Rediscovering Gandhi (Set of 10 Volumes)

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This book takes a fresh look at Hind Swaraj, authored by Mahatma Gandhi in 1908, in the backdrop of the emerging problems of violence, moral decay, poverty, social disintegration and environmental degradation. Giving the essence of Hind Swaraj, it discusses factors and forces, which influenced Gandhi and prompted him to write the book.

It also reviews the comments made on Hind Swaraj and its message to humanity. Finally, it discusses the agenda for action to realise the goals of Hind Swaraj at national and international levels.

Prof. R.P. Misra, a former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Allahabad and Chief Technical Advisor of the United Nations, is a well-known development planner and Gandhian scholar. He founded the Institute of Development Studies, University of Mysore in 1971 and remained its director until 1979. He was the vice-director of the UN Centre for Regional Development, Japan (1979-84). Most recently (2002-04), he was Mahatma Gandhi National Fellow of Gandhi Smriti & Darshan Samiti, New Delhi. He began his academic life as a social geographer; then he moved to the field of Development Planning and finally arrived at Gandhian Studies. Editor of Anasakti Darshan, an international journal of non-violence-in-action. He has authored and edited over fifty seminal books.

Hind Swaraj is the first and the most fundamental book written by Gandhi. It has been the subject matter of several seminars, symposia, articles, Ph.D. theses and books. It has been hailed as Magna-Carta of a new world order as also the work of a cranky who wants to take the world back to the stone-age. However, it is a book, which cannot be ignored in any discussion and debate on human progress and socio- economic development. It goes deep into the question of human destiny and draws a road map to reach.

Hind Swaraj was written when Gandhi was in South Africa fighting the British administration to secure legitimate human rights of the indentured labourers. Back home in India, there was stirring, even if subdued, to secure self-government within the British Empire. But Gandhi's vision was different and higher and his goals far beyond political freedom. For him real freedom was 'Swaraj', rule over one's senses and real progress was spiritual, not material. Once a person gained 'Swaraj', nothing could chain him, no power on earth could defeat him. All other freedoms - political, economic, social and cultural-were subsumed in Swaraj and could be easily attained once one moved on the road to Swaraj.

Gandhi outlined the method of gaining Swaraj and thereby the political and economic independence from Britain. How and why India became a colony of Britain and how it could become free again by aspiring to achieve Swaraj and working for it, is what this little book with great ideas is all about.

As the new economic policy of globalization moves on to make the world a global village, new challenges and problems have emerged before humanity. The belief that all emergent problems-ecological, social, economic, political and moral-could be resolved by scientific discoveries and technological innovations persists, failures in the past notwithstanding. What is happening today is in line with what Gandhi almost predicted in Hind Swaraj as he prepared its manuscript in 1908. There is, therefore, a need to have yet another look at it and to see what guidelines it can offer to us. ICGSR Series on Rediscovering Gandhi is a modest attempt in this direction.

'Hind Swaraj-Gandhi's Challenge to Modern Civilisation' is the first volume of the series. It looks at Hind Swaraj in the backdrop of the emerging problems of violence, moral decay, poverty, social disintegration and environmental degradation and shows the direction in which humanity must move now to save itself from impending catastrophe. Apart from introductory chapter, it has sixteen other chapters grouped into five parts.

Chapter 1: Introduction' gives the aims, objectives and organization of the book. Part I has three chapters (2 to 4), which gives the essence of Hind Swaraj and place it in a class of books that are seminal in character and have lasting implications for humanity in general and India in particular.

Part II discusses factors and forces, which influenced Gandhi and prompted him to write the book almost non-stop aboard a ship while returning from London to South Africa in 1908. It has six chapters (5 to 10). Gandhi's own experiences, especially during the first forty years of his life, are discussed in Chapter 5. It covers the period from early childhood to his education in England and the struggles he had to go through in South Africa. Chapter 6 looks at Gandhi's view of history written by Western historians and the way it was distorted to give an impression that only wars and conflicts shaped human destiny; and that the West was progressive and a paragon of virtues while the rest of the world was retrogressive and primitive. Indian Renaissance of the nineteenth century produced a number of men and women of eminence practically in all walks of life. Some of them struggled hard in their own ways to free India from the yoke of British imperialism. Then, there were several writers and poets who: left an indelible imprint on Gandhi's life and thinking. Hind Swaraj owes much to these personages. The immediate provocation for writing the book came from his interaction with the London based young revolutionaries. The life and works of some of these persons form Chapters 7 and 8. Chapter 9 highlights Gandhi's exposure to Western thought, and Chapter 10 looks at his understanding of science and technology and its impact on his thinking.

Book's Contents and Sample Pages