Gandhi Today: A Report on India’s Gandhi Movement and Its Experiments in Nonviolence and Small Scale Alternatives

What became of the Gandhian tradition in India following the death of Mahatma Gandhi? Did it quietly die away? Or were there still Indians who believed in his philosophy and methods, committed to continuing his work?   These were the questions that sent independent journalist Mark Shepard to India in 1978–79. There he found that the tradition begun by Gandhi was very much alive, in such individuals, groups, and movements as:   — An acclaimed saint who collected over four million acres in gifts of land for the poor.   — A leader of a nationwide protest movement that helped topple India’s ruling party in the mid-1970s.   — A Peace Army that fought riots with nonviolence.   — A “Hug the Trees!” movement that physically blocked excessive logging in the Himalayas.   — A People’s Court that even tried cases of murder and government corruption.   — A development center helping 400 villages rise from poverty.   — A nationwide movement of villages in which all land was held in common and decisions were made by unanimous consent.   Learn about all these and more in this engaging report on the legacy of the twentieth century’s greatest peacemaker and revolutionary.   /////////////////////////////////////////////////   Mark Shepard is the author of “Mahatma Gandhi and His Myths,” “The Community of the Ark,” and “Gandhi Today,” called by the American Library Association’s Booklist “a masterpiece of committed reporting.” His writings on social alternatives have appeared in over 30 publications in the United States, Canada, England, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Japan, and India.