Abstract
Interestingly, most mainstream intellectuals have almost dismissed Gandhi, especially economists. Gandhian thought does not figure prominently in the development debate in the world in general, and in the West in particular, because Western thought has been polarized mainly into two ideologies. At one end, it is conservatism, which ideologically places a strong emphasis on “the individual.” The agency to facilitate is free market. On the other end are communism and socialism that place “a firm emphasis upon the role of the state in generating both solidarity and equality.”2 Both the systems are unable to fully comprehend the changes to world development, and hence are not able to cope with the problem of sustainability.
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Bibliography
Anthony Giddens, The Third Way: The Renewal of Social Democracy (London: Polity Press, 2005), 34.
Ajit K. Dasgupta, Gandhi’s Economic Thought (London: Routledge, 1996).
Rajmohan Gandhi, The Good Boatman (New Delhi: Penguin Books, 1995).
Fareed Zakaria, The Future of Freedom (New Delhi: Viking Penguin, 2003).
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© 2014 Sudarshan Iyengar
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Iyengar, S. (2014). Individual Freedom in a Gandhian Perspective. In: Colombano, J., Shah, A. (eds) Learning from the World. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137372130_19
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137372130_19
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
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