Gandhi Jayanti

Today is Gandhi Jayanthi.

For India today is a national holiday, while the world observes today as the "International Day of Non-violence".

Gandhiji and his ideas of non-violence is getting more relevant in this present world. In Trivandrum a course offered by Gandhi Smaraka Nidhi is having many takers from the young and the old but to the astonishment of many the majority is the young from communist Kannur District - known for its long history of political violence. This course is offered for a fee or 100 IRS and runs for 1 year. From Gandhiji’s principles to his messages of love and the hardearned lessons of freedom that the Mahatma taught using ahimsa would be part of the curriculum. They will also have a project at the end of the course.

Mahatma stressed that "literacy is not the end of education nor even its beginning. It is only one of the means whereby man and woman can be educated and that only those who receive a fulsome education of body, mind and spirit can play an effective role in resisting violence and fighting injustice and oppression. They alone can build a social order that promises human dignity". He stressed on character building and value education.

I think Gandhiji left us with a lot of valuable and timeless tools, but sadly it still remains in "quotes" and "speeches". Some political parties want only his name but forgets all what he stood for.


Is life relevant?
Is truth relevant?
Is morality relevant?
It has become a fashion to question the relevance of Mahatma Gandhi today. I suspect the people who ask this question are the ones who are convinced that he is irrelevant and useless. I want to ask them if they feel life, truth and morality are also irrelevant? Because the corner stones of the Gandhian philosophy are life, truth and morality.