E-Book - Mahatma Gandhi

2Gandhi’s Non-violence: Some ReflectionsUsha ThakkarII consider it a great privilege to be invited by the Instituteof Gandhian Studies to deliver the third Ravindra VarmaMemorial Lecture. I take it as an opportunity to pay my tributeto Shri Ravindra Varma whom we respectfully and fondlycalled Varmaji. The subject I have chosen was very close to hisheart and he in his own way had made significant contributionto its propagation and practice. Contemporary times are facingunprecedented challenges. It is at this juncture that a fresh lookat Mahatma Gandhi’s ideas and work is essential to guide us.Bapu was an independent thinker who presented his own visionof non-violence and basic values of human life. At the sametime he drew on various streams of the philosophies of the Eastand the West. A mistaken belief persists that violence can endconflict or that war can bring salvation to the world. Gandhishowed the non-violent way, lived and demonstrated itssuccess. In the view of the growing scourge of violence in theworld even affecting our day to today life, it is all the moreappropriate to do some fresh thinking and reflection onGandhi’s non-violence. The originality and the freshness ofGandhi’s mind are illustrated nowhere better than in hisprinciples of non-violence as he moulded this ancient conceptinto a powerful weapon to resist the evil of exploitation andinjustice.The contribution made by Mahatma Gandhi in the realmof theory and praxis of non-violence in the modern world isseminal. He never claimed any originality in this respect and