Showing posts with label Relevance of Gandhi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Relevance of Gandhi. Show all posts

Saturday, November 30, 2013

Mahatma Gandhi's teachings relevant in modern society: Bali's governor

Mahatma Gandhi's teachings relevant in modern society: Bali's governor

Mahatma Gandhi

Mahatma Gandhi is like a candle as he enlightened the world and scarified his own life, the Governor of Bali has said, underlining that the peace icon's teachings are still relevant in modern society. 
"It is important that all of us, including the young children and students, follow the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi, and become a good citizen and a good human being," Made Mangku Pastika, Governor of the Province of Bali, said delivering the Second Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Lecture.

Friday, September 6, 2013

Gandhi Journal Article - II

Mahatma Gandhi and Children's Literature in Indian English

By Ved Mitra Shukla
In the present century, children's literature has not been a marginalised area in the world of literature. There is a long list of such writers who are constantly writing for children. As far as the beginning of the history of Indian English literature is concerned, writers have knowingly or unknowingly focused on it. Children-centric works can be credited to Rabindranath Tagore, R K Narayan, Mulk Raj Anand, etc. However, the genre could not be developed so much in the pre-Independence era, but later on, there followed a number of writers who focused considerably on it. But not many big names except writers like Salman Rushdie, Vikram Seth, etc. can be cited as far as the development of the genre is concerned. However, the paper will make an attempt to discuss the influence of Mahatma Gandhi on some selected works of Indian English children's literature. No doubt, a number of children's books can be found on Gandhi. Owing to the limited scope of the paper, there will be a focus on the children's books suggested by the Bombay Sarvodaya Mandal / Gandhi Book Centre, Bombay. Works like Pictorial Biography of Mahatma Gandhi by B R Nanda, Inspiring Stories from Gandhiji’s Life by Uma Shankar Joshi, Mahatma Gandhi by Jyoti Solapurkar, Story of Gandhi by Ramanbhai Soni, The Story of Gandhi by Rajkumari Shankar, A Pinch of Salt Rocks by Sarojini Sinha, etc. will be taken for study. Some other works which are without the biographical account of Gandhi will also be taken. All these works will be studied with the purpose of a literary analysis of the writers’ treatment of the technique, tone and content, or length in the respective works. The paper will also try to crutinize the books by age category, keeping in view the divergent interests of children of the age-group 1-18. Over and above, it will concentrate on how children’s literature has gone through considerable changes under the influence of Gandhi over the years. 

Thursday, July 4, 2013

Gandhi Journal Article - I

Ecology and Lifestyle: A Gandhian Perspective

By M. P. Mathai

Rising Awareness, Chronic Inertia

The ecological crisis we confront today has been analysed from various angles and scientific data on the state of our environment made available. Humanity has come out of its foolish self-complacency and has awakened to the realisation that over-exploitation of nature has led to a very severe degradation and devastation of our environment. Scholars, through several studies, have brought out the direct connection between consumption and environmental degradation. For example, Inge Ropke in his paper 'The dynamics of willingness to consume' raises pertinent questions like: why are productivity increases largely transformed into income increases instead of more leisure? Why is such a large part of these income increases used for consumption of goods and services with a relatively high materials-intensity instead of less material-intensive alternatives?
The climate change experienced today has convinced many that unless we take urgent remedial measures life might be wiped out of the face of the Earth. There have been several international summits and important conventions have been signed. But to our great dismay, most of the provisions of these covenants have been blatantly violated, rather than scrupulously honoured and implemented. Awareness of the issues involved has become almost universal, but the determination to take corrective steps is sorely missing.
The most pertinent question today, therefore, seems to be: 'why these violations?' Why sidestep the most crucial existential issues relating to the protection of eco-system? One direct answer to this vexing question is that we are not willing to change our lifestyles, the way we live. We have developed, adopted and internalised the values of a lifestyle which is a part of an unsustainable and destructive development paradigm. We seem to cherish it so deeply and religiously, so to say, that we can neither abjure nor modify it. Modern lifestyle has become addictive and has succeeding in entrapping an ever growing number to its fold, particularly the emerging middle classes. It could be reasonably argued that one of the most important reasons why humanity is not able to retrace its steps from the perilous path of self-annihilating eco-destruction is its addiction to modern or contemporary lifestyle.

Saturday, February 9, 2013

Timeless Appeal ( Gandhi Journal Article - I )


Timeless Appeal
A Simple Man from India Continues to Influence the World

By Lord Meghnad Desai*


What is it about Gandhi that still fascinates the world? Sixty-three years after his death, books still pour out at regular intervals exploring his life and personality. People are supposed to be shocked by revelations about his life. But as always we find that there is nothing any one can expose about Gandhi which he has not already put down in writing with brutal honesty. In terms of frankness about private life, Mahatma Gandhi breached the outer limits of possibility. Yet if the President of the United States, Barack Obama, wants him as his dinner guest—hoping of course that that is not one of Gandhi's fast days or worse yet one of his silent days, then Gandhiji must have 21st century appeal. He was chosen as one of the three most influential persons by TIME magazine on its 20th century issue along with former President of the United States, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and physicist Albert Einstein. He must have something timeless in his appeal.

Thursday, December 6, 2012

Understanding GANDHI ( Gandhi Journal Article - II )

Understanding GANDHI


By Nagindas Sanghvi*

Address at Lechayim of Jewish Services Association. Madison [WIS.] U. S.

I stand before you to speak on Gandhi who was shot dead some sixty years ago but who is still alive. He is still the most frequently mentioned individual in the world and is still the centre of the controversies some of which were raised by his actions and beliefs. Every year at least three or four books are written about him in some part of the world or other and he is being constantly discussed at several seminars and intellectual discourses all over the world. The date of his birth has been proclaimed as the Non-violence Day by the United Nations Organization. In our terror-stricken world of today, his teachings are even more relevant than they were when they were preached in the first half of the twentieth century.
The world to-day hails him as a Mahatma - a Great Soul - a Saint. Gandhi always resented the title and found it intensely painful. He never cared for any beatification and insisted that he was an ordinary man who was trying his level best for the realization of the Divine Presence.
Gandhi was not born a saint but chiseled himself into one by intensely agonizing experiments in austerity and discipline. He chose to call his biography “My experiments with Truth,” It is very difficult, if not impossible, to project Gandhi in few minutes. Sixty years after his death, he still remains a sort of enigma. The flood of copious literature on Gandhi does nothing to solve the mystery.
Unlike most of us, Gandhi continued to grow and change till the last moment of his life and he never worried about contracting himself. “In my search for Truth, I have never cared about consistency.” Like Emerson, he rejected consistency as the virtue of small minds. He was bold enough to proclaim that ‘If my readers find any inconsistency in my views, they should reject the older ones and believe in the later as my views might have changed.’

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Mumbai Sarvodaya Mandal - Gandhi Book Centre – Gandhi Research Foundation
299 Tardeo Road, Nana Chowk Mumbai 400 007 MH India
Tel. +91-22-2387 2061 / Email: 
info@mkgandhi.org Web: www.mkgandhi.org

Friday, May 11, 2012

Relevance of Gandhi's views on Economic Development


Relevance of Gandhi's views on Economic Development
By Gulabhai Jani
Translated into English by Alaka Sharma


The world economic order is in “crisis mode”. Well-known companies and banks of USA are declaring themselves as bankrupt, one by one. It is feared that the economy may slide down to the days of “Great Depression”. In this context, it is worthwhile to have a look at the economic thoughts of M. K. Gandhi.
Gandhiji’s economic thought is imbibed in his overall philosophy. His approach is holistic and aims at the socio-economic reconstruction of society. Once, Gandhiji was asked to write down the text of his economic thought, he refused, saying that his framework is based on some basic principles which he applies to solve the day to day practical problems. So it can’t be summarized in a few equations.

Friday, December 10, 2010

Relevance of Gandhi (Review of the book - Timeless Inspirator - Reliving Gandhi)

Timeless Inspirator - Reliving Gandhi : Conceptualized and Edited by Raghunath Malshekar

Published by SAKAL for Gandhi National Memorial Society, Pune, India

Price - Rs. 490/-.
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Relevance of Mahatma Gandhi
R. Devarajan

How relevant is Mahatma Gandhi in the 21st century? As many as 46 eminent Indians from various fields were asked this question by Raghunath Mashelkar, the internationally acclaimed scientist, and their responses are presented in this book. Mashelkar himself has this to say about it: “… not just a mere collection of thoughts. Collectively, it is the road map, or the way of life; it is the anchor for a youngster in search of inspiration.” “Gandhian Engineering” is a concept enunciated by Mashelkar in a talk he delivered in Australia in April 2008. More recently, in July 2010, it was further refined and redefined as “Gandhian Innovation,” and published in the Harward Business Review as an article, authored jointly by him and C.K. Prahalad. The crux of it is how to generate “more, from less, for more people”.

The galaxy of contributors is as varied as it is distinguished. To mention a few of them: Amjad Ali Khan, Anil Kakodkar, Gopalkrishna Gandhi, Narayana Murthy, Kiran Bedi, M.S. Swaminathan, Mallika Sarabhai, Rahul Bajaj, Sachin Tendulkar, Sam Pitroda, and Sunil Gavaskar.

Every article has one aphorism or another pronounced by Gandhiji. Here is a sample: “Each of us must be the change we wish to see in this world”; “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind”; “The future depends on what we do in the present”; “Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed”; and “Truth alone will endure, all the rest will be swept away before the tide of time.”



Valid teachings
More than ever before, Gandhiji's teachings are valid today, when people are trying to find solutions to the rampant greed, widespread violence, and runaway consumptive style of living. Anu Aga, one of India's foremost women achievers, says that while, in the name of retaliation, violence and hatred are being perpetrated today Gandhiji's gospel of non-violence makes immense sense.

It was the unique non-violent movement under his leadership that earned for India freedom from the colonial rule. In spearheading the campaign against the alien rule, Gandhiji adopted the innovative techniques of civil disobedience and social transformation, which had several exemplary features.

The Gandhian technique of mobilising people has been successfully employed by many oppressed societies around the world under the leadership of people like Martin Luther King in the United States, Nelson Mandela in South Africa, and now Aung Saan Sun Kyi in Myanmar, which is an eloquent testimony to the continuing relevance of Mahatma Gandhi.

In India, economic development has been mostly confined to the urban conglomerates. In the process, the rural India that comprises 700 million people has been given short shrift. Gandhiji's philosophy of inclusive growth is fundamental to the building of a resurgent rural India. He believed in “production by the masses” rather than in mass production, a distinctive feature of the industrial revolution. It is surprising, even paradoxical, that these days Gandhian philosophy should find increasing expression through the most modern technology! Now, it is possible to establish small-scale and medium-scale factories in smaller towns and remote corners of the country, thanks to the phenomenal innovations in communication and information technologies. New technologies have brought in widespread and low-cost electronic connectivity that enables instantaneous contact between industrial units and the sellers and consumers of their products. Location and logistics are no more a limitation or constraint for industrial development.

To quote Sam Pitroda, “While the twenty-first century has been defined by globalisation, free markets, privatisation, liberalisation… it has also been marked by violence, extremism, inequity, poverty, and disparity. Amidst all this, if one poses the question of relevance of Gandhiji to our age, one is struck by an astounding need for him for our times. Gandhiji's ideals… and leadership hold an extremely relevant moral and social mirror to our society.” Thus, the Gandhian model and the modern economy seem to be getting closer to each other. True to its title, the book will inspire social scientists, wherever they may be, for all times to come. Gandhiji did not belong to an era, or an age. He belongs to the humanity for eternity.

Courtesy: The Hindu, dt. 07.12.2010
http://www.thehindu.com/arts/books/article937457.ece