Front cover image for Gandhi on non-violence : selected texts from Mohandas K. Gandhi's non-violence in peace and war

Gandhi on non-violence : selected texts from Mohandas K. Gandhi's non-violence in peace and war

Gandhi (Author), Thomas Merton
The basic principles of Gandhi's philosophy of non-violence (ahimsa) and non-violent action (satyagraha) were chosen by Thomas Merton for this compendium in 1965. In his challenging Introduction, Merton emphasizes action rather than pacifism as essential to non-violence, and illustrates how the foundations of Gandhi's universal truths are linked to traditional Hindu Dharma, the Greek philosophers, and the teachings of Jesus Christ. Educated as a Westerner in South Africa, it was Gandhi's desire to end the caste system in India that led him to discover the dynamic power of non-cooperation. Gandhi's politics of spiritual integrity have influenced generations of people around the world, as well as civil rights and political leaders from Martin Luther King, Jr. and Steve Biko to Vaclav Havel and Aung San Suu Kyi. For Gandhi non-violence was also very personal, as Merton observes: "the spirit of non-violence sprang from an inner realization of spiritual unity in himself." Kurlansky's new Preface offers further insight into Gandhi's character as well as the relevance of his ongoing political legacy
Print Book, English, 2007
New Directions Pub., New York, 2007
Nonfiction
xviii, 101 pages ; 21 cm
9780811216869, 0811216861
165956679
Introduction: Gandhi and the one-eyed giant
Principles of non-violence
Non-violence: true and false
The spiritual dimensions of non-violence
The political scope of non-violence
The purity of non-violence
Originally published: New York : New Directions, 1965
"A New Directions Paperbook."