Saturday, March 24, 2012
Friday, March 23, 2012
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Monday, March 19, 2012
Saturday, March 17, 2012
Friday, March 16, 2012
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Monday, March 12, 2012
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Vinoba's Movement: An Overview
Vinoba's Movement: An Overview
By Kanti Shah
…‘Sarvodaya’, the word, was coined 100 years ago. In ancient
literature, this word might have been used in some context, but its use as a
definitive philosophy is only 100 years old.
This word took shape in Gandhi’s mind in 1904 when he read
Ruskin’s book ‘Unto This Last’, but the word took concrete shape in 1908 when
Gandhi translated the gist of this book in Gujarati. The translation is an
example of Gandhi’s literary acumen. The title of Ruskin’s book was taken from a
Biblical story ‘Unto This Last’, which means that even the last person should
get an equal share. In those days, the concept of ‘Greatest good of greatest
number’ was in vogue. But Gandhi said that Sarvodaya meant the rise of all, and
it was not merely the greatest good of the greatest number or of the last
person standing in the queue. From then on, the ideology of Sarvodaya got
firmly established in social discourses. The detailed explanation of the
meaning of Sarvodaya can be found in ‘Hind Swaraj’ that was written by Gandhi
in 1909. The overview that we are attempting here would be against this
background. READ MORE…
Relevance of Gandhi - A View From New York
Relevance of
Gandhi - A View From New York
By E S Reddy
…The civil rights movement led by the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther
King in the 1950s, as well as much of the resistance to the Vietnam war, were
inspired by Gandhi. Many hundreds of volunteers went through training in
nonviolence. The success of these movements demonstrated that active
nonviolence was not for Indians alone but can be practised by people of all
religions and racial origins in America. There was an explosion of interest in
Gandhi among activists, academics and other scholars. Numerous books and
articles are being published here since then, and they include some of the best
studies on Gandhi. They have dealt not merely with the philosophy of satyagraha
or the methods of nonviolence resistance but with the wide range of experiments
of Gandhi. More and more people began to study Gandhi, visit his ashrams in
India and practise aspects of his teachings.
It would be wrong, however, to exaggerate the influence of
Gandhi in America. If we look for “Gandhians”, there are but a few. But
hundreds of thousands of Americans have derived inspiration from the life and
thought of Gandhi while attached to their own faiths and traditions. That is as
it should be. READ MORE…
Gandhian Approach to Peace and Non-violence
Gandhian Approach to Peace and
Non-violence
By Siby K Joseph
Dean of Studies and
Research,
Institute of Gandhian
Studies, Wardha, India.
…For Gandhi, non-violence was a creed or an article of faith. He
subscribed to non-violence on the basis of a deep faith in it. His complete
adherence to non-violence was based on principles rather than opportunism or
purely based on cost benefit considerations, although he was not unaware of its
strategic value. For Gandhi, it was not a weapon of expediency. It was a
spiritual weapon and he successfully employed it at the mundane level. He made
it clear that it is not a weapon of the weak and the coward. The application of
this principle needs greater courage and moral strength. He believed that
Ahimsa or Love has a universal application and it can be employed in one’s own
family, society and the world at the larger level. Through the technique of
non-violence a seeker or Truth tries to convert his opponent by the force of
moral character and self suffering. A practitioner of non-violence has to
undergo suffering to penetrate into the heart of the opponent. Gandhi looked
upon self-less suffering as the law of human beings and war as the law of
jungle. How you can avoid pain and suffering is based on a utilitarian
thinking, which is the basis of the much of the liberal thinking of the West.
Suffering for a worthy cause in non-Western cultures is often seen as
liberative, even if it emerged as the result of the application of violence
against an oppressor. The redemptive character of self-suffering was emphasized
by Gandhi and a constituted a key element of his Satyagraha technique. Gandhi’s
commitment to Non-violence evolved also from a careful reading of history and
its interpretation. He came to the conclusion that it is Non-violence that has
sustained the world so far and will sustain it in future too. READ MORE…
Friday, March 9, 2012
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Monday, March 5, 2012
Saturday, March 3, 2012
Friday, March 2, 2012
Thursday, March 1, 2012
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Monday, February 27, 2012
Saturday, February 25, 2012
Friday, February 24, 2012
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Monday, February 20, 2012
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Friday, February 17, 2012
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Mahatma Gandhi, South Africa and Satyagraha
Mahatma Gandhi, South Africa and
Satyagraha
By E. S. Reddy
A century ago, on 10 January 1908, M. K. Gandhi, an attorney
with a lucrative practice in Johannesburg, appeared before the magistrate’s
court for defying an anti-Asiatic law and disobeying an order to leave the
Transvaal within 48 hours. He asked for the heaviest penalty – six months’
imprisonment with hard labour – for organising defiance of this “Black Act” by
the Indian community. The magistrate, however, sentenced him to two months
simple imprisonment.
Gandhi gladly went to prison to enjoy “free hospitality”
at “His Majesty’s hotel”, as did 150 other resisters.
That was the first of many imprisonments of Gandhi and the first
non-violent challenge to racist rule in South Africa. READ MORE…
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Monday, February 13, 2012
Peace Approach : From Gandhi to Galtung and beyond
Peace Approach : From Gandhi to Galtung and beyond
By Dr. Anupama Kaushik
Associate Professor in Political Science, Banasthali University,
Rajasthan, India.
Peace can be defined as a two sided
concept. On the one hand it implies absence of violence and on the other the
presence of positive, harmonious, cooperative relationships. These two aspects
are referred to as negative and positive peace. Johan Galtung clarifies that
peace research is based on the assumption that peace is as consensual a value
as health…..
……The people who established peace studies in the west- Johan
Galtung and Kenneth Boulding were admirers of Gandhi.13 However
in west peace studies have taken a very different path to that of Gandhi.
Probably the reason was that Gandhian peace demands a great deal of sacrifice
from the practitioner. He calls it satyagraha i.e. ‘adherence to truth’ and
truth and non violence are the main planks of satyagraha. A person who resolves
to adhere to truth cannot remain silent at the sight of violence which is
negative of truth. Truth functions in form of non violence or love. While the
lover of truth ought to oppose violence such an opposition would mean ‘fight
the evil’ while ‘love the evil doer’. It is a dynamic soul force based on the
concept of self- suffering. As there are many forms of injustices there are
many forms of satyagaha too such as- non cooperation, civil disobedience,
fasting, hijrat, hartal, picketing, boycott, and renunciation of titles,
honours and positions.
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Friday, February 10, 2012
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Non-violence : A Force for Radical Change
Non-violence : A Force for Radical
Change
By Narayan Desai
Chancellor,
Gujarat Vidyapith, Ahmedabad, India (the University founded by Mahatma Gandhi)
The days that have been chosen for this international Congress on
Peace and Non-violence are more significant than probably what we think about
it. 30th January is the death anniversary of Gandhi. But I consider 29th
January also to be important. It was on this day, Gandhi mentioned about his
own death. It seems that he foresaw his death. During the year 1947 he repeated
the vision thrice. He said to his grand-niece one day before his death. ‘If I
die of any common disease, please announce to the world that Gandhi was not a
Mahatma. But if I would be going for my prayers, and somebody comes and shoots
at me, and I receive the bullets on my open chest, and have the name of God on
my lips without having any ill will or hatred in my heart, then tell the world
that I was an humble servant of God’. He was also foreseeing and describing
which was going happen the next day. READ MORE…
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Interdisciplinary National Conference on 'Gandhi, Nehru and Sustainable Development'
Interdisciplinary National Conference
on
Gandhi, Nehru and Sustainable Development
19th and 20th March, 2012
| Organised by
Mahatma Gandhi Study and Research Centre,
Nehru Study Centre, Faizpur, Dist: Jalgaon, Maharashtra, India
|
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