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Fiction

Mill Meets Gandhi

Utilitarian philosopher John Stuart Mill worked for the British East India Company for 35 years. Long after Mill’s death, Gandhi led India to independence. Eugene Alper imagines a meeting of these two great political thinkers.

What appears to be a park somewhere. It’s sunny, with a light breeze. John Stuart Mill is sitting on a bench dressed in his Victorian attire as Mohandas Gandhi walks in, leaning on a cane. It’s January 31, 1948 – the day after Gandhi’s assassination – and Gandhi’s white shawl still shows splashes of red.

Mill and Gandhi

Mill: I am sorry about what happened to you, sir.

…