Gandhi for Today

The chapter shifts the focus from East Asia to India’s struggle for independence and democracy, under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi. In many ways, Gandhi’s example provided inspiration for later emancipatory movements in the non-Western world. Seen from this angle, Gandhi’s political agenda can be described as a “philosophy of liberation” that (as in Dussel’s case) seeks to transcend the “center-periphery” paradigm in the direction of a “transmodern” democratic equality. The latter idea was captured in Gandhi’s notion of “self-rule” (swaraj), a notion that—far removed from autocracy—implies the ability to rule over oneself, thus making room for the practice of relational care and respect. This practice was also the cornerstone of two other key notions of Gandhi’s work: nonviolence (ahimsa) and striving for justice (satyagraha). These features lift Gandhian democracy far above the procedural minimalism of liberal self-interest, bringing into view the potentiality of a democracy “to come.”