Public Lecture

The Relevance of Gandhi for Our Fractured World

Date: October 19, 2019
Time: 10:30am to 12:15pm
Location: Cal Poly Pomona, Bronco Student Center, Ursa Major Room

In his public talk, David Thomas will examine Mahatma Gandhi's relevance to some of the vexing issues of our times including poverty, inequality, divisions, intolerance, violence and greed.

Event Flyer

David Thomas

DAVID BARUN KUMAR THOMAS is a Gandhian scholar, an activist, an author and a social entrepreneur based in Kodaikanal in Tamil Nadu, India. He studied engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur and history at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi.

His publications include a novel Rear Entrance about the lives of four Indians in Brussels and their desperate attempts to obtain visas to enter the United Kingdom (Hachette India, 2010).

After working in the Information Technology industry in Europe and India for more than two decades, David dedicated himself to the development & empowerment of women through his organization, India Nirman Sangh (INS). The INS currently serve more than 6000 women in some of India’s poorest villages in Palani hills and work with farmers to improve methods for cultivating crops in the area. The INS received the best NGO award from the Government of Tamil Nadu.

For his work in rural development, David was awarded a Distinguished Alumnus Award by IIT, Kanpur. Through this work he rediscovered the significance of Mahatma Gandhi’s thought leading to his establishment of a Gandhi Centre for Values in Vadakavunchi, near Kodaikanal in 2016.