James Hunt’s explorations on Gandhi in this inspiring series of essays are set in a postmodern context and an attempt has been made to recover the real Gandhi from the various influences and events that surrounded him through his journey of life. The author moves between an open admiration, to an objective analysis of the man, and the Mahatma. He seems to project Gandhi as a postmodern thinker, philosopher, and doer too. But Gandhi is and will continue to remain a thinker whose relevance does not freeze in time but he continues to offer ways and means with which one can understand the world a little better. An American’s scrutiny of Gandhi is a passionate account of Gandhi’s contribution to the evolving of an Indian identity and his own Indianness of thought and action. The work is more of an account than an analysis but an extremely well researched one that raises a host of questions and opens new pathways of looking at Gandhi and offers way to grapple with the Mahatma. For Gandhi even today remains one of the most misunderstood figures yet a very influential figure of the twentieth century.
October 2006, volume 30, No 10