Grandson of Mahatma Gandhi leaves Ahmedabad students enthralled

Having the DNA of two great leaders of the Indian freedom movement in him, it is only natural that Prof Rajmohan Gandhi inherited some of the qualities of his eminent forefather.

It was these personality traits that left the students of one of the premier technology education institutions in the state in thrall on Wednesday.

The grandson of Mahatma Gandhi and C Rajagopalachari, Prof Gandhi is a research professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  On Wednesday, he delivered the first lecture in the DistinguishedLecture Series at the Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar.

As the topic of the lecture was ‘India as a world power: Potential and Realities’, Prof. Gandhi gave a different perspective of power to the students, emphasising on the philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi. He also gave answers to students’ queries later on, which were broadly based on Mahatma Gandhi and his ideas.

Shashank  Pandey, public relations secretary and a student of mechanical engineering said, “He gave us a different viewpoint of the term ‘power’. While most of us think and look at India as a world power, mostly in political, military and economic terms, he also emphasised on India as a moral power through Gandhian philosophy."

The professor also enriched students' general knowledge on the history of the Indian freedom struggle. He talked about the significance of the salt march led by Mahatma Gandhi and the Jallianwala Bagh massacre and other related facts about these historical events.

"Most of the students didn't know that Mahatma Gandhi's idea of a salt march had not convinced many leaders including Sardar Patel and Nehru and they expressed their doubts about its success. We got to learn some interesting aspects of our history." added Pandey.