A HIGHLY ORIGINAL, STIRRING BOOK ON MAHATMA GANDHI THAT DEEPENS OUR SENSE OF HIS ACHIEVEMENTS AND DISAPPOINTMENTS—HIS SUCCESS IN SEIZING INDIA’S IMAGINATION AND SHAPING ITS INDEPENDENCE STRUGGLE AS A MASS MOVEMENT, HIS RECOGNITION LATE IN LIFE THAT FEW OF HIS FOLLOWERS PAID MORE THAN LIP SERVICE TO HIS AMBITIOUS GOALS OF SOCIAL JUSTICE FOR THE COUNTRY’S MINORITIES, OUTCASTS, AND RURAL POOR.
PULITZER PRIZE–WINNER JOSEPH LELYVELD SHOWS IN VIVID, UNMATCHED DETAIL HOW GANDHI’S SENSE OF MISSION, SOCIAL VALUES, AND PHILOSOPHY OF NONVIOLENT RESISTANCE WERE SHAPED ON ANOTHER SUBCONTINENT—DURING TWO DECADES IN SOUTH AFRICA—AND THEN TESTED BY AN INDIA THAT QUICKLY LEARNED TO REVERE HIM AS A MAHATMA, OR “GREAT SOUL,” WHILE FOLLOWING HIM ONLY A SMALL PART OF THE WAY TO THE SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION HE ENVISIONED. THE MAN HIMSELF EMERGES AS ONE OF HISTORY’S MOST REMARKABLE SELF-CREATIONS, A PROSPEROUS LAWYER WHO BECAME AN ASCETIC IN A LOINCLOTH WHOLLY DEDICATED TO POLITICAL AND SOCIAL ACTION. LELYVELD LEADS US STEP-BY-STEP THROUGH THE HEROIC—AND TRAGIC—LAST MONTHS OF THIS SELFLESS LEADER’S LONG CAMPAIGN WHEN HIS NONVIOLENT EFFORTS CULMINATED IN THE PARTITION OF INDIA, THE CREATION OF PAKISTAN, AND A BLOODBATH OF ETHNIC CLEANSING THAT ENDED ONLY WITH HIS OWN ASSASSINATION.
INDIA AND ITS POLITICIANS WERE READY TO PLACE GANDHI ON A PEDESTAL AS “FATHER OF THE NATION” BUT WERE LESS INCLINED TO EMBRACE HIS TEACHINGS. MUSLIM SUPPORT, CRUCIAL IN HIS RISE TO LEADERSHIP, SOON WANED, AND THE OPPRESSED UNTOUCHABLES—FOR WHOM GANDHI SPOKE TO HINDUS AS A WHOLE—PRODUCED THEIR OWN LEADERS.
HERE IS A VITAL, BRILLIANT RECONSIDERATION OF GANDHI’S EXTRAORDINARY STRUGGLES ON TWO CONTINENTS, OF HIS FIERCE BUT, FINALLY, UNFULFILLED HOPES, AND OF HIS EVER-EVOLVING LEGACY, WHICH MORE THAN SIX DECADES AFTER HIS DEATH STILL ENSURES HIS PLACE AS INDIA’S SOCIAL CONSCIENCE—AND NOT JUST INDIA’S.
‘महात्मा गांधीं आणि त्यांचा भारतीय संघर्ष’ (ग्रेट सोल महात्मा गांधी) हे पुस्तक गांधींच्या जीवनाचा सर्वांगीण वेध घेतं. गांधींनी पाहिलेली मोठ्या कार्याची स्वप्ने, सामाजिक मूल्यांचे त्यांना आलेले भान आणि अहिंसक प्रतिरोधाचे त्यांचे तत्त्वज्ञान परक्या उपखंडात (दक्षिण आफ्रिकेत त्यांनी घालविलेल्या दोन दशकांत) कसे फुलले, पोसले गेले आणि त्यांना ‘महात्मा’ म्हणून डोक्यावर घेणाऱ्या भारताने त्यांची तत्त्वं कशी पायदळी तुडवली, याचे वर्णन या पुस्तकात आहे. महात्मा गांधी एक प्रतिाQष्ठत वकील, जो राजकीय आणि सामाजिक कृति-कार्यक्रमांना स्वत:ला वाहून घेताना पंचा गुंडाळलेला संन्यासी कसा होतो याचे मनोज्ञ दर्शन या पुस्तकातून घडते. या नेत्याने दीर्घ काळापासून उभारलेल्या अहिंसक चळवळीचे पर्यवसान शेवटी भारताच्या विभाजनात, पाकिस्तानच्या निर्मितीत कसे झाले आणि जातिसंहाराच्या रक्तपाताने डागाळलेला हा प्रवास अखेरीस त्यांच्या स्वत:च्या हत्येपाशी जाऊन कसा थांबला, याचे वर्णनही या पुस्तकात आहे.