Reading Gandhi in the Twenty-First Century [Hardcover]

Niranjan Ramakrishnan examines the surprising extent to which Gandhi's writings still provide insight into current global tensions and the assumptions that drive them. This book explores how ideas Gandhi expressed over a century ago can be applied today to issues from terrorism to the environment, globalization to the 'Clash of Civilizations.' In particular it looks at Gandhi's emphasis on the small, the local, and the human  an emphasis that today begins to appear practical, attractive, and even inescapable. Written in an accessible style invoking examples from everyday happenings familiar to all, this concise volume reintroduces Gandhi to today's audiences in relevant terms.
1. Prologue: A World at Sea 2. What's so Great about Gandhi, Anyway? 3. Gandhi in the Time of Terrorism 4. Privatization&Privation&Privacy 5. Globalization&of What? 6. A Fundamental(ist) Irony 7. Environmentalism 8. The C(l)ash of Civilizations 9. East Vs. West: Win, Lose or Draw? 10. Media Matters, Citizen Mutters 11. Technological Titans, Moral Midgets 12. Corruption and its Discontents 13. Of Suicides and Stock Markets 14. Unbroken Connectivity, Broken Lives: Industrialism and its Consequences 15. W(h)ither the State? 16. Epilogue: Where do we go from here?

Niranjan Ramakrishnan's Reading Gandhi in the Twenty-First Century is a discovery of the Mahatma, whom we have made synonymous with a timid view of non-violence and discarded his thoughts as outdated. 'Gandhi's tragedy is that he is unsung, even unknown for his greatest contribution, even in the land of his birth,' rues Ramakrishnan. Very true. How many of us know his views on environment, demand-led economy, swaraj from state control and globalization? - The Financial Express

Scholarship on Gandhi often verges on the hagiographic, which makes it difficult to relate his thoughts to the modern generation with its irreverent attitude . . . Gandhi has more practical achievements, social and political, lb