Talat Ahmed

Blackwell’s is pleased to be hosting the launch of Mohandas Gandhi: Experiments in Civil Disobedience. Dr Talat Ahmed will be joining us instore to talk about the life of the famous Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist, and political ethicist. This event is in association with the University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh Global and the Centre for South Asian Studies.

About the Book

2019 marks the 150th birth anniversary of Mohandas Gandhi. To many he remains an inspirational figure – the apostle of peace who almost single-handedly led the struggle to free India from the yoke of empire. Contemporary activists involved in climate change, peace and anti-imperialist movements point to Gandhi as the iconic exemplar of non-violent resistance. Mohandas Gandhi: Experiments in Civil Disobedience, asks whether Gandhi’s non-violent approach was as successful as we imagine it to be, and examines how useful this might be in repairing rifts today. In interrogating the relative successes, limitations and weaknesses of his peculiar approach, the book aims to unravel this enigmatic ‘non-violent revolutionary’.

About the Author

Dr Talat Ahmed is Lecturer in South Asian History in the School of History, Classics and Archaeology, co-director of the Centre for South Asian Studies at the University of Edinburgh and a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society. Her research interests broadly concern the intellectual, cultural and political history of modern South Asia, specifically, the relationship between culture and society with reference to the role of intellectuals as public figures is helping to shape civic discourse on matters of state and society. She is the author of Literature and Politics in the Age of Nationalism: The Progressive Episode in South Asia, 1932-56, New Delhi: Routledge, 2009; Reprint 2018. A second edition will be out in 2020-21.

Chaired by Amrita Sadarangani, Regional Director for South Asia, Edinburgh Global.