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Understanding Gandhi
How do we understand Mahatma Gandhi? In these extremely profound and thoughtful essays, Dharampal - one of India's most distinguished historians and writers - offers us his own distilled view of the passions that drove Gandhiji - one of the most awesome individuals of our times.
134 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2003
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About the author
Dharampal
21 books90 followersDharampal was born in 1922 at Kandhala in the Muzaffarnagar district of Uttar Pradesh. He has been associated in various ways with the regeneration of India’s diverse populations and the restoration of their decentralized social, political and economic organization centered on local communities.
After being active in the Quit India Movement (1942-43), he worked for some years with Mirabehn, an associate of Mahatma Gandhi, and in the 1950s founded a cooperative village near Rishikesh. Before that, at the time of Partition, in 1947-48, he was put in charge of the Congress Socialist Party centre for the rehabilitation of refugees coming from Pakistan, and came in close contact with Kamaladevi Chattopadhyaya and Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia, as well as with numerous younger friends, such as L.C. Jain, in Delhi. He was also a founding member of the Indian Cooperative Union in 1948.
From 1958 until 1964 he was General Secretary of the Association of Voluntary Agencies for Rural Development (AVARD) and subsequently Director, Study and Research of the All India Panchayat Parishad, until 1965. He was closely associated with Sri Jaiprakash Narayan, who deeply appreciated his research and writings.
From 1966 Dharampal devoted himself, for almost two decades, to an exploration of Indian archives spread over the British Isles. His published works of this period include: Indian Science and Technology in the Eighteenth Century: Some Contemporary Indian Accounts (1971), Civil Disobedience and the Indian Tradition (1971) and The Beautiful Tree: Indigenous Indian Education in the Eighteenth Century (1983). He also authored Panchayat Raj as the Basis of Indian Polity: An Exploration into the Proceedings of the Constituent Assembly (1962) and The Madras Panchayat System: A General Assessment (1973). Recently several collections of his essays have been compiled and published by several of his younger associates. A complete listing of his published works is compiled below. The total picture of pre-colonized India that emerges from the pioneering historical research of Dharampal, though quite impressive, is yet to have a more widespread impact on India’s historiography. In the 1980s, his guidance served as inspiration for a group of scientists called the People’s Patriot Science and Technology (PPST) with their headquarters in Chennai.
Dharampal served as a member of the Indian Council of Historical Research for two terms in the early 1990s and again for a term recently. He was also the Chairman of the Commission on the Protection of the Cow set up by the Government of India in 2001. From the mid 1980s Dharampal was closely associated with Mahatma Gandhi’s Sevagram Ashram, Wardha (Maharashtra) which he considered his main abode until he passed away there on 24th October 2006. He is survived by his brothers, Yogendra Pal and Yash Pal, his sister, Sushila, and his children, Pradeep, Gita and Anjali. His elder daughter, Gita Dharampal-Frick is a professor of history at the South Asian Institute, University of Heidelberg, Germany.
After being active in the Quit India Movement (1942-43), he worked for some years with Mirabehn, an associate of Mahatma Gandhi, and in the 1950s founded a cooperative village near Rishikesh. Before that, at the time of Partition, in 1947-48, he was put in charge of the Congress Socialist Party centre for the rehabilitation of refugees coming from Pakistan, and came in close contact with Kamaladevi Chattopadhyaya and Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia, as well as with numerous younger friends, such as L.C. Jain, in Delhi. He was also a founding member of the Indian Cooperative Union in 1948.
From 1958 until 1964 he was General Secretary of the Association of Voluntary Agencies for Rural Development (AVARD) and subsequently Director, Study and Research of the All India Panchayat Parishad, until 1965. He was closely associated with Sri Jaiprakash Narayan, who deeply appreciated his research and writings.
From 1966 Dharampal devoted himself, for almost two decades, to an exploration of Indian archives spread over the British Isles. His published works of this period include: Indian Science and Technology in the Eighteenth Century: Some Contemporary Indian Accounts (1971), Civil Disobedience and the Indian Tradition (1971) and The Beautiful Tree: Indigenous Indian Education in the Eighteenth Century (1983). He also authored Panchayat Raj as the Basis of Indian Polity: An Exploration into the Proceedings of the Constituent Assembly (1962) and The Madras Panchayat System: A General Assessment (1973). Recently several collections of his essays have been compiled and published by several of his younger associates. A complete listing of his published works is compiled below. The total picture of pre-colonized India that emerges from the pioneering historical research of Dharampal, though quite impressive, is yet to have a more widespread impact on India’s historiography. In the 1980s, his guidance served as inspiration for a group of scientists called the People’s Patriot Science and Technology (PPST) with their headquarters in Chennai.
Dharampal served as a member of the Indian Council of Historical Research for two terms in the early 1990s and again for a term recently. He was also the Chairman of the Commission on the Protection of the Cow set up by the Government of India in 2001. From the mid 1980s Dharampal was closely associated with Mahatma Gandhi’s Sevagram Ashram, Wardha (Maharashtra) which he considered his main abode until he passed away there on 24th October 2006. He is survived by his brothers, Yogendra Pal and Yash Pal, his sister, Sushila, and his children, Pradeep, Gita and Anjali. His elder daughter, Gita Dharampal-Frick is a professor of history at the South Asian Institute, University of Heidelberg, Germany.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
May 6, 2014
This small book (134 pages) gives profound insight into Gandhi's ideals and work, perhaps much more than other very many fatty books on the subject.
It has 7 chapters - A child of Gandhi Era, Hind Swaraj, On technology, On the liberation of India, What Gandhi stood for, What Gandhi tried to achieve & Sevagram: the new beginnings. The author, a great Gandhian himself offers us his own distilled view of the passions that drove Gandhi. Many a times, the author makes Gandhi himself speak, through selected passages and quotes from Gandhi which are beautiful. Gandhi's challenge to West and it's civilization, his firm conviction regarding the superiority of Indian civilization and his vision for an ideal state and society as outlined in "Hind Swaraj" - these aspects are discussed very well in the book.
The book has been translated in Tamil as well. A review in Tamil here - http://www.gandhitoday.in/2012/10/blo...
It has 7 chapters - A child of Gandhi Era, Hind Swaraj, On technology, On the liberation of India, What Gandhi stood for, What Gandhi tried to achieve & Sevagram: the new beginnings. The author, a great Gandhian himself offers us his own distilled view of the passions that drove Gandhi. Many a times, the author makes Gandhi himself speak, through selected passages and quotes from Gandhi which are beautiful. Gandhi's challenge to West and it's civilization, his firm conviction regarding the superiority of Indian civilization and his vision for an ideal state and society as outlined in "Hind Swaraj" - these aspects are discussed very well in the book.
The book has been translated in Tamil as well. A review in Tamil here - http://www.gandhitoday.in/2012/10/blo...
July 23, 2018
I am interested in reading the book
October 21, 2017
காந்தீயத்தை பேசலாம், திரும்பத் திரும்ப படிக்கலாம் ஆனால் அதன் படியான வாழ்வை என்னால் ஒரு மணி நேரம் வாழ முடியுமா என்ற கேள்வி முன்னே நெருடலாய் நெஞ்சில் தைக்கிறது. அந்நியரிடம் பெற்றோம் சுதந்திரம். நம் முன்னோர்களால் பாடுபட்டு பெற்றச் சுதந்திரத்தைப் பேணி பாதுகாத்தோமா என்பது கேள்வி? இன்று மேற்கத்திய நாகரிகத்தின் மோகத்தால் அந்நியர் சூழ்ச்சியின் மடியில் அடிமைப்பட்டு நம் பண்பாட்டைக், கலாச்சாத்தை வாழ்வியலை கேள்விக்குள்ளாக்கி கேலி செய்து எந்தவொரு கூசலும் இல்லாமல் வாழ்வை நகர்த்தும் நம் முன் பெரும் படிப்பினையாக அன்றும் இன்றும் என்றும் நிற்கப் போவது அந்த மகாத்மாவே.
January 2, 2020
காந்தியை வெறும் விக்ரகமாக அறிந்தவர்களுக்கு அவரின் சிந்தனை என்ன மற்றும் அதனின் தாக்கம் என்ன அந்த தாக்கத்தை வெறும் சடங்காக மற்றி புறந்தள்ளியபின் நாம் அடைந்த வீழ்ச்சி என்ன என்று மிக அருமையாக சொல்லி இருக்கிறார்.
காந்திய சிந்தனை என்பது உலக சிந்தனையாளர்களாக கருதப்படும் மார்க்ஸ், ஹெகல் போன்றவர்களுடன் வரிசையில் வைத்து ஆராயப்படவேண்டிய ஒன்று என்று வாதிடுகிறார்.
மிக அருமையான புத்தகம். மீண்டும் மீண்டும் வாசித்து பயன்பெறவேண்டிய புத்தகம் என்றால் மிகையல்ல்
காந்திய சிந்தனை என்பது உலக சிந்தனையாளர்களாக கருதப்படும் மார்க்ஸ், ஹெகல் போன்றவர்களுடன் வரிசையில் வைத்து ஆராயப்படவேண்டிய ஒன்று என்று வாதிடுகிறார்.
மிக அருமையான புத்தகம். மீண்டும் மீண்டும் வாசித்து பயன்பெறவேண்டிய புத்தகம் என்றால் மிகையல்ல்
May 29, 2012
Awesome book on Gandhian thoughts and philosophies.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews