The Myanmar leader, who is on a five-day state visit to India, chose to visit here alma mater on the third day.

'I feel myself partly a citizen of India', said Suu Kyi while being felicitated at the Lady Shri Ram College, here on Friday.

Addressing students and teachers at her alma mater she said that her visit to the college feels like home coming.

The Chairperson of the National League for Democracy of Myanmar also reminisced her formative years in the institution, where she learnt the first lessons of democracy.

Talking about her vision for a democratic Myanmar, Suu kyi said that her country needs India's help in its progression towards democracy.

Suu Kyi had her education in India when her mother was Burma’s envoy to India. She had her schooling at the Convent of Jesus and Mary and later joined the Shri Ram College from where she got a degree in Political Science.

After her marriage, she accompanied her husband Michael Aris in frequent visits to India as he had undertaken a work on Himalayan studies. Her last sojourn in India was spent as a research fellow in the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies in Shimla in 1987-88.

For higher education, she moved to St. Hugh's College, Oxford University.

Thereafter she became proactive democracy movement in her country and was placed under house arrest in 1989 and subsequently lodged in prison for a brief period in 2003 by the all-powerful military junta. In all she was in detention for about 23 years.

'I always knew I would come back to this hall where I had learned to sing one of Gandhi's favourite songs - 'Raghupati Raghava Raja Ram'. I feel myself partly a citizen of India,' she said.

Describing her alma mater, the Nobel Laureate said : 'Coming back to Lady Shri Ram College is not just coming back home, it is coming back to a place where I know my aspirations have not been wrong. I have learnt that my faith in the oneness of human aspirations is justified. I'm coming to a place where I can feel that my hopes have not been in vain.'

She admits being influenced by the ideas of Mahatma Gandhi and India’s first Prime Minister Pt Jawahar Lal Nehru and also by Buddhists thoughts. She also admires Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. But she says that her struggle for restoration of democracy in her country is rooted in the principle of non-violence of Mahatma Gandhi.

'Principles must always exist in politics. Unprincipled politics is the most dangerous thing in the world. If you compromise on your principles, I think you'd better stop engaging in politics,' she said.

Suu Kyi is scheduled to visit Bengaluru on Saturday where she will visit the Indian Institute of Science and the Infosys campus. She will also visit rural areas in Andhra Pradesh to gain a first-hand impression of rural development and women’s empowerment programmes being undertaken in India. Her’s six-day visit to India ends Sunday.