Guiding Questions

Please familiarize yourselves with who Norman Finkelstein is and his areas of research.

1. Why is Finkelstein so interested in Gandhi? Another historical figure Finkelstein has studied in detail is Nat Turner. Why is that?
2. Andreas Malm argues that “selective memory” distorts how we remember protest and resistance movements. Examples include the US civil rights movement, the anti‑Apartheid struggle in South Africa, the early‑20th‑century women’s suffrage movement in the UK and the anti‑colonial resistance to British rule in India. Please explain! What role does Gandhi play in this "selective memory"?
3. Why is it significant — both from the perspective of the British Empire and from an Indian point of view — that "Indian independence [...] has not been desecrated with the label of revolution"?
4. After reading Finkelstein’s booklet — which, in large part, consists of Gandhi’s own words — has your perception of Gandhi changed in any way?