A Modern Non-Western Thinker as a Subject of Intercultural Dialogue (Based on M. K. Gandhi’s Example)

Abstract

An intercultural dialogue is the essential question in modernising societies. Non-Western thinkers (i.e., thinkers influenced by both traditional non-Western and modern Western cultures) are the active subjects of such intercommunications. Their existence on the joint of two civilisations forms their social, cultural and mental image. The intellectuals of this type are attached to both societies and at the same time, they are detached from each of them. Also, they play the role of mediators between two civilisations. These circumstances determine features of their participation in the intercultural dialogue: promote the understanding of two cultures by thinkers, obstruct the understanding of their ideas by compatriots and foreigners and help intellectuals to explain values and senses of one culture to representatives of another. These processes are illustrated in the article on M. K. Gandhi’s example. Consideration of the Indian thinker as a subject of intercultural communications reveals complexity of his views on the Western civilisation. The author comes to the conclusion that Gandhi was not a traditionalist and his rejection of modern Western civilisation means his call for shifting attention from the material sphere to the spiritual one.