By Anthony J. Parel

About The Author :

Anthony J. Parel is Emiretus Professor of Political Science at the University of Calgary.  His previous publications include Gandhi: "Hind Swaraj" and Other Writings and Gandhi, Freedom and Self-Rule.

BOOK REVIEW

Anthony Parel provides us with a new perspective on the philosophy of Gandhi.  He explores how Gandhi connected the spiritual with the temporal.  According to Parel a good way to describe Gandhi was "being more things than one".  He shows how Gandhi, extracted the essence from the time honoured Indian theory of the purusharthas or "the aims of life," and fitted his ethical, political, aesthetic and religious ideas together.  In this way, Gandhi challenged the notion which prevailed in Indian society that a rift existed between the secular and spiritual, the political and the contemplative life. Parel's book shows how far-reaching were the effects of Gandhi's practical philosophy on Indian thought generally, and how these have survived into the present.

Published by

Cambridge University Press

c/o Cambridge University Press India Pvt. Ltd.

New Delhi 110 002 India

Price Rs. 295/-