Chandigarsh (Bharat Sandesh) – The Department of Gandhian Studies celebrated Gandhi Jayanti on 2nd October, 2011 in the Gandhi Bhawan of Panjab University. In the morning the members of the Faculty, Research Scholars and the students of the Department started by cleaning the lawns of the Department and the Gandhi Bhawan by removing dirty polythene Bags, plastic cups and wrappers and papers. A Special Lecture on “Mahatma Gandhi: A Brilliant Student of Life” was also organized which was delivered by Dr. Rajkumar of Chitwant Ashram, Jagjit Nagar (H.P.). The Lecture was presided over by Shri Samir Mathur, Financial Commissioner (Home), Govt. of Haryana while speaking on the subject of Lecture, Dr. Rajkumar elaborated on various aspects of making Gandhi a brilliant student of life. He referred the significance of the first step of learning a bit of better every day as everyone is in the process of self-actualization and it depends upon the initiative to grow day by day. He expressed that in the process of self-actualization Gandhi took the best and left the dirt while learning and making experiments. A lot of questions were asked by the learned scholars and students from the largely attended audience and the speaker replied all the questions very well. In his presidential remarks, Shri Samir Mathur highlighted the qualities of Gandhi having, confidence, determination, courage and leadership to upgrade the quality of life to fight against injustice, exploitation and all kinds of discriminations. He explained this significant aspect of the Bapu with illustrations of the incidents of storm in the sea while going to South Africa by keeping the morale up of the occupants of the ship and similarly at Champaran while disobeying the law of the land. He stressed that Gandhi in real sense was one of the best students of life he has come-acrossed. The programme was started with Panjab University Anthem and Professor Manohar Lal Sharma, Chairman of the Department gave floral tributes to Father of the Nation and Former, Prime Minister of India, Late Shri Lal Bahadur Shashtri and also welcomed the chief-guests, invited guests and all present in the Gandhi Bhawan Auditorium. Besides, he introduced the speaker of the Day and the Chief Guest Mr. Samir Mathur.
The Award of the best Maali of the University instituted by Professor (Mrs.) Rashmi-Sudha Puri was given to Mr. Shyam Lal as adjudged by the University for the year 2011. A beautiful Poem on Gandhi was also recited by Anshul Sharma, a first Semester student of Gandhian Studies. Mr. Stanzin Dawa, U.G.C. (J.R.F.) in the Department proposed a formal vote of thanks. The function was well attended and among those who attended included Professor S.L. Malhotra, the founder-Chairman of the Department Dr. S.S. Goindi, Former Director Gandhi Smarak Bhawan, Professor Pam Rajput, Professor Ashvini Agrawal, Professor Sudhir Baweja, Professor Raj Pal Sharma, Dr. Amrik Singh Gill, Dr. Ashok Kumar , Professor A.D. Ahluwalia, Mrs. Ranbir Kaur Talib and many others.
