ONLINE FIRST
published on November 29, 2016
Predrag Cicovacki, Carlo Filice, Sanjay Lal
https://doi.org/10.5840/acorn201610311
Author Meets Critics
Predrag Cicovacki, Author of Gandhi¡¯s Footprints, Meets Critics Sanjay Lal and Carlo Filice
Two critics respond to Predrag Cicovacki¡¯s book, Gandi¡¯s Footprints. Cicovacki opens the discussion by presenting his motivations for exploring a paradox, that Gandhi¡¯s work is widely revered but not widely emulated. Cicovacki explores a resolution to the paradox by suggesting how Gandhi¡¯s promising visions may be followed without being imitated, especially Gandhi¡¯s insight that we must seek spiritual grounding for life in a materialistic world. Critic Sanjay Lal affirms Cicovacki¡¯s insight but suggests that precisely because Gandhi¡¯s aspirations for spiritual life were profoundly transformative we should take care not to dilute them into our conventional wisdoms. Critic Carlo Filice asks how Gandhi¡¯s commitment to unified reality could be more clearly articulated once a distinction is drawn between spirit and matter, also how Gandhi¡¯s nonviolence could manage to embrace important exceptions. In reply to critics, Cicovacki proposes an approach to Gandhi informed by the insights of Tagore.