Abstract

Mahatma Gandhi is regarded as an apostle of nonviolence. But his own thought prioritized truth as the final goal and nonviolence only as the preferred means to achieve the goal. Hence, it is of utmost importance to understand clearly what Gandhi meant by “truth.” Gandhi himself did not offer great help in communicating his concept of truth. He claimed, though, that it was easier for him to grasp truth as he conceived it and that he struggled to grasp nonviolence. Kishorlal Mashruwala, an intellectually inclined close associate and follower of Gandhi wrote a book called Gandhi Vichar Dohan or Quintessence of Gandhi’s Thought in Gujarati. Mashruwala was a clear and systematic thinker and Gandhi approved of the book as accurate depiction of his own, Gandhi’s, thinking. The book has never been translated in English. The present work, Mahatma Gandhi’s Thought: Philosophy of Truth and Nonviolence, by Professor Ramesh N. Patel, is first in publishing relevant parts of that book. It clarifies the dual concept of truth that Gandhi developed and worked with. The concept sports highly original and innovative thinking that, at the same time, reflects an ethic that would challenge anyone to the extreme. Greatness of Gandhi is made obvious when it is realized that he lived this original concept of extremely challenging truth ethic fully through his life. The present work goes ahead to show how Gandhi’s concept of truth logically works as the prime source from which nonviolence and other Gandhian concepts are derived. It also presents Gandhi’s overall thought in a philosophically systematized manner. This is its unique feature compared to the enormous literature available on Gandhi which keeps painting him just as an apostle of nonviolence, focusing on his politically dramatic years.