Vinay Lal - Moral & Political Thought of Gandhi, Lecture 14 of 19, May 17, 2016

University of California, Los Angeles. New segment on The Friends and Foes of Gandhi -- his intimate disciples, friends, and some of his critics. How was Gandhi able to draw to him such a motley group of people? It is argued that the theory of charisma is not particularly useful. Did he set an example for others in every respect and did that become important for others? Is there a difference in the way in which he was received by elites and the masses? We look at Shahid Amin's interpretation in «Gandhi as Mahatma». What was Gandhi's own tolerance for criticism? What kind of gurus did Gandhi accept? We look at some disciples of Gandhi: Kumarappa, Mahadev Desai, J. Nehru, Mirabehn, Sardar Patel, and Badshah Khan (aka Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan). We consider Nehru's ambivalence about Gandhi. A more detailed discussion of the relation between Rabindranath Tagore and Mohandas Gandhi and their political differences; ;the debate between them in the pages of «the Modern Review». Vinay Lal is an Indian historian. He is a professor of history and Asian American studies at UCLA. He writes widely on the history and culture of colonial and modern India, popular and public culture in India, cinema, historiography, the politics of world history, the Indian diaspora, global politics, contemporary American politics, the life and thought of Mohandas Gandhi, Hinduism, and the politics of knowledge systems.