The mahatma in the machine

Abstract

n Unconditional equality, Skaria achieves that most improbable and difficult of goals – to write with originality and inventiveness about Gandhi. Gandhian scholarship has passed through several well-trodden paths, and as Skaria tracks, some have been more productive than others. For example, there is the liberal appropriation, in which Gandhian non-violence is translated as an internal critique of imperfect but perfectible institutions, coupled to an implicit reaffirmation of the state’s monopoly of violence. In contrast, Skaria’s work joins an exciting counter-tradition of scholarship that has refused to shy away from Gandhi’s insistence on religion as a condition of politics. Yet, even as Skaria joins this tradition of scholarship, he travels further down the rabbit hole of Gandhi’s conservatism than most others have ventured. Keywords: Gandhi; machine; political theology; ethics; non-violence