M.K. Gandhi, Media, Politics and Society

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xvii

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2. Brief Introductory Remarks

   • Chandrika Kaul

   Pages 1-5

3. ‘This cable … was not in my words’: Gandhi, the Telegraph and Political Communication in the British Empire

   • Amelia Bonea

   Pages 7-24

4. Gandhi’s Evolving Discourse on Leprosy

   • Sanjiv Kakar

   Pages 25-41

5. The Global Gandhi of the Muslim Vernacular Press: Mahatma as Monumental Peasant and the Prophetic Rose in the Urdu Pamphlets of an Early Twentieth-Century Delhi Sufi

   • Timothy S. Dobe

   Pages 43-60

6. Gandhi and the Bengali Intellectuals: Perceptions and Portrayal of His Ideas in Contemporary Vernacular Journals in the 1920s and 1930s

   • Sarvani Gooptu

   Pages 61-76

7. Gandhi and Broadcasting: Missing Narratives in Media, Nationalism and the Raj

   • Chandrika Kaul

   Pages 77-105

8. Gandhi and the Muslim League: The Dawn in 1947

   • Gopa Sabharwal

   Pages 107-126

9. Gandhi in August 1947: Self-Fashioning, Print Culture and the Republic of Letters

   • Anjana Sharma

   Pages 127-142

10. A Modern Mahatma? Use and Misuse of Gandhi in Popular Culture

    • Mei Li Badecker

    Pages 143-157

11. Back Matter

    Pages 159-168

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This Palgrave Pivot showcases new research on M.K. Gandhi or Mahatma Gandhi, and the press, telegraphs, broadcasting and popular culture. Despite Gandhi being the subject of numerous books over the past century, there are few that put media centre stage. This edited collection explores both Gandhi’s own approach to the press, but also how different advocacy groups and the media, within India and overseas, engaged with Gandhi, his ideology and methodology, to further their own causes. The timeframe of the book extends from the late nineteenth century up to the present, and the case studies draw inspiration from a number of disciplinary approaches.

• print culture
• political communication
• media advocacy
• British Empire
• Indian nationalism

“This edited book brings Gandhi’s checkered relations with media to the centre-stage of analysis, thereby exploring Gandhi both in national and international contexts. The work thus virtually draws inspiration from disciplinary fields such as history, politics, literary and religious studies, media and popular culture.” (Arun Bandopadhyay, Journal of the Asiatic Society, Vol. 64 (2), 2022)

“It is highly rich in content, many of facts presented and analysed in this book are either not known or not much talked in public space. … this book contains a wealth of authentic information about Mahatma Gandhi. It provides objective analysis of his thinking and actions, which shaped the history of that period. It has messages for all of us today and will be relevant even tomorrow. It is highly recommended across all spectrum of humanity.” (Vishwa Mohan Katoch, Indian Journal of Leprosy, Vol. 93, 2021)

“The book is an exploration of Gandhi’s tryst with modernity, a world order which he apparently repudiated and was yet unable to dispense with altogether. … Chandrika Kaul’s book has been eminently successful, as promised by her, in filling in the many absent themes in the very scanty scholarly considerations of Gandhi’s utilization of media politics to negotiate the Raj, and in relocating these themes firmly in a comprehensive discursive universe shaped by the conjunction of Gandhi, media, politics and society.” (Tapan Basu, The Book Review, Vol. 45 (4), April, 2021)

• University of St Andrews, St Andrews, Scotland, UK

  Chandrika Kaul

Chandrika Kaul is Reader in Modern History at the University of St Andrews, UK. In addition to several edited collections, her key monographs on the media and empire include, Reporting the Raj: the British Press and India (2004, 2017), and Communications, Media and the Imperial Experience: Britain and India in the Twentieth Century (2014, 2017).

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