| Research Abstract |
This project aimed to situate M. K. Gandhi as a national hero in Indian nationalist movements as well as a spiritual charisma, Mahatma (Great Soul), in the popular milieu of nation-making in 20^<th> century India. Starting from my article, 'Gandhi-God of People, Father of Nation' (1999), I have done the following works to understand the past and the present of India, which used to be firmly based on the ideology and institutions of Gandhian politics.
(1) Challenge to the Academic Frontier of Popular Politics : I tackled the field of popular politics which was hardly studies by political scientists : conducting field research, collecting archival materials and questioning frameworks of comparative politics. A short but very fruitful research trip was done in Delhi and Northern India to come to know the political consciousness of ordinary people today. My articles of 'The Political Process of Riots : Bombay, 1992-93' (2001) and 'Women and Democracy : the Experiment of India' (2003) are direct results of this work.
(2) Re-evaluation of Indian Politics : In the contemporary debates on Indian nationalism, Gandhi and his age is the primary target. My article, 'The Idea of India' (2003), is meant to re-evaluate Gandhian nationalism from the eyes of 2000s. 'Kashmir : At the Edge of State-Formation' is another.
(3) During these three years, gender studies have surprisingly attracted me to find the significance of Gandhi and his ideas of non-violence. There are four articles of mine : 'Engendering World Polities' (2000), "Women and Democracy' (2003), 'Gender and Armed Conflicts in South Asia'(2002), and 'On Sati (2002). The idea and practice of Gandhi, pursuing peaceful coexistence and conflict resolution, will be definitely important to feminist and peace studies today.
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