The Essential WritingsRecommendations

Mahatma Gandhi was a brilliant and innovative thinker, as well as one of the most important characters in twentieth-century history and a well-known proponent of nonviolent civil resistance. His vast and varied publications generally answer to the unique circumstances he experienced during his life, and they demonstrate his growing thoughts over several decades, as well as his deepening spirituality and humanity. This remarkable collection explores Gandhi's thought on religion and spirituality, society and its problems, politics and British rule, and nonviolence and civil disobedience, drawing on the complete spectrum of Gandhi's published work—books, essays, broadcasts, interviews, and letters. The sections are grouped to emphasize Gandhi's idea that human existence should be transformed from the ground up, from the individual through social and political relationships. Judith Brown, a notable specialist on Gandhi, presents a short history of his life and uncertain position in the Indian nationalist movement, analyses what sort of thinker and writer Gandhi was, and illustrates how he developed a cohesive body of thinking in the introduction.