Historians overlooked Kasturba's influence on Gandhi: DU VC

New Delhi, Oct 14: Delhi University Vice Chancellor Dinesh Singh today said historians have for no reasons overlooked the influence of Mahatma Gandhi's wife Kasturba on him.

"While Gandhiji said that he learned non-violence from his wife, historians have for no reason ignored to pay attention to this fact.

In Gandhi's life, women played an important role," Singh said while addressing students at the varsity's Gandhi Bhavan on the occasion of completion of 100 years of Mahatma Gandhi's return from South Africa. While underlining Gandhi's liberal vision, Singh said he wants the youth of India to follow the lessons of Gandhi's liberal nature.

"Whenever Gandhiji's ally Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan would visit him, he was served non-vegetarian food because of which people questioned him for why he would let this happen while he was a strict vegetarian himself. Gandhiji would calmly say that it's Khan's choice to eat it and mine not to. This was liberalism. Let nobel thoughts come in all directions to take this country ahead.

I want the youth of India to understand and follow him," he said. Responding to a question on growing incidents of communal intolerance in the country, Singh said Gandhi is the best example for our country to follow.

"Gandhi never discriminated with anyone. In Lucknow, a student named Ganesh Shankar died over the cause of communal harmony and Gandhi expressed his wish to die for such a cause... this explains a lot," he said.

Singh was speaking at a lecture "Gandhiji and Satya", organised by Gandhi Bhawan, the centre at the university dedicated to the study of the words and works of Gandhi. Stressing that the students should do in-depth reading to understand Gandhi completely, he recalled his interaction with the students through his term which made him feel that very less was known about Gandhi by the young minds.

"I believe, students read about him now and then but in order to be able to make the journey of his life a motivation, not many know about him in detail. Youth must ponder that there must be something extraordinary that he is called Father of the Nation. Gandhi is looked up to by the people across the world. There is a lot to learn from him," he said.

PTI