we make of his views on religion, and potentially, his politics?

Hindi Imposition: Examining Gandhi’s Views on Common Language for India

Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s statement on making Hindi as a unifying language for the country had stirred up a fresh controversy on the issue of a “single” language. In his tweet, the minister appealed to Indians to work towards making Gandhi and Patel’s dream of one language came true. But, such an assertion about Gandhi is not fully correct. Though he wanted a common language for the country, but that language was Hindustani written in Devanagari and Persian script. The present-day Hindi, however, is markedly different from Hindustani, the admixture of Hindi and Urdu, which Gandhi had advocated.

Parentheses of Philosophy

The authors of Gandhi and Philosophy: On Theological Anti-Politics respond to A Raghuramaraju’s review of their book published in EPW (3 August 2019), “Gandhi in the Company of Western Philosophers.”

Socio-historical Contexts of Gandhi’s Ideas

Why Gandhi Still Matters: An Appraisal of the Mahatma’s Legacy by Rajmohan Gandhi, New Delhi: Aleph Book Company India, 2017; pp xiii + 201, ₹ 499.

 

Narrating an Epic Life

Gandhi: The Years That Changed the World, 1914–1948 by Ramachandra Guha, Gurgaon: Penguin Allen Lane, 2018; pp xx + 1129, ₹ 999.

 

Gandhi at 150: A Reading List on His Thought

There are a number of aspects of Gandhian philosophy that continue to be the focus of scholarly debate.

Gandhi - The 'Angel of History': Reading Hind Swaraj Today

Gandhi's Hind Swaraj is more than a political text. It is an ontological drama staged by Gandhi, reflected in his treatises against "modern civilisation", and his critique of "modernity".

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