Gandhian Dialogic: Rethinking the Centrality of Gandhian Discourse

Abstract

Dialogue as a means of knowing, communicating, and transforming conflict has deep roots in India’s civilizational history. From the speculative debates of the Vedic sages to the structured disputations within Buddhist councils, India cultivated an intellectual climate in which contradiction was neither feared nor erased but seen as integral to the pursuit of truth. In the modern era, Mahatma Gandhi emerges as a singular figure who reinterpreted and revitalized this dialogic inheritance. Rather than constructing a tightly organized ideological system, Gandhi fashioned a moral practice grounded in conversation, reciprocal understanding, disciplined self-restraint, and an unending pursuit of truth. His political and ethical methods were based not on conquest or domination but on the transformative potential of interaction between morally accountable human beings.

This paper seeks to explore Gandhian dialogic as a comprehensive worldview rather than a mere political technique. It analyses Gandhi’s engagements with prominent thinkers and leaders of his time, including B. R. Ambedkar, Rabindranath Tagore, Subhas Chandra Bose, Jawaharlal Nehru, Jayaprakash Narayan, and M. N. Roy. These interactions reveal Gandhi’s capacity to treat dissent not as threat but as an opportunity for mutual learning. Simultaneously, this study addresses contradictions in Gandhi’s approach—moments in which his dialogic commitments appeared constrained by paternalism, moral absolutism, or socio-cultural blind
spots.

Finally, the paper situates Gandhian dialogic within contemporary global challenges: political polarisation, digital misinformation, identity-based violence, majoritarian nationalism, ecological crises, and widening global inequities. It argues that Gandhi’s commitment to nonviolent dialogue remains profoundly relevant, offering a lens for reconstructing ethical citizenship and cultivating pluralistic coexistence in a fragmented world.