Interpreting Gandhi Differently

Abstract

The current agrarian crisis in India makes it necessary to question the prevailing development model and search for alternatives. One such alternative paradigm that has influenced various people's struggles for sustainable development is the Gandhian model. Encoded in it is the idea of village self-sufficiency through economic decentralisation and cooperation in the socio-political life of the community. This paper does not discuss the ideological complexity or strategies adopted by institutions/movements influenced by Gandhian thought in their rural development work. It seeks to delineate the different directions in which Gandhian experiments have evolved in post-colonial India through the lives and works of two Gandhian women. Although born in different generations, both these women lay claim to the Gandhian legacy. The first is Purnima Pakvasa, a freedom fighter who works for the education of tribal women in Dang district of Gujarat; and the second is Vibha Gupta, who, having inherited the Gandhian legacy from her parents, struggles to take science to the village in Wardha, Maharashtra.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Asaf Ali, Aruna . 1991. Resurgence of Indian Women. New Delhi: Radiant Publishers and the Nehru Memorial Library .

Gandhi, Arun . 2000. Kasturba: A Life. New Delhi: Penguin Books .

Gandhi, Nandita and Shah, Nandita . 1992. The Issues at Stake: Theory and Practice in the Contemporary Women's Movement in India. New Delhi: Kali for Women .

Gazetteer of Bombay Presidency. 1901. Vol IX, Part 1, pp. 264–66. Bombay: Bombay Central Press .

Government of India. 1974. District Gazetter (Wardha). The Gazetteers Department.

Gupta, Devendra . 1969. The Inevitable Gandhi. New Delhi: Gandhi Book House .

Kasturi, Leela and Vina Mazumdar (eds). 1994. ‘Introduction’, in Women and Indian Nationalism, pp. xxv–lsviii. New Delhi: Vikas Publishing House .

Magan Sangrahalaya . 2001. Devendra Bhai: A Lone Crusader. Wardha: Magan Sangrahalaya .

Magan Sangrahalaya . 2002. An Overview (brochure). Wardha: Magan Sangrahalaya .

10.

Mandal, Hrishikesh , Sumit Mukherjee and Archana Datta . 2002. India: An Illustrated Atlas of Tribal World. Kolkata: Anthropological Survey of India .

11.

Nehru, Jawaharlal . 2002 (1934–35). Glimpses of World History. New Delhi: Oxford University Press .

12.

Poonacha, Veena and Divya Pandey . 1999. Responses to Domestic Violence in Gujarat and Karnataka. Mumbai: Research Centre for Women's Studies, SNDT Women's University .

13.

Poonacha, Veena . 1999. Understanding Women's Studies. (Contributions to Women's Studies Series: 11). Mumbai: Research Centre for Women's Studies, SNDT Women's University .

14.

Risley, Herbert . 1915/1991. The People of India. New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal .

15.

Singh, K.S. 1994. The Scheduled Tribes: The People of India. (National Series. Vol. III, Anthropological Survey of India). New Delhi: Oxford University Press .

16.

Srinivasan, Amrit . 1994. ‘Women and Reform of Indian Tradition: Gandhian Alternative to Liberalism’, Leela Kasturi and Vina Mazumdar (eds), Women and Indian Nationalism, pp. 1–15. New Delhi: Vikas Publishing House .

17.

Sykes, Majorie . 1994/2000. Moved by Love: The Memoirs of Vinoba Bhave (translated by Majorie Sykes from a text prepared by Kalani). Hyderabad: Sat Sahita Sahayogi Sangh .