Gandhi and Philosophy: Hypophysics and the Comparison between Caste and Race (original) (raw)
Spl. Issue : Gandhian Ideology & Philosophy
The 21 st Century is identified as the age of growth and development. In midst of all the developments, it is the acceptable hour to stand still and think 'Is India really developing?' and 'Is humaneness present in human life?' An inquest into these two questions, reminds a lot about our charismatic leader Mahatma Gandhi, his philosophy and his teachings. This article envisages the facts behind the relevance of Gandhiji and his philosophy in today's sociopolitical environment.
the cambridge companion to GANDHI Even today, six decades after his assassination in January 1948, Mahatma Gandhi is still revered as the father of the Indian nation. His intellectual and moral legacy -encapsulated in works such as Hind Swaraj -as well as the example of his life and politics serve as an inspiration to human rights and peace movements, political activists, and students in classroom discussions throughout the world. This book, comprising essays by renowned experts in the fields of Indian history and philosophy, traces Gandhi's extraordinary story. The first part of the book, the biography, explores his transformation from a smalltown lawyer during his early life in South Africa into a skilled political activist and leader of civil resistance in India. The second part is devoted to Gandhi's key writings and his thinking on a broad range of topics, including religion, conflict, politics, and social relations. The final part reflects on Gandhi's image -how he has been portrayed in literature and film -and on his legacy in India, the West, and beyond.
Gandhi and the Stoics, Modern Experiments on Ancient Values, written by Richard Sorabji
International journal of the Platonic tradition, 2017
Richard Sorabji's Gandhi and the Stoics, Modern Experiments on Ancient Values is impressive in its restraint, objectivity, and balance of research with reasoning. Divided into 11 chapters (excluding Introduction), this nuanced, readable book offers a worthy alternative to our impassioned politics of power and pity-namely, Gandhi's numinous politics. Although historical, Sorabji's method is also philosophical and theological. Using his comparison to shed light on Gandhi, the Stoics, and the ideas themselves (1-2), he also uses each to improve the other (4). Academically unique, because "few have noticed the much more indirect relation [of Gandhi] to the Stoics" (1), such comparative works heal post-colonial fissures with their lofty cosmopolitanism-redeeming the trite globalisms that distract us from true universals. The relationship between Gandhi and the Stoics being indirect (1, 3-4), their similarities indicate uninfluenced world historical parallelisms, even if tempered by their differences. Sorabji sees Gandhi as a spiritual-moral leader-only then, a politician (50, 53, 196). In between, Gandhi also plays a philosophical role in eight ways (196-9) that include-subjecting his views to relentless published criticisms (1, 196, 198, 201), encountering the public not only to teach, but (unlike Diogenes or the Stoics) to "refine" his existing views (202-3); giving philosophical reasons for his views (196, 198); handling philosophical topics with "philosophical acumen" (196, 198). Sorabji details seven philosophical topics discussed by Gandhi (196-8)-including rights and duties (rights have to be earned by matching duties), two kinds of freedom (through political and personal self-rule), svadharma (individuation of duties), and nonviolence. Hardly a pacifist, Gandhi did not rule out all killing (82-3, 85-8, 197, 201). To be nonviolent, killing had to be for the sake of the killed (83, 86-8, 197). What Gandhi officially endorsed was attitudinal (not behavioral) nonviolence (82). From Sorabji's portrait, Gandhi emerges a universal being-inspired by ideas from India and the West, yet transforming (reinterpreting) both (6). Ideas inspired by western influence could end up unlike the originals, whereas ideas converging with western ones may be "less altered" (5).
An account of Mahatma Gandhi's views in regard to theism vs atheism, providence, euthanasia, caste etc.