GANDHI'S SIGNIFICANCE FOR TODAY

Transcription

1 GANDHI'S SIGNIFICANCE FOR TODAY

2 Also by John Hick AN INTERPRETATION OF RELIGION ARGUMENTS FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD CHRISTIANITY AT THE CENTRE DEATH AND ETERNAL LIFE EVIL AND THE GOD OF LOVE FAITH AND KNOWLEDGE FAITH AND THE PHILOSOPHERS (editor) GOD AND THE UNIVERSE OF FAITHS GOD HAS MANY NAMES PROBLEMS OF RELIGIOUS PLURALISM THE MANY-FACED ARGUMENT (editor with A. C. MacGill) CHRISTIANITY AND OTHER RELIGIONS (editor with Brian Hebblethwaite) CLASSICAL AND CONTEMPORARY READINGS IN THE PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION (editor) PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION THE EXISTENCE OF GOD (editor) THE MYTH OF GOD INCARNATE (editor) THE SECOND CHRISTIANITY THREE FAITHS - ONE GOD (editor with Edmund S. Meltzer) TRUTH AND DIALOGUE (editor) WHY BELIEVE IN GOD? (with Michael Goulder)

3 Gandhi's Significance for Toaay Edited by John Hick Danforth Professor of the Philosophy of Religion The Claremont Graduate School, Claremont, California and Lamont C. Hempel Associate Director, Center for Politics and Policy The Claremont Graduate School, Claremont, California Foreword by John David Maguire Palgrave Macmillan

4 The Claremont Graduate School1989 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition AII rights reserved. For information, write: Scholarly and Reference Division, St. Martin's Press, Inc., 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY First published in the United States of America in 1989 ISBN ISBN (ebook) DOI / Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Gandhi's significance for today/edited by John Hick and Lamont C. Hempel; foreword by John David Maguire. p. cm. Includes bibliographies and index. ISBN Gandhi, Mahatma, Philosophy. 1. Hick, John. Il. Hempel, Lamont C. DS48l.G3G '5'0924-dc CIP

5 Contents Foreword John David Maguire Acknowledgements Notes on the Contributors vii ix x INTRODUCTION Overview: The Elusive Legacy Lamont C. Hempel 3 1 Gandhi's Relevance Today James W. Gould 7 PART I GANDHI THE MAN Introduction John Hick 21 2 The Heart of Satyagraha: A Quest for Inner Dignity, Not Political Power Paul Mundschenk 24 3 Shoring Up the Saint: Some Suggestions for Improving Satyagraha Mark Juergensmeyer 36 4 Gandhi and Celibacy Arvind Sharma 51 5 Gandhi in South Africa James D. Hunt 61 PART II GANDHI ON RELIGION AND ETHICS Introduction John Hick 85 6 Gandhi's Concept of Truth Rex Ambler 90 7 Gandhi's Moral Philosophy Steven A. Smith Gandhi on Civilization and Religion Raghavan lyer 122 v

6 vi Gandhi's Significance for Today 9 Gandhi's Interpretation of the Bhagavad Gita Kees W. Bolle 10 Gandhi and Christianity Margaret Chatterjee 11 Gandhi's Religious Universalism Elton Hall PART III GANDHI ON POLITICS AND ECONOMICS Introduction Lamont C. Hempel The Core of Gandhi's Social and Economic Thought Sugata Dasgupta The Gandhian Movement in India Since the Death of Gandhi Geoffrey Ostergaard Gandhian Feminism Sushila Gidwani The Influence of Gandhi on Martin Luther King, Jr. Thomas Kilgore, Jr An Anti-Secularist Manifesto Ashis Nandy 244 Glossary Index

7 Foreword While it is commonly agreed that Mahatma Gandhi is a figure of world significance, debate continues about the precise nature of his contribution. What is the essence of his greatness, then and now? Was it his ability to fashion a coherent world view of nonviolence, one that would withstand the unavoidable tests by people of violence? Was it his willingness to make painful sacrifices for the sake of ideals that he found precious? Or was it, perhaps, his enormous capacity for empathy with the poor and afflicted of his society? No simple answer will suffice. Gandhi's life was a complex blend of revolutionary thought and symbolic action; one that exhibited a remarkable integration of moral and political fervor. Surely it was a life that merits scrutiny for what it can teach us about perseverance and selfless leadership. In 1984, The Claremont Graduate School held an interdisciplinary colloquium on 'Mahatma Gandhi and his Significance for Today'. Organized under the auspices of the Graduate School's James A. Blaisdell Programs in World Religions and Cultures, the conference included presentations by more than thirty scholars from India, Canada, Britain, Central America, and the United States. Many of the papers presented have been included in this volume. In his keynote address to the conference, Rodrigo Carazo, former President of Costa Rica and Acting Rector of the United Nation's University for Peace, declared that Gandhi was 'a clear symbol of what he practiced and preached: the local and the universal, joined in the task of emancipation through the means of nonviolence.' For Gandhi, nonviolence entailed more than a renunciation of bombs and bullets; it was above all concerned with what President Carazo called 'the lethal weapons represented by human exploitation, abuse, and ignorance'. The emancipation from colonial domination that Gandhi inspired was merely the first step in his quest for universal emancipation from poverty and injustice. Many of the contributors to this book agree that part of Gandhi's legacy lies in his powerful use of symbols. Symbols, however, are by their character subject to a variety of interpretations. Many of vii

8 viii Gandhi's Significance for Today these essays describe an imposing little man, sitting behind his spinning wheel, who boldly changed the course of history. But the meaning of that change, and its significance for today, is less clear than the ideas that fostered it. Hence the elusive nature of the legacy. In this book, the authors have tried to make the legacy more understandable by relating the character of the man, his style of leadership, his ethical, religious, and social concerns, to the political actions through which he expressed them. This is a book about Gandhi, the man, formed from the dust of India and from the misery of its people; but it is also a volume about the Mahatma, a visionary leader, whose ideas speak to us today with just as much relevance and force as they displayed in South Africa and India in the years before an assassin's bullets cut him down. JOHN DAVID MAGUIRE

9 Acknowledgements The editors gratefully acknowledge the help and support of the students, staff and faculty colleagues who assisted us in this endeavor. In particular, we would like to thank Dr Edward Hughes for his help in coordinating The Claremont Graduate School's colloquium on Gandhi - the conference from which most of the essays in this book originated. We are also indebted to Rena Brar, Marilyn Scaff and Karen Kidd for their assistance with proofreading and editing, and to Fay Rulau and Elisabeth Duran for their excellent secretarial skills in preparing the manuscript. Special appreciation is due to Pauline Snelson, Sophie Lillington and Jill Lake of Macmillan for their patience and skill in guiding us through the preparations for publication. Lastly, we are indebted to the James A. Blaisdell Programs in World Religions and Cultures for its sponsorship of our work and for its commitment to the ideals for which Gandhi stood. ix

10 Notes on the Contributors Rex Ambler is Lecturer in Theology at the University of Birmingham. Kees W. Bolle is Professor of History at the University of California, Los Angeles. Margaret Chatterjee is Professor of Philosophy at Delhi University. Sugata Dasgupta (deceased, 1985) was the Director of the Jayaprakash Institute of Social Change, Calcutta. Sushila Gidwani is Associate Professor in the Department of Economics and Finance at Manhattan College, Riverdale. James W. Gould is Professor of History and International Relations at Scripps College, Claremont. Elton Hall is Professor of Philosophy and Sociology at Oxnard College, Oxnard, California. James D. Hunt is Professor of Religion at Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina. Raghavan Iyer is Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Mark Juergensmeyer is Associate Professor of Ethics at the Graduate Theological Union and the University of California, Berkeley. He is also co-director of the Berkeley-Harvard Program in the Comparative Study of Social Values. Thomas Kilgore, Jr. is Senior Pastor of the Second Baptist Church, Los Angeles. Paul Mundschenk is Professor of Religious Studies at Western Illinois University. Ashis Nandy is Senior Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi. Geoffrey Ostergaard is Senior Lecturer in Political Science at the University of Birmingham. Arvind Sharma is Lecturer in the Department of Religious Studies, University of Sydney. Steven A. Smith is Associate Professor of Philosophy, Claremont McKenna College, Claremont. x