Revolutionary Gandhi

This volume is a collection of Devi Prasad’s essays on Gandhi, social justice and social change. The different essays address themes ranging from Gandhi’s ideals of satyagraha and ahimsa, civil disobedience and non-violence, to the Gandhian approach to education as founded in making and crafting as well as participation in the political and social movements of our times. They also engage the revolutionary potential of Gandhi’s thought, drawing parallels between Lenin and Gandhi and analysing the historical significance of Gandhi’s anti-imperialist yet non-violent political philosophy. In sum, the volume dwells on the continuing, critical relevance of Gandhi in our times. It will be of interest to those in education, political science, peace and conflict studies, history and philosophy, as well as to the general reader interested in Gandhian thought.

Marxist interpretation of Gandhiana--

This book charts the fascinating life of Mahatma Gandhi, president of the Indian National Congress and peaceloving protestor for independence. Born to a Hindu family in India in 1869, Gandhi devoted his life to politics and non-violent protest. After training in London and working as a lawyer in South Africa, Gandhi returned to India where he set about creating independence from British rule. After protest marches, hunger strikes and prison sentences, India finally achieved independence in 1947. However, as the book explains, the creation of Pakistan for Muslims led to Muslim/Hindu tension, partition and much bloodshed, events leading to the tragic assassination of Gandhi in 1948. Contains quotation panels, including letters and diary extracts. Also includes a date chart, glossary and index.

Gandhi's Quit India Movement of 1942 was the climax of a nationalist revolutionary movement which sought independence on India's own terms. Indian independence was attained through revolution, not through a benevolent grant from the British imperial regime. "The British left India because Indians had made it impossible for them to stay." The bases for Francis Hutchins' thesis are new facts from hitherto unused sources: interviews with surviving participants in the movement, private papers from the Gandhi Memorial Museum and the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, documents in the National Archives of India. In particular, he has studied the secret records of the British government, recently made available, which reveal for the first time the extent of the revolutionary movement and Britain's plans for dealing with it. Of the British records Hutchins says, "No other regime has left such careful documentation of its strategies or compiled such extensive records revealing the way in which it was overthrown." Even though England had always proclaimed its hope that India would one day become independent, the tacit assumption was that this was a remote eventuality. Only after Gandhi's Quit India Movement did Britain's political parties resign themselves to the necessity to leave quickly, whether or not they believed India was "ready." Obscured by censorship in India and by preoccupation with World War II, the significance of Gandhi's revolutionary technique was not appreciated at the time. Hutchins' impressive analysis uses the Indian case to develop a general theory of the revolutionary nature of colonial nationalism.

Gandhi has been called the "Father of India" and his name is often invoked as a synonym for peaceful revolution, compassion, and racial harmony. Many leaders, scholars, and academics have continued to uphold this narrative of Gandhi for decades. But is there another side to Gandhi's legacy which has been suppressed? This booklet examines the topic of whether Gandhi was a racist or a revolutionary by delving into his words and actions on three major topics -- personal morality, the caste system, and the African people.