Gandhi's Passion The Life and Legacy of Mahatma Gandhi

by Wolpert, Stanley

• ISBN13: 9780195156348
• ISBN10: 019515634X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-11-28
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Mahatma Gandhi, through his indomitable will and selfless determination transformed himself into a model of courage and integrity for India's people to emulate in their non-violent struggle for political power. More than half a century after his death, Gandhi continues to inspire millionsthroughout the world. Yet modern India seems to have abandoned much of his non-violent vision, joining the nuclear arms race. 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 ofsuffering as the means of reaching divine truth. From his early campaigns to end 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 conquered by his political genius and moral vision.Early influenced by nonviolent teachings in Hinduism, 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. He fearlessly courted suffering and imprisonment in pursuit of his moral vision. The sweet reasonablenessof his 'Great Soul', combined with the steel of 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 throughpeaceful civil disobedience. Gandhi's Passion is a remarkable tribute by a historian at the height of his narrative and analytical powers. Wolpert boldly considers Gandhi the man, rather than the living god depicted by his disciples. He thus provides an unprecedented representation of Gandhi's passionate personality and theprofound complexities that compelled his actions and brought freedom to India.

Author Biography

Stanley Wolpert is Distinguished Professor of South Asian History Emeritus at the University of California, Los Angeles. He has published twenty books on South Asia, including Nehru: A Tryst with Destiny, A New History of India, and Jinnah of Pakistan.

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
Introduction	3	(4)
Midnight in Calcutta	7	(6)
Dawn in Gujarat	13	(7)
The Impact of Victorian London	20	(8)
Brief Interlude at Home	28	(6)
Early Traumas and Triumphs in South Africa	34	(8)
Between Two Worlds	42	(8)
Satyagraha in South Africa	50	(17)
Victory through Suffering	67	(15)
The Impact of World War I	82	(17)
Postwar Carnage and Nationwide Satyagraha	99	(16)
Cotton Spinning	115	(12)
Rising of the Poison	127	(8)
The Road Back to Satyagraha	135	(9)
The Salt March and Prison Aftermath	144	(8)
From Prison to London and Back	152	(13)
Imprisoned Soul of India	165	(9)
Return to Rural Uplift Work	174	(8)
Prelude to War and Partition	182	(9)
War and Peaceful Resistance	191	(14)
War behind Bars	205	(8)
No Peace	213	(11)
Walking Alone	224	(13)
Freedom's Wooden Loaf	237	(6)
Great Soul's Death in Delhi	243	(14)
His Indian Legacy	257	(7)
His Global Legacy	264	(5)
Notes	269	(30)
Select Bibliography	299	(4)
Index	303