‘Gandhi’s philosophy is important for youth’

Had people understood Gandhi’s philosophy of non-violence, then mob lynching, hate crime, violence and intolerance would have never taken place in the country, Supreme Court former Judge Justice V Gopala Gowda said on Monday.

“Gandhi’s religion was non-violence, which is the root of Hinduism,” he stressed, while emphasising on the need to embrace Gandhian philosophy in our life at the one-day seminar on ‘Rethinking Mahatma Gandhi – Issues and Challenges’ organised by the Department of History, Economics and Political Science of St Agnes College and Nehru Yuva Kendra on the college campus.

“Unfortunately, in the name of cow protection, members of the minority and depressed classes are attacked. Those who are in power should rethink on non-violence concept propagated by Mahatma Gandhi,” he said, adding that the issue of majoritarianism, extremism, sense of feeling above law, fear of mob lynching are deeply pervading in society. In this background, Gandhi’s ideals and philosophy are relevant in the country.

‘Freedom curtailed’

Justice Gowda reminded, “Gandhi had used the weapon of Satyagraha to fight against injustice, which the youth should understand. Gandhi’s philosophy becomes relevant at a time when the freedom of speech guaranteed in the Constitution is being curtailed by a few people in the country. Gandhi’s life was open without any secret. Today, politicians do not disclose their property details even when the information is sought through RTI Act.”

He also said that it is a tragedy that legislators, teachers, lawyers and students have forgotten Gandhi. “The youth of today have a vision of Gandhi based on distorted information, which is also a tragedy. Gandhi’s ideals and philosophy is important for youth. There is a need to reinforce the philosophy and ideals which are forgotten by our political parties and leaders in the country,” he stressed.

Relevance of Gandhi

“Gandhi is relevant as we have to start a second economic Independence movement in the country. We have a parliamentary democracy in the country, but we do not have people’s democracy. We do not have economic justice to masses in the country,” he said.

Valerian Rodrigues, former professor of Political Science at JNU; Sr Dr M Jeswina, principal of St Agnes College; Raghuveer Souterpete, coordinator of Nehru Yuva Kendra and others were present at the seminar.