Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle With India is a biography Pulitzer Prize-winning author Joseph Lelyveld and published by Alfred A Knopf. Great Soul has ratings and 85 reviews. Reading Joseph Lelyveld’s sensitive and informative biography of the life of Mahatma Gandhi is enriching in many. 1 quote from Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle With India: ‘I should like to slip out of the public gaze to bury myself in the farm and devot.
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I have not read any other books of Joseph Lelyeld and this is going to be my last book by this author. Please try again later. However, his geeat conflicts between his political and his spiritual roles are explored at length. Nov 18, Kimhu rated it liked it. The fact he left his wife and family behind, after an introduction to them the reader never really learns much about what happens to them during his career, and spent many years living in celibacy, perhaps gives credence to the author’s hypothesis.
Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle With India by Joseph Lelyveld
That’s probably a consequence of Lelyveld’s implicitly Weberian theory of politics and religion—but is that Gandhi’s fault? His health was troubled by his diet in later years, yet he still endured to an extreme end.
His role in Indi Written josephh over Siberia on the greeat to Incheon at 3: The author spends all of his effort nit-picking at Gandhi, trying to humanize him. I find Gandhi an interesting person though I do not agree wi.
He said Gandhi’s correspondence with Kallenbach has been available in library archives for decades. No humility, no tenderness. Also by Joseph Lelyveld. India is still sou, in many ways. Overall a good read.
Great Soul Quotes by Joseph Lelyveld
Hinduism and the principles of non-violence do not require abstention from all sexual desires and actions or severe dietary restraints and fasting. However, it is Gandhi who lives among the untouchables and travels from village to villages, fasts for abolition of untouchability, opening of temples.
If there is one poignant scene which can be taken out of the entire book to represent Gandhi, his life and his struggle, it is towards the end when near Independence the entire country is torn apart in riots with Hindus and Muslims killing each other like madmen, Gandhi is out walking from village to village asking people not to kill people — their own countrymen, their neighbours. I don’t suspect that most of us would be willing to hold ourselves to such virtually impossible standards – even Gandhi often couldn’t meet his own lofty ideals – but we can draw inspiration and strength from his indefatigability.
Mar 29, Minutes Buy. Jan 13, Viswanathan Venkataraman rated it liked it. Nov 29, Gautam Kamath rated it liked it.
Indian state bans Gandhi book after reviews hint at gay relationship
What I completely josseph to understand here is how with all his failings, his open hypocrisy, his obnoxious personal habits, his religious superstitions, his political wilyness, his constant changes of stance, his insensitivity to the needs of those close to him and his massive ego he still came to be revered among the masses as a “Mahatma”.
His role in Indian and world history, and the effects of his actions, are still yet to be determined. Sudhir Kakar, a psychoanalyst who has written about Gandhi’s sexuality and reviewed some of his correspondence with Kallenbach, said he did not believe the two men were lovers. The most revealing part of this book was his time in South Africa.
His intent was to curb all thought, and all bodily manifestations of lust, and pushing himself to even further ends. A must read to know Gandhi – the man! Spiritually grext lives on in small pockets of selfless service to others in India and elsewhere.
Both are recent, heralded biographies of 20th-c. Joweph was both a scholar and an activist, hence the political scope and immense detail of his Malcolm book, whereas Lelyveld’s reporting background equips him more for vivid images and enticing connections than for archival organization or theoretical analysis. That striving to always be lifting others up, we can make lasting change in the world.
Jul 30, Cynthia Karl rated it really liked it. It is interesting to read how this middle class orthodox Hindu who didn’t have sympathy in the beginning for indentured Indian labourers who were of generally from lower castes and turned into apostle fighting for caste equality.
Gandhi felt his political power really came from his celibacy, from his spiritual power. I kept alternately reading and listening to the book, hoping there would be some kind of messag This book was a chore to complete.
Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle With India
More things to learn! The compact milieu of Indians of different religions and castes in SA probably showed to Gandhi how divided Indians are. At the very end of the last chapter, the author finally admits that although Gandhi wasn’t successful at changing the masses of India during his lifetime, that his ideas still remain as inspiration.
The primary reason for the censorship and reader condemnation of this book seems to center on the discussion of Gandhi’s long-term intimate relationship with the German Jewish bodybuilder Hermann Kallenbach. Pelyveld popular bugaboo of modern historical biography is discovering traces of homosexuality.
The author wasted all that effort pointing out how HUMAN Gandhi was, and how he lelyvdld born “a saint”, then didn’t tie that humanity into a relevant summary or lesson. Now that I have read the entire book and know more about Gandhi, I vreat impressed with him.