LEADER 05078nam 2200805Ia 450 001 9910779143503321 005 20230422050718.0 010 $a1-283-89101-8 010 $a0-8122-0474-3 024 7 $a10.9783/9780812204742 035 $a(CKB)2550000000104529 035 $a(OCoLC)794702134 035 $a(CaPaEBR)ebrary10576060 035 $a(SSID)ssj0000607199 035 $a(PQKBManifestationID)11385402 035 $a(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000607199 035 $a(PQKBWorkID)10584942 035 $a(PQKB)11282661 035 $a(MiAaPQ)EBC3441620 035 $a(MdBmJHUP)muse11954 035 $a(DE-B1597)449298 035 $a(OCoLC)979904795 035 $a(DE-B1597)9780812204742 035 $a(Au-PeEL)EBL3441620 035 $a(CaPaEBR)ebr10576060 035 $a(CaONFJC)MIL420351 035 $a(OCoLC)932312581 035 $a(EXLCZ)992550000000104529 100 $a20000228d2000 uy 0 101 0 $aeng 135 $aurcn||||||||| 181 $ctxt 182 $cc 183 $acr 200 10$aGandhi's body$b[electronic resource] $esex, diet, and the politics of nationalism /$fJoseph S. Alter 210 $aPhiladelphia $cUniversity of Pennsylvania Press$dc2000 215 $a1 online resource (226 p.) 225 1 $aCritical histories 300 $aBibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph 311 $a0-8122-3556-8 320 $aIncludes bibliographical references and index. 327 $t Frontmatter -- $tContents -- $tPreface: History, Body, Culture -- $tPart I. Rethinking the Mahatma -- $tChapter 1. Gandhi's Body, Gandhi's Truth -- $tChapter 2. The Ethereal Politics of the Mahatmas Fasts -- $tPart II. Nationalism, Transnationalism, and the Embodied Self -- $tChapter 3. Nature Cure and Yoga -- $tChapter 4. Surya Namaskar-Salute to Village Democracy -- $tChapter 5. Somatic Nationalism -- $tConclusion: Post-Gandhian Somatics -- $tGlossary -- $tNotes -- $tReferences -- $tIndex -- $tAcknowledgments 330 $aNo single person is more directly associated with India and India's struggle for independence than Mahatma Gandhi. His name has equally become synonymous with the highest principles of global equality, human dignity, and freedom.Joseph Alter argues, however, that Gandhi has not been completely understood by biographers and political scholars, and in Gandhi's Body he undertakes a reevaluation of the Mahatma's life and thought. In his revisionist and iconoclastic approach, Alter moves away from the usual focus on nonviolence, peace, and social reform and takes seriously what most scholars who have studied Gandhi tend to ignore: Gandhi's preoccupation with sex, his obsession with diet reform, and his vehement advocacy for naturopathy. Alter concludes that a distinction cannot be made between Gandhi's concern with health, faith in nonviolence, and his sociopolitical agenda.In this original and provocative study, Joseph Alter demonstrates that these seemingly idiosyncratic aspects of Gandhi's personal life are of central importance to understanding his politics-and not only Gandhi's politics but Indian nationalism in general. Using the Mahatma's own writings, Alter places Gandhi's bodily practices in the context of his philosophy; for example, he explores the relationship between Gandhi's fasting and his ideas about the metaphysics of emptiness and that between his celibacy and his beliefs about nonviolence. Alter also places Gandhi's ideas and practices in their national and transnational contexts. He discusses how and why nature cure became extremely popular in India during the early part of the twentieth century, tracing the influence of two German naturopaths on Gandhi's thinking and on the practice of yoga in India. More important, he argues that the reconstruction of yoga in terms of European naturopathy was brought about deliberately by a number of activists in India-of whom Gandhi was only the most visible-interested in creating a "scientific" health regimen, distinct from Western precedents, that would make the Indian people fit for self-rule. Gandhi's Body counters established arguments that Indian nationalism was either a completely indigenous Hindu-based movement or simply a derivative of Western ideals. 410 0$aCritical histories. 606 $aDiet$zIndia 606 $aMedicine, Ayurvedic 606 $aNationalism$zIndia 606 $aSexual ethics$zIndia 607 $aIndia$xPolitics and government$y20th century 610 $aAutobiography. 610 $aBiography. 610 $aEuropean History. 610 $aHistory. 610 $aPhilosophy. 610 $aPolitical Science. 610 $aPublic Policy. 610 $aWorld History. 615 0$aDiet 615 0$aMedicine, Ayurvedic. 615 0$aNationalism 615 0$aSexual ethics 676 $a954.03/5/092 700 $aAlter$b Joseph S$01006617 801 0$bMiAaPQ 801 1$bMiAaPQ 801 2$bMiAaPQ 906 $aBOOK 912 $a9910779143503321 996 $aGandhi's body$93757931 997 $aUNINA