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The Philosophy Behind Gandhi’s Practise

A review discussion of Richard Sorabji, Gandhi and the Stoics: Modern Experiments on Ancient Values, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2012, ISBN: 978-0199644339, hb, 240pp.; and Ramachandra Guha, Gandhi Before India, New Delhi, Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd, 2013, ISBN: 9780670083879, hb, x+673 pp.

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Abstract

This review discussion examines two recent works on Gandhi, Richard Sorabji’s Gandhi and the Stoics: Modern Experiments on Ancient Values, and Ram Guha’s Gandhi Before India. The review makes the point that we can see Gandhi’s unusual philosophical method at work if the two books are read together. Sorabji has argued that it is essential to understand Gandhi’s philosophy before we can assess the consistency between what he thought, believed and did. Guha has recorded events in Gandhi’s early years that can provide readers with details of Gandhi’s practise and experiments.

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Notes

  1. Sorabji explains that stoic detachment is not elimination of desire but elimination of emotional desire. The desire that remains in a stoic is unemotional precisely because he is able to see the objectives as things that are naturally preferred but yet as things that are indifferent. He goes on to explain, ‘The stoics even coined a word to designate this detached kind of desire. It selects (eklegesthai), rather than choosing (haireisthai), naturally preferred objectives.’ (Sorabji 2012: 47).

References

  • Bilgrami, A. (2006). “Gandhi’s integrity: the philosophy behind the politics”. In debating Gandhi: a reader edited by A. Raghuramaraju (pp. 248–266). New Delhi: Oxford University Press.

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  • Gandhi, M. K. Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, electronic edition (eCWMG), accessible online at http://gandhiserve.org/cwmg/cwmg.html. Note that between Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi CWMG 100 Volumes, Ahmedabad, Navajivan publishing, 1955) and electronic edition (eCWMG) are disputed differences of content and different volumes and page numbers.

  • Guha, R. (2013). Gandhi before India. New Delhi: Penguin Books India Pvt. Ltd.

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  • Prabhu, R. K., & Rao, U. R. (Eds.). (2007). The mind of Mahatma Gandhi. Ahmedabad: Navajivan Publishing House.

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  • Sorabji, R. (2012). Gandhi and the stoics: modern experiments on ancient values. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Philosophy, University of Delhi, Delhi, 110007, India

    Bindu Puri

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  1. Bindu Puri
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Puri, B. The Philosophy Behind Gandhi’s Practise. SOPHIA 54, 385–390 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11841-015-0484-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11841-015-0484-y

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