‘[This] book succeeds in making us see the poetics of disobedience in the utterly illiberal, prosaic ethos of our times [and gives] Gandhi a new, radical and transformative significance.’—Ashok Vajpeyi
‘The Dissenter as a critic, an innovator and a moral actor of resistance receives his due in Ramin Jahanbegloo’s study.’—Shiv Visvanathan
Ramin Jahanbegloo, one of the world’s leading political philosophers, engages with the most pressing question facing us today: Is it not our duty, as citizens of democracies, to question and speak out against all authority? Should we not take back the power from self-interested political actors in the true spirit of Gandhi, for whom Swaraj was more than mere freedom from oppression?
The core idea of Gandhi’s philosophy of resistance, Jahanbegloo argues, is his unshakeable conviction that it is no longer possible to organize political action without disobedience. Democracy, he says, must be structured so that every citizen can question and disobey unjust laws and institutions. This is what Mahatma Gandhi continues to tell us, more forcefully, bravely and compassionately than any other thinker of modern history.
The Disobedient Indian is a compellingly argued, persuasive handbook about the history, philosophy and necessity of disobedience. It is a vital tract for our increasingly undemocratic times.