Nishant Kolge: UNDERSTANDING THE LIFE AND PHILOSOPHY OFGANDHI

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On 2nd October 2020, The History department of Kirorimal college along with the Internal Quality Assurance Cell of Kirorimal college organized a 5-day webinar on the topic RELEVANCE OF MAHATMA GANDHI IN THE 21ST CEBNTURY: PHILOSOPHY, POLITICAL IDEAS AND SOCIO-SPIRITUAL DIMENSION. The whole function was organized on an online platform to allow more and more participation.

The programme began at 11:00am. The programme was moderated by Ridhi Jain, who began by giving a brief introduction of the programme. Principal maam, Dr. Vibha Singh Chauhan, welcomed the whole gathering and congratulated Mr. Amit K suman sir for conducting the programme on a short notice. She talked about how Gandhi ji is an epical figure and is seen as a world leader. Mr. Sanjay Verma, senior faculty member of history department, addressed the whole gathering which was followed by Dr. Anshu’s, the convener of the IQAC cell, addressing. Shambhavi Jha introduced the guest speaker, the guest speaker for the day was Dr. NISHIKANT KOLGE, presently associate professor, centre for the study of developing society, Delhi. In his Ph.D. work in the Department of Humanities and Social Science at IIT Madras, he looked at Gandhi and his strategy to abolish the caste system in India.  His book Gandhi against Caste investigates the entire range of what Gandhi said or wrote about caste divisions over a period of more than three decades, and the topic of the day’s lecture was: UNDERSTANDING THE LIFE AND PHILOSOPHY OFGANDHI.

The lecture began with Nishikant sir’s address to the gathering. He said that Gandhi introduced nonviolence as a way to address most issues, he is everywhere and we might be familiar with him but one needs to really understand him and analyze him. He explained that when he read Gandhi as a student and when he reads Gandhi now, there are few things which he developed over the years. His perspective to understand Gandhi changed over the years and he suggested few ways which could help us understand Gandhi and his life better. First that there are two opposite views of Gandhi, one that calls Gandhi a shroud politician and he other that calls him a heroic mahatma, we need to read them together and then reach to a conclusion. The second point focused on the fact that Gandhi lived a defined double standard life and that he was flexible in his values when it came to be applied to be others than himself. The third and he fourth point talked about Gandhi’s reconstruction programme and how Gandhi’s practice should be considered. The last and most important point was that in order to understand Gandhi one needs to understand Gandhi’s own perspectives, without which one can’t really understand him.

The lecture was followed by a Question & Answer session where in the participants enthusiastically asked questions to sir and sir replied with equal zeal. The function came to an end and Amit K suman sir thanked everyone. Kaustubh Bhatnagar presented the token of gratitude to the esteemed speaker. The organizing committee of the Webinar Lecture Series (Ishita Roy, Ridhi Jain, Shambhavi Jha, Kaustubh Bhatnagar, Damayanti, Jyotirmoy Jishnu, Jatin Gogia, Kajal Diwan and Khushi Kesari) along with Dr. Amit K Suman made the first day a great success.

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Author:


Khushi Kesari
Second Year, History Hons. KMC

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