Rather interesting essay, not very recent, which I only just came across
while searching for a quote of Indira Gandhi:
http://www.markshep.com/nonviolence/Myths.html
Another myth about Gandhi is the idea that India’s political leaders,
beginning with Nehru, are the inheritors of his tradition and have
carried it on.
I wish they had. But really, India’s leaders have rejected much more of
Gandhi than they’ve adopted.
They abandoned nonviolent action as soon as they attained power. India
now sports the world’s fourth largest armed force, and the leaders
haven’t seemed at all reluctant to use it to settle conflicts, either
inside or outside the country. No thought is given to possible
Gandhi-style alternatives.
Maybe even worse, India’s leaders have done their best to imitate
Western countries by building an economy based on large-scale industry
and large-scale agriculture.
Gandhi fought this kind of development. He warned that it would
economically ruin India’s villages, where 80% of India’s people lived
and still live. And Gandhi has proved correct.
Yes, India is now overall a much richer country -- but it has more
desperately poor people than ever. As many as half of its people can’t
afford enough food to sustain health. India prides itself now on growing
enough grain so it doesn’t need to import any—but the surplus rots in
storage while people starve who can’t afford to buy it!
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