"...while emphasising Gandhi's role as a catalyst to events, has also drawn attention to the shortcomings of his actions, to the way they deflected or even disregarded alternative solutions to problems."

The impact of Gandhi's ideas on government policy is striking. Indian manufacture remained subject to Gandhian practice to an extraordinary extent. The hand-loom textile industry in 1968 was producing 45 percent of cloth output. In total, small-scale enterprise continued to produce 40 percent of all output and employ three-quarters of the labour force. One commentator has characterized the successive five-year economic plans as 'a curious amalgam of Stalinist and Ruskinian views'. Attempts to inject Gandhian ideals through the village upliftment programme, or Panchayati Raj, were less successful, but are further proof of Nehru's continuing deference to Gandhi's beliefs. There is even the fascinating possibility, in a quite different sphere of policy, that Nehru was inspired by the satyagraha ideals of non-violence in his response to the Chinese invasion of 1962, and that the confrontation between the poorly armed and clad Indian troops and the Chinese in Aksai Chin was the belated indication of how the Indians would have confronted the Japanese in 1942.Yet the continuing plight of the untouchables and of women in India (one notices in particular the repressive caste communal conflicts in Ahmedabad in 1985 and the Hindu-Muslim communal riots in Ayodhya and the Northern India in 1992) point to the limited success of Gandhi's ideals in terms of social change.

Gandhi's South African legacy introduced two themes in particular: the fate of South African Indians and the debate on whether to pursue a non-violent or violent strategy against apartheid. Gandhian-style resistance to apartheid was part of the wider struggle against colonialism and neo-colonialism. With India being the first colonial society to acquire independence, it was inevitable that Gandhi's method should be keenly studied within the Third World and, as Nehru became increasingly important in international affairs as the moving spirit behind the Non-Aligned Movement, India's example became all the more influential. Nkrumah, for instance, was seemingly to adopt Gandhian methods in leading the Gold-Coast (Ghana) to independence by 1957. Gandhi was a world historical figure. It has not been enough to assess him by his own standards and ambitions; he has become a part of twentieth century history and his impact has to be measured as much by the consequences of his actions as by his intentions. This short study of Gandhi has stressed a historically contextual rather than a biographical approach. Gandhi has been seen through the eyes of his contemporaries, as someone caught up in the ebb and flow of events, sometimes taking a central role, sometimes on the periphery. It is an approach that, while emphasising Gandhi's role as a catalyst to events, has also drawn attention to the shortcomings of his actions, to the way they deflected or even disregarded alternative solutions to problems.