GANDHIJIS LIVING PHILOSOPHY

PREFACE It is my pleasure and privilege to present the ideology of the great Indian leader, liberator, Mahatma and Father of Nation Sri M.K. Gandhi. Gandhiji thoughts on social life, his fundamental concepts on Truth, Non-violence, Ahimsa, Satyagraha; his views on self sufficient rural economy; and his Trusteeship socialism convinced and moved the whole nation and they decided to stand by the side of Mahatma in achieving independence to India. Those are the days of great Turmoil arising from the freedom struggle, the Indian people had recognized in Gandhi a form of dynamic leadership that they had never known before. Nehru a lover of freedom was inspired by Gandhiji. Gandhiji's thinking on socio-economic issues was greatly fluenced by the American writer Henry David Thoreau. Gandhiji sought to develop ways to fight India's extreme poverty, backwardness and socio-economic challenges as part of his wider involvement in Indian Independent movement. Gandhiji espoused the notion of Trusteeship which centred on denying material pursuits and converting wealth with practitioners acting as trustee of other individuals and the community. Gandhiji was averse to all notion of class warfare and the concept of class based revolution. Gandhiji's concept of egalitarian society was centred on preservation of man dignity rather than material developement. Nehru was influenced by Gandhi's averson to the brand of socialism practised in the Soviet Union and he was also an exponent of dustrialisation and critical of Gandhi's focus on rural economics. I acknowledge with gratitude, the kindness of my friends in eading the manuscript and the proof and also the encouragement my enefactors gave me at every stage in the production of the book. I acknowledge gratefullly my debt to all the authors, Journals nd publishers from those books or publication I'have drawn excerpts. My thanks are also due to the printers for the interest in my work. uggesetions for improvement are earnestly solicited. - S.KRISHΝΑ