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Gandhi: A Political and Spiritual Life
""My struggle is not merely political. It is religious and therefore quite pure.""
How did Gandhi reconcile his political career with his religious beliefs? Why was he so revered by so many in his lifetime and ever since? And what gave him such belief in his own destiny to liberate his country and change the world?
This fresh and original interpretation of one of the twentieth century's most extraordinary personalities shows for the first time how Gandhi's religious beliefs, political career and personal behaviour form a coherent whole. Tidrick revealingly examines Gandhi's ideas about the relationship between sexual control and power, and the bizarre and scandalous behaviour that resulted, and explores his interest in new religious and philosophical thinking. Drawing on material neglected by earlier biographers, the portrait which emerges does not show the secular saint of popular myth but a difficult and self-obsessed man driven to pursue the world-changing destiny he believed was marked out for him.
How did Gandhi reconcile his political career with his religious beliefs? Why was he so revered by so many in his lifetime and ever since? And what gave him such belief in his own destiny to liberate his country and change the world?
This fresh and original interpretation of one of the twentieth century's most extraordinary personalities shows for the first time how Gandhi's religious beliefs, political career and personal behaviour form a coherent whole. Tidrick revealingly examines Gandhi's ideas about the relationship between sexual control and power, and the bizarre and scandalous behaviour that resulted, and explores his interest in new religious and philosophical thinking. Drawing on material neglected by earlier biographers, the portrait which emerges does not show the secular saint of popular myth but a difficult and self-obsessed man driven to pursue the world-changing destiny he believed was marked out for him.
400 pages, Hardcover
First published November 22, 2006
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
February 20, 2017
Exhaustively close reading of Gandhi's political activism considered primarily in terms of the evolution of his spiritual and religious beliefs. It's far too nuanced and objective a work to be called "iconoclastic" but it raises many broader questions about the by turns inspirational and damaging way religious fervour and politics can mix. Also fascinating on the lasting impact 19th century Theosophy and Esoteric Christianity had on the younger Gandhi.
November 8, 2017
Hard to find a general storyline. It felt like reading shattered anecdotes, not like reading a big story.
May 3, 2022
Gandhi was a very complex man. He was personally filled with many contradictions. This book about him presents them but often without sympathy or the ability to enlighten us. There are many books about Gandhi. I hope to find a better one then this is.
March 15, 2015
Tries to analyse Gandhi microscopically and enlarge the weaknesses and downplay his good qualities. Seems a biased book. But well researched.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews