Gandhi : The Master Communicator
Contents: Preface. Introduction. 1. The South African years (1896-1914). 2. A discreet pen (case studies of Champaran, Ahmedabad and Khera Satyagrahas). 3. Use of print media during the non cooperation movement. 4. Expanding role of press (preparation for Civil Disobedience Movement 1922-30). 5. Strategy during the salt-satyagraha and Round Table Conference. 6. Social Journalism (The apolitical phase 1932 37). 7. Countdown to freedom: Gandhis successive roles as advisor, Mobilizer, negotiator and pacifier. The epilogue. Appendices: i. Gandhi’s trial speech (1922). ii. Declaration of independence. iii. Eleven points (demands submitted to Lord Irwin by Gandhi). Bibliography. Index.
Rarely has history gifted the world with a person who has won the willing obedience of so vast a number of people with such diversity of background as did Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. It was on the strength of this ability to influence people that he managed to mobilize the illorganized and ill equipped masses first of South Africa and then of India to take on the might of the British Empire. Such an accomplishment was possible only for a man with an unerring gift of communication. And Gandhi, if anything, was a powerful communicator.
In Gandhi, the Master Communicator Dr. Kusum Lata Chadda examines the various methods of communication employed by Gandhi with spotlight on his remarkable use of the print media for reaching out to the people. The study covers the whole range of Gandhi’s writings to show how early on in his life Gandhi realized that the print media was one potent medium for projecting his country in the right light; educating the people in the art of self governance; carrying out social reforms, and most importantly, mobilizing people for the immediate goal of independence. On the basis of a content analysis of his writings illustrated through graphs wherever possible, the author convincingly shows how Gandhis struggle in South Africa was totally based on publicity and was sustained by the media. That Gandhi made discreet use of print media is also brought out in the context of the three local movements led by Gandhi viz. Champaran, Ahmedabad and Kheda where Gandhi made extensive use of print media only in the last movement. Similarly through choicest quotes from Gandhis articles published in the newspapers edited by him, the author shows that the non cooperation movement was for the most part, indeed, a Young India Movement. The book also brings to light a lesser known fact that there was a clear strategy behind the serialization of Gandhis famous books ‘Satyagraha in South Africa and My experiments with truth in the period of despondency in the country after the calling off of Non Cooperation Movement when Gandhi was preparing the nation for his most successful movement the Civil Disobedience Movement. Gandhis withdrawal from politics and his crusade against untouchability and later his relentless efforts at village uplift are pointed out as evidence of his symbiotic relationship with his writings reflected in the launching of the Harijan (English), Harijan Sewak (Hindi) and Harijanbandhu (Gujarati).
The USP of the present work lies in highlighting the candid interaction between Gandhi and his readers on the tricky questions of the time and the future he envisioned for India, couched in the most effective language, idiom and style on the part of Gandhi that was comprehensible to all the illiterate as well as the highly educated thus establishing his as a master communicator.
