Gandhiji’s philosophy during freedom struggle was to forge mass movements: R.P. Sisodia

Vijayawada, November 3 (praja amaravati): Sri R.P. Sisodia, Special Chief Secretary to Governor, Andhra Pradesh, delivered the lecture on “Philosophy of Independence Movement in India” as part of the Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav Lecture Series, organized by the Institute for Development Studies Andhra Pradesh (IDSAP), Visakhapatnam, by participating virtually here on Thursday.

Delivering the keynote lecture, Sri Sisodia said that when India gained independence the entire world was suspicious on the success of India as an independent country, as the British declared that Indians were not capable of self-rule. Sri Sisodia traced the history of India from the early rule of Indian kings to the Mughal rule and later the entry of East India company followed by the British rule. He said that only sporadic events of armed rebellions and violent events limited to a certain region took place in 19th century and mass movements for complete independence took shape only in 20th century after the advent of Mahatma Gandhi.

Mahatma Gandhi understood the fact that we are a huge country divided mostly on regional, caste, religious lines etc. and economically very weak and a balance was to be made between moderates and the rebels, said Sri Sisodia. He said Gandhiji undertook several journeys, held meetings agitations and programmes and later withdrew them at the tip of success and the philosophy behind such action was to first bring unity among the people and inculcate the idea of India as a nation. The Third world countries, essentially the colonies that gained independence from British, French and Portuguese rulers lacked the concept of nation or national identity and patriotism because of lack of unity among the people and suffered from divisions and factionalism later on. He cited the example of the neighboring countries, who inherited their own problems because they gained independence but lacked the maturity of what they will you do with the independence.

It was the philosophy of mass movements like Salt Satyagraha, Swadeshi movement Quit India that finally it led the country to gain freedom. With these mass movements, Mahatma Gandhi was essentially engaged in creating a philosophy to create a successful nation. The spirit of the nation lies in the fact that India gave universal suffrage immediately after gaining independence, whereas it was only in 1928 that the women in Britain got the right to vote and as the largest democracy in the world, we should feel proud of it, said Mr. Sisodia.

He said that even though India became politically dependent in 1947, it depended on other countries for food and the country gained economic independence with the Green revolution, followed by White revolution and became food self-sufficient after 1961 and today the country is a major rice exporter and many nations are now dependent on India for food which has enhanced our prestige in the comity of nations. The policies and programmes implemented by successive governments by setting up major industries, irrigation dams, major educational institutions and with the liberalization of economy, we made tremendous progress in the IT and Telecom sectors and became Independent as far as economy is concerned.

The movements led by Dr. B.R. Ambedkar led the country towards social independence and then every citizen of country became independent. We can develop intellectual independence when people develop scientific temper and the spirit of inquiry by shunning false knowledge. He appealed to the academicians to encourage the children to develop scientific temper and desist spread of false knowledge.

Prof. S. Mahendra Dev, Director & Vice Chancellor, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research (IGIDR) & Chairman of IDSAP, chaired the programme in which Prof. S. Galab, Director and Prof. E. Nagabhushana Rao, Registrar, IDSAP, also participated.