Gandhi

The End of Non-Violence

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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.