Gandhi’s Marvellous Revolution

The chapter examines Gandhi’s mature conceptions of decolonization and social change, which he developed alongside his interpretation of Tolstoy and Tolstoy’s understanding of colonialism. Gandhi seems to have expected social transformation to come immediately, as a kind of miracle of consciousness, yet he also imagined change as an indefinitely protracted process, dominated by delay and reversion, as a counter to the clarity and swiftness of revolutionary upheaval. He was particularly concerned with conversion of the adversary and control of the self as the motors of social change. The chapter considers the arguments of Hind Swaraj and the ways in which Gandhi referred to the example of South Africa even when in India, as well as the extent to which questions posed by Tolstoy in the ‘Letter to a Hindoo’ shaped Gandhi’s thinking.

Introduction

The introduction considers the relationship between Leo Tolstoy, Mohandas Gandhi, and Nelson Mandela. It explores Tolstoy’s rejection of violence from the side of the state, as well as the revolutionary. It considers the close connection Tolstoy proposes between changes in the individual self and a radical transformation of society, pointing to the degree to which Gandhi and Mandela pursued the same project of inward and outward transformation of society, pointing to the degree to which Gandhi and Mandela pursued the same project of inward and outward transformation, which involved manual labour and courtesy, the creation of new inward perspectives on death and human dignity, and a realistic understanding of the dynamics of political violence in the context of colony and empire.

Conclusion

The conclusion explores the ways in which, in the transition between the old regime and a democratic government, J.M. Coetzee turned the radical tradition in South Africa and the history of colonialism and decolonization into subjects of his storytelling, and in so doing criticized and reformulated revolutionary thought. The conclusion explores Coetzee’s relationship with Tolstoy, as well as with Gandhi, comparing Tolstoy’s writing on animal butchery with Coetzee’s essays and novels including Age of Iron and Foe. The conclusion also considers the tension between human rights and animal rights in a colonial and postcolonial context, examining the role of dogs in Gandhi’s and Coetzee’s work.

Legacies of Nelson Mandela

The chapter is an account of Mandela’s character, political imagination, and development which looks at his appropriation of Gandhi, his use of the arts, his transformation on Robben Island, and the various attempts which have been made in recent years to define and dismantle his legacy. The chapter is centred on Mandela’s understanding of political violence and his attempt to see through the fantasy of violence to its real purposes and uses, a project in which he was assisted by a reading of Tolstoy’s War and Peace. It explores the connection between violence and non-violence as Mandela conceived it in connection with Gandhi and Tolstoy. The material covers the defiance campaigns of the 1950s, Mandela’s cultural life in prison, and the tenor of his presidential term.

Gandhi’s ‘Bitter Fortnight’

The chapter explores the drawn-out process of Gandhi’s radicalization, which began almost immediately on his arrival in South Africa on 24 May 1873. In the next fortnight, Gandhi would meet unexpected resistance to his presence in a courtroom, on a train, and on top of a stagecoach, a series of adversarial encounters. The chapter considers Gandhi’s drive to engagement and confrontation, which predated his emergence as a community leader and organizer of passive resistance. In trying to understand how a junior representative of a modest company trading along the rim of the Indian Ocean became the focus of a global movement, as well as establishing himself as an original critic of economics and politics, the chapter examines material covering the duration of Gandhi’s sojourn in Southern Africa.