Often considered the most admired human being of the twentieth century, Mahatma Gandhi was and remains controversial. Among the leading Gandhi scholars in the world, the authors of the timely studies in this volume present numerous ways in which Gandhi's thought and action-oriented approach are significant, relevant, and urgently needed for addressing the major problems and concerns of the twenty-first century. Such problems and concerns include issues of violence and nonviolence, war and peace, religion and religious conflict and dialogue, terrorism, ethics, civil disobedience, injustice, modernism and postmodernism, forms of oppression and exploitation, and environmental destruction. These creative, diverse studies offer a radical critique of the dominant characteristics and priorities of modern Western civilization and the contemporary world. They offer positive alternatives by using Gandhi, in creative and innovative ways, to focus on nonviolence, peace with justice, tolerance and mutual respect, compassion and loving kindness, cooperative relations and the realization of our interconnectedness and unity, meaningful action-oriented engagement of dialogue, resistance, and working for new sustainable ways of being human and creating new societies. This volume is appropriate for the general reader and the Gandhi specialist. It will be of interest for readers in philosophy, religion, political science, history, cultural studies, peace studies, and many other fields. Throughout this book, readers will experience a strong sense of the philosophical and practical urgency and significance of Gandhi's thought and action for the contemporary world.

Often considered the most admired human being of the twentieth century, Mahatma Gandhi was and remains controversial. Among the leading Gandhi scholars in the world, the authors of the timely studies in this volume present numerous ways in which Gandhi's thought and action-oriented approach are significant, relevant, and urgently needed for addressing the major problems and concerns of the twenty-first century. Such problems and concerns include issues of violence and nonviolence, war and peace, religion and religious conflict and dialogue, terrorism, ethics, civil disobedience, injustice, modernism and postmodernism, forms of oppression and exploitation, and environmental destruction. These creative, diverse studies offer a radical critique of the dominant characteristics and priorities of modern Western civilization and the contemporary world. They offer positive alternatives by using Gandhi, in creative and innovative ways, to focus on nonviolence, peace with justice, tolerance and mutual respect, compassion and loving kindness, cooperative relations and the realization of our interconnectedness and unity, meaningful action-oriented engagement of dialogue, resistance, and working for new sustainable ways of being human and creating new societies. This volume is appropriate for the general reader and the Gandhi specialist. It will be of interest for readers in philosophy, religion, political science, history, cultural studies, peace studies, and many other fields. Throughout this book, readers will experience a strong sense of the philosophical and practical urgency and significance of Gandhi's thought and action for the contemporary world.

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."

Who is responsible for the Mahatma's death? Just one single, but determined, fanatic, the whole ideology of Hindu nationalism, the ruling Congress-led government whichfailed to protect him, or a vast majority of Indians and their descendants who considered Gandhi irrelevant? Such questions mean that Gandhi, even after his tragic and brutal death, continues to haunt India - perhaps more effectively in his afterlife than when he was alive. The Death and Afterlife of Mahatma Gandhi is a groundbreaking and profound analysis of the assassination of the 'father of the nation' and its after-effects. Paranjape argues that such a catastrophic event during the very birth pangs of a new nation placed a huge burden of Oedipal guilt on Indians, and that this is the reason for the massive repression of the murder in India's political psyche. The enduring influence of Gandhi is analysed, including his spectral presence in Indian cinema. The book culminates in Paranjape's reading of Gandhi's last six months in Delhi, where, from the very edge of the grave, he wrought what was perhaps his greatest miracle, the saving of Delhi and thus of India itself from internecine bloodshed. This evocative and moving meditation into the meaning of the Mahatma's death will be relevant to scholars of Indian political and cultural history, as well as those with an interest in Gandhi and contemporary India

Who is responsible for the Mahatma s death? Just one single, but determined, fanatic, the whole ideology of Hindu nationalism, the ruling Congress-led government whichfailed to protect him, or a vast majority of Indians and their descendants who considered Gandhi irrelevant? Such questions mean that Gandhi, even after his tragic and brutal death, continues to haunt India perhaps more effectively in his afterlife than when he was alive.

"The Death and Afterlife of Mahatma Gandhi" is a groundbreaking and profound analysis of the assassination of the father of the nation and its after-effects. Paranjape argues that such a catastrophic event during the very birth pangs of a new nation placed a huge burden of Oedipal guilt on Indians, and that this is the reason for the massive repression of the murder in India s political psyche. The enduring influence of Gandhi is analysed, including his spectral presence in Indian cinema. The book culminates in Paranjape s reading of Gandhi s last six months in Delhi, where, from the very edge of the grave, he wrought what was perhaps his greatest miracle, the saving of Delhi and thus of India itself from internecine bloodshed.

This evocative and moving meditation into the meaning of the Mahatma s death will be relevant to scholars of Indian political and cultural history, as well as those with an interest in Gandhi and contemporary India"