Sunday Times 2
Mahatma Gandhi Oration
View(s):Dr. Charika Marasinghe will deliver the Mahatma Gandhi Oration organised by Sri Lanka India Society at the Indian Cultural Centre, 16/2, Gregory’s Road, Colombo -7. at 5.30 p.m.
Mahatma Gandhi Jayanthi refers to the birthday of Mohandas Karam Chand Gandhi reverently known as the father of the “Indian Nation”. Gandhi and his concept of non violence had left such an indelible mark on the history of the world that the United Nation General Assembly adopted a resolution declaring that October 2nd be celebrated as the International Day of Non Violence.
Gandhi was born on October 2, 1869 in Gujarat and died on January 30, 1948 shot by Nathuram Godse.
The Sri lanka India Society will hold the Oration in memory of the “Great Man” on the October 7. The speaker will be Dr. Charika Marasinghe who holds a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) Honours degree from the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka, and is an Attorney-at-Law of the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka and a Solicitor of the United Kingdom. As a Commonwealth Scholar, she obtained a Master of Letters degree (M.Litt.) and a Doctor of Philosophy degree (D.Phil) in International Law from the University of Oxford, In a career spanning nearly 30 years, she served as a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Law of the University of Colombo for 17 years, as Deputy Chairperson and a member of the National Child Protection Authority.
Dr. Marasinghe has been a volunteer of Sarvodaya for more than three decades and co-founded the Sarvodaya Legal Services Movement 1985 and co-founded Sarvodaya ‘Ma Sevana’. She is responsible for the overall management of the Vishva Niketan Peace Centre and developing and implementing programmes, workshops and dialogues on inner peace and outer peace.
She was the co-recipient of the ‘Women and Engaged Buddhism Award’(2008) of the Buddhist Council of Midwest, USA, for conceiving a psycho-spiritual healing programme for Tsunami survivors, and the recipient of ‘An Outstanding Woman in Buddhism Award’ (2009) from Thailand, for exceptional development of wisdom and compassion in the protection of child rights.
Dr. Marasinghe will speak on “Re-Knitting the Torn Social Fabric of the communities Affected by the War – whose Responsibility?”. A Gandhian Perspective.