Gandhi’s grandson to share thoughts on peace

To the world, Mohandas K. Gandhi is one of the most important proponents of peace in human history.

To Arun Gandhi, he is “Grandfather.”

“He was so highly revered; I would wake up in the morning and see hundreds of people silently waiting to get a glimpse of him.” Gandhi said of his time spent with his grandfather from 1945 to 1947. “To me, he was a very down-to-earth, very loving grandfather.

“In spite of all of the work that was coming to its culmination, he was able to take an hour or so to spend with me, teaching me lessons and telling me stories,” he continued. “In retrospect, I marvel at his capacity when today there are so many people who are so much less involved and still don’t find the time to do what they should be doing.”

Arun Gandhi, who with his wife, Sunanda, founded the M.K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence, will speak about his experiences and the important lessons he learned from his legendary grandfather during a program on September 20, at 7:30 p.m., in Temple University Ambler’s Bright Hall Lounge.

“What I’d like to talk about is nonviolence, the lessons that I learned from my parents and grandparents, and how individuals can apply that to the way they live,” Gandhi said.

Arun Gandhi’s own path to nonviolence was by no means easy. Growing up in apartheid South Africa as someone of Indian heritage meant facing extreme prejudice at every turn.

“Every step something reminded you of the color of your skin. You couldn’t enter buildings by the main door, there were park benches you couldn’t sit on,” he said. “And there were the physical aspects; being beaten up because you were a different color.”

As a 12-year-old, Gandhi had a natural response to such torment. Full of anger, he wanted to avenge his suffering. A visit to his grandfather, however, would change all of that.

“He showed me that violence was not going to help anyone at all, that other solutions have to be found,” he said. “We have to be able to channel our anger into something positive.”

Arun Gandhi’s visit came during a crucial period in the history of India and the life of Mahatma Gandhi.

“The war had just ended and India was about to become independent. Grandfather did not want to see the division between India and Pakistan,” he said. “On the one hand, he was seeing the fruition of nonviolence, on the other, the negation of that philosophy. The country was torn up by violence; so many people were uprooted. Grandfather was very distressed by this but he did not express it on the outside.”

Following in the footsteps of his iconic grandfather, Gandhi led successful projects for economic and social reform in India before coming to the United States in 1988 to complete research for a comparative study on racism.

“I had experienced color racism in South Africa and caste racism in India. I wanted to compare that to racism in America,” he said. “I think things are getting worse (in the United States) — this confrontationist attitude has gotten out of hand. From a legal sense it has gotten better, but I don’t think an actual change of heart has taken place.”

In 1991, Gandhi and his wife, Sunanda, founded the M.K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence, headquartered at Christian Brothers University in Memphis. The Institute’s mission is to “foster understanding of nonviolence and to put that philosophy to practical use through workshops, lectures, and community outreach programs.”

“What I wanted to do was take the message of nonviolence to as many people as possible,” Gandhi said. “Many people believe that as long as they are not fighting or beating someone they are practicing nonviolence. The philosophy of nonviolence is much more than that.

“We do a program at the institute called Faces in the Crowd where we use photos of real people from across the spectrum and people in the workshop are required to wear them as their own faces,” he explained. “They are asked to look in a mirror and develop an identity for that person. You’d be surprised at how many stereotypes come out.”

Gandhi said he hopes people will realize the “futility of violence that rules so much of our lives.”

“I want to share the experience that I had with Grandfather, which changed my life,” he said. “I hope it gets them to think about love, respect and understanding, rather than think about hate, prejudice, violence and war.”

For more information on Arun Gandhi’s upcoming lecture, call the Office of Student Life at 215-283-1424. — James Duffy, Ambler Public Relations