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48 Soc. Change 1 (2018)

handle is hein.journals/sclcnge48 and id is 1 raw text is: Article Hind Swaraj: Reading Social Change ©CSD 2018 Gandhi's Critique of SAGE Pub i atio ~U~L sagepub in/home nay Modernity in Teh.ran o10Iz/0,S 433 Modernity in Tehran ~ D OI: 10.1 1177/000490857177438 0517381 http://journals.sagepub.com/home/sch $SAGE Kian Tajbakhsh' Abstract In both Iran and India, many social and cultural obstacles to authentic and humane social development are often traced to complexities caused by an encounter with Western modernity. In this essay, I explore what the Iranian reception of modernity might gain from the Indian conversation on Hind Swaraj. I show that Gandhi's thought contains two different critiques of modernity. The first radical option entails the rejection of modernity and its core institutions such as the nation-state; the second proposes adapting traditions, including religions, within the framework of a pluralistic democracy so as to craft alternative versions of the nation-state. The objective of the essay is to examine those aspects of the latter strand of Gandhi's thought that may be compatible with Iranian realities. A further goal is to put Iranian and Indian voices together in a constructive dialogue with one another. Keywords Gandhi, Hind Swaraj, Iranian modernity, pluralism, social development In Iran, as in India, the categories of 'modernity' and the closely linked notion of the 'West' continue to draw the attention of social scientists, philosophers, histo- rians and social commentators from across the ideological spectrum. The implicit justification for this focus is the claim that because the dislocating and distorting effects of the encounter with Western societies over the last few hundred years The argument was first presented in 2009 at an international seminar on the Centenary of Hind Swaraj in February 2009 organised by the Council for Social Development. ' Fellow, The Committee on Global Thought and Visiting Professor, Urban Planning, Columbia University, NY, USA. Corresponding author: Kian Tajbakhsh, Fellow, The Committee on Global Thought and Visiting Professor, Urban Planning, Columbia University, Amsterdam Avenue and 116th St, Avery Hall New York, NY 10027, USA. Email: kt242@columbia.edu