Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Book cover

Gandhi’s Significance for Today pp 36–50Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Shoring Up the Saint: Some Suggestions for Improving Satyagraha

  • Chapter

  • 108 Accesses

Abstract

No one should be expected to be perfect, not even Gandhi, and from time to time he had occasion to rebel against such lofty expectations. Gandhi is on record more than once as having renounced the title of saint that his followers persistently thrust upon him. ‘To clothe me with sainthood is too early even if it is possible’, Gandhi said, adding that ‘I myself do not feel a saint in any shape or form.’1

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   29.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Notes

  1. These ideas are touched upon in my article, ‘Doing Ethics in a Plural World’, in Earl E. Shelp (ed.), Theology and Bioethics (Dordrecht and Boston: D. Reidel, 1984)

    Google Scholar 

  2. J. S. Hawley (ed.), Saints and Virtues (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986).

    Google Scholar 

  3. The phrase is that of Pran Chopra, The Sage in Revolt: A Remembrance, assisted by Manoranjan Mohanty (New Delhi: Gandhi Peace Foundation, 1972).

    Google Scholar 

  4. Gandhi’s ideas have been presented in systematic, generally applicable form in Joan Bondurant’s Conquest of Violence: The Gandhian Philosophy of Conflict (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1958

    Google Scholar 

  5. Raghavan Iyer, The Moral and Political Thought of Gandhi (New York: Oxford University Press, 1973)

    Google Scholar 

  6. Saul Padover, Karl Marx, An Intimate Biography (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1978) pp. 410–28.

    Google Scholar 

  7. Gandhi, Satyagraha in South Africa (Ahmedabad: Navajivan Trust, 1961 [orig. 1928]) p. 172.

    Google Scholar 

  8. Pyarelal, The Epic Fast (Ahmedabad: Mohanlal Maganlal Bhatt, 1932) p. 4.

    Google Scholar 

  9. B. Pattabhi Sitaramayya, The History of the Indian National Congress, vol. 1, 1885–1935 (Bombay: Padma Publishers, 1935) p. 533.

    Google Scholar 

  10. Geoffrey Ashe, Gandhi (New York: Stein & Day, 1968)

    Google Scholar 

  11. Gandhi, Ethical Religion (Madras, India: Ganesan Press, 1930 [orig. 1922]) p. 35.

    Google Scholar 

  12. Gene Sharp, The Politics of Nonviolent Action, Part One: Power and Struggle (Boston: Porter Sargent Publishers, 1973) p. 83.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors
  1. Mark Juergensmeyer
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. The Claremont Graduate School, Claremont, California, USA

    John Hick (Danforth Professor of the Philosophy of Religion) (Danforth Professor of the Philosophy of Religion)

  2. Center for Politics and Policy, The Claremont Graduate School, Claremont, California, USA

    Lamont C. Hempel (Associate Director) (Associate Director)

Copyright information

© 1989 The Claremont Graduate School

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Juergensmeyer, M. (1989). Shoring Up the Saint: Some Suggestions for Improving Satyagraha. In: Hick, J., Hempel, L.C. (eds) Gandhi’s Significance for Today. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-20354-3_5

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation