Contact: Maridith Geuder
Continuing his grandfather's legacy of nonviolence and conflict resolution, the director of the M. K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence will speak April 17 at Mississippi State University.
Arun Gandhi, grandson of Indian activist Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948), will present a 7 p.m. public lecture in the Colvard Union Ballroom. Mahatma is an honorary title meaning "Great Soul" in Hindi, the language of India.
Titled "Lessons Learned from Grandfather," the presentation will focus on the principles advocated by one of the world's most famous spiritual leaders and proponents of passive resistance to injustice.
The free event is sponsored by MSU's Campus Activities Board.
The center the younger Gandhi heads at Christian Brothers University in Memphis, Tenn., teaches the philosophy and practice of nonviolence to promote personal and societal peace.
Born in 1934 in Durban, South Africa, Arun Gandhi is the fifth grandson of Mahatma Gandhi. In 1946, his parents took him to India to live with his grandfather to benefit from his philosophy and lifestyle. Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated in 1948.
Arun subsequently became a journalist, working for the Times of India and a Bombay weekly newspaper, the Suburban Echo. With his wife Sunanda and several colleagues, he formed India's Center for Social Unity, with a goal of eliminating poverty and caste discrimination.
Arun and Sunanda emigrated to the United States in 1987 to research issues of race in the American South, color discrimination in South Africa, and the caste system in India. They jointly founded the Gandhi Institute in 1991 and are active in educational, corporate and prison programs, as well as workshops and conferences.
Arun is the author of eight books and hundreds of journal articles and a 1994 collection of essays on the 125th anniversary of his grandfather's birth.
For more information about the Mississippi State lecture, telephone the Campus Activities Board office at 662-325-2930.