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Talking peace at school
IT TAKES some innovative strategies today to propagate the Mahatma's message.
The Navajivan Trust, founded by Gandhiji, out of a publishing house he took over in 1919 to publish two magazines, Navjivan and Young India, continues with its programme of spreading the message of the "Apostle of peace".
In the run-up to Gandhi Jayanthi, the Trust and the Gandhi Peace Foundation, Chennai, have teamed up to reach out to more people. Their programme started on Monday, when the Tamil edition of "the selected works of Mahatma Gandhi (in five volumes, Tamil) was released by former President, R. Venkataraman. Alongside a campaign of "door to door" sale of Gandhi's autobiography is on.
The sales pitch has been yielding results. In the past few weeks, the GPF has been able to sell 3,000 copies of Gandhi's autobiography "My experiments with Truth" (Sathiya Sothanai in Tamil). Available in a compact edition in Tamil and English, the Navajivan Trust's publication costs just Rs. 20.
The GPF's secretary, S. Kulandhaiswamy, says the Foundation's idea is to sell a maximum number of copies of the work among the public, using school and college students. In the bargain, the students get introduced to Gandhiji's life, works and message, through an hour-long programme, in the form of skits and a variety programme.
During Monday's programme (for releasing the selected works), the Foundation adopted its by now familiar programme, involving students from a selected school. On this occasion, the students of the P.S. group of schools participated. After the function, a 100-plus strong group of students were given two copies each of the autobiography, for sale in the local area (Mylapore). Mr. Kulandhaiswamy said it was surprising to him that over 200 copies were sold within an hour, though the students had some varied experiences, with different persons giving different reactions. Many were surprised at young children selling Gandhi's autobiography on a weekday afternoon.
"It was a refreshing experience, and our faith in Gandhi and our work to spread his message of peace and harmony got a boost," he says.
A foreign tourist bought an English edition, and an aged freedom fighter did the same. A local resident, to gauge their knowledge of Gandhi's life, before buying a copy, quizzed another group of students. Mr. Kulandhaiswamy says for every 10 copies sold, a student gets a copy, or later a commission of Rs. 2, which he hopes will act as an incentive. The other day, to his surprise, dozens of students of the Guru Nanak college clamoured for a copy each, while the GPF unit, which went to spread its "Youth for Peace project" had only a few. "We had to send the college a consignment of copies later".
On Gandhi Jayanthi day, the students and teachers of the Corporation High School, Veeraperumal Koil Street, Mylapore, with the school band in tow "will go on a door-to-door selling campaign" for the book. The next day, it would be the turn of the KBS Gurukulam, Kolathur to do the same. On October 4, the Vel's matriculation school would take the campaign to Pallavaram.
Today's programme had another impact. Over 30 persons signed up to buy the five volume "selected works" series, which costs Rs.200 for the set. The first three volumes of Gandhi's books, the fourth and fifth volumes incorporate his letters, essays and extracts from his speeches, all edited by La.Su. Rengarajan.
The Union Information and Broadcasting Ministry's publications division has, meanwhile, announced a Gandhi Jayanthi book exhibition from October 1 to 12 at Rajaji Bhavan showroom. On display and sale will be publications on art, culture, history, biography, speeches of leaders, Gandhian literature and children's books. A special attraction will be the sale of the full set of Collected Works of Gandhi, comprising 100 volumes and a free CD. This full set is being sold at a concessional price.
By Ramachandran K.
Graphics by Varghese Kallada
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Life
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Madurai
Thiruvananthapuram
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