Sudheendra Kulkarni’s book on Gandhiji released

According to renowned Gandhian thinker and activist Justice Chandrashekhar Dharmadhikari, a greed and exploitation- based system will lead to doom. “Modernisation is becoming the latest orthodoxy,” he said at the launch of author and columnist Sudheendra Kulkarni’s book Music of the Spinning Wheel: Mahatma Gandhi’s Manifesto for the Internet Age.

He exhorted everyone to own at least two khadi outfits in their collection. “This will generate employment for over 1 crore people.”

According to him, Gandhiji was never opposed to technology and recounted the Mahatma’s conversation with Charlie Chaplin. “When Chaplin asked him whether he was opposed to factories, Gandhiji said he was opposed to the idea of leaving a large number of people without employment. He had said, ‘Give a hammer in the hand, don’t replace the hand with a hammer.”

Likening the Internet to Mahatma Gandhi’s spinning wheel as an agent of change for a new networked global community, Kulkarni said, “If technology joins hands with Gandhian philosophy it can create a new, just, peaceful world.”

Business tycoon Mukesh Ambani heaped praise on Kulkarni saying that he believes in his work which speaks without waiting for credit to come his way. “This book will not only be a milestone in Sudheendraji’s writing but also a milestone in reference for times to come.” 

Executive director of Tata Sons R Gopalakrishnan said, “In a time when the paradigms are shifting from intellectual to ethical assets, Gandhiji and his teachings are more relevant than ever before.”