In Arguments with Gandhi, Ramachandra Guha uses the legacy of Mahatma Gandhi to present a moral and political history of the modern world.
The Gandhi of this book is a compelling as well as controversial figure, whose ideas on non-violence, social justice, religious harmony and economic policy have elicited a wide range of responses, affirmative as well as critical. As Guha demonstrates, Gandhi's debates with his contemporaries, and the arguments of later generations with him, foreground some of the vital questions of human existence that we still confront:
How do we best resist political tyranny? How do we mitigate discrimination on the basis of caste, gender and race? And how do we achieve freedom from poverty and deprivation without destroying the planet?
With Gandhi as its pivot, this book features an array of major historical figures who engaged with his ideas, among them B.R. Ambedkar, Albert Einstein, Martin Luther King Jr., Lenin, Nelson Mandela, Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay and V.D. Savarkar.
Rigorously researched and elegantly written, Arguments with Gandhi is essential reading for anyone interested in understanding Gandhi's legacy in the context of the challenges the world faces today.
Ramachandra Guha's books include a pioneering environmental history, The Unquiet Woods; a landmark history of the Republic, India after Gandhi; and an authoritative two-volume biography of Mahatma Gandhi, each of which was chosen by the New York Times as a Notable Book of the Year. He is also the author of two memoirs, The Commonwealth of Cricket and The Cooking of Books. Guha is currently Distinguished University Professor at Krea University. He has previously taught at Oslo, Stanford and the London School of Economics. Guha's many awards include the Leopold-Hidy Prize of the American Society for Environmental History, the Elizabeth Longford Prize for Historical Biography and the Fukuoka Prize for contributions to Asian culture. He is the recipient of an honorary doctorate in the humanities from Yale University.