The present work enquires into a largely unexplored area in social sciences, namely, the interaction of politics, symbols and culture, in both theoretical and applied perspectives. Making subtle analytical distinctions between the ‘symbolist’ and the ‘symbolic’ and between ‘symbols in politics’ and ‘political symbols’ the study reinterprets Gandhian philosophy and praxis in terms of ‘political symbolism’. The study ably brings out how the shift in perspective—from the received western worldview to a ‘rooted’ point of view—might alter the fundamental categories, methodology and self-understanding of a society in its own setting and relatedness to the outer world. The study ascertains the salience of Gandhian framework in this paradigm-shift. The Gandhian worldview, it is argued, is a ‘displacement’ of the logic of the modern western paradigm of ‘growth-progress modernization’ and replacement of the same by an Indian civilizational argument, in favour of a non-hegemonic, liberatory-communitarian order. The book contends that Gandhi questions not only the ‘how’ of the ‘liberal-industrial- capitalist’ combine but also the ‘why’ of their superimpositions on the non-west. To address the Gandhian alternative is, thus to address and confront the challenging ethos of our times in relation to both our heritage and the current options at our disposal.
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