riddle@ut-sally.UUCP (Prentiss Riddle) (12/13/84)
"All Men Are Brothers" by Mohandas K. Gandhi. (Compiled by Krishna Kripalani;
Columbia University Press / Unesco, 1958)
This book is a collection of brief excerpts on a variety of subjects from the
writings of Mahatma Gandhi. It was commissioned in 1956 by Unesco to serve as
an easily accessible introduction to Gandhi's thought for people all over the
world. I'm sure that a purist or a historian would have plenty to object to
in the method of taking a snippet here and a paragraph there out of Gandhi's
voluminous works, but to a newcomer like me the job seems well done. Starting
with a mosaic of autobiography and continuing with religion, "means and ends"
(the fundamental argument from which the doctrine of nonviolent resistance
comes, since evil means tend to produce evil ends), nonviolence itself,
international peace, economics, poverty, education, women, and other topics,
the book manages to convey a broad enough picture of Gandhi to allow, I think,
a fair appraisal: Gandhi was in some ways unnecessarily tied to the time and
place from which he came, in some ways a silly old fool, and in many more ways
one of those fundamental thinkers that only come along once in a great while.
In any case, the book left me wanting to read more.
--- Prentiss Riddle ("Aprendiz de todo, maestro de nada.")
--- {ihnp4,harvard,seismo,gatech,ctvax}!ut-sally!riddle