Lessons from My Grandfather

Audience: Primary Years Programme
Audience: Middle Years Programme
Audience: Diploma Programme
Audience: Research
Audience: General Interest
Session: Block 2: Friday 2:00 to 3:15, Room: Bayview Room A

Arun Manilal Gandhi is the fifth grandson of Mohandas Gandhi, and has spent much of his life promoting the principles of non-violence and social activism that made his grandfather one of the seminal figures of the 20th century. As an Indian growing up in South Africa, he had firsthand experience of the humiliations heaped on people because of the color of their skin. In 1948, Arun was actually living in India with his grandfather at the time of his assassination. He was surrounded by the tumult of India's struggle for independence, both violent and non-violent. His path to understanding the true nature of non-violence has not been easy, and he will share aspects of his personal struggle to adhere to the strict demands of these rules of conduct. Arun, who is still an active in promoting the causes of displaced persons, will reflect on whether his grandfather's teachings are still relevant today.


Arun Gandhi, Founder, M.K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence

"Born in 1934 in Durban, South Africa, Arun Gandhi is the fifth grandson of India’s legendary leader, Mohandas K. “Mahatma” Gandhi. His grandfather taught him to understand nonviolence through understanding violence and he learned from his parents and grandparents that justice does not mean revenge, it means transforming the opponent through love and suffering. Today, he shares these lessons around the world.

Mr Gandhi is the author of several books. The first, A Patch of White (1949), is about life in prejudiced South Africa. His subsequent two books discuss poverty and politics in India, which were followed by a compilation of M.K. Gandhi's Wit & Wisdom. He also edited a book of essays on World Without Violence: Can Gandhi’s Vision Become Reality?, and wrote The Forgotten Woman: The Untold Story of Kastur, the Wife of Mahatma Gandhi, jointly with his late wife Sunanda. More recently he wrote Legacy of Love, my education in the path of nonviolence.
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