- Mohandas K. Gandhi has been described as an artist of non-violence, crafting as he did a set of practices of the self and politics that earned him the mantle of Mahatma, the great soul. Mohandas K. Gandhi has been described as 'an artist of non-violence, ' crafting as he did a set of practices of the self and politics that earned him the mantle of Mahatma, 'the great soul.' His philosophy and praxis of satyagraha, non-violent civil disobedience, has been analyzed extensively. But is satyagraha also an aesthetic regime, with practices akin to a work of art? Is Gandhi, then, an artist of disobedience? Sumathi Ramaswamy explores these questions with the help of India's modern and contemporary artists who have over the past century sought out the Mahatma as their muse and invested in him across a wide range of media from painting and sculpture to video installation and digital production. At a time when Gandhi is a hallowed but hollow presence, why have they lavished so much attention on him? A hundred and fifty years after his birth, Gandhi is hyper visible across the Indian landscape from tea stalls and government offices to museums and galleries. This is ironical given that the Mahatma appeared to have had little time for the visual arts or for artists for that matter. Yet fascinatingly, the visual artist has emerged as Gandhi's conscience-keeper, reminding others of the meaning of the Mahatma in his own time and today. In so doing, these artists also reveal why this most disobedient of 'modern' icons has grabbed their attention, resulting in a veritable art of disobedience as an homage to one of the twentieth century's great prophets of disobedience.

This book engages with the socio-cultural imaginings of Gandhi in literature, history, visual and popular culture. It explores multiple iterations of his ideas, myths and philosophies, which have inspired the work of filmmakers, playwrights, cartoonists and artists for generations. Gandhi’s politics of non-violent resistance and satyagraha inspired various political leaders, activists and movements and has been a subject of rigorous scholarly enquiry and theoretical debates across the globe. Using diverse resources like novels, autobiographies, non-fictional writings, comic books, memes, cartoons and cinema, this book traces the pervasiveness of the idea of Gandhi which has been both idolized and lampooned. It explores his political ideas on themes such as modernity and secularism, environmentalism, abstinence, self-sacrifice and political freedom along with their diverse interpretations, caricatures, criticisms and appropriations to arrive at an understanding of history, culture and society. With contributions from scholars with diverse research interests, this book will be an essential read for students and researchers of political philosophy, cultural studies, literature, Gandhi and peace studies, political science and sociology.

Dennis Dalton's classic account of Gandhi's political and intellectual development focuses on the leader's two signal triumphs: the civil disobedience movement (or salt satyagraha) of 1930 and the Calcutta fast of 1947. Dalton clearly demonstrates how Gandhi's lifelong career in national politics gave him the opportunity to develop and refine his ideals. He then concludes with a comparison of Gandhi's methods and the strategies of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, drawing a fascinating juxtaposition that enriches the biography of all three figures and asserts Gandhi's relevance to the study of race and political leadership in America. Dalton situates Gandhi within the "clash of civilizations" debate, identifying the implications of his work on continuing nonviolent protests. He also extensively reviews Gandhian studies and adds a detailed chronology of events in Gandhi's life.

"Published in conjunction with the exhibition Experiments with Truth: Gandhi and Images of Nonviolence, organized by the Menil Collection, Houston; curated by Josef Helfenstein. The Menil Collection, October 2, 2014-February 1, 2015; International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum, Geneva, April 14, 2015-January 3, 2016"--Page [351].

Europeans and Americans tend to hold the opinion that democracy is a uniquely Western inheritance, but in The Common Cause, Leela Gandhi recovers stories of an alternate version, describing a transnational history of democracy in the first half of the twentieth century through the lens of ethics in the broad sense of disciplined self-fashioning. Gandhi identifies a shared culture of perfectionism across imperialism, fascism, and liberalism—an ethic that excluded the ordinary and unexceptional. But, she also illuminates an ethic of moral imperfectionism, a set of anticolonial, antifascist practices devoted to ordinariness and abnegation that ranged from doomed mutinies in the Indian military to Mahatma Gandhi’s spiritual discipline. Reframing the way we think about some of the most consequential political events of the era, Gandhi presents moral imperfectionism as the lost tradition of global democratic thought and offers it to us as a key to democracy’s future. In doing so, she defends democracy as a shared art of living on the other side of perfection and mounts a postcolonial appeal for an ethics of becoming common.

In the Vishnudharmottara Purana, when Vajra asks about the art of sculpting deities, Markandeya responds that understanding sculpture first requires knowledge of painting. When Vajra seeks the rules of painting, Markandeya further explains that painting itself cannot be understood without knowledge of dance. To grasp choreography, one must first comprehend music, and true understanding of music is only possible through mastery of singing. This interdependence of art, the insight into the essence of art, is not only attractive but also worth deploring especially when over-specialization is the norm of our age. The essays in this book are a reflection of that ideal, seeking to explore and touch even a small part of this artistic interdependence.

Dunhuang Although Internationally Known Is Infrequently Visited. The Mogao Shrine At Dunhuang Is A Cluster Of 492 Caves, Containing 45,000 Square Metres Of Frescoes And 2,415 Stucco Statues. These Caves Were Created, Renovated And Maintained Continually With Devotion And Care From The 4Th Upto The 14Th Century. In This Volume We Have Provided An English Translation Of Selected Writings Of Prof. Duan Wenjie, Director Of The Dunhuang Academy Who Has Given A Chronological Study Of The Contents Inside The Mogao Caves With Several Decades Of Research Of The Dunhuang Academy Under His Command. Prof. Tan Chung, The Editor, Has Furnished An Illuminating Introduction, While Dr. Kapila Vatsyayan, The Driving Spirit Behind This Volume, Has Made Succinct Comments In Her Foreword . A Valuable Information On All The Mogao Caves Has Been Added. Colour And Black And White Photographs And Fine Sketches By Vineet Kumar Supplement The Text. The Indira Gandhi National Centre For The Arts Is Committed To Exploring All Dimensions Of Art. It Feels Privileged To Place Before Art Historians And Art Lovers Of The English-Speaking World First-Hand Information About His Unique Art Gallery Going Back To One-And-A-Half Millennia.

Chris Pinney demonstrates how printed images were pivotal to India's struggle for national and religious independence. He also provides a history of printing in India.

9/11 marked the beginning of a century that is defined by widespread violence. Every other day seems to be a furthering of the already catastrophic present towards a more disastrous tomorrow. With climate change looming over us, frequent economic instability, religious wars, and relentless political mayhem, life for what we have made of it seems more and more unsustainable. Douglas Allen insists that we look to Gandhi, if only selectively and creatively, in order to move towards a nonviolent and sustainable future. Is a Gandhi-informed swaraj technology, valuable but humanly limited, possible? What would a Gandhian world—a more egalitarian, interconnected, decentralized—of globalization look like? Focusing on key themes in Gandhi’s thinking such as violence and nonviolence, absolute truth and relative truth, ethical and spiritual living, and his critique of modernity, the book compels us to rethink our positions today.

Feminist networks, new biennials, and performance -- Painting and the image condition at the millennium -- Materiality, ephemerality, and haptics -- Language, the documentary, and art in a discursive mode -- Infrastructure, collaboration, and the cut -- Conclusion : Infrastructure is not (only) a metaphor.