Ahmedabad: Union Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah on Thursday said Mahatma Gandhi’s message remained relevant to contemporary society and would not become outdated, urging students graduating from Gujarat Vidyapith to keep Mahatma’s principles in mind throughout their lives.
Addressing the 72nd convocation of Gujarat Vidyapith in Ahmedabad, Shah said Gandhi’s message was rooted in the Indian way of life, Indian values and the country’s knowledge tradition.
“Gandhi ji’s message was as relevant then as it is today, and it will remain equally relevant even after 100 years. It will never become irrelevant,” he said.
Shah referred to a statement displayed at the Vidyapith in which Gandhi said he had not said anything new but had conveyed what he had heard for centuries.
“Gandhi’s ideas had not come from outside but were rooted in India’s own traditions and were therefore enduring,” he said.
He also recalled Gujarat Vidyapith’s origins. Founded by Gandhi on October 18, 1920, the institution was envisioned as a model for Indian education after independence.
“Gandhi believed freedom would remain incomplete unless India’s language, culture, labour and purpose were rooted in the nation,” he said.
He recalled Gandhi’s travels across India after returning from abroad and his observation of the country’s diversity in languages, dialects, dress, food and religions, alongside an underlying unity.
“Gujarat Vidyapith became a laboratory for experimenting with the Indian understanding of education,” he emphasised. Shah said the institution’s approach treated the field, handicraft workshop, village assembly and society as classrooms.
He described education as requiring coordination between the “hand, heart and mind”, saying it should provide skills to the hands, sensitivity to the heart and knowledge accompanied by wisdom to the mind.
“A mind filled only with knowledge creates arrogance. A mind that possesses both knowledge and wisdom produces both humility and scholarship,” he noted.
He urged students to remember Gandhi’s seven social sins: politics without principles, business without morality, wealth without labour, knowledge without wisdom, indulgence without restraint, knowledge without character, and science without humanity.
He also identified worship without sacrifice as another failing. Shah said young people should remain conscious of these principles even though nobody could claim never to fall short.
“If we remain conscious of them, we will certainly hesitate and stop ourselves before committing them,” he said, adding that where circumstances forced a person into wrongdoing, repentance should follow.
He also recalled Gandhi’s 11 vows — truth, non-violence, non-stealing, celibacy, non-possession, physical labour, control of the palate, fearlessness, equal respect for all religions, Swadeshi and removal of untouchability — and said they remained relevant.
Shah also spoke of Gandhi’s emphasis on khadi, describing it not simply as an economic activity but as a way of caring for fellow citizens through everyday actions.
“Khadi and village industries turnover had risen from Rs 31,000 crore in 2013-14 to Rs 1.87 lakh crore in 2025-26,” he said.
He also cited Gandhi’s emphasis on cleanliness and one’s own language, saying learning other languages was welcome. Still, people should not feel inferior for speaking their mother tongue because language connects people with their culture, history and roots.
“Gandhi had also stressed Gram Swaraj, village prosperity and cooperation, principles… the graduates must remember as they entered public and social life,” he added.
(IANS)
