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WE have here a collection of interviews of Mahatma Gandhi’s closest associates J.B. Kriplani, Raihana Tyabji, Dada Dharmadhikari, Sushila Nayar, Jhaver Patel, and Sucheta Kriplani. These six interviews are selected from a manuscript of 24 interviews of Gandhi’s associates. The interviews candidly reflect on Gandhi’s ideas in the light of changes that took place in India after shaking the yoke of the British colonial rule. The critical assessment of Gandhi’s insights offers to contemporary India "a struggle to create a just and a healthy and self-critical culture". The interviews are, undoubtedly, rich and thought provoking, capturing Gandhi’s ideas and interviewees’ perspectives on Gandhi’s dynamic philosophy of human nature.
The book points out that Gandhi developed rich and complex language of discourse to focus on key concepts — satyagraha, non-violence, brahmcharya, fasting, spirituality and others. This blend of an intimate knowledge of Gandhi gives the book a unique vantage. Fred J. Blum has adopted a different genre of interviewing Gandhi’s closest associates who saw him in different conditions and circumstances. All the interviewees were the "closest associates, but had their different and distinct personalities and different perspectives". Many good qualities of Gandhi’s life surface as commitment to truth and non-violence, relentlessness of translating idea and practise concerning the suffering of humanity, and violence. Gandhi was a saint, a politician, a crusader against injustice and repression. He always tried to narrow down the gap between theory and practise and never claimed to be an armchair thinker and an advocate of "isms". Even today Gandhi’s words and deeds hold promise of a peaceful and just world, though he had to pay price for his commitments when he was assassinated on January 30, 1948. Gandhi lived to realise his ideals till his last breath. He lived life of conscience. He combined ethics with politics and changed the very form and content of politics. For Gandhi "political power" was not an end but one of the means of enabling people to better their conditions in every walk of life. The editors in the "Introduction" question, "Why Gandhi?" when "the world awakens everyday to new horizons opened by technology and new discoveries made by science". Understanding of life is not within the preview of science. Gandhi was concerned with the inner life of conscience. Hence he is relevant in the modern era of technology. The writer often fails to communicate his ideas in his writings. When he is put to cross-examination, new ideas come in his mind. Gandhi might have come out with new ideas which he could not imagine of his own. Therefore, the interviews offer the reader fresh insights into Gandhi’s thoughts. The interviewees had their own views about Gandhi’s philosophy. Satyagraha for Gandhi was not a political weapon for gaining power but a way of life. It was a peaceful yet revolutionary innovation. Besides, the interviews reaffirm dynamic nature of life, inseparability of politics and ethics, non-violence and search for truth. Thus, the interviews promote the holistic understanding of the Gandhian thought and come out with kaleidoscopic picture of Gandhi’s dynamic philosophy that is deeply rooted in action for the emancipation of the subaltern poor people. The book is an eye-opener for the politicians who have forgotten in praxis.
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Gandhi
visualised an egalitarian society based on the principles of
non-violence and truth. His ideal social order was not a platonic myth
of "Republic" or Moore’s Utopia. He built strong bridges
between theory and practise. His goal of life was to live in a
non-exploitive society. His "Hind Swaraj" was anchored on
trusteeship and anti-machine and technology. He exploited indigenous (swadeshi)
resources and shunned foreign goods. He emphasised on the purity of end
and means. He respected diversities and pluralities. According to him,
religion and politics are inseparable, whereas politics is inspired by
morality and spirituality. His experiments with truth aimed at a new
moral and societal order. His concerns for the poor and his critique of
the British colonialism were in some respects different from other
interviewees. Gandhi resisted the pressure from the Left to offer a
clear-cut socio-economic programme.