World of Philosophy

SR No.: 007005
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Christopher Key Chapple, Intaj Malek, Dilip Charan, Sunanda Shastri, Prashant Dave
Publisher: Shanti Prakashan
Publication Year: 2011
Total Pages: 1002
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 30 MB

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Gandhi's Heritage and India
Sudarshan Iyengar
Let everybody be happy, let everybody be healthy and peaceful, let all wish well for all, let nobody be unhappy. Let peace prevail in the Universe, let peace prevail around us and let peace prevail within.
Introduction
I am happy to contribute this small article to the collection that is brought out to felicitate Professor Y.S. Shastri, who is retiring as Professor and Head of the Department of Philosophy at Gujarat University. My association with him has been rather short, I being an outside university creature and he being a Professor in the university tradition. But in the short duration that I came to know him, I have witnessed his keen interest in pursuing serious academics and training a new crop of students who can follow the tradition of learning and scholarship. I am not a trained philosopher, but I have tried to write a general essay that touches upon some aspects of economic philosophy.
People and countries in the world have gone through severe turmoil and have been unable to find sustainable peace through wars, violent conflicts, rapid economic development and the unprecedented control over nature by developing science and technology. The limitations of each of these approaches have sobered us immensely and we all looking for some succour. The world has thus turned to the actions and thought of a man who by his sheer will and determination mobilised a large section of humanity to struggle against the brute forces and achieved some success. Gandhi had sufficiently warned us about the danger towards which the humanity was marching and had demonstrated that working towards the construction of a sustainable society was possible only by using non-violent means. He had put his ideas in a small but powerful book Hind Swaraj which he wrote in 1909. Though it was titled as 'Indian Home Rule', he addressed the basic problems of the world as he saw and suggested an alternative. Thus it is his ideas for the whole of the humanity. The book is not only an intellectual journey; there are emotions and experience that speak in the book. It is intense and therefore at times has a sweep, but a patient reading helps in going back to the basics of humanity dignified survival on the earth. The modern man is adventurous and would not listen to wise advise but as it is said in Gujarati
Varya na Vare te Harya Vare those who do not turn back with good advice do so following defeat. The world appears to be inclined to turn back and try the Gandhian thought. A beginning has been made by the United Nations Organisation by declaring 2nd October, Gandhi's birthday as the day of International Peace and Non-Violence. In this context I would like to revisit the basic tenets that Gandhi Proposed for building a society which was sustainable and which by and large at peace.
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