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I have described the disarmament and consequent emasculation of a whole people as the blackest crime of the British. I have not the capacity for preaching universal non-violence for the country. . . . I am not advanced enough for the great task. I have yet anger within me. I have yet davaita bhava [sic] - duality - in me. (Gandhi 1958-84, 27:51.7.5., 25)
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The sixtieth anniversary of Gandhi's death in 2008 occasioned much discussion of Gandhi's role as a global philosopher of nonviolence, and there will doubtless be more as the anniversary of his birth in 2019 approaches. This view of him is now well established, indeed dominant, in current academic literature, which sees him primarily as an important theorist and practitioner of nonviolence, a precursor of modern peace and environmentalist movements, and only very residually a nationalist. Parekh (2007, 568) has argued that though a patriot, Gandhi was hostile to nationalism. Hardiman, in his analysis and evaluation of Gandhi, regards his nationalism as secondary to his role as pacifist theorist and precursor of contemporary ecological protest movements: "The general thrust of Gandhi's injunction was that ahimsa (non-violence) involved qualities of respect and sympathy for the opponent, freedom from anger, and a desire for peace" (Hardiman 2003, 58, 245-47). Similarly, Lloyd Rudolph has presented him as almost hostile to the modern nation-state, and the originator of contemporary civil-society movements: "He has become the pre-eminent voice for civil society against the modern state. . . . NGOs, voluntary organisations and social movements count Gandhi as a progenitor whose ideas and methods provide inspiration, legitimacy and guidance" (Rudolph and Rudolph 2006, 34).
Yet despite these judgments, many of these writers acknowledge a certain peculiarity in Gandhi's comments on the nature and purpose of nonviolence. Hardiman (2003, 246-47) mentions that other leading pacifists had reservations about his inconsistency, fervent nationalism, and his activities as a recruiter for the British during the First World War. And Gandhi's grandson, Rajmohan Gandhi, in The Good Boatman, has commented at some length on the Mahatma's distinctly ambiguous attitude towards violence (R. Gandhi 1995, 10, 18, 28). It is well known that he was a fervent supporter of the British Empire and...