Is Gandhi Still Relevant?

A talk by The Rt Hon Lord Parekh, FBA, FAcSS

Chaired by Dr Prince Saprai (UCL)

Panellists:

• Professor Narinder Kapur (Visiting Professor of Neuropsychology, UCL)
• Professor Sir Richard Sorabji CBE FBA (University of Oxford)

About the talk

Mahatma Gandhi was one of the most important political figures and thinkers of the twentieth century. To mark 150 years since his birth UCL is hosting a talk by one of the world’s leading political theorists and Gandhi scholar Lord Bhikhu Parekh on the continuing relevance of Gandhi’s political thought.

Although Gandhi had his limitations and some of his idea are dated, he had many important things to say to the contemporary world, especially in relation to non-violent resolution of conflict, political leadership and the basis of social cohesion.

About the speaker

Bhikhu Parekh is Emeritus Professor of Political Philosophy at the University of Westminster and the University of Hull, U.K., and was until recently Centennial Professor at the London Schools of Economics. He has been a Visiting Professor at several universities including McGill, Harvard, Institute of Advanced Study in Vienna, the University of Pennsylvania, and Universitat Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona. He was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Baroda, India, from 1981-1984.  He is the author of several widely acclaimed books in political philosophy, including Rethinking Multiculturalism (Harvard University Press, 2000) and Debating India (Oxford University Press, 2016).  He is a Fellow of the British Academy, the European Academy, and past President of the Academy of Learned Societies in the Social Sciences. Professor Parekh received the BBC’s Special Lifetime Achievement Award for Asians in 1999, and was appointed to the House of Lords in 2000.  He has also received the Sir Isaiah Berlin Prize for Lifetime Contribution to Political Philosophy and Padma Bhushan from the President of India. His work has been translated into twenty languages.

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