Gandhi Centre aims for 'village Swaraj' in Lanka

T V Sriram

Colombo, Oct 1 (PTI) Vowing to invigorate its community
initiatives for fostering ethnic harmony, the Mahatma Gandhi
Centre in Sri Lanka plans to double its efforts to empower the
rural people through "village Swaraj."

"The Mahatma Gandhi centre is convinced that the
Gandhian philosophy of Rural Democracy is more relevant
Wednesday than ever before, and therefore, it is pursuing an
active programme of supporting community initiatives and
people’s participation as measures for empowering people and
fostering inter-ethnic harmony," it said.

In its observation on the eve of Mahatma Gandhi’s
birth anniversary (Oct 2), the institute said change can occur
only by adopting village Swaraj that stands for the welfare of
all, the centre said.

What was required was "a functioning democracy based
on human dignity guided by truth and non-violence," the centre
said in a release.

The centre observed that many countries in South Asia
continue to live in abject poverty, hunger and ignorance.
"Development policies tragically are focused to catch up with
the developed nations, and a class of super rich has been
created in those (South Asian) countries including Sri Lanka
while the gap between them and the poor has increased by many
folds," it said.

"Although some countries have demonstrated a level of
imperfect electoral democracy, none of them has true democracy
in which all people can be confident of equity and justice,
and can pursue life-goals without fear of deception and
discrimination," the centre said.

The centre said it was important to recognise any
potential threat, which can cause societal disintegration and
formulate a new system of governance that is home grown and
relevant to ground conditions to avoid the prospect of the
impending disaster.

"The Mahatma Gandhi Centre, Sri Lanka, is convinced
that realistic change to the present gloomy situation in this
country and also to the imminent social problems in other
South Asian countries can only come when people, especially
those who are numerically in the minority or remain outcast
from the main stream majority, regain trust and confidence
that they too have equal rights and opportunities," the
release said.

The centre recalled that the UN has declared 2nd of
October 2008, which marks the commemoration of Mahatma
Gandhi’s birthday, as the International day of Non-violence.

The Mahatma Gandhi Centre said it will commemorate the
Gandhi’s birthday on the 2nd October at Swarajyapura (near
Colombo) and remind his message of peace and non-violence for
humanity through embracing rural democracy.