gandhi a very short introduction

Gandhi: A Very Short Introduction Very Short Introductions are for anyone wanting a stimulating and accessible way in to a new subject They are written by experts, and have been published in 15 languages worldwide Very Short Introductions available from Oxford Paperbacks: ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY Julia Annas THE ANGLO-SAXON AGE John Blair ARCHAEOLOGY Paul Bahn ARISTOTLE Jonathan Barnes Augustine Henry Chadwick THE BIBLE John Riches Buddha Michael Carrithers BUDDHISM Damien Keown CLASSICS Mary Beard and John Henderson Continental Philosophy Simon Critchley Darwin Jonathan Howard DESCARTES Tom Sorell EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY BRITAIN Paul Langford The European Union John Pinder Freud Anthony Storr Galileo Stillman Drake Gandhi Bhikhu Parekh HEIDEGGER Michael Inwood HINDUISM Kim Knott HISTORY John H Arnold HUME A J Ayer Indian Philosophy Sue Hamilton Intelligence Ian J Deary ISLAM Malise Ruthven JUDAISM Norman Solomon Jung Anthony Stevens THE KORAN Michael Cook LITERARY THEORY Jonathan Culler LOGIC Graham Priest MACHIAVELLI Quentin Skinner MARX Peter Singer MEDIEVAL BRITAIN John Gillingham and Ralph A Griffiths MUSIC Nicholas Cook NIETZSCHE Michael Tanner NINETEENTH-CENTURY BRITAIN Christopher Harvie and H C G Matthew paul E P Sanders POLITICS Kenneth Minogue Psychology Gillian Butler and Freda McManus ROMAN BRITAIN Peter Salway SOCIAL AND CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY John Monaghan and Peter Just SOCIOLOGY Steve Bruce Socrates C C W Taylor STUART BRITAIN John Morrill THEOLOGY David F Ford THE TUDORS John Guy TWENTIETH-CENTURY BRITAIN Kenneth O Morgan Wittgenstein A C Grayling Visit our web site for news of forthcoming titles www.oup.co.uk/vsi Bhikhu Parekh Gandhi A Very Short Introduction Great Clarendon Street, Oxford o x d p Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in Oxford New York Athens Auckland Bangkok Bogotá Buenos Aires Calcutta Cape Town Chennai Dar es Salaam Delhi Florence Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Mumbai Nairobi Paris São Paulo Shanghai Singapore Taipei Tokyo Toronto Warsaw with associated companies in Berlin Ibadan Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries Published in the United States by Oxford University Press Inc., New York © Bhikhu Parekh 1997 The moral rights of the author have been asserted Database right Oxford University Press (maker) First published as an Oxford University Press paperback 1997 First published as a Very Short Introduction 2001 All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organizations Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Data available ISBN 0–19–285457–7 10 Typeset by RefineCatch Ltd, Bungay, Suffolk Printed in Spain by Book Print S L Contents Acknowledgements vii List of illustrations ix Abbreviations x Life and work Religious thought 35 Human nature 49 Satya¯graha 64 Critique of modernity 78 The vision of a non-violent society Critical appreciation Glossary 111 127 Bibliographical background Further reading 133 Index 135 129 92 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 Gandhi in 1942 1936 Phase, Pyarelal (Navajivan Publishing From Gandhi on Nehru, Hingorani House, 1965) (1993) Gandhi as a law student in London in 1890 Sun-Times, 1968 Gandhi on the Salt March, 12 March 1930 (1993) the riot-torn areas of 30 From Mahatma Gandhi: Nonviolent (Columbia University Press, 1993) Gandhi’s worldly 124 From Gandhi on Nehru, Hingorani Gandhi walking through Power in Action, Dennis Dalton possessions (Columbia University Press, 1993) 113 © Chicago Sun-Times 22 Power in Action, Dennis Dalton Noakhali, late 1946 ‘The odd thing about Mauldin from the Chicago From Mahatma Gandhi: Nonviolent 33 assassins ’ Cartoon by Henry Guttmann/Hulton Getty Gandhi with Nehru in From Mahatma Gandhi: The Last Abbreviations The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, 90 volumes (New Delhi: Publications Division of the Government of India, 1958–84) are cited by volume number and page A An Autobiography: The Story of my Experiments with Truth, tr Mahadev Desai (London: Jonathan Cape, 1966) B Judith Brown, Gandhi: Prisoner of Hope (London: Yale University F Louis Fischer, Gandhi: His Life and Message for the World (New Press, 1991) York: New American Library, 1954) G Louis Fischer, The Life of Mahatma Gandhi (Bombay: Bharatiya K Martin Luther King, Jr, Stride towards Freedom: The Montgomery Vidya Bhavan, 4th combined edition, 1983) Story (New York: Harper & Row, 1958) M The Moral and Political Writings of Mahatma Gandhi, ed Raghavan Iyer, volumes (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986) All the Sanskrit and Hindi words used in the book are defined in the Glossary Cripps, and blamed himself for being unworthy of Maulana’s trust! A man of wisdom and humility, armed with resolve and inflexible consistency, who has devoted all his strength to the uplifting of his people and the betterment of their lot; a man who has confronted the brutality of Europe with the dignity of the simple human being and thus at all times risen superior Generations to come, it may be, will scarce believe that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth Gandhi Einstein on Gandhi 126 Glossary adhika ¯r a right; a right that is earned or deserved advaita non-dualism, monism ahimsa ¯ non-violence, absence of a desire to harm a living being ana ¯sakti non-attachment ¯shram a commune of spiritual aspirants organized around a guru a ¯tman soul or spirit a buddhi intelligence chetana ¯ consciousness dalits those previously untouchables The untouchables were people considered so low as to be placed outside the pale of normal physical contact dharma duty, moral law, characteristic activity of a class of objects or beings ekpraja ¯ a sense of belonging to a single community fakir Muslim ascetic or mendicant harta ¯l cessation of work as an expression of protest karma action, law of moral retribution kha ¯di hand-spun cloth lokshakti people’s power, power generated by people’s collective action Maha ¯tma great soul An honorific title conferred on Gandhi by Rabindranath Tagore maitri friendliness 127 manas mind moksha liberation, release from the cycle of rebirth nishka ¯m karma disinterested action sadbha ¯va goodwill, a wish to see someone flourish satya truth satya ¯graha non-violent resistance satya ¯grahi one who engages in non-violent resistance shakti energy or power sha ¯sanmukta free of domination or coercive rule suksma sarira non-material ‘body’ or configuration that accompanies ˙ ˙ an individual through his successive lives swabha ¯va distinct psychological and moral constitution of each individual swara ¯j self-rule, individual or collective autonomy tapas penance Gandhi ulema Muslim theologian untouchables see dalits yajna any activity undertaken in the spirit of sacrifice to a deity yantrava ¯d mechanization as an end in itself or for its own sake 128 Bibliographical background Men of action are generally too busy or discreet to write about their thoughts and experiences except after their retirement, and sometimes not even then Yet the writings of Gandhi, who led an unusually active life, fill 90 volumes and even they are incomplete! The fact that he enjoyed leisure during the just under six years that he spent in prison provides only a small part of the explanation, for much of his writing was not done in prison The deeper explanation is to be found in the way he defined action and the kind of active life he led Action for him was intended not so much to achieve certain results as to live out a specific way of life, which he naturally needed to explain to his countrymen Besides, the way of life could not be worked out in advance, and hence his whole life became one long series of ‘experiments’ It is striking that the word ‘experiment’ occurs frequently in Gandhi’s writings and that he called his autobiography Experiments with Truth or Autobiography Since the meaning and implications of his experiments were not always clear to him or to others, he had to write about them As he wrote, he evoked strong responses, to which he had to respond For Gandhi writing thus became inseparable from action He was therefore never too busy to write because writing was an integral part of his business Gandhi’s ideas are to be found in two kinds of writings, those written by him and by his close associates and secretaries Gandhi’s own writings consist of seven books; numerous articles and editorials in the four 129 weekly journals that he edited at various times in his life; interviews, some of them long and probing, with journalists and foreign visitors; letters to his perplexed associates, followers, and total strangers; and important speeches at various religious, cultural, and political meetings Most of these are included in the 90 volumes of his Collected Works Gandhi’s seven books include Hind Swara¯j, Satya¯graha in South Africa, Autobiography, Constructive Programme: Its Meaning and Place, ¯shram Observances in Action, and A Guide to Discourses on the Gita, A Health, all published by Navajivan, Ahmedabad Gandhi’s secretaries and associates have published several volumes describing his day-to-day activities and conversations with them and visitors Among these Pyarelal’s Maha¯tma Gandhi: The Early Phase, Vol 1, and The Last Phase, Vol 1, Books and (Ahmedabad, 1956) are the best They largely deal with younger and older Gandhi’s social and political Gandhi thought and activities For intimate insights into his inner struggles and views about individuals, events, and life in general, the best accounts are 15 volumes of Mahadev Desai’s posthumously published Diary (Ahmedabad, 1960–74), and two volumes of Manuben Gandhi’s Delhima Gandhiji (Ahmedabad, 1964 and 1966) sadly not yet translated into English Both of them wrote in Gujarati, their own and Gandhi’s native language Manu Gandhi was Gandhi’s great-niece, and Mahadev Desai, his secretary from 1917 to 1942, was in Gandhi’s own words ‘more than a son’ to him Gandhi wrote most of his books in his native Gujarati partly as a matter of principle, partly to develop the language, and partly to show how other Indian languages should be written Since their English translations were done in a hurry and since he only checked a couple and that rather too quickly, they are generally unreliable The English translations of Mahadev Desai’s works by V G Desai are no better Since hardly any foreign commentator and only a few Indian commentators seem to read Gujarati, their works remain flawed For a fuller discussion of this, see my ‘Gandhi and his Translators’, Gandhi Marg, June 1986 130 There is no plan to retranslate Gandhi’s or his close associates’ writings, and that is a big handicap to Gandhi scholars with no knowledge of Gujarati I have relied on the Gujarati originals and corrected the translations when necessary A Parel, ed Hind Swara¯j (Cambridge, 1997) is the best translation of Gandhi’s seminal work with a valuable introduction Biography Gandhi has been the subject of over 20 biographies and over 25 biographical sketches in English The first one, by his friend Revd Joseph J Doke, M K Gandhi: An Indian Patriot in South Africa (London, 1909), is of considerable historical value because it was written with Gandhi’s cooperation and before he became a world figure Many subsequent biographies were written by journalists who met and stayed with him cited in the Abbreviations are the best One of the most recent and impressive biographies is by Judith Brown, cited in the Abbreviations No biography of Gandhi so far has been able fully to capture and illuminate the complexity, tensions, and apparent contradictions of his personality, or to elucidate the sources of his powerful emotional hold over so many of his associates as well as his countrymen in general This is not surprising, for a good biographer would need to be fully familiar with all the major religious traditions that shaped him, master Gujarati, and possess a deep intuitive understanding of the social and cultural milieu in which he grew up And even then the biographer would suffer from the disadvantage of not having reliable biographies of Gandhi’s closest associates including his wife, Mahadev Desai, Miraben and Manu Gandhi It is striking that many of his biographers are Christians and that few Indian scholars so far have attempted a major biography based on primary sources in South Africa and elsewhere 131 Bibliographical background for different lengths of time Among them Louis Fischer’s two books Further reading Thought For Gandhi’s philosophical and religious thought, see Margaret Chatterjee, Gandhi’s Religious Thought (London, 1983), R Iyer, The Moral and Political Thought of Maha¯tma Gandhi (New York, 1973), and B Parekh, Colonialism, Tradition and Reform (Delhi, 1999) For Gandhi’s moral and political thought, see R Iyer, The Moral and Political Thought of Maha¯tma Gandhi (New York, 1973), B Parekh, Gandhi’s Political Philosophy (London, 1989), and R Terchek, Gandhi: Struggling for Autonomy (Lanham, 1998) Gandhi’s non-violence and satya¯graha have rightly attracted much attention For good discussions, see J Bondurant, Conquest of Violence (Berkeley, 1965), G Sharp, Gandhi Wields the Weapon of Moral Power (Ahmedabad, 1960) and The Politics of Nonviolent Action (Boston, 1973), and D Dalton, Maha¯tma Gandhi: Nonviolent Power in Action (Columbia, NY, 1993) For a good study of whether and how Gandhi’s method could have been applied by the German Jews, see Gideon Shimoni, Gandhi, Satya¯graha and the Jews (Jerusalem, 1977) The book analyses Gandhi’s correspondence with Jewish writers and relations with his Jewish friends H Raines, My Soul is Rested (New York, 1983) discusses the effect of the Salt March on the imagination of African Americans For a good discussion of Gandhi’s influence on African Americans, see S Kapur, Raising up a Prophet: The African American Encounter with Gandhi (Boston, 1992) 133 For Gandhi’s controversial experiments in celibacy, see N K Bose, My Days with Gandhi (Delhi, 1974) and B Parekh, Colonialism, Tradition and Reform (Delhi, 1999) This was once an extremely sensitive subject As Bose explains in the preface, Navajivan, Gandhi’s official publisher, refused to publish his book, while I was attacked as ‘Hindu Rushdie’ and faced some opposition The fact that the opposition soon died down and that no harm was threatened to me suggests that this is now an accepted area of investigation To cover it adequately would require access to the diaries of Manu, one of the women involved in Gandhi’s experiments The diaries seem to exist and were last seen in 1963, but their current whereabouts are unknown The other women, all now dead, did not keep diaries, but accounts of their conversations with others on the subject exist For short and balanced accounts of Gandhi’s life, work, and thought, see A Copley, Gandhi (London, 1987) and D Rothermund, Maha¯tma Gandhi Gandhi (Delhi, 1991) For a critical study of the recent commentaries on Gandhi’s political thought and role, see Thomas Pantham, Political Theories and Social Reconstruction: A Critical Survey of the Literature on India (Delhi 1995) Given Gandhi’s habits, dress, and intriguing personality, he became the subject of countless cartoons, which give a good idea of how his baffled British contemporaries tried to make sense of him For an excellent collection, see Gandhi in Cartoons (Ahmedabad, 1970) 134 Index Carlyle, Thomas 78 caste system 1, 10 celibacy test of 28–9 see also sex Champaran 15 Chaplin, Charlie 21 Christianity 3, 7–8, 42–3, 46–7, 57, 119 Churchill, Winston 21 citizens, responsibilities of 105–8, 118 civil disobedience 107 civilization, see modern civilization civil rights movement, United States 76 coercion 59, 94, 100–1, 110, 114 colonialism 10, 16–17, 20–1, 53, 64 communism 94, 95, 96 communities 61, 69–70, 97–102, 109, 122 competition 97 compulsion see coercion conscience 15, 72 Constructive Programme 11–14, 19, 34 cooperation 105 see also communities cosmic spirit 35–41, 50, 55–6, 92 cosmopolitanism 48 cosmos 49–50 cottage industries 11, 19, 97 crime 103–5 Cripps, Stafford 125 Page numbers in italics refer to illustrations A advaita 55 Ali, Mohamed 18 Ambedker, Babasaheb 24 Andrews, C F animal life 50–1 armed forces 103 Arnold, Edwin assassination, of Gandhi 32, 113 a¯tman 7–8, 55–6 see also soul atonement 46 authenticity 11 autonomy 63, 90, 93, 94 Azad, Maulana 125 B Bengal 29 body 51, 54, 57, 58, 79 Bose, Subhas 25 British Empire colonial rule 10, 16–17, 20–1, 64 Buber, Martin 75 Buddha 47, 56, 112 Buddhism 3, 47 C Calcutta 31 capitalism 79–80, 94–5, 96 135 for Hindu–Muslim unity 19 over separate electorates for untouchables 23–4 fellowship 68 see also communities; equality foreign cloth, burning of 16–17 four-dimensionality 54–9 freedom 59, 89, 93, 94, 116–17 crucifixion 8, 77 culture 12, 15 statist 85–7 Gandhi D Dandi, march to 20–1 debts 51–2 defence 103 Delhi 31 democracy 86–7, 99, 106 dharma 63, 93, 125 dialogue 69, 93 dignity 80, 81, 89, 110, 114 diversity 62, 100–1 see also individuality division of labour 14 Durkheim, Emile 78 duties 52, 62–3, 118 Dyer, Brigadier General 16 G Gita 3, 20 God 35–9, 41–4, 47, 50, 57 see also religion Gokhale, Gopal Krishna 10, 25 good 40, 62, 120 goodwill 44, 118 grace 58 Greenberg, Hayim 75 E H economy 94–8 education 1–3 energy 35, 56 see also soul-force England equality 89, 117–18 Europe 79, 89 see also modern civilization evil 40, 62, 72, 120 exploitation 53, 69, 82, 98 Harijan 12 Hinduism 1, 8, 42–3, 45–7, 119 Hindu–Muslim relationships 18–19, 24–33, 125 Hitler, Adolf 68, 75 human dignity 80, 81, 89, 110, 114 humanity 53, 61, 69 human nature 49–63, 79 cosmocentric view 49–51 four-dimensionality 54–9 human interdependence 51–3, 92–3 implications 61–3 moral theory 60–1 Hunter Commission 16 F faith 39–41, 84 fasts 15, 46, 71–3, 76–7 against violence 29, 31–2 136 I Jesus 44, 47, 56, 112 Jews 8, 74–5 Jinnah, Mohamed Ali 19, 25–7 Johnson, Mordecai 76 journalism Judaism 42 justice 69, 102–5, 118 identity 56–8, 62, 85, 90, 114 imperialism 82 see also colonialism independence 10–11, 13, 20–3, 29–30 leadership of independence movement 15–24 India: colonial rule 10, 16, 20–1, 64 Gandhi’s return to 9–15 independence 10–11, 13, 20–3, 29–30 regeneration programme 10–14 Indian Franchise Bill, Natal Indian National Congress 10, 12, 24, 27, 34 Gandhi’s relationship with 14, 18, 28 Indian Opinion Indian Relief Act individuality 56–7, 58–9, 62, 79, 85 industrialism 80, 97, 98 inequalities 95 see also equality integrity 59, 66, 85, 112, 116 see also authenticity interdependence 49 of human beings 51–3, 92–3 Islam 42, 57 K Kant, Immanuel 69 karma, law of 57 Kasturbai kha¯di 11, 12 King, Martin Luther 76–7, 113 Koran L M machines 80, 88, 89, 98 Marx, Karl 76, 78, 86, 89 mass contact programme 24 Mill, J S 78 mind 54–5, 57–8 J Jains Jallianwalla Bagh 16 137 Index languages, indigenous 11, 19 laws 106–8 disobeying of 107 legal career 3–5, liberalism 116–19 liberty see freedom life 40 animal life 50–1 of Gandhi 122–6 love 70 suffering love 15, 46, 68, 70–1, 76 Gandhi minority views 108 modern civilization 78–91, 121–2 lack of self-restraint 78–83 naive rationalism 83–5 response to 87–9 statist culture 85–7 moksha 7–8, 55, 58, 122 Montagu Chelmsford Report 23 morality 56, 60–1, 66, 69–70, 73 modern civilization 81, 86, 90 moral regeneration 10–14 Moses 44, 47 Muhammad 44, 56 Muslim League 24–6, 27 Muslims 18–19, 23, 24–33, 47 Hindu–Muslim relationships 18–19, 24–33, 125 Mussolini 68 Old Testament oppression 52–3, 69, 75 organization 88, 90 ownership 95–6 N R P Pakistan 27, 31–2 parliamentary democracy 87 see also democracy patriotism 10, 112 persuasion 59, 64 Plato police 103 post-modernism 112 power 56, 99 Pranami sect prisons 104–5 Raichandbhai rationalism 83–5, 89, 92 rationality 39–40, 73, 90, 108, 118 limits of 64–7 Rawls, John 69 reason 38, 41, 64–5, 73, 83–4, 93–4 rebirth 57, 62 regeneration programme 10–14 relative truth 66 religion 41–8, 58, 60, 90, 101 cosmic spirit 35–41, 50, 55–6 see also God respect 44 responsibilities, of citizens 105–8, 118 revelation 43–4 Natal 5–6 Natal Indian Congress nationalism 17, 26 natural resources 50–1 natural world 88 Navajivan 12 Nazi party 74, 108 Nehru, Jawaharlal 33 Niebuhr, Reinhold 77 Noakhali 29, 30 Non-Cooperation Movement 16–18 non-violence 20, 28, 46, 71, 108, 112–16 O obligations see duties 138 soul 55–6, 58, 81–2, 119 soul-force 68–73 South Africa 5–9, 53 discrimination 5–6, 64, 68 spinning wheel symbol 12, 19 spirituality 55–6, 58–9, 60, 93 state 85–7, 99–105, 109–10 communism and 95 responsibilities of citizens revolution 67 rights 52, 62–3, 118 to work 96–7 Rousseau, J.-J 89 Rowlatt Acts 15 Roy, B C 19 Roy, M N 25 Ruskin, John 7, 78, 89 105–8 suffering 70, 72, 74 suffering love 15, 46, 68, 70–1, 76 swabha¯va 56–9, 62, 94 swara¯j 93 symbols 12–13 S sadbha¯va 44 Salter, William salt tax satya¯graha 20–1, 22 satya 35 satya¯graha 6, 11–15, 64–77, 116, 119 against salt tax 20–2 limits of 73–7 limits of rationality and violence 64–7 soul-force 68–73 scientific spirit 87–8, 90 Scott, C P 21 secularity 101 self 54–5, 56, 58 self-interest 81 self-respect 53 self-restraint, lack of 78–83 sex 3, 123 see also celibacy Shaw, George Bernard 21 silence 19 socialism 96 society 92–4, 96, 101 see also communities; modern civilization T U United States 75–6 139 Index Tagore, Rabindranath 17, 24 tapas 15 technology 80 theology 42–3 Thoreau, Henry 7, 78 Tocqueville, Alexis de 78 tolerance 44, 118 Tolstoy Farm, Johannesburg 7, Tolstoy, Leo 7, 9, 78, 89 tradition 1, 46, 48, 119 Transvaal 5–6 trial (1922) 17 trusteeship 95–6, 98 truth 35–6, 47, 59, 117 relative truth 66 two-nations theory 26 W universe 40, 41, 50 untouchability 19, 24 untouchables 23 separate electorates for 23–4 Watts, Isaac Weber, Max 78 women, status of 19 work 96–7 V village industries 11, 19, 97 violence 28–32, 66–7, 75, 121 communism and 95 criminal violence 103–4 human life and 51 limits of 64–7 modern civilization 83, 90 opposition to 10, 65–6 see also non-violence X xenophobia 17 Y Gandhi yajna 52, 61 Yajnik, Indulal 123–5 year of silence (1926) 19 140 [...]... programme and urged the League to make a reciprocal gesture Jinnah, the leader of the League, not only refused to call off the campaign but intensified it Jinnah, Gandhi s greatest adversary, was a complex figure, and their relationship was full of strange paradoxes Jinnah came from the same part of India as Gandhi, shared his language and culture, and was a lawyer like him His family were first-generation...Chapter 1 Life and work Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born in 1869 in the coastal town of Porbandar, one of scores of tiny princely states and now part of the Indian state of Gujarat Although the Gandhis, meaning grocers, were merchants by caste, they had risen to important political positions Mohandas’s father was the chief administrator and member of the court of Porbandar, and his grandfather that... required funds, and so he cultivated and shrewdly managed India’s half a dozen richest industrialists He needed to awaken and unite his countrymen, and so he initiated a series of well-planned satya¯grahas, each appealing to a clearly targeted constituency He required a powerful political organization, and rebuilt the Indian National Congress from the bottom upwards Gandhi Above all Gandhi needed to... impossible to lay aside, once I had (liberation) puzzled him greatly, and he had to write to his mentor Raichandbhai in India for clarification and guidance Since Gandhi learned about his religion in South Africa in a confrontational context and without access to a rich and living Hindu tradition, his knowledge of it was largely based on reading and reflection, and remained shallow and abstract Like many other... within a single state, the momentum of events soon got out of control and he became a strong advocate of the separate state of Pakistan During his negotiations with Jinnah, Gandhi challenged his two-nations theory He argued that the language of nationalism was both inapplicable to India and inherently absurd Unlike the European countries, India was not a nation but a civilization, which had over the Gandhi. .. of village industries was intended to help the poor in the villages, guarantee them gainful work, arrest migration to the cities, and, above all, to sustain what Gandhi took to be the necessary social and geographical basis of Indian civilization For Gandhi the well-planned satya¯grahas and the Constructive Programme, especially the latter, held the key to India’s moral regeneration and political independence... ‘Jinnah’ was a Hindu name and reflected the fairly common practice among Hindu converts of retaining part of their original name Like Gandhi, Jinnah too adored Gokhale and regarded him as his political mentor Like him, Jinnah had spent many years abroad And although they worked out very different responses to India, both alike retained an Indian history or his own religious tradition Unlike Gandhi, Jinnah... retained considerable autonomy and was never merely an instrument of his will; for his part he retained his freedom of action and was not just a Congress leader 14 Although Gandhi s satya¯grahas in India followed the broad pattern of those in South Africa, he also introduced, as we shall see later, several changes to suit new circumstances and needs The idea of fasting was one of them and became a subject... otherwise a critic of fasting, thought it wholly justified After five days of hard bargaining by Ambedker, a compromise was reached The demand for a separate electorate was dropped, and in return the ‘untouchables’ received far more reserved seats than the Award had given them and special sums of money for their educational uplift Gandhi realized that Hinduism was ‘on the brink of an active volcano’, and threw... Gandhi s legal career in India was disappointing He was too shy to open 3 Life and work Gandhi left for England in 1888 to train as a lawyer, after giving a pledge 2 Gandhi as a law student in London in 1890 his mouth in court and had to give away his first barrister’s brief to a colleague He turned to drafting applications and managed to make ends meet However, the work did not interest him much, and