Gandhi: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)

151 Pages·2001·0.99 MB·English

by  Bhikhu Parekh

Gandhi: A Very Short Introduction
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Bhikhu Parekh
Gandhi
A Very Short Introduction
1
3
Great Clarendon Street, Oxford ox2 6dp
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© Bhikhu Parekh 1997
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First published as an Oxford University Press paperback 1997
First published as a Very Short Introduction 2001
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ISBN 0–19–285457–7
13579108642
Typeset by RefineCatch Ltd, Bungay, Suffolk
Printed in Spain by Book Print S. L.
Contents
Acknowledgements vii
List of illustrations ix
Abbreviations x
1
Life and work 1
2
Religious thought 35
3
Human nature 49
4
Satya¯graha 64
5
Critique of modernity 78
6
The vision of a non-violent society 92
7
Critical appreciation 111
Glossary 127
Bibliographical background 129
Further reading 133
Index 135

Acknowledgements
I am most grateful to Pratap Mehta, Sudipta Kaviraj, Noel O’Sullivan,
Judith Brown, and Terry McNeill for their valuable comments on the
whole or parts of this book. Terry McNeill additionally ensured a happy
academic environment in which to work. Pratap Mehta and Sudipta
Kaviraj, whose knowledge of the Indian philosophical tradition is
greater than mine, alerted me to issues I would otherwise have
overlooked. During our 35 years of friendship Noel O’Sullivan has
influenced my thinking in ways I cannot easily identify, and for which
I thank him warmly. Fred Dallmayr, Anthony Parel, Thomas Pantham,
Leroy Rouner, Meghnad Desai, Homi Bhabha, the late and much missed
Ushaben Mehta, Ronald Terchek, and Usha Thakkar have placed me in
their debt by discussing my ideas on Gandhi with me over many years.
I owe thanks to Sir Keith Thomas and Rebecca Hunt for their helpful
comments on the final draft, and to my brother Chandrakant Shroff
and to C. B. Patel for their friendship and kindness over the years. I thank
Sue Wiles for typing the book and Amalendu Misra for preparing the
index.
I dedicate the book to the victims of intercommunal violence in India,
and to my good friend Lakshmi Mal Singhvi who in his quiet way has
done much to promote religious harmony.
This book first appeared under the title Gandhi in the Past Masters Series
of Oxford University Press. As it now appears in a new series, I’ve made a
few changes in the text, many of them minor and largely stylistic. The
book is different enough to be a new entity, yet sufficiently similar to
the old to count as its reincarnation.
List of illustrations
1 Gandhi in 1942 2 5 Gandhi with Nehru in
From Mahatma Gandhi: The Last 1936 33
Phase, Pyarelal (Navajivan Publishing From Gandhi on Nehru, Hingorani
House, 1965) (1993)
2 Gandhi as a law student in 6 ‘The odd thing about
London in 1890 4 assassins ...’ Cartoon by
Henry Guttmann/Hulton Getty Mauldin from the Chicago
Sun-Times, 1968 113
3 Gandhi on the Salt March,
© Chicago Sun-Times
12 March 1930 22
From Mahatma Gandhi: Nonviolent 7 Gandhi’s worldly
Power in Action, Dennis Dalton
possessions 124
(Columbia University Press, 1993)
From Gandhi on Nehru, Hingorani
(1993)
4 Gandhi walking through
the riot-torn areas of
Noakhali, late 1946 30
From Mahatma Gandhi: Nonviolent
Power in Action, Dennis Dalton
(Columbia University Press, 1993)