Honoring Gandhi this month
Tomorrow, Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday will be observed and honored across the globe through the International Day of Nonviolence, as initiated by the United Nations. Just a few months before his assassination, which occurred exactly 60 years ago (January 30, 1948), Gandhi delivered a rare speech in English that was recorded. It is one of only two of his speeches delivered in English which is known to have been preserved in audio form (many of his public speeches were given in Hindi or regional Indian dialects), and until recently was basically unknown. Click here to read about that speech and to find a link to listen to it.
Beginning this week, the first of at least three North American conferences being held this month on the subject of Gandhi’s legacy of peacemaking will be hosted. From October 2-5, the Canadian Culture of Peace Programme Symposium will take place in Hamilton, Ontario. The following week, a South Asian peacemaker, Narayan Mahadev Desai, will travel on both the east and west coasts of the United States, performing his "Gandhi Katha" — a play with narration, music, song and dance — about Gandhi’s life. Desai will perform at Yale University’s Luce Hall in New Haven, CT on Tuesday afternoon, October 7th, and then a few days later he will be at the Jain Center of Southern California, in Los Angeles, and then at the University of California, San Diego. E-mail me if you’d like a copy of his schedule with contact details for each event.
Then on the third weekend of October, two separate conferences will be held in honor of Gandhi’s legacy of active nonviolence. In Memphis, TN, the 5th annual Gandhi-King Conference of Peacemaking will be hosted at Christian Brothers University, from October 17-18. "Continuing the Dream: Constructing the World House" will be this year’s theme — space is still available for this excellent event, so please register now! Folks on the west coast might find it more convenient to attend "Rediscovering Gandhian Wisdom: Building a Peaceful Future" at California State University, Pomona. It is the Hamilton & Denise Brewart International Conference on Nonviolence.
Finally, one other interesting way to reflect on Gandhi’s legacy this month is to watch (and discuss) a film about his life. The most famous one was, of course, not a documentary but the huge commercial feature released two decades ago, Gandhi, with Ben Kingsley in the title role. I don’t know whether this is legal, but some excerpts from the film have been posted on YouTube, focusing on different topics from the film that dealt with social justice issues — "Poverty," "Burning the Passes," "Nonviolence Speech," etc. etc. These short clips are easier than watching the entire, lengthy film, and are well worth 5-15 minutes of time. Check them out.
