Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Notes
- Preface
- Glossary
- PART I INFLUENCE
- PART II GANDHI INFLUENCED
- 2 The influenced Gandhi
- 3 Henry Polak and the setting up of Phoenix Settlement
- 4 Hermann Kallenbach and the move to Tolstoy Farm
- 5 Maganlal Gandhi and the decision to leave Sabarmati
- 6 Jamnalal Bajaj and the move to Sevagram
- 7 The top of the hourglass: Gandhi influenced
- PART III GANDHI'S INFLUENCE
- Bibliography
- Index
7 - The top of the hourglass: Gandhi influenced
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 September 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Notes
- Preface
- Glossary
- PART I INFLUENCE
- PART II GANDHI INFLUENCED
- 2 The influenced Gandhi
- 3 Henry Polak and the setting up of Phoenix Settlement
- 4 Hermann Kallenbach and the move to Tolstoy Farm
- 5 Maganlal Gandhi and the decision to leave Sabarmati
- 6 Jamnalal Bajaj and the move to Sevagram
- 7 The top of the hourglass: Gandhi influenced
- PART III GANDHI'S INFLUENCE
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
THE POLITICAL GANDHI AND THE WHOLE GANDHI
The biographies of Gandhi tend to be political biographies. The central story of the India phase of his life focuses on the three main political campaigns for Indian freedom that he led: the 1921–2 Non-cooperation movement, the 1930–33 Civil Disobedience movement and the 1942–3 Quit India movement. The lengthy periods between these campaigns are glossed over, seen as lulls in Gandhi's life. This however gives a very limited view of the Mahatma. Gandhi's talk of Swaraj, that is independence or freedom, is generally interpreted merely as independence for the Indian nation from British rule. However, for Gandhi political activism had a more fundamental role. It was to a large degree educative, helping to train the soul and develop character so as to aid the quest for individual perfection. Swaraj means self-rule and to limit this to political self-rule is to largely miss the point. The three campaigns are not three isolated bursts of political activity, but examples of a lifelong quest for swaraj temporarily focusing at the macro level.
Narayan Desai, one of the few remaining Gandhians who knew the Mahatma intimately (his father was Mahadev Desai, Gandhi's chief personal secretary, and he grew up in Gandhi's ashrams), who was a leading figure in the post-Gandhi Gandhian movement and who is the most recent Gandhi biographer, notes that Gandhi gave three great gifts to humanity and that satyagraha, Gandhi's nonviolent activism, representing the political Gandhi, is only one of them.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Gandhi as Disciple and Mentor , pp. 120 - 130Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2004