CAA–NRC Protests: Why Gandhi Would Have Been Proud of Today’s Youth
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CAA–NRC Protests: Why Gandhi Would Have Been Proud of Today’s Youth

Syed Ubaidur Rahman   Today, as the shadow of eviction confronts the anti-CAA protests that have rocked the Capital’s Shaheen Bagh locality for one month, it is important to note how these protests have contributed to the nation so far. The protests—wherever they have taken place in the country—have had a profound impact on the…

Gandhi-Nehru Tradition and Indian Secularism
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Gandhi-Nehru Tradition and Indian Secularism

P.C. Joshi   Among the developing countries, India is distinguished by its proclaimed commitment to secularism as the guiding principle of state policy and action. The conception of Indian secularism is not just an intellectual abstraction; it is not a product only of logical constructions and academic debates. It acquired flesh and blood, a moral…

On October 2, 1947, Why Did Gandhi Say He Was Ashamed That He Was Still Alive?

On October 2, 1947, Why Did Gandhi Say He Was Ashamed That He Was Still Alive?

Courtesy: The Wire The plans to officially mark Mahatma Gandhi’s 150th birth anniversary are on course. At the ground level, however, the ugly face of communalism continues to rear its head in one virulent incident after another. It was an issue which agitated Gandhi until his dying breath and, in fact, was uppermost in his…

Gandhi’s Idea of Cleanliness and Swachh Bharat Abhiyan

Gandhi’s Idea of Cleanliness and Swachh Bharat Abhiyan

Sandeep Pandey Mahatma Gandhi’s spectacles are being used as an emblem for Government of India’s sanitation campaign Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (SBA). Even though Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh, the ideological parent of ruling Bhartiya Janata Party, abhors Gandhi’s ideology, yet Narendra Modi has decided to use Gandhi as a symbol for his drive for cleanliness. First, he…

Ho Chi Minh: Remembering the King and the Saint
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Ho Chi Minh: Remembering the King and the Saint

Archishman Raju In February 1958, when Ho Chi Minh visited India, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru welcomed him as “a great revolutionary and an almost legendary hero”. September 2019 marked the 50th anniversary of the death of “one of the most remarkable men of our times”, and serves as an occasion to remember what created him…

The Monk Who Shaped India’s Secularism
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The Monk Who Shaped India’s Secularism

Rahul Mukherji Has Indian nationalism turned utterly exclusivist? What would one of the icons of nationalism, Swami Vivekananda, have to say about this shift? Nationalism, after all, is a battle for the myths that create a nation. The practice of Indian secularism, despite its pitfalls, has distinguished the country from many of its neighbours. India…

Relevance of Gandhiji’s Message Today
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Relevance of Gandhiji’s Message Today

Nikhil Chakravartty (This essay was first published in Mainstream, October 1, 1994.) On October 2 this year India is celebrating the hundred and twentyfifth birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. The Government of India has set up a special committee studded with VIPs of different denominations and is chalking out an extensive programme of functions which…

Gandhiji and Lohia: An Intimate and Fruitful Relationship – Part 2
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Gandhiji and Lohia: An Intimate and Fruitful Relationship – Part 2

Prem Singh Lohia’s critique of Gandhiji has been a significant contribution to Gandhian studies in the post-Gandhi era. Lohia as a heretic Gandhian makes perhaps the most revolutionary interpretation of Gandhiji’s philosophy and modes of action. He left incomplete his long essay “Economics After Marx”, that he had begun in 1943–44 (the essay is compiled…