Gandhi after 9/11

Description

9/11 marked the beginning of a century that is defined by widespread violence. Every other day seems to be a furthering of the already catastrophic present towards a more disastrous tomorrow. With climate change looming over us, frequent economic instability, religious wars, and relentless political mayhem, life for what we have made of it seems more and more unsustainable. Douglas Allen insists that we look to Gandhi, if only selectively and creatively, in order to move towards a nonviolent and sustainable future.

Is a Gandhi-informed swaraj technology, valuable but humanly limited, possible? What would a Gandhian world—a more egalitarian, interconnected, decentralized—of globalization look like? Focusing on key themes in Gandhi’s thinking such as violence and nonviolence, absolute truth and relative truth, ethical and spiritual living, and his critique of modernity, the book compels us to rethink our positions today.

About the Author

Douglas Allen is professor and former chairperson of philosophy at the University of Maine, USA.

Table of contents

Acknowledgements

List of Abbreviations

1 Introduction: The Relevance of Gandhi for

India and the Contemporary World

2 Gandhian Philosophy: Theoretical Basis with

Primacy of Practice

3 Is Gandhi a Vedantist?

4 How Can Gandhi Interpret His Favorite

Bhagavad-Gita as a Gospel of Nonviolence?

5 Personal Reflections on Reading Hind Swaraj

and Indian Reactions

6 Is Gandhi’s Approach to Technology

Irrelevant in the Modern Age of Technology?

7 Terrorism and Violence: Gandhi after 9/11 in the USA and 26/11 in India

8 Gandhi and Socialism

9 Rewriting Marginality: Minority Literature,

Hermeneutical Insights, and Gandhian Challenges

Select Bibliography

Index

About the Author