INDIA GREENS PARTY
Press Release
Unchir-Dunktok, Pauri Garhwal, Uttarakhand, 2 October 2021: The India Greens Party today celebrated the 152nd birth anniversary of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi by organising a webinar on the relevance of his book Hind Swaraj in today’s times.
The UN International Day of Nonviolence is also observed on 2 October, the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, leader of the Indian independence movement and pioneer of the philosophy of nonviolence.
In a press release issued here at the party’s national head office on the occasion of the 152nd birth anniversary of Gandhi; and the International Day of Nonviolence, the iGP President Suresh Nautiyal said the party remains committed to nonviolence and strives for a culture of peace and cooperation between states, inside societies and between individuals, as the basis of global security.
Delivering the keynote address in the webinar organised by the party on the relevance of Gandhi and his book Hind Swaraj in today’s times, Prof Himanshu Bourai of the HNB Garhwal University, Srinagar, said the book, Hind Swaraj, and Gandhi were inseparable, indivisible.
“It is a valuable book and comparable with the best political commentaries. In fact, Hind Swaraj is the most original book after Karl Marx’s Das Kapital, and comparable with Plato’s The Republic, Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Social Contract. It is rather difficult to understand Gandhi without reading the Hind Swaraj or Indian Home Rule.
Prof Bourai, who was awarded by Gandhi Smriti and Darshan Samiti in recognition of her commendable involvement in spreading the message of Sarvadharma Sambhava, peace and harmony, said the Hind Swaraj was Gandhiji’s response to those who believed that freedom was not possible without the use of violence. He told them that nonviolence was the most powerful weapon to achieve the goal.
Prof Bourai said Gandhi believed that modern civilisation was very harmful as it gave birth to colonial thinking. He was of the strong view that the factory-culture would not establish a nonviolent society; and also believed that Dharma would face the challenges of the modern civilisation.
Dr Bourai, herself a Gandhian, said Gandhi visualised the villages as totally decentralised and self-sufficient socio-economic entities, adding that equality and liberation of women were vital for the economic freedom and liberty in Gandhi’s perception, which was not possible without Swaraj, and rights were not possible without duties. This truly reflected his distaste for capitalist modernity. For him, true civilisation meant good conduct and performance of duties.
According to Dr Bourai, Gandhi also criticised capitalist modernity because it was born of colonial thinking of power. As a result, the Industrial Revolution divided the world into two parts. Several thinkers supported Gandhi on this.
The iGP President Mr Nautiyal said their party continues to believe that security should not rest mainly on military strength but on cooperation, sound economic and social development, environmental safety, and respect for the human rights.
He said Gandhi saw violence pejoratively and also identified two forms of violence; passive and physical.
The iGP President said Gandhi, who considered violence not a natural tendency of humans, objected to violence because it perpetuated hatred.
“Gandhi was right in saying that the perfect weapon to combat violence is nonviolence only, and practiced this in his life. Gandhi taught that the one who possessed nonviolence was blessed. He also said those who practice nonviolence should also accept violence on themselves without inflicting it on another,” the Green leader pointed out, adding that Ahimsa implied total nonviolence, no physical violence, and no passive violence.
“The world remembers Gandhi not just for his passionate adherence to the practice of non-violence and supreme humanism, but as the benchmark against which we test men and women in public life, political ideas and government policies, and the hopes and wishes of our shared planet,” concluded the Green leader.
–Issued by Deepak Dabral, iGP Office Secretary.
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(India Greens Party is registered with the Election Commission of India under Section 29A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951. Registration Number: 56/476/2018-19/PPS-I, effective from 18/07/2019.)
Registered Office: 104, Vardhman Complex, 1st Floor, LSC, Savita Vihar, Delhi-110092.
National Head Office: GreenDhamAnandiChait, IndraBalbhadraParisar, Unchir-Dunktok, PO-Ghurdauri, Patty-Idwalsyun, Distt-Pauri Garhwal, Uttarakhand, INDIA. PIN-246194.Email: indiagreensparty@gmail.com Website: https://indiagreensparty.org
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