Politics, Ethics and the Self

This book critically engages with Hind Swaraj and explores the fascinating and subtle dialogue set up by Gandhi between the characters of the reader and the editor.

Hind Swaraj by Mahatma Gandhi is arguably the greatest text to have emerged from the anti-colonial movement in India and the first to seriously challenge the cultural and civilizational premises of the colonizers' mentality. It is also the first text in India that falls within the broad tradition of modern political philosophy, advancing a complex cluster of theses with conceptual sensitivity, analytical precision, and sustained argument.

This book critically engages with Hind Swaraj and explores the fascinating and subtle dialogue set up by Gandhi between the characters of the reader and the editor. With essays from leading contemporary thinkers on Gandhi, the volume looks at themes such as Gandhi on epistemic servitude, decolonization, and intercultural translation; his complex critique of modern civilization; his views on the empire, democracy, citizenship, and violence; the normative structure of Gandhian thought; Gandhi and the political praxis of educational reconstruction; and how to read this text.

An important intervention in Gandhian studies, this book will be useful for scholars and researchers of peace studies, political philosophy, Indian philosophy, Indian political thought, political sociology, and South Asian studies.

Autorentext

Rajeev Bhargava is former Director, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, New Delhi, India.

Klappentext

Hind Swaraj by Mahatma Gandhi is arguably the greatest text to have emerged from the anti-colonial movement in India and the first to seriously challenge the cultural and civilizational premises of the colonizers' mentality. It is also the first text in India that falls within the broad tradition of modern political philosophy, advancing a complex cluster of theses with conceptual sensitivity, analytical precision, and sustained argument. This book critically engages with Hind Swaraj and explores the fascinating and subtle dialogue set up by Gandhi between the characters of the reader and the editor. With essays from leading contemporary thinkers on Gandhi, the volume looks at themes such as Gandhi on epistemic servitude, decolonization, and intercultural translation; his complex critique of modern civilization; his views on the empire, democracy, citizenship, and violence; the normative structure of Gandhian thought; Gandhi and the political praxis of educational reconstruction; and how to read this text. An important intervention in Gandhian studies, this book will be useful for scholars and researchers of peace studies, political philosophy, Indian philosophy, Indian political thought, political sociology, and South Asian studies.

Zusammenfassung
This book critically engages with Hind Swaraj and explores the fascinating and subtle dialogue set up by Gandhi between the characters of the reader and the editor.

Inhalt

Introduction

Rajeev Bhargava

Part 1: The truncated ethic of modern civilization1. The Originality of Hind Swaraj

Anthony J. Parel

2. Gandhi and the Debate about Civilization

Lloyd I. Rudolph and Susanne Hoeber Rudolph

3. English Rule Without the Englishman: Citizenship, Subalternity, and Gandhi's 'Reader'

Ajay Skaria

4. Reflections on Gandhi's Anti-Modernism

Akeel Bilgrami

5. Hind Swaraj: A Historical Necessity

Nandkishore Acharya

6. On the Normative Structure of Gandhian Thought: With Special Reference to Hind Swaraj

Satish K. Jain

**Part 2: Empire, politics, and violence

7.* Empire and Violence, or the Foes in Hind Swaraj*

Rajmohan Gandhi

8. Political Self-Rule: Gandhi and the Future of Democracy

Fred Reinhard Dallmayr

9. Politics and Violence: Gandhi's Ambivalence to Democracy

Uday Singh Mehta

10. A Nationalism Open Towards the World

Jeremy Webber

Part 3: Colonization of minds

11. Learning from the South: Gandhi and Intercultural Translation

Boaventura de Sousa Santos

12. Beyond Decolonizing Knowledge: Revisiting the Svaraj in Ideas Debate

Shail Mayaram

13. Gandhi And Political Praxis of Educational Reconstruction, 19091938

Joseph Bara

Part 4: Cultivating self14. Could Hind Swaraj Presuppose a Theory of Judgment?

Sasheej Hegde

15. Gandhi: Calling to Non-Violence Joined by a Strong Pragmatism

Gangeya Mukherji

16. Afterlife of a Text: Hind Swaraj and the Chhattisgarh Mukti Morcha

Hilal Ahmed

17. Sheherezade and Hind Swaraj

Lucy Nusseibeh and Sari Nusseibeh

18. Gandhi's Twin Fasts and the Possibility of Non-Violence

Sudhir Chandra

*Part 5: How to read Hind Swaraj*

19.* Reading Hind Swarajya/Swaraj* in Two Languages

Tridip Suhrud