Becoming Gandhi

How many times are kids supposed to study Gandhi? Come September and out comes the bald head wig, round glasses, white dhoti, tall stick ... that's about the extent of how today's kids engage with the Mahatma. Chandrashekhar is one such teen. Bored by the annual Gandhi projects, he wonders if his teacher is being too unreasonable in asking them to "BE" Gandhi. And then, his world is shaken by events that rock him to the core, forcing him to dig deep and not just find his 'inner Gandhi', but become Gandhi. Not for a day or two. But, maybe even, for life. This is a novel that explores, not Gandhi the man or his life as a leader, but really the Gandhian way that must remain relevant to us. Especially today when the world is becoming increasingly steeped in violence and hate.

The fascinating and timely quest of a longtime New York Times contributor to follow Mahatma Gandhi’s code of ethics in today’s world. In Becoming Gandhi, veteran journalist and author Perry Garfinkel sets out on a three-year quest to examine how Gandhi’s ideals have held up in a world beset with troubling trends. In one chilling admission, one of Gandhi’s own grandsons tells Garfinkel that humans will always retain a degree of violence. Where does this leave modern society? “When I despair,” the Mahatma had said, “I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won.” To many he was a beacon of hope, a true moral compass; to others, a divisive lightning rod for controversy. Garfinkel takes to heart one of Gandhi’s most famous sayings―“Be the change you want to see in the world”―and attempts a personal transformation. Committing to practice the Mahatma’s six main principles―truth, nonviolence, vegetarianism, simplicity, faith, and celibacy―he seeks to better himself, facing successes and failures that at times lead to self-effacing humour. Perry undertook a unique journey of self-discovery by tracing Gandhi’s footsteps from India to England to South Africa and even American communities where Gandhi’s spirit endures. Featuring inspiring interviews, provocative reflections, and remarkable encounters, Becoming Gandhi shares new perspectives on this pivotal figure and why his teachings are needed like never before.

The fascinating quest of a New York Times contributor to follow Mahatma Gandhi’s code of ethics in modern times—and to discover what it actually takes to “Be the change you want to see in the world” Mahatma Gandhi championed truth and nonviolence, led the struggle for India’s independence, and staunchly stood up for the marginalized. “When I despair,” he said, “I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won.” In Becoming Gandhi, veteran journalist and author Perry Garfinkel sets out on a three-year quest to examine how Gandhi’s ideals have held up in a world beset by troubling trends. “As I saw myself and society moving further away from a moral point of view,” Garfinkel states, “I wanted to see if an ordinary person living in the 21st century could, like Gandhi, follow a morally driven game plan.” While tracing Gandhi’s legacy through India, England, South Africa, and even American communities where his spirit endures, Garfinkel attempts to follow six of the key principles that guided the Mahatma’s life: • Truth—Practicing honesty in thoughts, words, and actions in an increasingly artificial world • Nonviolence—Choosing peace in our words, behavior, and even choice of entertainment • Vegetarianism—The complex ethics of deciding what we put in our mouths • Simplicity—How to find practical antidotes to conspicuous consumer culture • Faith—Exploring the meaning of our lives and our relationship with what we cannot know • Celibacy (wait, really?)—The search for a moral path between permissiveness and abstinence To many, Gandhi was a beacon of hope; to others, a lightning rod for controversy. As Perry Garfinkel found, walking (and even stumbling) in Gandhi’s footsteps can reveal how we each have a role to play in creating a more compassionate, peaceful world. “Being Gandhi is unattainable,” Garfinkel observes. “But becoming more Gandhi-like will continue to engage me as long as I live. How about you?”

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi lived during a time of intense struggle, but he envisioned a world where people could live in harmony. Madan Mohan Verma explores how he appealed to such a diverse population in the second edition of his landmark book exploring Gandhis techniques. Learn how Gandhi: cultivated the loyalty of the Indian masses; trusted his instincts in determining how the masses felt; combined the best values of Indian culture; reconciled the conflicting interests of the haves and have-nots. While some have attributed a sort of mysticism to Gandhis leadership, its dangerous to assign him supernatural powers. His methods were commonly used by leaders in the Western worldbut few could duplicate his skill in applying them. Gandhi used to say, My life is my message. Therefore, when researching his techniques, its critical to turn to his life to understand the ideals he stood for and how he worked toward and promoted a richer concept of democracy. Explore how the greatest leader of modern times launched a revolution and gained influence over the masses with this in-depth account highlighting Gandhis Technique of Mass Mobilization.

This comprehensive Gandhi reader provides an essential new reference for scholars and students of his life and thought. It is the only text available that presents Gandhi's own writings, including excerpts from three of his books—An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth, Satyagraha in South Africa, Hind Swaraj (Indian Home Rule)-a major pamphlet, Constructive Programme: Its Meaning and Place, and many journal articles and letters along with a biographical sketch of his life in historical context and recent essays by highly regarded scholars. The writers of these essays—hailing from the United States, Canada, Great Britain and India, with academic credentials in several different disciplines—examine his nonviolent campaigns, his development of programs to unify India, and his impact on the world in the second half of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first. Gandhi's Experiments with Truth provides an unparalleled range of scholarly material and perspectives on this enduring philosopher, peace activist, and spiritual guide.

In this study of Mahatma Gandhi, psychoanalyst Erik H. Erikson explores how Gandhi succeeded in mobilizing the Indian people both spiritually and politically as he became the revolutionary innovator of militant non-violence and India became the motherland of large-scale civil disobedience.

In this fascinating and meticulously researched book, bestselling historian Arthur Herman sheds new light on two of the most universally recognizable icons of the twentieth century, and reveals how their forty-year rivalry sealed the fate of India and the British Empire. They were born worlds apart: Winston Churchill to Britain’s most glamorous aristocratic family, Mohandas Gandhi to a pious middle-class household in a provincial town in India. Yet Arthur Herman reveals how their lives and careers became intertwined as the twentieth century unfolded. Both men would go on to lead their nations through harrowing trials and two world wars—and become locked in a fierce contest of wills that would decide the fate of countries, continents, and ultimately an empire. Gandhi & Churchill reveals how both men were more alike than different, and yet became bitter enemies over the future of India, a land of 250 million people with 147 languages and dialects and 15 distinct religions—the jewel in the crown of Britain’s overseas empire for 200 years. Over the course of a long career, Churchill would do whatever was necessary to ensure that India remain British—including a fateful redrawing of the entire map of the Middle East and even risking his alliance with the United States during World War Two. Mohandas Gandhi, by contrast, would dedicate his life to India’s liberation, defy death and imprisonment, and create an entirely new kind of political movement: satyagraha, or civil disobedience. His campaigns of nonviolence in defiance of Churchill and the British, including his famous Salt March, would become the blueprint not only for the independence of India but for the civil rights movement in the U.S. and struggles for freedom across the world. Now master storyteller Arthur Herman cuts through the legends and myths about these two powerful, charismatic figures and reveals their flaws as well as their strengths. The result is a sweeping epic of empire and insurrection, war and political intrigue, with a fascinating supporting cast, including General Kitchener, Rabindranath Tagore, Franklin Roosevelt, Lord Mountbatten, and Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan. It is also a brilliant narrative parable of two men whose great successes were always haunted by personal failure, and whose final moments of triumph were overshadowed by the loss of what they held most dear.