Truth and Power: Gandhi's Political Philosophy

In this book, Darryl Naranjit analyzes Mahatma Gandhi's political philosophy. He contrasts Gandhi's philosophy with two modern western thinkers - Machiavelli and Nietzsche. Leo Strauss, the American political philosopher, has written about three waves of modernity beginning with Machiavelli, continuing with Rousseau and ending with Nietzsche. Strauss goes back to Platonic political philosophy to correct the 'immoderation' of modernity. Darryl Naranjit suggests that Gandhi goes back to ancient Indian philosophy to correct the immoderation of modern civilization. This immoderation arises out a philosophy which denies the possibility of truth and hence denies the 'moral law of the universe'. One consequence of this was the separation of ethics from politics. Gandhi calls for a return to ancient Indian wisdom to combat this denial of truth and this separation of ethics from politics. In this respect, he outlines a program to bring about the re-translation of the ethical into the political. What he calls for is a new civilization based on satya and ahimsa (truth and non-violence) in order to avoid the destructiveness of modern civilization. Such a warning is both timely and relevant to a world now caught up in a spiral of violence and hate. Darryl Naranjit puts forward Gandhi as a thinker who has something of great importance to say to our troubled times.