Guha launches new book ‘Arguments with Gandhi’ 

Historian and author Ramachandra Guha launched his latest book, ‘Arguments with Gandhi’, at the Bengaluru International Centre on Friday, marking Gandhi Jayanti with a reflection on the nearly three-decade journey behind the book.Guha said the book’s origins date back to 1996, when he was invited to teach at the University of California, Berkeley.Having begun reading Gandhi more closely, alongside works by B R Ambedkar and D R Nagaraj, he proposed a course entitled ‘Arguments with Gandhi’.The course, he said, became one of the most memorable he had taught, drawing students from diverse backgrounds, including a Black student debating the legacies of Martin Luther King Jr and Malcolm X, a Jewish student interested in philosopher Martin Buber’s connection with Gandhi, and a Burmese refugee who had participated in Myanmar’s non-violent struggle against military rule.“I came back and I said, ‘God, I mean, this is what Gandhi is to the world.’ And look at how I had misjudged him,” he recalled.Guha said the book took almost 30 years to materialise as other projects, including his two-volume biography of Gandhi, intervened. He said the delay ultimately helped him approach Gandhi’s ideas with greater nuance.“The delay was, I think, worth it,” he said, adding that his research for ‘Gandhi Before India’ and ‘Gandhi: The Years That Changed the World’ helped him understand the “nuances and complexities” of Gandhi’s life and ideas.Green movements evolved from grassroot struggles: Ramachandra GuhaThe author also contrasted the new book with his two-volume biography, saying ‘Arguments with Gandhi’ emerged from his desire to examine Gandhi through arguments and disagreements rather than simply present a chronological account of his life.The book examines Gandhi’s legacy through the major ideological debates that shaped his public life. It looks at his disagreements with Ambedkar over caste, untouchability and political representation for Dalits, and contrasts his inclusive vision of nationalism with the religious nationalism associated with Savarkar and Mohammed Ali Jinnah.Guha also explores Gandhi’s differences with Bhagat Singh and revolutionaries over violence and non-violence, and with Jawaharlal Nehru over industrialisation, economic development and self-reliance.The book also traces how Gandhi’s ideas travelled beyond India, influencing civil rights and environmental movements worldwide.

Source: Deccan Herald