Gandhi: A Spiritual Biography

Great text. Thorough understanding of Gandhi’s leadership and importance.

Avant-Garde Politician: Leaders for a New Epoch This book is a good introduction to one of the great unknowns of leadership, namely what makes a spiritual-political leader and how do she or he function and, in some cases, become a major maker of future history, for better or worse. Leaving aside mythical models, however significant, such as Moses, examples from recent history include Martin Luther King and Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Gandhi is a most significant positive example, thanks to his highly moral beliefs, in part based on Indian traditions, such as Satyagraha (insistence on truth), love also for one's enemy and efforts to change them for the better, Ahimsa (compassion and not to injure), and especially Satyagraha ("the need to oppose injustice but to oppose it nonviolently" [p. 203], simplified in the widely used term "passive resistance"). These made him an Indian and in some respects even more so a global spiritual leaders.Gandhi was also a top political leader of India, formally or by force of his personality, who exerted much influence on the way in which it achieved independence (including the partition between India and Pakistan, which may have been a serious mistake resulting, paradoxically, in a nuclear confrontation which contradicts all that Gandhi believed in). Thus, Gandhi is a prime case of spiritual-political leadership characterized by regarding itself and being widely accepted by followers as having a transcendental basis. This type of leadership is quite different from ideological this-worldly leadership, a distinction underrated by the author who partly compares Gandhi with Churchill, Mao and Stalin (pp. 190-193).Nearly all the study of leadership neglects spiritual-political leaders as a distinct type of the highest importance. Hence the importance of the book and the insights it provides into the spiritual aspects of Gandhi and their development. In addition to its monographic significance, it can also serve as a good starting line for developing a theory of spiritual-political leadership throughout history. This is all the more urgent because the emerging metamorphosis of humanity, as discussed in my recent book, requires spiritual-political leaders of the highest quality.Accordingly I strongly recommend this book to all interested in public leadership, in addition to students of India and its history and of Gandhi.Professor Yehezkel DrorThe Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Arvind Sharma's book is wonderful and I cannot recommend it enough. I was nearly moved to tears reading through the first section of the book, because the writing communicated a sense of immediacy that revealed the life of a man whose heart and self-development was so large that he was willing to give his life for others. We've heard of this concept, yet it's greatly touching to be made aware of this. The biographical part of this book was compelling and I learned new facts I had never read before. The sections on Gandhi's relationship to Rajchandra and the Salt March particularly captured my attention. This book sifted out those ideas and ideals from Gandhi's life that inspired him the most and in doing so it took the Mahatma out of the realm of history and made him a man whose thoughts and example can benefit each of us today. Gandhi is presented from a standpoint that his example is not beyond our reach; He had a message to deliver that is very personal and direct. Gandhi was a man who awakened to the call of the spirit, and in so doing he left down markers along the way for all of us.

Perhaps a better title for this book would be 'A critical analysis of Gandhi's religious thought'. There is very little feeling for the movements of spirit that moved the man, the anxieties his heart struggled with, the flowering of his passion for selfless work, the deep vision into the human condition that he offered. Rather, the book is an analysis of the theoretical implications of Gandhi's words and deeds. Suitable for academic cogitation, but not of much help in understanding the heart of Gandhi, and the particular spirit of India that he symbolises.