July 24,03: Arun Gandhi on Mahatma Gandhi & World Today
Grandson of Mahatma Gandhi discusses lessons learnt from his grandfather and how they apply to the world today including conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq.
MP3 audio for this speech is here in full and here in smaller files, or listen to the whole show.
Music from Album "Soul of Tibetan Chant"
Born in 1934 in Durban, South Africa, ARUN GANDHI is the fifth grandson of India's late spiritual leader, Mohandas Karamchand "Mahatma Gandhi". Growing up under South Africa's apartheid for someone of Eastern heritage was difficult, humiliating, and often dangerous. Enduring bigoted attacks from European-African youths for not being "White" and from Native Africans for not being "Black" served to increase the anger that Arun Gandhi bore as a young man. Hoping that time with his grandfather would help the twelve-year-old Arun control his rage and deal with prejudice through nonviolent means, his parents took him to India to live with The Mahatma" (or "great soul") in 1946.
Arun's stay with his grandfather coincided with the most tumultuous period in India's struggle to free itself from British rule. His grandfather showed Arun firsthand the effects of a national campaign for liberation carried out through both violent and nonviolent means. For eighteen months, while Gandhi imparted lessons to his grandson, the young man was also witnessing world history unfold before his eyes: this combination set Arun on a course for life. His journey was strengthened by the resolve of his parents Sushila and Manilal, Gandhi's second son, to raise their children according to the principles of nonviolence--including loving discipline (not punishment) shared by child and parent, and lifelong commitment to social progress through nonviolence.
Having written eight books and hundreds of articles, Dr. Gandhi is an accomplished author and journalist. In October of 1991 the Gandhis founded the M. K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence. Its mission is to examine, promote, and apply the principles of nonviolence thought and action through research, workshops, seminars, and community service. The Institute is located at Christian Brothers University in Memphis, Tennessee, where Arun is also a scholar-in-residence. In addition to lecturing worldwide at collages and institutes and addressing community and professional orgqanizations, Arun and the Institute staff are active in community, educational, corporate, and prison programs, workshops, and conferences.
More Information on Arun Gandhi and M. K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence can be found at
http://www.gandhiinstitute.org/biographies.html
