The aim of this book is to understand the complex evolution of the socio-political ideas of Gandhi and King and also their confluence in the specific context of India and America respectively. Based on a threadbare analysis of socio-political ideas of Gandhi and King, the book argues that the moral politics of redemptive love and non-violence that they consistently pursued represents an appealing vision for the present century. Their commitment to non-violence and their desire for social justice shine forth in the darkness of an age of nuclear weapons and genocide. They thus remain a major sou ... More

The aim of this book is to understand the complex evolution of the socio-political ideas of Gandhi and King and also their confluence in the specific context of India and America respectively. Based on a threadbare analysis of socio-political ideas of Gandhi and King, the book argues that the moral politics of redemptive love and non-violence that they consistently pursued represents an appealing vision for the present century. Their commitment to non-violence and their desire for social justice shine forth in the darkness of an age of nuclear weapons and genocide. They thus remain a major source of inspiration to each generation of thinkers and activists in the political tradition of non-violence that bear their names. In four long chapters, the argument - defending the ideological compatibility between Gandhi and King given their commitment to non-violence - is forcefully made on the basis of a critical scrutiny of their socio-political ideas, which they had articulated in various texts that they had left for the posterity. Not only is the book a critical statement on ‘the confluence of thought’, it has also probed into whether non-violent civil disobedience is a viable strategy in an era of the growing consolidation of the social Darwinism at the behest of neo-liberal political competition.