Guwahati: The Gandhian concept of self-production and consumption to fulfil needs and not greed is relevant to check the growing threat to the Northeast's age-old culture of self-dependence, IIM Shillong's associate professor Sanjeeb Kakoty said on Wednesday.

"Gandhiji realised that in order to fight the British, we had to hit their economy. So he motivated people to grow their own food and weave their own clothes in looms in every household. The Northeast has a culture where consumers still depend on rice and vegetables grown in their fields and clothes woven in their looms. But this culture is disappearing due to our fast-growing attraction to consumerism. Young boys are now moving out of the region in search of money to fulfil their growing demand and in the process the culture of self-sufficiency is affected. We are now dependent on markets for even vegetables which we have traditionally grown in our backyards," Kakoty said while delivering a lecture on Relevance of Mahatma Gandhi in Northeast India in the Present Scenario at the Kasturba Gandhi Ashram at Sarania here.

Mahatma Gandhi had visited the ashram during the freedom struggle. The lecture, which was attended by nearly 200 people, was organised by Gandhi: 150 years Celebration Committee, Assam.

Kakoty said improper distribution of resources and threat to local language and culture were the two biggest challenges confronting the Northeast. He said although militancy is down, it must be kept in mind that youths in the region took up arms mainly to counter the threat to indigenous culture and the unequal distribution of natural resources. "So we must inculcate the philosophy of Gandhian economics among our young generation in a modern way to protect our culture of self-sufficiency," Kakoty, a professor of history, a filmmaker and a practitioner of Gandhian philosophy, added.

Two Padma Shri awardees and Gandhians, Natwar Thakkar and his wife Lentina Ao Thakkar, said Gandhian philosophy was relevant to address the problems in the Northeast.