Lessons for Social Work from Gandhi’s Autobiography

摘要

Prof. Gangrade is someone who is highly respected in academic circlesas well as in Gandhian fraternity. A life-long teacher, he headed theprestigious Delhi School of Social Work run by Delhi University formany years. He also rose to be Pro Vice-Chancellor of Delhi University.We are happy that he has prepared a very important and enlighteningarticle. The title rightly describes the true purpose behind writing it.He shares his keen thoughts for anyone engaged in social service orany aspirant to become a social worker.This article becomes very interesting because it does not merely dealwith philosophical discussions. The author has tried to convey thevalues that emerged in Gandhi’s life, and which are recorded throughhis real life experiences in his autobiography. We may recall here thatduring his last days, a highly significant and important message that hegave to a questioner was, “My life is my message.” It was originallymentioned in Bengali language, but it has been frequently quoted andrightly so, because Gandhian thought cannot be understood clearlyunless one tries to understand his entire life. Once again, we arereminded of Gandhi’s phrase about the story of his life when he gavethe caption to his autobiography as, “The Story of My Experiments withTruth.”As one tries to understand Gandhi, the central theme of all that heattempted in his life was to reconstruct the society on spiritualfoundations. Life has to be value-based and he from his own search fortruth and action in different forms and different fields came upon theuniversal values of life. Prof. Gangrade in this article has chosendifferent incidents of Gandhiji’s life which emphasize the essentialvalues which should govern the life of an individual and society. Prof.Gangrade has also pointed out the impact of Gandhi’s life and Gandhianthought that is noticed in different parts of the world, particularly onleading personalities of the world. This description not only informs,but provokes thinking on the part of the present day generation of ourcountry.A highly commendable writing. We strongly urge our readers to read itwith due attention and respect.