President Droupadi Murmu on Thursday prescribed Mahatma Gandhi's vision of social equality and unity for the country to become a modern and developed nation.

"People gave up caste barriers, especially with regard to food, during the Champaran Satyagraha. They cooked and ate together. This social equality and unity, inspired by Mahatma Gandhi 106 years ago, forced the British empire to bow down," the President said.

"The vision of social equality and unity as inspired by Mahatma Gandhi still remains relevant. It should serve as the foundation on which we shall realise the goal of becoming a developed nation in the modern times," she added.

She was speaking as the chief guest at the convocation of Mahatma Gandhi Central University at Motihari in East Champaran district of Bihar. Governor Rajendra Arlekar and chief minister Nitish Kumar were present on the occasion.

"I have been told that there are 55 per cent girls among the students who are present at the convocation and many who have topped are also girls. This is a good development. All of you must maintain the dignity of the medical profession."

Murmu, who is the first person from the schedule tribes to have been elected as the President of the country added that Gandhi used to encourage academic work focused on "janjatis" (tribes).

The President recalled Gandhi's close friendship with Verrier Elwin, a British-born ethnologist and anthropologist, who settled in India and devoted his life to supporting the national movement and studying the tribes of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra.