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

Tellis, Allwyn

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Description

Title

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

Author(s)

Tellis, Allwyn

Issue Date

2006

Doctoral Committee Chair(s)

Thomas R. Conley

Department of Study

Speech Communication

Discipline

Speech Communication

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Degree Level

Dissertation

Keyword(s)

History, Asia, Australia and Oceania

Language

eng

Abstract

"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."

Graduation Semester

2006

Type of Resource

text

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