Redefine `swaraj,’ says philosopher

He argued that it was incorrect to look at Gandhi’s “Hind-Swaraj” in East-West terms or a plea to give up materialism of the west and go back to the idealism/spirituality of India. Stressing that the widening rift between the Hindu and Muslim communities merits serious attention, Palshikar pointed out the division of the Hindu community into the Vedic versus the anti-vedic, the Brahmanical versus the anti-brahmanical, the Shetji-Bhatji versus the Shudra-ati-shudra, threatened to destroy us a people.

While the challenge has become far more complex today, there was a need to assimilate Islam on the one hand and Adivasis on the other hand, Palshikar exhorted further adding that we had no choice left but to raise ourselves enough to be able to resolve the conflict creatively.

The three-day seminar will focus on the three broad areas of Swaraj – a conceptual inquiry, Swaraj in culture, arts and literature and Swaraj in the social, political and economic sphere.