DEBATING GANDHI: A READER

Gandhi continues to be a subject of enduring interest across the world. A large and diverse range of writings-comparative, expository, dialogical, and biographical-has appeared on Gandhi. This volume puts together different interpretations of the Mahatma’s views on myriad issues. It presents contesting positions of renowned scholars on issues critical for understanding Gandhi as a thinker and a historical phenomenon. It examines the impact of traditional ideas and western influences over contemporary environmental movements; Gandhi’s idea of truth; his views on women and whether they broke from the thinking of the nineteenth century reformers; and his complex intellectual relationship with the other great champion of India’s oppressed classes, Babasaheb Ambedkar. The essays focus attention on issues of continuing relevance -tradition, modernity, nation, women, and caste-thereby giving the volume of a contemporary flavour.