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Mahatma Gandhi, the father of India, knitted the Indian community into a strong political force to liberate India from British bondage. Grounded in India's rich culture and heritage, Gandhi's philosophies delineated the social, political, economic, moral and spiritual aspects of personal and social transformation. His mission was to reconstruct India through truth, love, tolerance, non-violence, freedom and peace. Even after 72 years of Indian independence, Gandhian thoughts remain essentially significant in the contemporary social milieu where the whole world strives hard to deal with phenomena of unequal growth and economic processes, modernisation and its consequences, structural and economic inequalities, social injustice, corruption, marginalisation, exclusion racial discrimination and enormous social problems. Gandhi's development and empowerment strategies were far ahead of his time. The constructive programme, an example of such kind, was based on a philosophical and moral approach put into a pragmatic framework spanning across different target populations. The constructive programme was an integrative public work to make India attain Poorna Swaraj (complete independence), self-reliance, self-sufficiency, equality and sustainability. Through his 18 constructive works, he unravelled the psychology of non-violence achieved through self-discipline and selfdetermination. The paper is a critique of Gandhi's constructive programme and the interpretation of authors' views on personal and social transformation. The paper links these thoughts to the present day context to re-examine the social transformation witnessed by India over the years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]