More than half a century after his death, Mahatma Gandhi continues to inspire millions throughout the world. Yet modern India, most strikingly in its decision to join the nuclear arms race, seems to have abandoned much of his nonviolent vision. Inspired by recent events in India, Stanley Wolpert offers this subtle and profound biography of India's "Great Soul." Wolpert compellingly chronicles the life of Mahatma Gandhi from his early days as a child of privilege to his humble rise to power and his assassination at the hands of a man of his own faith. This trajectory, like that of Christ, was the result of Gandhi's passion: his conscious courting of suffering as the means to reach divine truth. From his early campaigns to stop discrimination in South Africa to his leadership of a people's revolution to end the British imperial domination of India, Gandhi emerges as a man of inner conflicts obscured by his political genius and moral vision. Influenced early on by nonviolent teachings in Hinduism, Jainism, Christianity, and Buddhism, he came to insist on the primacy of love for one's adversary in any conflict as the invincible power for change. His unyielding opposition to intolerance and oppression would inspire India like no leader since the Buddha--creating a legacy that would encourage Martin Luther King, Jr., Nelson Mandela, and other global leaders to demand a better world through peaceful civil disobedience. By boldly considering Gandhi the man, rather than the living god depicted by his disciples, Wolpert provides an unprecedented representation of Gandhi's personality and the profound complexities that compelled his actions and brought freedom to India.

"Born in 1934 in South Africa, where he was subject to the daily injustices of apartheid, and raised in a family dedicated to nonviolent social reform, Dr. Gandhi writes with rare authority and insight. His narrative draws primarily upon the experiences as a youth in India, where he lived with his grandfather during the last eighteen months of the Mahatma's life.

This eleventh edition was developed during the encyclopaedia's transition from a British to an American publication. Some of its articles were written by the best-known scholars of the time and it is considered to be a landmark encyclopaedia for scholarship and literary style.

Gandhi was the creator of a radical style of politics that has proved effective in fighting insidious social divisions within India and elsewhere in the world. How did this new form of politics come about? David Hardiman shows that it was based on a larger vision of an alternative society, one that emphasized mutual respect, resistance to exploitation, nonviolence, and ecological harmony. Politics was just one of the many directions in which Gandhi sought to activate this peculiarly personal vision, and its practice involved experiments in relation to his opponents. From representatives of the British Raj to Indian advocates of violent resistance, from right-wing religious leaders to upholders of caste privilege, Gandhi confronted entrenched groups and their even more entrenched ideologies with a deceptively simple ethic of resistance. Hardiman examines Gandhi's ways of conducting his conflicts with all these groups, as well as with his critics on the left and representatives of the Dalits. He also explores another key issue in Gandhi's life and legacy: his ideas about and attitudes toward women. Despite inconsistencies and limitations, and failures in his personal life, Gandhi has become a beacon for posterity. The uncompromising honesty of his politics and moral activism has inspired such figures as Jayaprakash Narayan, Medha Patkar, Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela, and Petra Kelly and influenced a series of new social movements--by environmentalists, antiwar campaigners, feminists, and human rights activists, among others--dedicated to the principle of a more just world.

Writing about Gandhi without being obvious is always difficult. Numerous books and articles are published every year, especially across the anniversaries of his birth and death. The judicious scholar believes that writing something new on this iconic figure is almost impossible. However, in the difficult times when this book was conceived, at the peak of what presumably can be considered as the worst humanitarian disaster of the 21st century, the Gandhian legacy has become more topical than ever. Gandhi’s thought and experience regarding laws and economy, and his views on secularism or on the tremendous effects of the colonial rule in India and beyond provide the opportunity to reflect on persistently manipulated constitutions and violated human rights, on the crisis of secularism and the demand of a sustainable, environment friendly economy. This book aims not only to offer new insights into Gandhi’s experience and legacy but also to prove how Gandhian values are relevant to the present and can provide explanations and solutions for present challenges. Gandhi After Gandhi will appeal to researchers and students alike interested in Indian culture and political thinking and Indian history since independence.

*Includes pictures *Includes Gandhi's own quotes about his life and career *Includes footnotes and a bibliography for further reading "In judging myself I shall try to be as harsh as truth, as I want others also to be." - Gandhi "I am not pleading for India to practice nonviolence because it is weak. I want her to practice nonviolence being conscious of her strength and power." - Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, or Mahatma Gandhi as he is more popularly known, was called "Mahatma," or "Great Soul" not only because of his extraordinary achievements as leader of the Indian independence movement, but also because of his beliefs, practices, and principles that demonstrated to the world the depths that one's soul could have. Widely considered the father of India, the preeminent leader of the Indian struggle against British imperialism, and one of the most influential minds of the 20th century, Gandhi emerged to become one of the greatest advocates of peace and nonviolent resistance that the world has known. By leading a life of austerity and integrity, Gandhi became one of those rare leaders who preached through his own practices, motivating millions of people - rich and poor, men and women, adults and children, Hindus, Muslims, and Christians - to follow his principles of freedom and peace. Gandhi saw with his own eyes the negative impact of British colonialism on the Indian economy, culture, and identity, as did millions of other Indians. What made Gandhi unique was the fact that he also saw the enormously negative impact the diversity of the Indian population had on the struggle for Indian independence; divisions were rife between Hindus, Muslims, and dozens of other faiths, and the population was divided into hundreds of different ethnic groups, each with its own traditions and culture, and each unwilling to unite with other groups for the common cause of a free India. The caste system in India, as a long-standing social stratification system that placed severe and often permanent social restrictions on individuals according to which social classes they were born into, also played a large role in dividing Indian society. Gandhi recognized that these divisions were what weakened India's chances to effectively oppose British imperialism and establish independence. As nationalism and independence movements began forming and spreading in the mid and late 1800s, Gandhi was able to unite these various ethnic groups, religious groups, and social groups and lead a unified Indian independence movement. The impact that Gandhi made was lasting, and his legacy can still be seen today. Gandhi was not a theorist or scholar in the traditional sense, and never professed to be one; he prided himself on instead being a reformer and a true activist, for he famously stated that "I am not built for academic writings...Action is my domain." And yet, the action that Gandhi spoke of was not the violent and terror-invoking action that many other resistance movements took elsewhere in the world; Gandhi was guided by strict values, principles, and ideas of peace and nonviolence that remained remarkably enduring throughout his life. Mahatma Gandhi: The Life and Legacy of the Father of India chronicles the life and career of the man who shaped civil disobedience in the 20th century and led his country to independence. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about Gandhi like never before, in no time at all.