RONO HILLS, Aug 30: More than 250 participants, including college and university students, social sciences research scholars, faculty members and others, attended a national webinar titled ‘Reimagining Mahatma Gandhi’, organized by the sociology department of Rajiv Gandhi University (RGU) here on Sunday to mark the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.
In his inaugural address, RGU Vice Chancellor Prof Saket Kushwaha called upon the youths, students, scholars and academia to identify with “their Gandhi within and be honest to their personal and professional obligations, as Mahatma always had emphasized.”
Assistant Sociology Professor Dr Shashank Yadav said “the Gandhian imagery should be re-shifted from round specs and spinning wheel to his humane and empathetic principles.”
Prof Anand Kumar from New Delhi-based Jawaharlal Nehru University in his address said that “Gandhi was one of the pioneers who lived nature’s way of living.”
“Gandhi became Gandhi by reading, thinking and living the way he preached,” Prof Kumar said, and added that “the process of change for Gandhi is very important, but it must be ethical, nonviolent and democratic, affirming rights to all destitute and minorities.”
Another professor from JNU, Deepak Kumar, delivered a lecture on ‘Reason and rationality in Gandhian thought process’, while Prof Avijit Pathak spoke on ‘The Gandhian talisman’.
Dr Vinod Kumar Yadav from RGU’s commerce department said that “Gandhian ideology and philosophy is beyond time and space.”
During the concluding session, RGU Pro-VC Prof Amitava Mitra said, “Gandhi was a master strategist and a refined economist who focused on every sector of the economy.”
RGU social work department’s Assistant Professor Dr Ravi Ranjan Kumar in his address called upon the young participants to “internalize the ideas and ideals of Mahatma, for sustainability lies in simplicity.” Dr Nawaz Khan from RGU’s mass communication department opined that “Gandhi was the best journalist this country ever had.”
