Gandhi's Passion

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PBH01014Regular Price: US $27.50Our Price: US $26.50

Description:
Mahatma Gandhi, through his indomitable will and selfless determination, transformed himself into a model of courage and integrity for India's people to emulate in their nonviolent struggle for political power. More than half a century after his death, Gandhi continues to inspire millions throughout the world. Yet modern India seems to have abandoned much of his nonviolent vision, joining the nuclear arms race.

Inspired by recent events in India, Stanley Wolpert offers this subtle and profound biography of India's "Great Soul". Wolpert compellingly chronicles the life of Mahatma Gandhi from his early days as a child of privilege to his humble rise to power and his assassination at the hands of a man of his own faith. This trajectory like that of Christ, was the result of Gandhi's passion: his conscious courting of suffering as the means of reaching divine truth. From his early campaigns to end discrimination in South Africa to his leadership of a people's revolution to end the British imperial domination of India, Gandhi emerges as a man of inner conflicts conquered by his political genius and moral vision. Early influenced by nonviolent teachings in Hinduism, Jainism, Christianity, and Buddhism, he came to insist on the primacy of love for one's adversary in any conflict as the invincible power for change. He fearlessly courted suffering and imprisonment in pursuit of his moral vision. The sweet reasonableness of his "Great Soul," combined with the steel of his unyielding opposition to intolerance and oppression, would inspire India like no leader had since the Buddha- creating a legacy that would encourage Martin Luther King, Jr., Nelson Mandela, and other global leaders to demand a better world through peaceful civil disobedience.

Reviews:
"There have been many books about Gandhi, including those by the subject himself- What has always been needed is a full, literate account by someone closely familiar with India and Indian history who is an accomplished writer and historian. This, we now have. Henceforth, no one can claim knowledge of one of the greatest and most enigmatic figures of the last century who hasn't read it. And, I might add, no one will read it without interest and approval."
JOHN KENNETH GALBRAITH, United States Ambassador to India, 1961-1963

DesiStore # PBH01014 ISBN # 0-19-513060 Edition First Year 2001 Pages 308 Pics (B&W) 27 Weight (kg) 0.65 Shipping Weight (lbs) 1.64 HB/PB Hard Back

"Stanley Wolpert has written what is probably the most readable and sophisticated biography of one of the most influential figures in modern history In assessing Gandhi's legacy to India and the world, Wolpert argues very convincingly that Gandhi was driven in all his activities by his passionate belief that there was an indissoluble connection between private and public life. He shows that Gandhi's attitudes, which sometimes seem bizarre, were in fact consistent with his grand political design of winning India's political freedom."
AINSLIE T. EMBREE, Professor Emeritus of History, Columbia University

Stanley Wolpert is Distinguished Professor of South Asian History Emeritus at the University of California, Los Angeles. He has published twenty books on South Asia, including Nehru: A Tryst with Destiny, A New History of India, and Jinnah of Pakistan. He lives in Los Angeles.

Gandhi's Passion