The Indian Institute of Advanced Study (IIAS), Shimla, and the Gandhi Research Foundation (GRF), Jalgaon, are jointly convening a two-day international seminar to assess and reinvent Gandhian solutions to contemporary problems confronting India and the world. It is hoped that, with discursive inputs from a select group of eminent scholars and public intellectuals, this event, commemorating Mahatma Gandhi’s 150th birth anniversary, will set the stage for highlighting how Gandhi matters today.

We have formulated some relevant themes that are to be discussed in six sessions, for which we shall request individual papers from the selected group of participants. We intend to have four papers per session dealing with the following themes:

Session 1: Gandhi’s Historical Contribution: Debates and Controversies
Session 2: Gandhi’s Swaraj and its Relevance Today
Session 3: Gandhian Economics and Ecological Sustainability
Session 4: Gandhi’s Sarvadharma Samabhava: A Viable Solution for India and the World?
Session 5: The Scope of Satyagraha in the 21st Century
Session 6: Gandhi, Science, and Modernity: An Ambivalent Relationship?