NEW DELHI, INDIA, November 4, 2005: An increasing number of universities and colleges in the US are starting courses on Gandhian thought. About 50 universities and colleges in the US have launched courses in Gandhism in the last few years says Savita Singh, director of Gandhi Smriti and Darshan Samiti here. “The West has reached an extreme stage of development, progress and over-indulgence. Now they are trying to back to simplicity. In this mission, they are looking for the route in Gandhism,” she says. Among the leading institutions in America, University of West Virginia, University of Hawaii, George Mason University and many more have started courses. Gandhi’s philosophy of peace and nonviolence and “treat thy neighbor as thyself” is the focus of the courses offered in these universities, states this article. Singh says that the Harvard School of Business Management has recognized Gandhi as the ‘Management Guru’ of the 20th century. “Gandhi was all along a popular figure among the people in the West. He was a product of the West, who later got disillusioned with the West’s culture, which tended to discriminate people on the basis of color,” she says. In India also, the Father of the Nation has made himself into the curricula in sprawling university campuses. The University Grants Commission (UGC) has approved the Gandhian study centers in 14 universities during the 9th plan period from 1997 and 2002. These centers are getting special grants from the UGC for the courses.
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