This is the first systematic study of Mohandas Gandhi's conception of religion and of his personal religious practices to be based on the ninety volumes of his Collected Works. With a constant awareness of chronology, it focuses on Gandhi's own statements, revealing the considerable development of his ideas within a lasting and consistent ideological and moral framework. This biography of Gandhi as a Hindu discloses how he was influenced by, and reacted to, Hindu traditions, and why the Hindu establishment rejected him.

Millions around the world revere Mahatma Gandhi, yet only a few know the man Mohandas Gandhi and the internal journey of his soul. This pioneering book fills the spiritual void in Gandhian literature by focusing on the soul and the substance of the man. Uma Majmudar shows that, contrary to popular belief, Gandhi's rise to greatness was not meteoric; it was, rather, a continuous process of faith development, punctuated by conflicts, crises, and turning points. Using James W. Fowler's theory of "Stages of Faith" as a guide, Majmudar undertakes the first developmental study to analyze the fundamental role of faith in transforming Gandhi's life. She proposes that the power that nourished Gandhi's soul was his ever-growing faith in the ultimate triumph of Truth and in the innate Godliness of the human soul. Along with making an invaluable contribution to numerous cross-cultural disciplines, the book also offers something special to those wishing to embark on their own faith developmental journey, guided by Gandhi's example. "Majmudar wants us to touch and feel Gandhi. He is not on a pedestal, he is not made of granite or bronze, he is warm and vulnerable." — from the Foreword by Rajmohan Gandhi

Comprising of 14 chapters, Gandhi, the Communicator deals with Gandhian ideals based on the author’s study of the Mahatma at the Gandhi Museum, Rajkot in Gujarat. The chapters are named after truth, celibacy, control of the palate, ahimsa, removal of untouchability, non-possession (aparigraha), abhay (fearlessness), asteya (non-stealing), zaat-mehnat (bread labour), equality of religions (sarva dharm sambhaav or tolerance) and swadeshi. Gandhiji was inspired by four main thinkers – Leo Tolstoy on whose name he even named one of his farms, John Ruskin, Henry David Thoreau and Gopal Krishna Gokhale.

The twenty-first century has seen violence thunder back onto the stage of history. Religious, political, social, cultural, and economic constituents and interests thus contribute to the local and global manifestations of violence in our interconnected and contracting global world. Firmly embedded within the field of religion, the authors of this volume concede that religious motifs and impulses are alive and well in this unfolding of bloodshed. It is no wonder then that in our volatile historical age, religious fundamentalism and illiberal nationalism have emerged as dominant contemporary movements. Against this backdrop, the contributors to this edited book look back in order to move forward by reflecting upon the truth-force (Satyagraha) that grounded and guided Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869-1948). On the heels of several commemorations in 2019 of the 150th anniversary of Gandhi's birth, we reexamine the truths of his philosophy and nonviolent strategy to resist religious and political fundamentalisms. Embracing truth was, for Gandhi, the only way to achieve complete freedom (poorna Swaraj). The goal of freedom, which Gandhi conceptualized as profoundly personal, expansively communitarian, and organically ecological, emanates from a firm grasp of truth.

This book examines the centrality of ideas such as satya (truth), ahimsa (non-violence), humility, and respect for understanding moral life in the complex milieu of human existence. It provides a comprehensive view of how Gandhian ideas have both a temporal and spatial universality significantly different from Western modern philosophy's universality claims. The chapters represent different styles of philosophy but with a common purpose, offering insights into how the global debates on religion, morality, and politics are assessed from Gandhi's point of view. Written in language accessible to general readers with an interest in Gandhian thinking, the book will appeal to academics and philosophers.

This book is a comparative study of Gandhi’s philosophy and analyzes his relevance to modern political thought. It traces the intellectual origins of Gandhi’s nonviolence as well as his engagement with Western thinkers – ancient as well as his contemporaries. The author discusses Gandhi’s exchanges with eminent thinkers like Tolstoy and Thoreau, and looks at his vision of pluralism, democracy, and violence through the lens of philosophers like Hannah Arendt, Isaiah Berlin, and Cornelius Castoriadis. Further, it explores Gandhi’s association with Abdul Ghaffar Khan and the Khilafat Movement. Finally, the book examines Gandhian thought in the light of his global followers like Martin Luther King Jr and Nelson Mandela. An invaluable resource for the contemporary mind, this book will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of politics, political thought, Gandhi studies, and philosophy.