Articles by Gandhi Foundation

We found 21 results.


Was This Gandhi’s Worst Decision?
George Paxton – The Gandhi Foundation, 26 May 2014

Although critical of the treatment of Indians by the white South Africans, he believed at this stage in his development that the influence of the British Empire was generally benign. So, although sympathetic to the Boers, he offered to form an ambulance corps of Indian volunteers to serve in the British army.

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Tony Benn – The Vegetarian
Nitin Mehta, Gandhi Foundation – TRANSCEND Media Service, 24 Mar 2014

Tony was a passionate campaigner for stopping all wars and advocated pacifism. The following quote shows his concern for animals: ‘The case for animal testing is now being directly challenged by scientists and doctors and their judgement must be taken seriously.’

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Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi
Nitin Mehta- The Gandhi Foundation, 16 Dec 2013

The death of Nelson Mandela at the age of 95 has moved people all over the world. The outpouring of grief is similar to the one when Mahatma Gandhi died. It is one of those inexplicable quirks of history that both these giants who shaped the modern world started their long march for justice in South Africa.

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What Gandhi Says about Nonviolence, Resistance and Courage
Antony Copley – The Gandhi Foundation, 10 Jun 2013

Review of the book written by Norman G Finkelstein – Gandhi’s belief that could the British overcome their fear of loss of Empire they would happily surrender, reminds me of Aung San Suu Kyi’s belief that could the Army in Burma lose its fear of the loss of power, they would come into line with more progressive policies. It is in Burma that the Gandhian ideal is currently being put most critically to the test.

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Conflict Resolution: From Gandhi to Galtung
Anupma Kaushik – The Gandhi Foundation, 21 Jan 2013

Johan Galtung clarifies that peace research is based on the assumption that peace is as consensual a value as health. He further states that interdisciplinary and multilevel approaches are needed for peace research besides adoption of symmetry. Peace research needs to draw from all corners of the world and in order to understand an issue the researcher needs to see it from either side but the solution should not be based on the assumptions of one party alone.

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Gloomy Thoughts on India Today
Antony Copley – The Gandhi Foundation, 16 Jul 2012

These reflections are prompted by attending the Gandhi Foundation Award ceremony in the House of Lords of the Gandhi International Peace Award for 2011 to Binayak Sen and Bulu Iman and a seminar given by two very bright graduate students of the University of Kent on the writings and film making of Arundhati Roy. The majority of the forest people find themselves in the crossfire of a civil war between the Indian army and the Maoists. Is there scope for non-violent satyagraha?

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Capitalism: A Ghost Story
Arundhati Roy, Outlook India - The Gandhi Foundation, 30 Apr 2012

Rockefeller to Mandela, Vedanta to Anna Hazare…. How long can the cardinals of corporate gospel buy up our protests?

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Who Was Fritz Schumacher?
Diana Schumacher – The Gandhi Foundation, 28 Nov 2011

Although from a distinguished intellectual background, and having himself experienced a short but meteoric academic career in Germany, England and America, Schumacher always believed that “an ounce of practice is worth a tonne of theory”. Like Gandhi in both his outer and inner life he was a searcher of truth and dedicated to peace. Unlike so many of his contemporary academics, however, he needed to see these ideals translated into practical actions.

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Killing, Denial and Manipulation
Gladson Dungdung – Gandhi Foundation, 19 Sep 2011

When I completed this piece [30 Aug 2011], a report in the newspaper stated that the Adivasis of Tholkabad village in Saranda Forest have vacated their village in fear of the police torture. Right from when I started writing on so-called anti-Naxal operations, I have been mentioning that the ‘Operation Green Hunt’ was launched with the clear intention to create fear, insecurity and livelihood crisis in the villages. The Jharkhand government has allotted iron-ore to 19 steel companies including Mittal, Jindal, Tata, Atro-Steel and Torian in Saranda Forest. Therefore, of course, they want to clear the land.

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A Response to Arundhati Roy’s “I’d rather not be Anna”
Dr Felix Patel – Gandhi Foundation, 29 Aug 2011

What we see in the Anna phenomenon is a reduction of Gandhi’s fasting technique to a ridiculous extreme, superbly manipulated by the media. I can’t agree that the essence of Gandhi was in this fasting trick though, or that a public threat to fast to death is necessarily “violent violence”.

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India: Tribes and Tribulations
Graham Davey – Gandhi Foundation, 23 May 2011

How do we bring peace and justice to the dispossessed and who is responsible?

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The Non-Nation – A Short Story of Racism
Javed Iqbal – The Gandhi Foundation, 9 May 2011

What becomes only too evident, is that we have a social apartheid, where we have an invisible, un-written set of value-judgements upon an entire class of people who live out of sight and out of mind, and we’re aping the West who’ve colonized, butchered, enslaved, and murdered indigenous societies for centuries, and we are too far from evolving into a democracy they have never been, and could possibly never be – one that is egalitarian, just and equal, impassioned yet restrained, and where the words ‘development’ would belong to the people.

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Endless Cry in the Red Corridor
Gladson Dungdung – The Gandhi Foundation, 28 Feb 2011

Now both the parties – the Security Forces and the Maoists have been exploiting the innocent villagers but they can do nothing except shouting, weeping and crying… Whenever, a vehicle enters the village, all the villagers including children, women and men run away to hide, shield and protect themselves. These days, the police visit the village almost every day and humiliate, beat and torture the innocent villagers and also destroy their food and shelter. Therefore, they assume that each vehicle entering their village belongs to the Police.

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What Would a Gandhian Society Look Like?
George Paxton – Gandhi Foundation, 31 Jan 2011

Much of Gandhi’s constructive programme was based on village India where the majority of Indians lived (and I believe still do). However, in the West, and increasingly throughout the world, most people live in urban centres. This, along with changes in society brought about by rapid technological developments perhaps require some adaptation of Gandhi’s ideas.

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Nehru On Gandhi, Views On Political Culture
Prem Misir – The Gandhi Foundation, 1 Nov 2010

Nehru admired Gandhi’s constant focus on the ‘right way’ of doing things; using the correct methods for doing things. Stress on using the right means to achieve ends was one of Gandhi’s great contributions to public life. Where most people think about ends, it seems strange that Gandhi would concentrate on means; but it is an extraordinary way of thinking; thinking linked to the moral law of truth that may have hugely impacted India.

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Tibet: The Gandhi Way
Anupma Kaushik – The Gandhi Foundation, 20 Sep 2010

The Tibetan leadership claims that they are pursuing a nonviolent struggle to gain meaningful autonomy but their efforts are clearly not bearing the desired results. Can the Gandhian method show the way forward?

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Reflections on God
Negeen Sai Zinovieff – The Gandhi Foundation, 28 Jun 2010

“But as long as I have not realised the Absolute Truth, so long must I hold by the relative truth as I have conceived it. That relative truth must, meanwhile, be my beacon, my shield and my buckle.” –Gandhi. These teachings have been practised for several thousand years and we have to find them again. Zoroaster, Buddha, Confucius have all had the taste for God, self-realisation and Fana (self-annihilation in God).

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MISUNDERSTANDING GANDHI
Antony Copley – Gandhi Foundation, 12 Feb 2010

All the evidence suggests that Mohandas Gandhi today is more keenly followed outside of India than within. He has been appropriated by western concerns. Within India he has become more of a figurehead, so much so that even right wing and communal political movements such as the BJP see fit to claim him as one […]

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MARTIN LUTHER KING ON GANDHI
Gandhi Foundation, 31 Jan 2010

Excerpt of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Radio Address to India – All India Radio – March, 1959 Leaders in and out of government, organizations, particularly the Gandhi Smarak Nidhi and the Quaker Center, and many homes and families have done their utmost to make our short stay both pleasant and instructive. We have learned […]

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(ITALIAN) GANDHI NEL XXI SECOLO
Prof. Bhikhu Parekh – The Gandhi Foundation, 11 Dec 2009

The Second Fred Blum Memorial Lecture Se dovessi riassumere Gandhi in una sola (sua) espressione, direi che impegnò la sua vita “per crescere di verità in verità”. In altre parole, egli disse che come essere umano aveva solo percezioni parziali della realtà ultima, ossia della verità su qualunque cosa, e la vita consiste nel nostro […]

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GANDHI IN THE 21ST CENTURY
Prof. Bhikhu Parekh – The Gandhi Foundation, 11 Dec 2009

The Second Fred Blum Memorial LectureIf  I were to sum up Gandhi in just one phrase (his phrase) I would say he committed his life, as he called it, “to grow from truth to truth”. In other words, as a human being he said he only had partial perceptions of ultimate reality, or what is […]

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