In 1955, All India Radio introduced a programme of lectures in memory of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. Apart from the great role he played in India’s freedom movement, Sardar Patel was free India’s first Minister of Information and Broadcasting.
An annual feature, the Patel Memorial Lectures are designed to contribute to the existing knowledge on a given subject and to promote awareness of contemporary problems. They have now become almost a national institution and are looked upon as among the highly values intellectual contributions to Indian life and thought.
Each year, an eminent person, who has specialized in a particular branch of knowledge, is invited to present through All India Radio, the results of his study and experience for the larger benefit of the public.
The two lectures in the present series were delivered by Dr. J.D. Sethi. He was a Reader in Economics at the Delhi School of Economics, before taking over as Director of Studies in the Indian Council of World Affairs. He was a member of the Indian Delegation to the United Nations General Assembly and also a member of the Working Group on autonomy for All India Radio and Doordarshan set-up by the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. Dr. Sethi has published a large number of articles and research papers on diverse subjects ranging from economic development, foreign policy and political systems to Gandhian Thought, and area of special interest and study for him.
In his two lectures, Dr. Sethi has understood the fact that Gandhiji’s dynamic concept and values would find universal acceptance with the world increasingly caught in a crisis of values.