Mirabai, Gandhi and Satyagraha

Abstract

The paper seeks to understand why Gandhi found it imperative to evoke the image of Mirabai, who was considered a Kulnashi and rejected by her own community, to strengthen a nationalist movement. It explores why and how the nationalist myth of Mira appropriated a tamer version of the poet-saint than certain other historical and literary sources suggest. While Gandhi adopted important and unique strategies of protest from Mira, the paper is interested in how he largely decontextualized and diluted her politics with respect to gender and caste.