Gandhian Literature and Philosophy

An Awareness Programme
Government Degree College for Women, Begumpet, Hyderabad, arranged a Gandhi-Awareness Programme for students to participate in the National Campaign for promoting Gandhian Literature and Philosophy on the occasion of International Youth Year and Gandhi Jayanti celebrations.
The college undertook to be part of the «Shanti Mandi», an initiative wherein students would promote the Gandhian awareness, selling copies of the Gandhi’s autobiography, «My Experiments with Truth» in the market. The college would help the students by arranging books for the students on loan basis. Navjeevan Publications, publishers of Gandhiana, agreed to supply copies of the book at a reasonable price of Rs. 30/- whereby students could earn an incentive by selling them.
Students are required to acquire a thorough understanding of the Gandhian principles and concepts and the personality of Mahatma Gandhi. It would enable them to impart and share their knowledge of Gandhism with other people.
In this context, the college arranged an awareness programme for the students and Shri Subash Roy, Consultant-Editor, from NCRI and Shri Naresh Rout, Research Assistant, the Wheel (Centre for Gandhian Thought and Action), NCRI, delivered a talk on the principles of Gandhiji. Dr. S. V. Lalitha, Principal of the college, presided the programme. Dr. K. Padmavathi and Dr. K. Ambika Devi of Govt. Degree college, Begumpet also spoke on the occasion. Shri Subash Roy in his address said that the name of Mahatma Gandhi conjures up a very powerful imagery. Gandhiji was a person with extraordinary sense of determination. Two books influenced Gandhiji’s character, «Sravana Pithru Bhakti» and «Harischandra».
Shri Roy said that the principles of self-reliance, honesty, austerity, non-violence, truth and tolerance are more relevant today and forever. He reiterated that those who practiced Gandhian concepts lived a peaceful life. Shri Naresh Rout summarized the Gandhiji’s autobiography, «My experiments with Truth», and requested the students to imbibe the moral values of Gandhiji. He said that an intimate knowledge of Gandhiji would help us to grow spiritually and morally. As Gandhiji said «With intellect more developed and with more reading, I shall understand it better». Gandhiji firmly believed that morality is the basis of all aspects of human life and truth is the substance of all morality. This became his passion and his religion. Shri Rout added other interesting facts of Gandhiji’s life relating to punctuality and sincerity in life. He had urged the students to become active readers of Gandhian literature.
The program concluded with more and more students coming forward to buy copies of «My experiments with Truth».