Gandhi's Footprints

206 Pages·2015·2.321 MB·English

by  Predrag Cicovacki

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Predrag Cicovacki
ISBN 978-1-412-86264-6
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LDINE RANSACTION
A Division of Transaction Publishers
New Brunswick (U.S.A.) and London (U.K.)
Transaction Publishers
New Brunswick (U.S.A.) and London (U.K.)
A Center for Urban Policy Research Book

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P R E D R A G
C I C O VA C K I
A T
LDINE RANSACTION
A Division of Transaction Publishers
New Brunswick (U.S.A.) and London (U.K.)
Transaction Publishers
New Brunswick (U.S.A.) and London (U.K.)
A Center for Urban Policy Research Book
First published 2015 by Transaction Publishers
Published 2017 by Routledge
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711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
Copyright © 2015 by Taylor & Francis.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
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Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered
trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Catalog Number: 2015009791
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Cicovacki, Predrag, author.
Gandhi’s footprints / Predrag Cicovacki.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4128-5695-9
1. Gandhi, Mahatma, 1869-1948. 2. Gandhi, Mahatma, 1869-1948--Political
and social views. 3. Gandhi, Mahatma, 1869-1948--Influence.
4. Statesmen--India--Biography. 5. India--Politics and govern-
ment--1919-1947. I. Title.
DS481.G3C54 2015
954.03’5092--dc23
[B]
2015009791
ISBN 13: 978-1-4128-5695-9 (hbk)
ISBN 13: 978-1-4128-6264-6 (pbk)
For Vera,
The Best Buddy
“What has he found who has lost God?
And what has he lost who has found God?”
—Ibu ‘Ata’ Allah Al-Iskandari
Contents
Preface ix
Introduction: Gandhi’s Quest for Liberation xiii
I Violence
1 Is Violence Necessary? 3
2 Is Violence Justified? 15
3 Roots of Violence 27
4 Seeking an Alternative 37
II Dialogue
5 Re-Personalizing Human Relations 43
6 Dialogue of Friends 49
7 Dialogue with Adversaries 59
8 Facing an Impasse 69
III Purification
9 The Truth Shall Make Us Free 79
10 Preparing for Truth 89
11 A Seeker of Truth 97
12 The Art of Living 109
IV Struggle
13 Gandhi against Hitler 121
14 Gandhi against “Practical Reason” 133
15 Gandhi’s Triumph 143
16 Gandhi’s Failure 151
17 The Art of Dying 159
Epilogue: In the Shadow of Liberation 165
Acknowledgements 177
Index 179
Preface
The 1990s were the most difficult years of my life. My native
country, my beloved Yugoslavia, fell apart in the most violent
manner. Its diverse ethnic groups, which had lived together
for decades, suddenly became intolerant of one another.
Where has this wind of destruction blown from? What could
one do in the presence of such a violent force? How could
one redirect something so negative into something positive?
In 1991, I defended my doctoral dissertation on Kant’s
Critique of Pure Reason and started my teaching career at a
prestigious liberal arts college on the east coast of the United
States. My ambition at that time was to join an elite club of
Kant scholars, but, with the steady doses of reports about the
intensifying hostilities in the Balkans, it became increasingly
difficult to keep my attention on the subtleties of the tran-
scendental philosophy. Kant could not quiet my existential
anguish. The problems in front of us have precedence over
the puzzles created in the vacuum of philosophical abstrac-
tions. The antinomies of the heart are more important than
the antinomies of pure reason.
In my search for an explanation as to why the Balkan
Peninsula was burning up, and an alternative to such violence
and destruction, I remembered Gandhi. Together with India,
Yugoslavia was one of the cofounders of the “Nonaligned
Nations,” united in an effort to avoid joining either the red
East or the blue West in the escalating Cold War. Because of
that alliance, everything Indian was welcomed and popular
ix