Gandhi, Hinduism and Modernity

The book examine why and how Gandhi and his ideas continue to matter. It captures what it is that makes the Mahatma challenge, puzzle, and exasperate, to discover how he continues to be relevant, even contemporary, and to define what saves him from simply fading into oblivion. It analyses Gandhi’s critique of modernity and explains its pertinence to our times.

The author addresses these issues by exploring a variety of aspects of Gandhi’s life and thought. Key chapters examine Gandhi’s death, his booklet Hind Swaraj (Indian Home Rule), Gandhi in the wake of Hindutva and Hindu cultural nationalism and his potrayal in Indian national cinema. His perspective on peace, the relevance of his educational experiments and his theories of medicine are further topics discussed. Finally, the exchange with Rabindranath Tagore is analysed as a way of problematizing not just rationality but modernity itself.

An exploration of Gandhi’s life and thought, this book also offers an investigation into what it means to be seriously engaged with Gandhi in our times.