The Core of Gandhi’s Social and Economic Thought

Abstract

There has, of late, been a plethora of writings on Gandhi by social scientists, historians, political commentators, and journalists. Even the media-men have now turned the searchlight on Gandhi. It is indeed amazing to find today how little writing there was on Gandhi up to only a few years ago.¹ The priorities of social commentators were then fixed elsewhere. They were on anomie, social pathology, prostitution, crime, alcoholism, the expanse of industrial culture, the emergence of the urban megalopolis and on reaching the moon. The focus of academic studies was seldom on violence and certainly not on nonviolence.

There is enough in this world for everybody’s need: there isn’t enough in this world for anybody’s greed.

M. K. Gandhi