Gandhi: The End of Non-Violence

Gandhi: The End of Non-Violence

Gandhi was 20th century’s most acclaimed political thinker-practioner of nonviolence. His method of nonviolence, however, was under trial during the ferocity of Partition. Why was it so? Gandhi: The End of Nonviolence explores this crisis in depth. Putting Gandhi center stage in significant political events ranging from the Khilafat Movement (1919-1922) to Partition (1946-1947), Manash Firaq Bhattacharjee critically engages with some of the key figures who had a stake on the Hindu-Muslim question: Maulana Mohamad Ali, Muhammad Iqbal, the Arya Samajists, B.R. Ambedkar, Swami Vivekananda, Sri Aurobindo and Vinayak Damodar Savarkar. The tragic repercussions of Jinnah’s declaration of ‘Direct Action Day’ on 16th August 1946 leads Manash to ask probing questions on the persistent malady in our political history: How does communal politics descend into genocide? What is the psychology of communal violence? Attentively reading the exceptional witness accounts of Pyarelal, Nirmal Kumar Bose and Manu Gandhi, Manash throws light on the many shades of Gandhi’s epic peace mission as he walks (often barefoot) through the devastated neighbourhoods of Noakhali, Bihar, Calcutta and Delhi, offering courage and healing wounds. Combining poetic flair, diligent research and argumentative rigour, this one-of-a-kind book reminds us why Gandhi is part of our ethical conscience and transforms our understanding of the human condition. [An] outstanding counter-history of contemporary India… Bhattacharjee’s Gandhi keeps his mind in hell without permitting himself the luxury of despair ― Howard Caygill, Professor of Modern European Philosophy, Kingston University London This book is an illuminating contribution to our understanding of Gandhi’s political and ethical thought– as well as of the end of British rule in India ― Talal Asad, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology, City University of New York This book is part of the rediscovery of Gandhi by a new generation… Manash Firaq Bhattacharjee’s Gandhi is a marvellous exploration ― Ashis Nandy, Indian political psychologist, social theorist, futurist and critic This book raises important persistent questions about the role of non-violence in public life, and also the nature of mass violence and its organization ― Judith M Brown, former Beit Professor of Commonwealth History; former Fellow of Balliol College, Uni A robust and refreshing defence of Gandhi’s moral and political career ― Faisal Devji, Professor of Indian History, St Antony’s College, University of Oxford Manash Firaq Bhattacharjee brings his literary sensibility and philosophical inclination to this historically grounded study… as meditations upon the limits of both violence and non-violence and gives us a book of lasting value ― Tridip Suhrud, eminent Gandhi scholar, writer and translator Manash Firaq Bhattacharjee is a writer, political theorist and poet. He is the author of Your Own Will Leave You: My Mother’s Dementia (forthcoming), Nehru and the Spirit of India (Penguin Viking, 2022), The Town Slowly Empties: On Life and Culture during Lockdown (2021), Looking for the Nation: Towards Another Idea of India (2018), and Ghalib’s Tomb and Other Poems (2013).