Gandhi's Dilemma Nonviolent Principles and Nationalist Power

by Steger, Manfred B.

• ISBN13: 9780312221775
• ISBN10: 0312221770
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-10-06
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

Throughout his long career as a political thinker and activist, Mahatma Gandhi encountered the dilemma of either remaining faithful to his nonviolent principles and risking the failure of the Indian nationalist movement, or focusing on the seizure of political power at the expense of his moral message. Putting forward his vision of a "nonviolent nationalism," Gandhi argued that Indian self-rule could be achieved without sacrificing the universalist imperatives of his nonviolent philosophy. Conceived as a study in the history of political thought, this book examines the origins, meaning, and unfolding of Gandhi's dilemma as it played itself out in both theory and political practice. This discussion is inextricably linked to significant and timely issues that are critical for the study of nationalism, for Gandhi's vision raises the important question of whether it is indeed possible to construct a benign type of nationalism that is rooted in neither physical nor conceptual forms of violence.

Author Biography

Manfred B. Steger is Associate Professor of Political Science at Illinois State University.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
Introduction	1	(14)
The Promise of British Liberalism	15	(26)
Confronting Difference and Exclusion: Gandhi's Struggle for Recognition in South Africa	41	(26)
Gandhi's Critique of Liberalism: Exposing the Immorality of Modern Civilization	67	(22)
Imagining India: Gandhi's Construction of Nonviolent Nationalism	89	(22)
Purifying Self and Nation: Gandhi's Experiments with Self-Control	111	(84)
Reconciling Nonviolent Principles with Nationalist Power?
Three Cases	141	(40)
Epilogue: A Nonviolent Nationalism?	181	(14)
Abbreviations	195	(2)
Notes	197	(32)
Index	229