THE message of inspirational human rights campaigner Mahatma Gandhi is still relevant today, according to two high-profile academics who travelled from India to Bolton to speak about the man — on the 145th anniversary of the great political and spiritual leader’ birth.

Gandhi visited the area 83 years ago and, on Thursday, two lectures were delivered at the University of Bolton by academics from Jain University, Bangalore.

Professor Sandeep Shastri, Pro Vice-Chancellor and Professor of Political Science, said: “We wanted to communicate to our audience that Gandhi’s message is still relevant today and has meaning for us all.”

Gandhi, who led the Indian campaign for independence from Great Britain, visited Edgworth in 1931 after an invitation from the mill-owning family Davies family, who wanted to see the hardship inflicted by the movement’s boycott of British goods.

He had been in the country for a conference on India’s future.

Professor Shastri said: “Of course when Gandhi came to Bolton and entered quite intense negotiations over India’s boycott of British goods, he held firm.

“Although his stand was causing hardship for the textile workers, he was greeted warmly, which examples another of his teachings ‘blame the act, not the actor’.”