Colonialism, Tradition, And Reform: An Analysis Of Gandhi's Political Discourse

by Bhikhu C. Parekh

Evaluates Gandhi's efforts to regenerate the moral order of Indian society appropriate to the modern age. This book locates Gandhi in the tradition of reformist discourse developed by his 19th century predecessors, and highlights the way he both continued and broke with it.

Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

Bhikhu Chotalal Parekh is an eminent political theorist in Britain and an active member in the House of Lords. During his tenure, he has contributed immensely towards societal changes that were once a major cause of concern to Britain's culture in the early 70's.

He was born in a small hamlet known as Amalsad in the state of Gujarat to a middle class family. He enrolled into Mumbai University to earn his degree and masters before Bhiku went on to pursue his studies from London School of Economics. He completed his Ph.D. in the year 1966.

He has pioneered many concepts on multiculturalism, collective rights and responsibility and other socio-cultural issues that have influenced the governance in UK. Commonly addressed as Lord Bhiku, he has worked to bring about a noninterventionist and tolerant political view where people of different ethnicities could live in harmony. It was through his ideologies and his unrelenting dedication towards his work that he managed to bring a significant understanding of Indian culture on a global platform. During his lifetime, he has been conferred with a number of awards such as the Sir Isaiah Berlin Prize, Distinguished Global Thinker Award, Padma Bhushan, etc. by many international forums.

Reviews

[Balasubramaniam Vaidyanathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bhikhu Parekh’s ‘Colonialism, Tradition and Reform - An analysis of Gandhi’s political discourse’ - Published in 1989 by Sage Publications

Definitely one of the finest books written about Gandhi’s politics. Normally we see books written about Gandhi with reverence. In such a case the author tries to justify everything about him. We also see the books written in a very negative way ridiculing him & all his contributions.

This book is setting an example how Gandhi should be critically analysed. This books has 8 chapters.

First one is the Introduction which sets the context properly explaining what is tradition, how western tradition and Hindu tradition differ, How societies respond to change, How did Gandhi approach tradition, how scientific his approaches are even when he claimed his approaches to be scientific - reason based, how he went on to reform hindu soceity etc.

Second chapter is ‘Hindu Responses to British Rule’. This chapter analyses the approach of leaders / reformers before Gandhi to the changes happened during british rule. It analyses the approaches of traditionalists, modernists, critical modernists and critical traditionalists - Contemporarystate of Hindu soceity, its equation with muslims, lack of unity etc. This chapter sets the stage for Gandhi to enter.

Third chapter is ‘Gandhi and Yugadharma’ - How he went on to define yugadharma and what were the constituents, how the concept interacted with society, reactions to it etc.

Fourth chapter is ‘Theory of non-violence’ - This defines his concept of ahimsa and how it differed from traditional definitions. It also explains how Gandhi’s definition changed from time-to-time. I have read some of these concepts in Rajaji’s writing ( He wrote a series in Kalki - ரகுபதி ராகவ in 1950 - 60s.)

Fifth chapter is ‘Dialogue with Terrorists’ . This explains extremists, their definition of Gita’s action, How Gandhi proved to them that their approach is not going to yield results, How Gandhi adopted some of their principles etc.

Sixth chapter is ‘Sex, Energy and Politics’ - This chapter details about his brahmacharya experiments, concepts, background from traditions and how Gandhi was steadfast and sincere about his brahmacharya.

Seventh chapter is ‘Discourse on Untouchability’ . This is a wonderful chapter. Bhikhu Parekh records what is the need for Gandhi to step into Untouchability issue, How he fought with traditionalists and leaders like Ambedkar, How his contribution is significant than any other leader, how his agenda remained unfinished, the compromises he made, how he avoided debates with sanatanis & how sincere he was in his approach. In this chapter I read the conversation snippets between Gandhi and Indanturuttil Nambiatiri & Raman Pillai - Interesting conversations! At the end of the chapter he summarized as follows -
‘Gandhi's contribution was considerable and greater than that of any other Indian leader. No one before him had mounted a frontal attack on untouchability and launched a vigorous national campaign. Though his campaign initially lacked energy and a sense of direction, he soon grasped its importance and put it at the top of the political agenda. He took on the orthodox and by means of sometimes disingenuous intellectual manoeuvres mocked, marginalised and eventually discredited them. By a skilful combination of moral, religious and political appeals and personal example, he shamed and mobilised the Hindu masses, stirred their consciences, awakened their sense of responsibility, and created a powerful body of public opinion demanding and willing to carry through an anti-untouchability programme. Unlike many socialist and secular leaders, who vigorously championed the cause of harijans but studiously avoided close personal contacts with them, Gandhi lived in bhangi colonies, adopted a harijan girl and mixed, lived and shared his meals with them. Though trivial at one level, these sincere expressions of compassion and personal commitment touched deep nerves and helped weaken irrational and deep-seated prejudices. He gave the harijans a measure of dignity and self-confidence and the courage to stand up for their rights. It is doubtful that, without his efforts, independent India would have had the confidence to abolish untouchability at a stroke and to embark upon a policy of massive compensatory discrimination. The sanatanists were right to see him as their most deadly enemy, and Ambedkar was wrong to question his commitment and enormous contribution.’

Final chapter is ‘Indianisation of Autobiogrphy’ - This chapter details about how autobigraphies were came into europe - starting with St Augustus’s confessions, their moral questions, later period autographies and their ego centric nature, Gandhi’s reluctance to write autobiography, how he got convinced and how he approached writing it. Nice read. In this chapter, I got a beautiful concept about historical sense of India. Here it is in his own words -
‘As we saw elsewhere, the modern historical manner of thinking did not develop in India either. Since transience or change was equated with illusion, historical details were dismissed as mere gossip devoid of value and significance. Historical truth was important only as an exemplification of universally valid moral truths. Historical understanding, therefore, never occupied an important place in Hindu epistemology. This meant that the details of an individual's life, his habits, idiosyncrasies, moods, feelings and responses to events--in short, the raw material of autobiography, were deemed to be trivial and unworthy of being recorded or written about. The Hindus, of course, do have a strong sense of the past and believe that an individual is a product of his choices and decisions in his previous lives. Since the previous lives are unrecorded and unremembered, they do not and cannot form the basis of historical self-understanding. The doctrine of rebirth prepared the Hindu for, but did not itself represent, historical thinking.’

Overall a wonderful read and I got illuminated.