Abstract
To understand what my grandfather, Mohandas K. Gandhi, meant by sustainable development, you need to understand the philosophy of his life. Gandhi’s very essence was based on the concept of Satyagraha – that is, truth force. For Gandhi, truth was God. Thus, Gandhi’s life involved not just uttering the truth at all times, but living, believing, thinking, and doing nothing but the truth. Gandhi also believed that service of the oppressed was the best form of worship and that poverty is the worst form of violence. In Gandhi’s mind, as long as poverty existed in society, everything else was meaningless. He believed you cannot talk to the poor about freedom, spirituality, morality, or anything else so long as the poor are deprived of the three essentials of life – food, clothing, and shelter.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Gandhi, A. (2013). The Sincerity of Purpose: Sustainability and World Peace. In: Madhavan, G., Oakley, B., Green, D., Koon, D., Low, P. (eds) Practicing Sustainability. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-4349-0_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-4349-0_9
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-4348-3
Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-4349-0
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)