Tag: MAHATMA GANDHI

EXCERPT Nandalal Bose was a gifted artist nurtured by the likes of Tagore and Gandhi. The New Leam is happy to share an excerpt from a beautiful essay (The Discipline of Art) that was published in 1968. At a time when we witness the all-pervading degeneration of what is regarded as ‘popular culture’, it is refreshing to be enlightened by Bose: the way he saw art as a meditative practice, a kind of sadhana.

Gandhi as a political thinker and philosopher emphasized throughout his works on the evergreen importance of peace movements for a conflict-ridden world. Even today we continue to be desperately in search of such a movement that unites the internal and the external aspects of human existence into a peaceful and harmonious reality. In this thought-provoking piece, the author compels us to revisit this critical question and work towards a peace movement that addresses the issues of the contemporary world. Bharat Dogra

POST COLONIALISM

As India faces yet again the presidential elections it is time we rethink some fundamental questions that we have forgotten in the mist of political rhetoric. Can these questions be overlooked or is it time we gathered the courage to address them?

Ram Nath Kovind or Meira Kumar? Can a ‘Dalit’ President make a difference? Or is it yet another piece of strategic politics that trivializes the issue of social inequality? Is there any hope if politics is reduced into a chess game?

U.R. Ananthamurthy died on 22 August 2014. Hindutva or Hind Swaraj is his very last work. Keerti Ramachandra and Vivek Shanbhag have translated it from Kannada. There is no doubt that , as Shiv Visvanathan has indicated in the Foreword, this little book is written in a desperate hurry by an author who knew he was dying. Yet, here is a book that is courageous in spirit, and enlightens its readers; it reaffirms that Gandhi’s Hind Swaraj is a meaningful answer to Savarkar’s Hindutva.

As the iconic Champaran movement completes its 100 years it is time we invoke the Gandhian spirit of social transformation and collective mobilization. In the contemporary age plagued with severe challenges his ideas are relevant than ever before, reminding us over and over again of the need for social change through collective action.

GANDHI AND HIS CASTE The recent controversy revolving around M.K. Gandhi which involved labelling him a ‘chatur Baniya’ has attracted people’s attention. The left and...