Discovering Gandhi in Prison

Princeton University lecturer Mark Edwards will lead residents of Garden State Youth Correctional Facility (GSYCF), a medium security jail in Yardville, New Jersey, through the works of Mohandas K. Gandhi. Credit: Kevin Birch

Discovering the profound way in which prison was the secret to the ethics and actions of Mohandas K. Gandhi, this study group will meet weekly for six weeks, reading and discussing Gandhi’s Autobiography alongside other essential writings. Princeton University lecturer Mark Edwards will convene the sessions with twenty residents inside Garden State Youth Correctional Facility (GSYCF).

In the past, Edwards has held study groups inside GSYCF on Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s Gulag Archipelago, Hannah Arendt’s The Origins of Totalitarianism, Malcolm X’s Autobiography, and the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Autobiography. After a “Malcolm and Martin” study group this past spring and summer, members requested a chance to learn about Gandhi. Participants will contribute writings and reflections for Edwards’s spring 2020 course “Imprisoned Minds: Religion and Philosophy from Jail” for the Freshman Seminar Program and the Department of Religion at Princeton University. Pending approval from the New Jersey Department of Corrections, the class may visit the study group at GSYCF to discuss Gandhi’s life and thought together. The meetings will be held through December 19.

This event is part of the Being Human Festival 2019 of the Humanities Council.