Do you believe that if you transform yourself you can also become a source of happiness of impoverished people of the world? Common sense says that the millions (or billions) of the people of the world who need subsistence, education, empowerment, employment, dignity and security cannot be made happy simply by practicing yoga or living a truthful life. Even Buddha suggested that the hungry man needs bread before wisdom. On several occasions, Gandhi, a great preacher of truth and non-violence said that if the powerful are unwilling to change despite persuasion or give their due to poor laborers society may have to take recourse to legal mechanisms. In his Hind Swaraj he is dealing more with the critique of the Western institutions of education, industrialization and parliamentary democracy and searching for alternatives to them. Yet in the preface he said that the real Swaraj was only his long term goal. For the time being he was fighting for country’s independence and parliamentary democracy only. Why did he say so? Was he afraid of hurting the powerful sentiments as was Buddha? In the next lecture we will explore the meaning of institutional approach to social development or building of a better society.

In the next lecture we will explore the meaning of institutional approach to social development or building of a better society.