About the Book
Gandhi's Vision: Freedom and Beyond chronicles the principal events leading to India's independence under Gandhi's leadership and his vision of a free India.
The book commemorates 71 years of Indian independence and is replete with portraits of the Mahatma in action-invoking the spirit of patriotism, uniting people from all religions, regions and social groups across the country: Hindus, Muslims and Parsis, peasants and landlords, workers and capitalists, the intelligentsia and the illiterates, men and women, the young and the old.
Among those stalwarts who led the freedom movement, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi shines not only for the novel means of non-violence, but also for simultaneously wanting to root out social evils like communal hatred, untouchability and gender disparity. With several such issues espoused by him continuing to dominate the social space, his teachings remain relevant even today.
This book, embodying the above vision, is brought out as a part of Gandhi's 150th birth anniversary celebrations.
About the Author
DR APARNA BASU is currently Chairperson of the National Gandhi Museum, Raj Ghat, New Delhi. She was formerly Professor of History, University of Delhi. Aparna Basu obtained her BA and Ph.D from the University of Cambridge, UK and her MA from George Washington University, USA. She has written widely on women's history and history of education. She was on the editorial board of Indian Economic and Social History Review and is on the advisory board of the Indian Journal of Gender Studies. She has published biographies of Mridula Sarabhai, G.L. Mehta, Abbas Tyabji and Kasturba Gandhi. She was a Fellow of St. Antony's College and Queen Elizabeth House, Oxford and Wolfson College, Cambridge, UK.
Introduction
The idea of this book originated with an exhibition organised by the National Gandhi Museum and the India International Centre, New Delhi, in August 2017 to commemorate 70 years of Indian independence. We decided that instead of depicting India's achievement since 1947, we would chronicle the main events leading to India's independence under Gandhi's leadership and his vision of a free India. The exhibition was widely appreciated and very favourably reviewed in the press. Niyogi Books expressed a wish to publish a book of the photographs with an enlarged accompanying text to coincide with the 149th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi in 2018.
So much has already been written about Gandhi that one may well ask, is another book required? Commemorating national leaders is usually confined to eulogising their personality and achievements.
