Colonialism, Tradition and Reform

This unique book outlines and evaluates Gandhi's theory of Hindu regeneration. The author first considers Gandhi's analysis of the causes of Indian, and especially Hindu, degeneration and his efforts to determine and validate new principles of ethics. Parekh locates Gandhi in the tradition of reformist discourse developed by his nineteenth century predecessors, and highlights the way he both continued and broke with it. The volume then examines the way Gandhi went about reforming such areas of Indian life and thought as the doctrines of violence, non-violence, the practice of untouchability, mobilisation of sexual energy to attain political objectives and Indianisation of the uniquely Western autobiographical genre of writing.