Gandhi and the World

"A stimulating collection of essays that explore and reflect on Gandhi’s continued relevance to a wide range of social and political tensions in the twenty-first century." -- Neil Jarman
"The book is a principled assault on current traditions of international relations. The declining power of states to protect people or address global problems beyond the power of national states to solve alone, like climate change, necessitates, argues Mahapatra, new mechanisms that transcend state foci on territorial integrity, sovereignty, and dominance of other states. His mechanisms are human security, world citizenship, international norms, global popular action. He cites current difficulties to resolve the civil war in Syria or to arrest fraying U.S. relations with Russia. Nothing concrete on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, ISIS, or Boko Haram. His best example is his own work with Kashmiri militants. He could have mentioned the fall of Communism after 1989. Mahapatra does not come to grips with big international problems, for which most people would think humanitarian intervention (use of military force, if possible with U.N. mandate) is necessary. Even Gandhi conceded that, if the choice is between cowardice and violence, he would advise violence. The many believers in Gandhian nonviolent methods have a long struggle ahead. Gandhi’s methods worked to free India from the British, but where else in the anti-imperialist struggle? Not in Algeria. Not in Kenya. Not in Zimbabwe. Not in Vietnam. Why has India’s economic development not followed in his vision of Sarvodaya villages, self-regulated, linked in “oceanic circles”? Hence the focus of IR scholars on power as it is currently exercised. Even a federation of the world would only unite force in the common defense. Very slowly, beginning now in the global South but extending for hundreds of years, Gandhian “values,” including Eastern moral values, should spread throughout world society." -- Joseph Barratta
Gandhi’s relevance in this age of crises and multi-level conflicts is beyond question. This book is a precious guide to the world of the apostle of truth and nonviolence, providing a deep insight into the Gandhian methods marvelously linked with real life situations. The framework derives from the awareness that contemporary world has increasingly witnessed strenuous relationships between moral and ethical values, and their practice: recent conflicts depict a more polarized and violent world. Gandhi’s principles based on nonviolence as the only strategy for conflict prevention and resolution acquire today a new and innovative value. This book has elaborated an interpretation that gives an answer to the much needed and demanded correct and effective connection between action and values. This stimulating book takes the reader by the hand along an exciting intellectual path in which the Gandhian message emerges in all its significance not only for the construction of our present, but more importantly, for the future. -- Emanuela C. Del Re