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Arun Gandhi:
"Non-Violence or Non-Existence Options for the 21st Century"
 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.
Arun's father, Manilal, spent over fourteen years in prisons as he was
repeatedly jailed for his efforts to change South African apartheid
nonviolently. Arun's mother, Sushila, spent fifty-four years at Gandhi's
ashram, Phoenix, outside Durban. After the deaths of Gandhiji and Manilal,
Sushila was the ashram's driving force. She greatly lamented the ashram's
physical destruction in 1985 although she asserted the indestructibility of
the spirit that had created and sustained the community for over eighty
years.
At
twenty-three Arun returned to India and worked as journalist and reporter for
The Times of India. He, his wife Sunanda, and several colleagues started the
successful economic initiative, India's Center for Social unity, whose mission
is to alleviate poverty and caste discrimination. The Center's success has now
spread to over 300 villages, improving the lives of more than 500,000 rural
Indians.
Having
written eight books and hundreds of articles, Dr. Gandhi is an accomplished
author and journalist. He published the Suburban Echo, a weekly, in Bombay
from 1985 through 1987. Recently Arun envisioned and edited World Without
Violence: Can Gandhi's Dream Become Reality?, a collection of essays and
poetry from noted international scientists, artists, and political and social
leaders on the ideals of nonviolence. This popular volume was published in
October 1994 for the celebration of the 125th anniversary of Gandhiji's birth.
Arun and
Sunanda came to the United States in 1987 to compare race issues in the
American South, color discrimination in South Africa, and the caste system in
India. 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 organizations, Arun and the Institute staff are active in
community, educational, corporate, and prison programs, workshops, and
conferences.
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