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1. The Great Pertinence of Gandhi to India in the 75th Year of Its Independence

Author:
Alan Nazareth, Gita Dharampal, M. Hamid Ansari, and Shyam Saran
Publication Date:
07-2022
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
India International Centre (IIC)
Abstract:
In this paper, I present the gist of two of my books: Gandhi’s Outstanding Leadership and Gandhi: The Soul Force Warrior. In the first book, I focused on Gandhi’s transformation from a timid youthful barrister in India into the fearless leader he became in South Africa after his racial humiliation at Pietermaritzberg. I presented the spiritual and other inputs (especially the Bhagwat Gita) that brought about this transformation, the nature, components and stature of his leadership, its diverse achievements, its impact on India and the world, and assessments of him, his leadership and achievements made by his contemporaries.
Topic:
Leadership, History, Nonviolence, and Mahatma Gandhi
Political Geography:
South Asia and India

2. Satyagraha and the Conquest of Evil

Author:
Vinit Haksar
Publication Date:
11-2020
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
India International Centre (IIC)
Abstract:
Gandhi and Tolstoy were perfectionists. Perfectionism is a doctrine that wants to maximise all that is best in the world. All individuals should develop the best qualities. So what are the best qualities? In the West, great men like Nietzsche have stressed that this perfectionism is associated with a rather grand view of people doing great art and great music and great action; people like Napoleon, literary figures like Goethe and so on. Gandhi following Tolstoy had quite a different version of perfectionism which confined it just to moral and spiritual matters. It was moral and spiritual perfectionism. Things like art, music, literature had no intrinsic value, according to Gandhi. He had use for them only when they were connected with the moral and spiritual well-being of human beings, or as an expression of our devotion to or understanding of spiritual reality. The problem with traditional perfectionism is that such perfectionism has a danger that all these great people mentioned, Napoleon and others, they achieved great things, the so-called great things and the rest of us got left out. At best, we just get vicarious pleasure by following the lives of these people, by admiring their adventures or as working as fodder for their projects. This is a highly inegalitarian philosophy. Some people have suggested that it is also connected with racism.
Topic:
Ethics, Mahatma Gandhi, Leo Tolstoy, and Moral Philosophy
Political Geography:
South Asia and India