Vinay Lal - Moral & Political Thought of Gandhi, Lecture 18 of 19, May 31, 2016

University of California, Los Angeles. The lecture begins with an analysis of Gandhi's assassination, particularly using Ashis Nandy's piece «The Last Meeting.» It was a premeditated assassination. We examine Godes's thought process and his criticism of Gandhi, which argues that the old man was effeminate, feminine, and weak. We briefly examine the role of the RSS and its continued homage to Savarkar. In the second half of the lecture, we examine India's attempts to become a powerful nation-state and its status as a nuclear state. In the final 15-20 minutes, we examine the distinction between nation, nation-state, and civilization; secondly, we revisit the partition of India. Civilization is more tolerant of ambiguity than the nation-state. 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.