Empire and Activism: Gandhi, Imperialism, and the Global Career of Satyagraha

Abstract

Celebrated as the father of Indian independence, Mohandas K. Gandhi was also a transnational activist. This chapter explores the transnational dimensions of Gandhi’s career and influence. It argues that Gandhian nonviolence—what he called ‘satyagraha’—was a transnational production: it was developed as a political performance that might allow those on the colonial periphery to influence metropolitan targets; it drew upon British, European, American, and Indian influences; it reflected intercultural relationships that spanned the continents. Second, it contends that the global career of Gandhian satyagraha was enabled by the mass communications of the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centu..