A Penetrating Voice ─ Five speeches of Gandhi with Ramachandra Guha

Historian Ramachandra Guha is perhaps the leading Gandhi authority in the world today. He has written two major biographies, Gandhi Before India (Vintage 2013) dealing with his time as a lawyer and activist in South Africa, and Gandhi 1914-1948 The Years That Changed the World (Vintage 2018). Ram Guha speaks to Tony about five speeches. Four relate to the struggle for independence.  They are the Banaras University speech of 1916, the Statement at the Great Trial of 1922, The Eve of Salt March Speech of 1931 and the Quit India speech of 1942. For our speech of the week, Ram reads a fragment of this last speech. The fifth and final speech is speech of the week, and is a spiritual statement Gandhi made at Kingsley Hall in Oxford during a summit he attended in England in 1931. Guha expertly weaves information about these critical speeches into the broader narrative of Indian independence, and even has things to say about partition, Gandhi's assassination the cult of Godse, and current day tensions between an ascendant Hindu nationalist movement under Prime Minister Modi and various minorities. Ramchandra Guha was himself arrested in his home city of Bengaluru protesting against a  discriminatory citizenship law. He was carrying a poster of Gandhi at the time of arrest. Episode supported by GreenSkin™ and PurpleSkin™ avocados at http://lovemyavocados.com.au.  If you'd like to donate to support Speakola in both its website and podcast form, Tony would appreciate any help in these covid times!  Also for sporting artworks, gifts and home wares, check out Sporting Nation. Ram's cricket book is A Corner of a Foreign Field and is a classic of sportswriting. To purchase a signed copy of Tony's sports book, 1989: The Great Grand Final visit his website. It's also available widely online. Please subscribe to the podcast, visit Speakola,  and share any great speeches that are special to you, famous or otherwise. I just need transcript & photo /video embed. Speakola also has Twitter and Facebook feeds. Tony Wilson's author website is here. He's on twitter @byTonyWilson. Ramachandra Guha is @Ram_Guha and he has 2.2 million followers.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.