Mahatma Gandhi’s Concept of War and Peace

A study of Mahatma Gandhi’s life and work as a subject of philosophical importance always arouses a lot of curiosity. It is mainly because Gandhiji was not a systematic academic thinker in the field of either metaphysics or political philosophy. He was an inspired teacher and a messiah of peace. All his works are an expression of his deepest feelings and his most sincere realization of truth which are in fact, his efforts to establish peace. Thus in all writings of Mahatma Gandhi one finds a unity of thought which centers around peace. He himself says in his work on non-violent ways to world peace: There is no hope for the world except through the narrow and straight path of non-violence. Millions like me may fail to prove the truth in their own lives, that will be their failure never of the external law”3. There is no other way to the world order, world peace, world unity and world security except the non-violent social order. War has been waged for the performance duty. The Gita exhorts men to fight like a karmayogi. To Gandhiji the philosophy of the Gita was activism. The present book helps to know the real meaning of War and Peace.