‘Nagaland’s Gandhi’ family felicitated at Hornbill Festival

Kohima: Commemorating the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, Nagaland chief minister Neiphiu Rio inaugurated a multi-media exhibition at the Hornbill Festival in Naga Heritage Village, Kisama on Sunday. The family of Natwar Thakkar, who is popularly known as ‘Nagaland’s Gandhi’, was felicitated during the short inaugural ceremony.

Organised by the Bureau of Outreach & Communication, Ministry of information & Broadcasting, the ten-day-long exhibition aims to present Gandhian values and principles through contemporary idioms.

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In a separate photo gallery, photographs of eminent Gandhian Natwar Thakkar were displayed. Thakkar, who was born in Maharashtra in 1932, made Nagaland his home and founded the Nagaland Gandhi Ashram at Chuchuyimlang village in Mokokchung district in 1955 to propagate peace and Gandhian philosophy.

Thakkar worked tirelessly for the poor, especially the people affected with disability, and his works included vocational training for social dropouts, physically handicapped, primary schools, medical centres and libraries.

Thakkar helped people earn a livelihood by engaging them in agriculture and jaggery. He also set up oil mills, bio-gas plants, mechanised carpentry shops and khadi sales counters. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1999.

The exhibition, located at the World War II museum campus in Kisama, was inaugurated an hour before the opening of Hornbill Festival.