How relevant is Gandhi in todays India?
Gandhi is someone who talked about crucial issues, and he is always relevant, not just for India. He talks about fundamental standards in public life and the relationship between public and private life, between ends and means. These are not peculiar to India, they are applicable worldwide. I think that’s one reason students are always challenged by him. You can’t be neutral about Gandhi. But are his teachings as relevant today as they were in his time? Certainly his teachings about the use of non-violence, the need for fundamental social reconstruction, will always be relevant. Where I think it is difficult looking back at him as any sort of teacher is in his precise ideas about the economy. I’ve always felt that this was one of his weakest areas. I think he would have liked to have thrown a ringed fence around India to ‘keep out the modern world.’ And no country can do that because we live in a age of globalisation. But you can safely underline ideas about simplicity, no over-consump
