Living with Gandhi: Experiments in Utopia

Living with Gandhi: Experiments in Utopia

Publication Date

10-2026

Description

Mahatma Gandhi was an anticolonial activist, lawyer, and politician. Less famously, but no less importantly, he was also a back-to-the-land farmer, a founder of communes, and a seeker of utopia. Living with Gandhi: Experiments in Utopia tells the story of everyday life at four of Gandhi’s communities in India and South Africa. It explores who lived at each community alongside Gandhi, the experiments they undertook in the shared pursuit of universal wellbeing, and the connections that were forged between daily life and larger socio-political issues such as racial inequality, caste reform, and anticolonial activism. The need to simplify life and focus on the greater good is no less urgent now than it was in Gandhi’s time.

Reading about Gandhi’s communities allows us to think about a range of topics that can help us to formulate our own conception of the good life, including how to spend our finite time together on this earth; how the boundaries of inclusion and exclusion operate in our daily lives; and whether or to what extent self-sacrifice is necessary for universal wellbeing.

ISBN

9781952636554

Keywords

Gandhi, utopia, India, South Africa, intentional communities

Disciplines

African Languages and Societies | Hindu Studies | History of Religion | New Religious Movements | South and Southeast Asian Languages and Societies

Publisher

Association for Asian Studies and Columbia University Press

Department

Religious Studies

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Living with Gandhi: Experiments in Utopia

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