The Coffee House and the Ashram: Gandhi, Civil Society and Public Spheres

Abstract

This paper considers what light the associational forms that Gandhi created shed on the debate about civil society and the public sphere in political and social theory. As John Keane remarks, "reflexive, self-organizing non-governmental organizations that some call civil society can and do live by other names in other linguistic and cultural milieus". How does his "Indian" variant square with the practice and concept of civil society and public sphere as they have evolved in European history, thought and practice?