"Mahatma Gandhi's ""Constructive Programme"": Building a New India"

"In this dissertation, I have examined a largely ignored but vital aspect of Mahatma Gandhi's public career---his constructive program. He coined this term after he returned to India for good, using it to refer to a range of programs and practices whereby he hoped to radically reorient Indians physically, psychologically, socially, economically, politically, and spiritually to achieve ""true freedom"" not only from British rule, but from modernity as well. Arguing that attention to this aspect of Gandhi's project should not be limited to the pamphlet (of the same name) he wrote in 1941, I have traced the constructive program as a body of discourse comprising speeches, correspondence, interviews, editorials, and pamphlets addressed to various audiences, at different times, and for different purposes. I approach the constructive program as a grassroots social movement aimed at national reconstruction and reorientation that was an integral part of Gandhi's nationalist movement and more important than Gandhi's nonviolent campaigns against injustice and exploitation ( satyagraha). The constructive program influenced Indian politics and nation-building in the first half of the twentieth century as much as satyagraha."

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Speech Communication

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2015

Author dc:creator

• Tellis, Allwyn

Contributors dc:contributor

• Thomas R. Conley

• History, Asia, Australia and Oceania

Language dc:language

eng

Identifier

(MiAaPQ)AAI3250332

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/87529