Gandhian teachings are relevant at any point of time: M Venkaiah Naidu

Gandhian teachings are relevant at any point of time and need to be followed especially in the view of growing westernisation of our culture and conflicts in public life, Union minister M Venkaiah Naidu said on Saturday. 

He was speaking after dedicating 100 volumes of the 'Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi', published in English by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, to the Sabarmati Ashram at a function here in the presence of several eminent Gandhian scholars.

"Mahatma Gandhi's teachings and preachings are immortal and relevant to any problem, conflict, challenge, not only for India but humanity as a whole", Naidu told the gathering.

"Teachings and preachings of Mahatma Gandhi should be followed, especially in the context of growing westernisation of our culture and conflicts in public life", he said.

The minister further said efforts would be taken to bring out the volumes of this work in other Indian languages in the coming days so that it reaches out to more number of people.

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"I feel happy and proud that the ministry (of information and broadcasting) has published collected works of Mahatma Gandhi in the centenary year celebration of Sabarmati Ashram. I personally feel Gandhiji's preachings are eternal in nature.

"The volumes will inspire the generations to come...in the coming time, we will try to publish the volumes in other Indian languages like Telugu, Tamil, and others. We will try to translate them in local languages so that more people are able to take benefit", he said.

The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi consist of his works as he spoke and wrote, beginning with the year 1884 till his assassination in 1948. The volumes were first published between 1956 and 1994.

They were subsequently converted into electronic version in 2015 as part of an MoU signed between the publications division and Gujarat Vidyapeeth, a deemed university set up by Mahatma Gandhi, in September 2011.

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They are hosted on Gandhi Heritage Portal, which is maintained by Sabarmati Ashram Preservation and Memorial Trust with the support of Union Ministry of Culture.

The publications division then began printing the 100 volumes of the collected works in English.