Webinar on
'Corona Virus Pandemic: Looking through the Lens of Gandhi'
June 26, (Friday) from (IST) 10:00 a.m. to 13:30 p.m. (GMT+5.30 hours)
through an appropriate platform such as Google meet/ Cisco Webex/ Zoom.
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was the nonviolent political mover and shaker who freed the greatest colony from the greatest empire in history, inscribing his key place in the history of anti‐imperialism. He was more than just an anti‐imperialist and the father of the nation of the largest parliamentary democracy. In addition to his role in the nonviolent struggle, Gandhi made significant contributions in the field of development and welfare. Health and hygiene was one such sector. Gandhi looked at many minute aspects of health and contributed extensively on the theme.
Mark Lindley, a distinguished ecological economist, Gandhi scholar and a Visiting Research Fellow at the Gandhi Research Foundation identified the unique interests of Gandhi in regard to health, nutrition, hygiene and health care. In one of his essays on Gandhi, he mentioned that ‘Gandhi’s interest in health, hygiene, nutrition and health care was just as great as his interest in politics’ (Lindley, 2018). He even went to the extent of commenting that Gandhi’s concerns with regard to health and health care ‘harmonise with expert 21st century medical views’.
Gandhi viewed that avoiding disease is far superior than getting and curing it. Hence, he advocated that ‘it is important to be clean, control your diet, get substantial daily exercise and not take more medicines than you really need’. Plagues and pandemics also occurred during his time. He was seized of the matter as his writings suggest. He was a survivor of the spanish flu, which hit his family and close friends.
In this context, a National Webinar on ‘Novel Corona Virus-19: Looking through the Lens of Gandhi is organized by the Mahatma Gandhi Chair on Decentralisation and Sustainable Development, Centre for Rural Management (CRM), Kottayam, Kerala on 26 June 2020 (Friday) from (IST) 10:00 a.m. to 13:30 p.m (GMT+5.30 hours) through an appropriate platform such as Google mate/ Cisco Webex/ Zoom.
The National Webinar will provide a platform for the practitioners, academicians, experts, social researchers, scholars and other stakeholders from different parts of the country to share their views and experiences on Gandhi and Health-related sectors. The deliberations will enable the stakeholders to analyse the food patterns, personal hygiene, community hygiene, social relations, etc. in addition to life styles. It is hoped that such public discourses will have itheir ripple effects on health reform policies and practices in the country.
For more information, please contact:
Dr. Jos Chathukulam
Director, Centre for Rural Management
Mob. +91-8086093363 | E-mail: joschathukulam@gmail.com or crmkerala@gmail.com
