In today s India, Gandhi is but a distant memory.

Gandhi s principles can never be i mplemented today when those who try to apply Gandhi s ideas are scoffed at and dis couraged by people who are supposed to augment improvement. Apathy and corruptio n have grown like silent epidemics. No matter how much we talk about the patheti c state of the country today, deep down we know that it ll take more than eloquent speeches to recreate an India Gandhi would be proud of. Now, lets see a very simple yet convincing side of the story. Today we can t survi ve without having a defence back up for ourselves. In the times when terrorism i s at its barbaric best, a nation can t simply sit back and watch its people being killed. Here lies our first challenge to the principle of Ahimsa. Shall we keep quiet and let the others kill innocent people just because we believe in Ahimsa? The ern ing nds next philosophy, truth also might seem to have lost its grounds in today s mod context. One cannot stand for truth alone when the entire world around is be selfish. In the reigning world of diplomacy and bureaucracy, the one who sta for truth and only truth is destined to lose.

Satyagraha, another philosophy from the Gandhian platter asks us to revolt silen tly. To protest without being loud, to deny without being violent and to stand f or yourself. In modern context,when the nation is infested with underworld dons, and even the police and judicial department are under the scanners of corrupt p oliticians and big shots, how many silent protests can be assured of being heard ? There are wars and oppressed people all over the world but can Gandhi s ideas be p ractised as they were then and still produce results? I have to say, I have my doubts. Do the oppressors of today spend sleepless nights thinking of the destr uction they have caused? Somehow, I think not. After all, some seem to think wha t they are doing will make them martyrs. One of Gandhi s main methods was non-cooperation with unjust activities, but how a re people meant to not co-operate when their homes and places of work are being carpet bombed by neighbouring countries? How can methods of appealing to the bet ter nature in the oppressors work when the killer is sitting a control room thou sands of miles away from the defenceless innocent people that they are killing? War has become something so abstract that the killers don t see the persons whose lives they are ending. It has become something almost like a terrible macabre g ame. And it is almost impossible to feel anything about ending those lives let a lone guilt when all you are doing is launching a bomb or a missile by pressing j ust one little button. globalisation and the alienating homogeneity that it must inevitably promote ,i s the very opposite of the localism and the celebration of diversity that gandhi 's swadeshi was meant to encourage. Gandhi was quite radical in urging equality .He believed in having equal wages a nd bread labour for all.We seem to have given up not just the ideal of equality but even the quest for equity in the distribution of the rewards and burdens of our society. Mahatma belonged to a bygone era and his ideas have become obsolete.

ARGUMNETS AANCHAL - In the recent years we saw some of the best examples of non-violent wa ys of solving conflicts within nations and between nations eg. poland,the czecho

slovakia republic,the baltic states ,the phillipines and several other countries . PARUL- Palestine and israiel although do respect gandhi as an important person , to date they are not they are not prepared to adopt gandhian techniques and teac hings of non- violence. AANCHAL- JESSICA LAL PARUL- On the other hand strike called by medical students went awry and resulte d in a void