Gandhi and the Philosophical Grounds of Diversity

Raj Singh (Brock University, Canada)

Email: rsingh@brocku.ca

 

ABSTRACT:

Diversity is a term that is frequently used in national and international discourses today, and deemed as a positive phenomenon associated with social, harmony, peace, open-heartedness, multi-culturalism and with real nature of the human society. Yet a philosophical inquiry into the meaning of diversity and its desirability has seldom been attempted. Gandhi was uniquely poised in his political struggles and in his philosophical investigations which he aptly called his “experiments with truth” to offer a substantive account of the nature and desirability of diversity. This paper will highlight Gandhi’s contribution to knowledge on the issue of diversity along with a brief account of his pivotal concepts of non-violence and Truth. His call for an authentic commingling of the eastern and western world-views will also be exposed in this paper.