A lecture on ‘Social Harmony’ was delivered by Shri Dipankar Shri Gyan, Director, Gandhi Smriti and Darshan Samiti, Ministry of Culture, Government of India, on 26.09.2019 at NIC Hqrs., New Delhi. It was organized in continuation of events for the Commemoration of 150th Birth Anniversary, launched by DG NIC in July this year. The event was broadcast over NIC Video Conferencing services and was attended by officers up to District level. It was also available through NIC webcast services.

In his lecture, Shri Dipankar Shri Gyan talked about communal harmony and said that it does not mean harmony between two religions. He spoke briefly on Gandhi Ji’s thoughts on communal harmony. He explained, Gandhi Ji believed that all countrymen are children of one mother, however they can be diversified on different factors such as religion, economic conditions, political commitments, cast or color etc., These separate thought process gives birth to three negativities, i.e., Fear, Suspicion and Hatred, and these things work against the communal harmony.

Gandhi Ji started his first experiment on communal harmony in South Africa, where he worked on uniting religions of Indian community and bringing them together to fight against racial discrimination, which was a common practice there. Shri Gyan further talked about Gandhi Ji’s deep understanding of all religions, where he identified that the basis of all religions is only one thing, which is ‘Truth’. Shri Gyan further highlighted different incidents of Gandhi Ji’s life and his different ways of bring communal harmony in the Indian society through various movements including Champaran, first movement where he brought together women as well.

The event was concluded with vote of thanks by DDG NIC Shri Inder Pal Singh Sethi.