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SPCL 091
018: Probing the Man behind the
Mahatma: An Analysis of the Life and Works of Mohandas Gandhi
Course Syllabus
Course schedule: Wednesdays, 6-7:50 pm
Room: Graham Memorial 035
Assignments: Daily readings, journals and final assignment
Attendance: Since this is a weekly class, I will expect regular attendance on the part of students
Instructor: Mumukshu Patel
(email: mumukshu@email.unc.edu)
Course Description
This
course focuses on the study of Mahatma Gandhi’s life and philosophy.
The class will try to explore the man behind the legend, as well as
explore his philosophy of ahimsa
- non-violence. We shall determine if his philosophy is relevant to
our world and times, by analyzing his influence on movements like: the
Civil Rights movement, the anti-apartheid struggle, the anti-nuclear
weapons movement, the environmental movement, and past as well as current
anti-war movements. The goal is to develop a sophisticated understanding
of the life and works of Mahatma Gandhi and try and utilize this insight
gained, toward practical ends.
The course follows a discussion format. We have plenty of materials
to discuss. Traditional course materials like readings will be supplemented
by movies, songs, cartoons, websites and several other unconventional
course materials. Unconventional aspects include: debates, skits, cotton
weaving sessions, workshops on how to organize for civil disobedience
interspersed throughout the semester; these are listed under the “activity”
headings below.
All resources are available online, so no purchases are necessary. The final assignment for the course involves writing a play, poem or essay on how you have been influenced by his ideas or how you might think Gandhi might react to any current event/events.
Grading
Though this is a pass/fail class, C-START committee regulations require that I list out how the class grade will be calculated. The calculation of the final grade will be done as follows:
10 percent of the final grade will depend on the Journal assignment. You will not be required to submit all Journal entries or a final compilation. I will ask for Journal entries from any student on any given class day to see whether the assignment has been completed or not. A penalty of one percent of the final grade will be imposed for every incomplete Journal assignment.
40 percent of the final grade will depend on your final assignment submissions. Please submit these on time and put some effort into producing decent final products for this assignment. Every day of late submission will reduce your grade for this assignment by a letter grade.
50 percent of the final grade will depend on your class participation and attendance. I will devote 25 percent of the final grade solely to class attendance; every non-approved absence will result in the final grade being reduced by 2.5 percent. Attendance and participation are important to our class, because we are gathered in a discussion seminar not a drab lecture class.
Readings and other material
Most of the class material is available online at the following two websites:
The Official Mahatma Gandhi eCollection: www.mahatma.org.in
&
The Electronic texts section at the University of Virginia: etext.lib.virginia.edu
These
sites are easy to navigate. I will explain how to use them on
the first day, and for safe measure show how to access the materials
needed for each subsequent class at the end of class every week.
Part I.
Introduction to the man and the
Mahatma
01/07/2004
1. Introduction to Gandhi (Timeline), name, key terms etc.
Read Part I
of Romain
Rolland’s biography
- Mahatma
Gandhi - of
Mohandas Gandhi.
Why did you decide to take
this course? What are your perceptions about Gandhi?
01/14/2004
2. Gandhi’s myth: Richard Attenborough’s film, Gandhi.
Read “Part
II: Non-cooperation movement and influence on the South Asian freedom
movement” (p 50 - 105) of Romain Rolland’s biography, Mahatma Gandhi
How does Attenborough’s description
of Gandhi compare to Rolland’s? Are they both similar in highlighting
the public aspects of Gandhi's life, or are there subtle differences?
Explain.
[Gandhi
UL Call number: 65 V379 {VHS}; 65 DVD 1519 {DVD}.]
(I would prefer
that class participants pair up to view the movie; I will also hand
out personal copies of the film to make it easier for all participants
to have a chance to view the movie.)
Gandhi
on Satyagraha,
audioclip.
01/21/2004
3. Gandhi as a political figure in South Africa: Shyam Benegal’s film, The Making of the Mahatma.
Read “Part
III: Continuation of the freedom movement” (p 106-141) of Romain Rolland’s
biography, Mahatma
Gandhi
What do you think of Benegal’s
description of Gandhi’s life in South Africa? Do you find his
stress on the private life of Gandhi combined with his public life in
South Africa better than Attenborough's stress on Gandhi's public life?
Why/why not?
[Making of the Mahatma
3 video copies provided in class.]
01/28/2004
4. Comparison of various interpretations of Gandhi.
Final day for comprehensive
discussion on Romain Rolland’s biography of Gandhi.
Read Orwell's
essay on Gandhi, 5 pages (Essay: Reflections
on Gandhi)
How have your perceptions of
Gandhi changed after your readings and film viewings?
Activity: Debate.
Resolved: While proclaimed a saint in public life, Gandhi’s private life can best be described as a disaster.
02/04/2004
5. Gandhi’s philosophy
Hind Swaraj: IV - What is Swaraj? p 26-29
(selections) V - The condition of England p 30-33
VI - Civilization p 34-45
X - The condition of India (cont.): The Hindus and the Mahomedans p 51-57
XIII- What is true civilization? p 66-71
XVII-Passive Resistance p 88-99
Is Gandhi a radical anarchist?
What are the long-term implications of Gandhian thought as expressed
in your readings (according to you) for today?
Activity: Cotton weaving session. We will try to weave khadi and try to see how Gandhi tried to involve India's women and villagers in the freedom struggle via this seemingly benign undertaking.
02/11/2004
6. An Autobiography-I: X - Glimpses of religion p 27-30
I:XV- Playing the English gentleman p 41-43 (compare with the “condition of England in HS)
II:IV - The First Shock p 81-83 (South Africa; compare with Benegal’s film)
III: XVII - A month with Gokhale p193-195
How does the autobiography
compare with Hind Swaraj? Which do you find more appealing,
the banal Autobiography or the radical Hind Swaraj?
Activity: Analyze some cartoons depicting Gandhi in Western (primarily British) and Indian newspapers. Two students will be asked to explain three cartoons - their significance and how they can be interpreted - to the entire class. Cartoons available at:
http://www.mahatma.org.in/cartoons/showtoons.jsp?link=ca&cat=cartoons&id=1
02/18/2004
7. Brief selections from:
Bible (“Sermon on the Mount,” Matthew Chapters 6 and 7),
Gita (verses from Chapter 3, “Karma Yoga”), Qur’an
(“Sura of Mary,” Sura 19).
Texts of the Qur’an
and Bible are available at: http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/relig.browse.html
For selections from the
Gita (reference source: S. Radhakrishnan, The Bhagwad Gita)
and the see class handout
Also, Gandhi on spirituality (Radio interview with BBC on 17th
Oct, 1931)
What, according
to you is the proper relation between religion and politics? Would
Gandhi be against the secular nation-state?
Activity: Listen
to Gita shlokas and Qur'an surahs. Two students will be asked
to explain their own reactions to the shlokas and surahs respectively.
We will also listen to Gandhi's daily ashram prayers. I will bring
the Ashramanjali - ashram prayers - audio CD to class.
Some music also available online.
02/25/2004
8. Gandhi’s philosophy: influence
of other thinkers -
Leo
Tolstoy’s letter
to Gandhi - Letter
to a Hindoo
John Ruskin
- Unto
the Last (Essay
I: “Roots of Honour” 20 p.)
Henry David Thoreau - Civil Disobedience (p 1-19)
How would you describe the
complex interplay and interconnections in philosophical thoughts/writings
influencing Gandhi? Do you discern an intellectual/philosophical
continuity among the works of Tolstoy, Ruskin, Thoreau and Gandhi?
03/03/2004
9. Partition, Assassination,
Vision
Gandhi, The pyramid vs.
the oceanic circle
Jawaharlal
Nehru, “The light
has gone out of our lives…”
Lord
Louis Mountbatten
and Albert
Einstein quotes.
Brief selection from “I, Nathuram Godse
speak”
Do you judge Gandhi’s life
to be a success or failure, given the partition of India? How
would you evaluate an argument that Gandhi unleashed religion into South
Asian public life, which eventually led to the creation of religion
fundamentalists, like his assassins?
Activity: Enact
skit "I, Nathuram Godse speak"
03/10/2004
Spring break
(Start work on your final assignment if you have not done so already)
03/17/2004
10. Gandhi and the world at
large during his time.
Gandhi, Letter to Hitler
Gandhi, Response to Hiroshima
and Nagasaki (refer
p 97-101, in The Words of Gandhi)
Discuss the movements in Denmark and Le Chambon during Nazi genocide.
Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies; browse links on the “Rescue of Jews in Denmark” and “Rescue of Jews in Le Chambon, France”
(More information on these
movements is available in Dennis Dalton's book, Mahatma Gandhi: nonviolent
power in action)
Would Gandhian
methods succeed in a totalitarian state?
Activity: Try
to organize a satyagraha on campus on an issue that the whole class
thinks needs to be addressed.
03/24/2004
11. Gandhi and the world at
large: in the sixties and the Civil Rights Movement, and today’s antiwar
and green movements
Dr. Martin Luther King, “Sermon on Gandhi” (class handout)
Chinese / Iranian students movement
Chavez and his environmental/labor movement
Anti-war protests (also see University
of Cincinnati history of war protests page)
Are Gandhian tactics still
valid/efficacious today?1
03/31/2004
12. Today’s Gandhis/Gandhian
movements?
Dalai Lama
The Burmese freedom movement
Serbian freedom struggle (Otpor)
Think of a movement/event about
which you have read in the past four weeks (in newspapers, books etc)
where you think Gandhi has had a direct/indirect influence.
Try to discern the influence
of the figure of Gandhi, or Gandhian thought on this movement/event.
Is there any such influence? (general question: How influential is the
figure of Gandhi, or Gandhian thought on current events?)
Activity: Execute the satyagraha organized and planned during the past two weeks and try to gauge its effectiveness in the liberal environs of our academia.
04/07/2004
13. Differing interpretations of Gandhi - liberal, conservative, anarchist, fundamentalist.
Nelson Mandela’s article on Gandhi, “The Sacred Warrior”
Also, Time: “Person of the Century
Report” on Gandhi
What do you think of contemporary
portrayals of Gandhi? Are they accurate, according to what you
have read and discussed about Gandhi thus far?
04/14/2004
14. Your analysis: What do
you think about Gandhi now - after almost having completed this course?
How have your perceptions about Gandhi and his philosophy changed (or
remained constant) now?
04/21/2004
15. Your analysis continued.
Wrap-up.
Submission of final assignment
and course evaluations
Activity assignment description
Various "activity"
sessions are interspersed throughout the course. These sessions
are organized to make the course more interactive and encourage greater
student participation.
The activity listed will
be scheduled for the last half hour of class. The class will be
divided into two large groups. During each activity session, both
groups, or representatives from both groups (as needed, for example
in debate sessions each group will choose one person as their representative)
will participate in the activity listed for that day.
I will explain what is
expected out of each activity a week prior to every class when we have
an activity session.
Journal
assignment description
Keep a regular journal
that has entries for each class period. These entries must be
atleast 250 words in length and must reflect on the readings/videos/audios
of that class period; you can also relate any experience you have had
in the past week or in the past that might be relevant to the readings
etc. This journal is to help you forge some sort of continuity through
the semester with the course; it will also aid you in your final assignment.
Write a play on Gandhi. It can take any form - a dialogue between you and Gandhi or an interaction of historical/contemporary figures (famous and infamous) with Gandhi. You may structure the substantive content in any fashion; the main issue of discussion could be your grappling with Gandhi’s philosophy, or your trying to assess how others might react to his doctrines when applied to current issues etc. Let your creativity take over. Integrate the knowledge (/ignorance!) gained throughout the semester with your imagination. The only requirement is that the play be typed and be at least 1000 words in length (there is no maximum limit).
Write a poem (it could
be blank verse) / essay on how Gandhi might react to any current event.
It could be the war in Iraq, events of September 11, any personal event
that has significantly changed you. The minimum length requirement
is again at least a 1000 words and I would appreciate if you would be
able to demonstrate that you have gained something from the course in
your final submission.
1 Would Malcolm X have secured a better future for African Americans? Is it possible to appeal to public opinion / morality issues against a totalitarian regime effectively (Communists in China, compare with Nazi regime and discussion on WWII movements to save Jews; also see next class discussion of Otpor)
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