Kodaikanal Gandhi Prize: The Awards

The Kodaikanal Gandhi Prize: The Awards

Out of Print was in Kodaikanal at the end of February to participate in the award ceremony for the first edition of the Kodaikanal Gandhi Prize. The ceremony took place at the Kodaikanal International School. What a privilege it was to be on their campus with its charming architecture and glorious old trees and meet the many school children who had sent in their work for the prize.

The prize, that was initiated by Radha Kumar and instituted jointly by the Gandhi Peace Foundation, the Kodaikanal Fellowship Library and Out of Print, was open to school children in grades 10, 11 and 12 who had to submit either a written or multimedia presentation in English or Tamil on one or more of the following themes:

 

·      Are Gandhi's thoughts and actions relevant today? If yes, in which ways?  If not, why not?

·      Gandhi said non-violence is a weapon of the strong. Many say it is a weapon of the weak. What do you think, and why?

·      Gandhi’s philosophy of truth in practice led to India's motto, Satyameva Jayate. What meaning does it have in an era of fake news?

The students were provided with selected readings from Gandhiji’s Hind Swaraj and The Story of My Experiments with Truth and encouraged to engage in their own research as well.

There were close to 200 registrations and approximately 115 submissions.

The first prize was secured by Ishita Pandey from the Kodaikanal International School for her essay ‘Gandhiji’s Philosophies in Today’s World’

Two second prizes were awarded. Mansur Ali Jurabi of Bhavan School received a prize for his multimedia presentation and B. Archana of St. Xavier’s School for her essay in Tamil.

Out of Print is privileged to have the opportunity to publish the prize winners in English on the Out of Print blog.

The Prize-winning Works:

First Prize: Ishita Pandey, ‘Gandhiji’s Philosophies in Today’s World’, essay

Second Prize: Mansur Ali Jurabi, The Mahathma, multimedia presentation

Interviews:

In late October 2019, Out of Print had the opportunity to ask Radha Kumar who initiated the prize a few questions about her motivation behind setting it up. Here is the link to that conversation.

The Hindu, Tamil edition announces the prizewinners

The Hindu, English edition announces the prizewinners