Abstract
The current agrarian crisis in India makes it necessary to question the prevailing development model and search for alternatives. One such alternative paradigm that has influenced various people's struggles for sustainable development is the Gandhian model. Encoded in it is the idea of village self-sufficiency through economic decentralisation and cooperation in the socio-political life of the community. This paper does not discuss the ideological complexity or strategies adopted by institutions/movements influenced by Gandhian thought in their rural development work. It seeks to delineate the different directions in which Gandhian experiments have evolved in post-colonial India through the lives and works of two Gandhian women. Although born in different generations, both these women lay claim to the Gandhian legacy. The first is Purnima Pakvasa, a freedom fighter who works for the education of tribal women in Dang district of Gujarat; and the second is Vibha Gupta, who, having inherited the Gandhian legacy from her parents, struggles to take science to the village in Wardha, Maharashtra.
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