Gandhi Did Not Survive Even Six Months After India Gained Independence. Yet No Other Indian In The Twentieth Century Has Had The Kind Of Impact On India S Destiny That He Had. In More Ways Than One, Gandhi Defined India S Political, Social, Cultural And Moral Imagination. In His Last Years, And Certainly After His Assassination On 30 January 1948, India Set Itself On A Course Which Was Different From Gandhi S Vision.
Bernard Imhasly, Anthropologist, Journalist And Writer, Journeys From Imphal To Cyberabad And Bangalore, And From Champaran To Porbandar, Looking At A New India Keeping Gandhi S Ideas And Values In Mind. He Finds A Society Where Gandhi Is Alive But His Virulence Is Missing, A Polity Which Worships Him But Easily Forgets His Guiding Principles, And A Morality Which Thrives On Oppression Rather Than On The Search For Truth, A Principle Gandhi Held Paramount. While Many Of His Interlocutors Decry Gandhi, There Are A Surprising Number Of People For Whom He Remains A Yardstick Of Their Life And Work.
Goodbye To Gandhi?: Travels In The New India Examines How The Choices That India Made As An Independent Nation Have Shaped The Country S Politics, Its Culture And Its People. While India Acquires A New-Found Confidence And Optimism In Its Economic Future, Bernard Imhasly, In His Engaging Travels Through Current-Day India, Listening For Echoes Of Gandhi S Voice, Finds A Cacophony Of Voices Alluring, Exciting And Sometimes Exasperating.