THE HEIR APPARENT: ARUN GANDHI AND THE LEGACY OF NONVIOLENCE
Written by Cassandra Newman
Interview Date, August 2, 2007
Today, a man I have known and admired for nearly two years generously agreed to share a few aspects of his life and work with me. Although Arun Gandhi and I do not often get the chance to communicate in person, our computers became the vital link by which I was able to plumb the depths of my friend’s personal beliefs and the impact of his grandfather Mohandes K. Gandhi’s legacy upon his life. Of course, there were certain aspects of his life that Arun chose to keep to himself. For example, he did not share how his experiences with racism in his birthplace of Durban, South Africa created a sullen, angry young man who nearly sought revenge on the assassin that took his beloved grandfather in 1948. His hand was only stayed by remembrance of the elder Gandhi’s imparted wisdom, forever immortalized in the simple yet powerful phrase, “Never react immediately in anger.” Nor did he choose to detail his experiences as a journalist in India ten years later, where he met his late wife Sunanda. Rather, Gandhi focused on his views of the crisis of violence facing humankind today and his lectures on the principles of nonviolence at colleges and universities across the United States. Fortunately, while Arun Gandhi the man remained elusive, his unwavering belief in the potential for peace and the power of nonviolence shone like a beacon through his responses.
Q: Describe your experiences as a Hindu living in America. Give a brief profile of yourself. Are you often confused for a Muslim?
A: Although I [was] brought up Hindu, I am not a practicing Hindu, which means that I don’t go to temples or perform rituals. My grandfather taught us to respect all the religions of the world and incorporate into our prayer services hymns from all the religions of the world. We hold the prayers at home with friends and family and sometimes in public on special occasions. Yes, I am often mistaken for a Muslim, especially since I have [had] a beard for more than 25 years. Many friends suggested that I shave my beard after 9/11 but I refused to submit to such humiliation. I am proud to be regarded as a Muslim as I am proud to be regarded as a Hindu or a Christian or a Jew.
Q: Have you or your family ever experienced discrimination either in America or abroad because of your race or religion?
A: Yes, we have often been discriminated against because of our race rather than our religion. I think religious hatred comes only when we [demonstrate] our beliefs [in public]. But I often come across people who discriminate [against me for] my color and race in subtle ways. It is never a very open or aggressive kind of discrimination but [it is evident by] the way they speak or the way they behave and so on. As mentioned earlier, Gandhi experienced a great deal of discrimination in South Africa, from whites who considered him a member of an inferior race and blacks who resented the fact that he did not share their skin color.
Q: You travel throughout the world teaching nonviolent principles and tactics. As a teacher of peace, what are your biggest successes? Your biggest failures? Who was the most receptive to your lessons?
A: I have never looked at successes or failures. I am sure both of them are well represented in the work that I do. I feel that my duty is to take the message to the people and plant seeds of love and compassion in their minds. After that, whether they want to nurture those seeds or let them rot and perish is up to [them]. I cannot force them to do what they don’t wish to do, but that shouldn’t make me stop doing what I need to do. I do what I do because I am convinced it is the right thing to do. Judging purely from the increasing number of invitations and [audience members at my lectures], [I know] that there is something right and good about what I am doing. Otherwise, people wouldn’t be so eager. In the late 1980s, after conducting a tripartite study of the nature of prejudice in America, India and South Africa at the University of Mississippi, Gandhi and his wife founded the M.K. Gandhi Institute on Nonviolence. The Institute is hosted by Christian Brothers University, a Catholic school in Memphis, Tennessee, and sponsors the annual Gandhi-King Conference on Nonviolence. I had the opportunity to present a paper on the potential role of nonviolent communication in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at the 2005 conference.
Q: Could you please share with us your lesson plan on nonviolence?
A: The lesson plan is rather [extensive]. In a nutshell, I emphasize the fact that nonviolence is the opposite of violence and violence itself is not simply about physical violence like war, murder, fighting, etc. We human beings practice many kinds of violence-physical and non-physical-often without even knowing it. For instance, not many of us are aware that we have to use 45 percent of the world’s resources to enjoy the [kind of affluence] that we do in the United States and, yet, we are just 4 percent of the world’s population. It means that less than 10 percent of the world can aspire to live at the level of [comfort] that we [have]. 90 percent will have to languish in poverty. Would you be surprised if many of them turned to crime or terrorism because the world has not been fair to them? Therefore, we need to recognize all the different forms of violence we practice and change ourselves so that the world can become a more compassionate and respectful place for everyone to live in.
Q: How extensively have you worked with Muslims? What have you learned from them?
A: Since 80 percent of my work is in universities and colleges, I don’t know what ethnic group my [colleagues and students] belong to. I have never gone to any group because they are Muslim or Christian and so on. I have gone to a group because they have invited me.
Q: What are the main teachings of Hinduism?
A: [Like] the [theology] of all world religions, the main teachings of Hinduism are rooted in love, compassion, understanding, acceptance and appreciation. We believe that there is one God but there are thousands of images of God, since no one has ever seen [Him] or knows what [He] looks like. Thus, Hindus accept all the different images and forms of worship. But at the core, like all other religions, Hinduism has built a lot of rituals, many of them meaningless. And, like all other religions, Hindus believe the practice of these rituals determines whether one is good or bad.
Q: What are the most salient similarities between Hinduism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam?
A: I think all of them have love, compassion, understanding, respect, acceptance and appreciation at the core.
Q: How active are you in interfaith issues? What are some of the most creative or successful interfaith endeavors that you have ever been involved with?
A: I am very active in interfaith issues. I was the national chairman of the board of the Interfaith Alliance in Washington, D.C. for three years. I am still actively involved with national and local interfaith initiatives.
Q: What are your fondest memories of your grandfather, Mahatma Gandhi? Do you impart all of his wisdom to your students or are there a few of your own flourishes added to the lesson plan?
A: A wise man once said, “The easiest way to kill a philosophy is to write a book.” Then, it ceases to be a philosophy and becomes a dogma. To be a philosophy, it must be vibrant and ever-changing. So, yes I do add my own flourishes to the [nonviolence] lesson plan. I can’t go into all the details of what he taught me. It is all in a book called Legacy of Love, available through the Gandhi Institute.
Q: Have you always wanted to carry on your grandfather’s legacy or did you have another vision for your life before you found your vocation?
A: When I was younger my thoughts were more about my life. Then, after getting married, it was more about my family and how to provide for them. But all throughout [my life] I did not lose the vision of helping others. In other words, I did not suppress my compassion [and inclination] to help the weak because I was so self-centered. Then, once my two children were grown and settled, I felt I could now devote all my time to spreading the philosophy of nonviolence.
Q: What is your opinion on the Clash of Civilizations?
A: I think it is very sad. We cannot dominate or destroy others by violence. Like my grandfather would say, “Violence will prevail over violence only when it is proven that darkness can be dispelled by darkness.” The Clash of Civilizations is self-destructive. By doing to the terrorists what they did to us, we have not become any better than [they are].
Q: Is dialogue the most effective means for combating discrimination and intergroup hostility, or are there more creative and far-reaching methods that you know of?
A: For dialogue to be effective, it has to be friendly [and] respectful. It is important that we listen as much as we speak.
Q: What are your opinions on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars? Is there a culturally sensitive way to teach nonviolence to the various conflicting sects in those two countries?
A: One can take a horse to the pond but one cannot make the horse drink if it does not want to. Similarly, one can speak and teach nonviolence, but it will be ineffective if the people don’t want to listen to it. I don’t think [the Iraqis and Afghans] are different from us. Therefore, I don’t think culture has anything to do with it.
Q: Your wife was a big part of your life and your role as a peacemaker. How have you gotten on since her passing?
A: It is sad and feels lonely without my wife. We were together for 49 years. I do miss her at every step but, like Yoko Ono said after the passing of John Lennon, in life she was with me for 70 percent of the time. Now she is with me 100 percent of the time. The Gandhis had two children and four grandchildren. Their son Tushar is an activist like his father.
Q: How do you envision your role in the realm of peacebuilding? What role do you envision your students playing?
A: Before we take on the task of peacebuilding, we must know what peace means. We can’t [create] something about which we know nothing. So my vision is to make people aware of peace and the kind of violence that we all commit [intentionally] and [unintentionally]. Once we become aware of how we feed into the violence that destroys our society, then we can do something about it. What is happening at present is that there is a conflagration consuming human society and peacemakers are fighting it with water in one hand and gas in the other. So the fire never goes out. It sometimes seems to be doused, [but] then it flares up again. This is because we are always attacking the symptoms [of violence] rather than the disease. In fact, Gandhi has been a very active teacher in the field of peace and conflict resolution. An outspoken critic of Israel’s policies in the occupied Palestinian territories, in August 2004 he proposed to the Palestinian parliament a peaceful march of 50,000 refugees across the Jordan River to return to their homeland. He also conducted lectures on nonviolence across Israel and the occupied territories that he often felt were greeted with respectful doubt from his Israeli and Palestinian students, many of whom had grown up seeing vengeance as a viable means of problem solving. In 2003, Gandhi was a signatory to the Third Humanist Manifesto, “Humanism and its Aspirations.”
Q: How would Mahatma Gandhi comment on the current political climate that we find ourselves in today?
A: I am sure he would be very unhappy. It was his concern with the growing culture of violence that consumed [humanity] more than a century ago that caused him to discover nonviolence as a way of resolving conflicts. Instead of adopting this method, we have persisted with violence and it has now reached a critical stage. We are positively losing our humanity, as is evident from the [increasingly] gruesome acts of violence that are perpetuated every day. However, he was never a man to give up and be despondent. He would just go about transforming each individual.
