Mahatma Gandhi News Digest, Germany : Issue for September 4 – 10, 2006
Gandhi and satyagraha redux
DNAIndia.com – India – September 10, 2006
To many of us, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi is a largely distant and overawing figure who is embedded in our collective consciousness but in a non-relevant, non-immediate way. Yes, we know he is the father of the nation, we see his photographs on rupee notes and we all remember getting a holiday on his birthday, but what exactly did he say or do? His message, especially for the younger generation, is hazy and perhaps even irrelevant for todays day and age. Non-violence, in these times? You must be joking.
But such is the power of the man and his ideas, that he keeps coming back, again and again, to remind us that his essential tenets are relevant for all time to come. And then, each generation rediscovers the man and the message.
Two decades or so ago, it was Richard Attenborough, a Briton obsessed with the man who drove his fellow countrymen and women away from these shores, who brought Gandhi in a popular form to us. We saw, enthralled, that Gandhi was more than just a collection of sayings. He was a thinker and a doer, as much given to action as much to contemplation.
Since then, every aspect of Gandhis life has been explored in popular culture, including some controversial ones like his familial relationships. A grown up India has been able to deal with these re-examinations maturely, though there is no dearth of purist and puritan followers who want to keep his memory alive in aspic. That does him a disservice, because, wasnt he the man who told us to keep all the windows of our heart open and let the breeze blow in without let or hindrance?
Now, a new generation, young, restless and eager to join the world on its own terms, is finding that Gandhi had some pretty smart ideas. The film Lage Raho Munnabhai shows a street smart don use Gandhigiri instead of violence to get his point across. Suddenly, this Gandhi dude is cool.
A 100 years ago this day, Gandhi deployed satyagraha, his policy of non-violence, to get his own point across to the white rulers of South Africa. It eventually became a potent force that shook an empire. That will be commemorated all over the world, from Mumbai to Washington. Will those non-violent tactics work today, say with terrorists?
We cant say for sure. But knowing Gandhi, he certainly would have given it a shot.
Munnabhai and his new found glory
CNN-IBN – India – by Suresh Mathew – September 10, 2006
New Delhi: If Amitabh Bachchan represented the angry young man in the ’70s and ’80s, the new millennium may have just found a new icon – and he’s neither young nor angry.
Munnabhai may well be the most loveable and accessible idol Bollywood has produced in recent times. Suddenly, taking law into your own hands like the DJ in Rang De Basanti is not a better bet, neither is playing a masked watered down version of Spiderman.
What’s ‘in’ is having your own indigenous Mr Fixit, who’s typically Bollywood and has also dusted the cobwebs off Gandhism and given it a spanking new look to it.
“Gandhi taught Munnabhai to be frank and truthful and not to force his opinion on others. I liked the concept,” says a viewer.
“I am really impressed by this movie because Gandhi rocks in the movie,” says another.
Lage Raho Munnabhai probably does what history textbooks and films on Gandhi failed to over the years. It makes Gandhi ‘hip’ and tenets like satya, ahimsa and satyagraha look ‘cool’.
Ironically, it took an underworld don and his sidekick to do it.
Selling Gandhi through state machinery may be easy. But repackaging the Father of the Nation and his teachings without sounding preachy through Bollywood is no doubt a tough task. And this is exactly what the Munnabhai sequel has done.
Lage Raho Munnabhai cleverly co-opts Gandhian values along with the Father of the Nation himself and reinvents them in the popular Bollywood format interspersed with song and dance sequences, comic stereotypes – the works.
While it remains debatable as to whether a film can actually renew an entire generation’s interest in Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and his teachings, a few extra copies of My Experiments With Truth are surely flying off the shelves this season in the wake of Lage Raho Munnabhai.
Satyagraha 100 Years Later: Gandhi Launches Modern Non-Violent Resistance Movement on Sept. 11, 1906
DemocracyNow.org – USA – September 8, 2006
September 11th 2006 has a special significance. It not only marks the fifth anniversary of the attacks on New York and Washington, it also marks 100 years to the day that Mahatma Gandhi launched the modern nonviolent resistance movement. Gandhi called it “Satyagraha.”
The date was September 11th, 1906. Speaking before 3,000 Indians gathered at a theater in Johannesburg, Gandhi organized a strategy of nonviolent resistance to oppose racist policies in South Africa. Satyagraha was born and since then, it has been adopted by many around the world to resist social injustice and oppression.
Gandhi used it in India to win independence from the British. The Reverend Martin Luther King used it in the United States to oppose segregation and Nelson Mandela used it in South Africa to end apartheid.
Today, we mark 9/11 by looking at Satyagraha. We speak with Arun Gandhi, the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi and co-founder of the MK Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence in Memphis Tennessee, which promotes nonviolence in conflict zones around the world.
Arun Gandhi, the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi. Born in South Africa under apartheid, Arun moved to India in 1946 to live with his grandfather. He remained in India until the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi in 1948. Arun Gandhi spent the next thirty years as a journalist in India. In 1991 he co-founded the MK Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence in Memphis Tennessee, which promotes nonviolence in conflict zones around the world.
AMY GOODMAN: Arun Gandhi joins us from Rochester, New York, the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi and co-founder of the MK Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence in Memphis, Tennessee, which promotes nonviolence in conflict zones around the world. Welcome to Democracy Now!, Arun Gandhi.
ARUN GANDHI: Thank you very much. Thank you very much for having me on your show.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you define Satyagraha for us?
ARUN GANDHI: Satyagraha is the pursuit of truth. My grandfather believed that truth should be the cornerstone of everybody’s life and that we must dedicate our lives to pursuing truth, to finding out the truth in our lives. And so his entire philosophy was the philosophy of life. It was not just a philosophy for conflict resolution, but something that we have to imbibe in our life and live it all the time so that we can improve and become better human beings.
JUAN GONZALEZ: And the spread of the concept and the movement around the world, looking back now at its impact, could you talk about how it spread and the impact it’s had on social change around the world?
ARUN GANDHI: I think it has had a tremendous impact, as you just said in the introduction. So many people around the world have used nonviolence as a way to resolve a conflict that they faced in their lives. And they continue to use it everywhere all over the world there. And I think, in a way, nonviolence is our nature. Violence is not really our nature. If violence was our nature, we wouldn’t need military academies and martial arts institutes to teach us how to kill and destroy people. We ought to have been born with those instincts. But the fact that we have to learn the art of killing means that it’s a learned experience. And we can always unlearn it.
And Im always reminded of a very pertinent statement that my grandfather made. He said, Violence will prevail over violence, only when someone can prove to me that darkness can be dispelled by darkness. And I think that’s what we have to remember and try to imbibe in our lives there, that we can never overcome violence with more violence. We can only overcome violence with respect and understanding and love for each other.
AMY GOODMAN: Arun Gandhi, can you tell us what your grandfather, Mahatma Gandhi, did 100 years ago today?
ARUN GANDHI: Well, as you said, he met in the theater with more than 3,000 Indian people, because they were victims of prejudices in South Africa and all kinds of unjust laws were enacted to oppress them and suppress them. And he realized that this was not right and that we should not submit to these things and should not live with this. And so he got the people together and explained to them that we have to resist this kind of injustice, and we have to do something about it. We should not just submit to it and live with it.
And people were wondering, how can we resist with the state so powerful, and we don’t have any weapons, you know, because every time, even today, when somebody talks about resistance, everybody thinks in terms of weapons and war and fighting. And that’s when grandfather explained to them that we don’t need any weapons of mass destruction. We have the ability to respond to this nonviolently and with self-suffering. And that’s what he encouraged the people to do. And they came out into the streets with love for the enemy. You know, grandfather didn’t tolerate any hate for the enemy or any anger for the enemy. He said nonviolence has to be complete nonviolence. We have to have love and respect for the enemy, and that is the only way we can overcome them. And that’s what he showed in his work.
And I am amazed that the prime minister of South Africa, General J.C. Smuts, later on he admitted that grandfather was the greatest. He called him a saint, and he said, It was my misfortune that I had to be against him, you know. And it was that kind of feeling of reverence and awe that he inspired even in his opponents. And I think that’s what we have to remember and try to make it a part of our lives, because violence is destroying us. You know, we’re seeing violence growing every day in our streets, in our homes, in our towns, in our cities, in the world itself. Everywhere we turn, we see violence and hate and prejudice and anger and all of these negative emotions that are destroying humanity. And we have to wake up and take note of this and try to change our course, so that we can create a world of peace and harmony where future generations can live happily together.
JUAN GONZALEZ: For some of our younger listeners, especially, who may not be aware of the specific ways in which your grandfather carried out his movement, especially in India, could you talk about some of the tactics used or the key moments in the fight for Indian independence? And also Id be interested in your perspective on how you see how India today is either carrying out — whether people are either carrying out or have forgotten much of the lessons of Gandhi.
ARUN GANDHI: Well, nonviolence is something very powerful, and the power behind it is not weapons, but the support of the people. And grandfather had this knack of picking on issues which really affected a lot of people everywhere. And therefore, he was able to get people to come out and join his movement.
Now, to give you an example, the salt march that took place in 1930, when he announced to the nation that he was going to defy the salt laws enacted by the British and defy the British government, even the Congress Party members who were his supporters began to doubt and wonder: How can you destroy the British empire by defying the salt laws? And, you know, everybody ridiculed the whole idea, and even the British ridiculed the whole idea, and grandfather remained steadfast there. But the reason why he picked on the salt law was that that was one law that affected everybody, Hindus and Muslims, rich and poor. Everybody across the board were affected by that law. And when he decided that he was going to march 247 miles to the sea —
JUAN GONZALEZ: And if you could explain why that law was so oppressive to the Indian people.
ARUN GANDHI: Because the British had decided that they were going to take the Indian salt back to Britain and refine it and repackage it and sell it back to the Indian people at about 20 times the price, and, you know, enormous taxes were imposed on salt. And India had been impoverished by the British colonialism and imperialism. And people were very poor. And this kind of tax on salt, something that everybody needs every day, was totally unjust, and therefore, grandfather decided to defy this.
And when he marched that day, began the march, 247 miles to the sea, you know, it just caught the imagination of the people. And millions of people poured out into the street. And even if they couldn’t participate in his march, they did things in their own cities to defy the British. And the response was so tremendous that the Congress doubters also began to see the wisdom of it, and the British government were taken completely by surprise. And I think that was the turning point in the freedom struggle in India. From that point onwards, the British lost their hold over the country. And it just went down to ultimately giving independence to the country there.
AMY GOODMAN: And in your work in the Middle East, Arun Gandhi, how have you applied Satyagraha?
ARUN GANDHI: Well, I had the opportunity to go there in 2004. And as it turned out, I was the last foreigner to have meet Yasser Arafat and to have spoken to him. And the message that I took to the people in the Middle East is that this kind of violence that you are committing is not beneficial to you or beneficial to anybody. You are only destroying a whole generation of young people and not achieving anything. And lately, after 2001, after the terrorist attacks here, everybody in the West has been looking at suicide bombers as terrorists. And so, instead of gaining sympathy for the cause of the Palestinian people, you are only, you know, gaining more anger and frustration, and people are branding you as terrorists, and you are losing the battle there.
So I tried to suggest to them that they should take, you know — reexamine their whole procedure and see what they can do nonviolently to achieve their goals. I suggested to them that Napoleon, the greatest military general that the world has seen, has written in his book that the general who holds the initiative has better chances of winning the war. And I said in this case, you are not holding the initiative at all. It is the Israelis who are holding the initiative, and they are making you do things that they want you to do, and that can justify more violence and separation of your people.
JUAN GONZALEZ: What was the response of President Arafat, who had spent his whole life in armed resistance, basically, to free his people?
ARUN GANDHI: Well, one of the questions that he asked me was, well, suppose you were given the leadership, what would you plan to do? And I said, look, I can’t give you an offhand answer to this question, because it needs to be studied properly. I need to be here. I need to understand the problems here. But one thing that really comes to my mind here, I said I had just been to Amman, Jordan, where I had met with more than half a million refugees, Palestinian refugees, who were living for more than a decade in awful conditions. And they were frustrated and angry, and they wanted to come back to Palestine and live a peaceful, normal life there. And I told —
AMY GOODMAN: You have ten seconds.
ARUN GANDHI: I told Mr. Arafat, I said, suppose you were to go there and lead this half a million people, men, women and children, in a march to Palestine, and no armaments or anything, just say that we are coming back to live in peace and harmony in our homeland, can the Israelis kill so many people and live with their conscience? I said the whole world would wake up and stop this action.
AMY GOODMAN: Arun Gandhi. I want to thank you very much for being with us. I hope to see you in Memphis on January 11th, on our Breaking the Sound Barrier tour. And I want to let our listeners and viewers know, on Monday, the movie Gandhi will play all over the country, on the 100th anniversary of Satyagraha.
Gandhi is not history
Hindustan Times – India – by Vinay Lal – September 8, 2006
It is the 100th anniversary of one of the most significant events of recent history. In 1906, an India-born lawyer in South Africa, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, encountered the draft Asiatic Law Amendment Ordinance proposed by the Transvaal Government in the August 22nd issue of the government gazette, and at once decided that this legislation would have to be opposed. He saw, Gandhi later wrote, nothing “except hatred of Indians” in the proposed legislation, which, if passed, “would spell absolute ruin for the Indians in South Africa”.
The ordinance required all Indians, eight years and older, living in the Transvaal, to report to the Registrar of Asiatics and obtain, upon the submission of a complete set of fingerprints, a certificate that would then have to be produced upon demand. The ordinance proposed stiff penalties, including deportation, for Indians who failed to comply with its terms.
Fingerprints were then demanded only from criminals, and the subjection of women to such a requirement had no other objective but the humiliation of Indians. Gandhi understood that the ordinance effectively criminalised the entire community. He mobilised the Indians, who had first arrived in South Africa as indentured labourers in 1860, to put up resistance.
At a meeting in Johannesburg, 3,000 Indians took an oath not to submit to the legislation, and Gandhi spoke at length on the obligation to never repudiate a pledge. Thus was born satyagraha – non-violent resistance – and over the next four decades, in South Africa and in India, Gandhi endeavoured to perfect it, offering satyagraha not only to the British but to the world as a form of ethical politics and a consummate lifestyle.
Many in Gandhis own lifetime doubted its efficacy, and some claimed that satyagraha could only have succeeded against a purportedly gentlemanly opponent such as the British. Many more have since claimed that the unspeakable cruelties of the 20th century render non-violent resistance an effete, if noble, idea.
Indias resounding experiment with democracy, for all its shortcomings and the one major relapse of the mid-Seventies, when an internal Emergency was imposed and constitutional safeguards suspended, may owe much more to Gandhi than is commonly conceded.
However, South Africa, which Gandhi claimed as his second home and which he left for good in 1914, may present a more complex case of the assessment of his legacy. The most pressing charge is that he did little to improve the situation of Black Africans and did not draw them into the struggle against racism. By what right Gandhi could have spoken for Black and Coloured Africans is not adequately explained.
The Natal Indian Congress, in the founding of which in 1894 Gandhi had a hand, became the model for the African National Congress. Black South African nationalists have been forthright in crediting Gandhi with having exercised an incalculable influence on their thinking and on the moral tenor of the struggle against apartheid.
The word satyagraha is derived from satya (truth) and agraha (firmness), and it is not implausible that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was not only post-apartheid South Africas homage to Gandhi but a way of extending satyagraha into the 21st century.
If one of the first principles of Gandhian thinking is that a moral politics rests upon consideration of means rather than ends, then we are not even called upon to assess the efficacy of satyagraha. The advocates of non-violent resistance who are dismissed as woolly-headed idealists, should, on the contrary, ask the proponents of violence to demonstrate that violence can produce enduring good.
How far we have travelled in the last 100 years is evident from the ease with which fingerprinting, once demanded only of criminals, has been normalised in most societies as part of the surveillance regime of the Nation-State. There was some indignation when the US, shortly after 9/11, began to require fingerprints from every adult visitor. But this has now become a routine activity. One of the least appreciated aspects of Gandhis worldview is his construing of deception, secrecy and perpetration of falsehoods as forms of violence.
The advocate of satyagraha may no more resort to secrecy than to violence, and it is remarkable that, before undertaking his famous salt satyagraha of 1930, Gandhi addressed a letter to the Viceroy, Lord Irwin, informing him of his plans to resist an iniquitous piece of legislation and inviting Irwin to have him arrested.
Gandhi would have seen the common thread that runs through the surveillance of US residents, the US aggression in Iraq, and the brutal culture of violence amidst which we live, which also ties terrorists and their antagonists in nefarious secrecy and violence. On the 100th anniversary of satyagraha, a modicum of reflection on the debased state of our politics might help recover a place for non-violent resistance.
The writer is Associate Professor, UCLA Department of History, and Chair of South Asia Interdepartmental Program
Time to ask, ‘What would Gandhi do?’
Rochester Democrat and Chronicle – USA – by Susan Price – September 8, 2006
Those in power right now tell us that war is the answer. To shrink back from military intervention is “appeasement.” To stop fighting is to “cut and run.” If you don’t want to bomb, you must favor doing nothing. Justice requires an eye for an eye.
But wait. Didn’t Gandhi teach us the strategy of nonviolence a high-spirited, activist strategy that drove England out of India and that inspired the U.S. civil rights movement?
To remind myself of how nonviolence works, I visited with Arun Gandhi, founder and president of the MK Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence and a resident of Brighton. Arun was born under apartheid in South Africa, suffered severe color prejudice, and, as a rage-filled teenager, was sent to live in India with his grandfather Mahatma Gandhi. For 18 months, the elder Gandhi took Arun under his wing.
My conversations with Arun showed me how superficial my understanding of nonviolence was. Nonviolence is not about burying your anger while the bullies get the best of you. It’s not about diverting anger into sports. It isn’t passive or withdrawn or isolationist.
“Anger is like electricity,” Arun’s grandfather said. It can cause devastating destruction or it can light cities. Without anger, he said, “we would not be motivated to rise to any challenge. Anger is an energy that compels us to define what is right and wrong, good and bad, just and unjust.” At his grandfather’s side, Arun learned that the essence of nonviolence is to bring about better relationships between the oppressed and the oppressor through five elements: love, respect, understanding, acceptance and appreciation. And that “an eye for an eye only makes the whole world blind.”
Arun witnessed how his grandfather turned this personal wisdom into political action. Nonviolence is not about turning the other cheek; it’s about turning enemies into friends.
As always, leadership is key. It’s easy to send bombers. That isn’t courage. What takes courage, imagination and charisma is making so many friends that evildoers don’t have a leg left to stand on. “Hatred needs fuel,” Arun told me. As more people band together in friendship, the power of evil evaporates.
Right now our leaders in Washington don’t have the courage or the talent to engage in dialogue with anyone they find offensive. And, of course, neither do the members of radical Islamist movements. Without a framework for dialogue and recognition of our interdependence, Arun ponders: “Where will it end? We are allowing terrorists to set the agenda. How many people will have to die in order to ‘win'”?
Sept. 11, 2006, is the five-year anniversary of the monstrous act that has spawned only mayhem. But it is also the centenary of Mohandas Gandhi’s first nonviolence campaign in South Africa. Our choice that day: We can celebrate vengeance or we can join Arun Gandhi in celebrating the power of nonviolence to bring about astonishing political change and social transformation. For more, go to www.gandhiinstitute.org.
Lage raho munna bhai: Film review
AndhraCafe.com – India – by L. Ravichander – September 7, 2006
Starring: Sanjay Dutt, Vidya Balan, Arshad Warsi, Boman Irani, Khulbhushan Kharbanda, Jimmy Shergil, Dia Mirza. Direction: Raj Kumar Hirani.
Amazing- The Mahatma and a hatke comedy- all from our own world of cinema.. The very idea is a never before experience in the context of our cinema. At a time when our cinema is all about.
Vaat lagana this is an imaginative Jhappi from Munna bhai. Thanks ever so much for taking comedy to a sensitive level. It will be remembered that the film comes just after the master of the genre of good comedy Hrishikesh Mukherjee took the fatal bow.
This is arguably the most serious comedy ever made in this country. The very idea of getting the Mahatma into the narration in the context of our times and then building a tale of hope and even better signing off with a note of optimism- what more could a country bereft of heroes and loosing values ask for?
Murali (Sanjay) is in love with a voice- the voice of the radio jockey-Jhanavi (Vidya Balan). Assisted by his Ever Reliable Jeeves- Circuit (Arshad Warsi) he hits upon the plan of wining a quiz on the Mahatma. The tapori is willing to even read about the Mahatma to win his girl. Then begins the drama. Even in the context of cinema- a man who reads about the Mahatma is bound to be influenced and impressed by his teachings. Soon the Mahatma begins to haunt Murali.
Murali goes out of the way to help Jhanavi bring a smile in to the lives of the inhabitants of an old age home. Unwittingly his own group goes about evicting the inmates at the instance of a local realtor- Lucky Singh ( Boman Irani) While hitherto Munna bhai would have spoken the contemporary language of violence to sort out the crisis- now influenced by the teachings of the Mahatma he offers passive resistance as the language. In the process he also takes charge of a radio programme which plays Agony Aunt and makes truth a fashion- How wonderful even in the context of fiction!!
The film is a tribute to the Mahatma. While it is an unpretentious comedy- the film maker surely gets an entire generation acquainted with the Mahatma and reiterates the renewed relevance of his teachings. Without reaching out to the pulpit he draws the audience to a fun filled laugh riot that grows on you seconds after the film has started.
The spirit of the Mahatma (Dilip Prabhavalkar) becomes the conscience of our protagonist and helps finding a solution to many a problem. The solutions are invariably based on simple truth and compelling honesty. Even the realtor who is concerned of getting his daughter Simran (Dia Mirza) married and is willing to do anything eats humble pie.
Do not miss the movie for anything. It is one of the most endearing moments of our cinema. The performances are top class. The script is professional and tight. The camera work is efficient. Most important . The dialogues are rib ticking. The screenplay never looses sight of the story.
Director Raj Kumar Hirani (Editor/Story) comes out with a master piece. Even as Viddu Vinod is laughing his way to the bank it is a rare case of not doing so at the cost of the viewer. Kudos to the team. Only a team could have done this all.
A review of the film is incomplete without a specific reference to the Sanjay Dutt Arshad Warsi combo. They make a perfect combine and give the movie some of the finest moments. While the former has an author packed role- Arshad is amazing and makes sure he is noticed every moment he gets under the script. The duo is a laugh riot .
Looking back many miles in our cinema there has not been one fun filled film of such high calibre. Help yourself to a great cinematic experience.
Films or paintings, Gandhi a bestseller
Times Of India – India – by Avijit Ghosh – September 7, 2006
NEW DELHI: Nearly a hundred years after he first unfurled the idea of non-violent resistance as a form of public action in South Africa, the name Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi continues to spell magic in high art and popular entertainment alike.
It is the season of the Mahatma. Released last week, Lage Raho Munna Bhai , a rip-roaring Bollywood tribute to Gandhism, or Gandhi-giri as the film’s protagonist would say, has set the cash counters jingling.
Bollywood trade expert Komal Nahta says the movie is a hit in every circuit. “And the concept of using Gandhi has worked very well. The movies success shows the audience isnt averse to accepting a message if delivered in an entertaining way,” he says.
Even in the field of fine art, Gandhi is being valued. In the Capital, an art exhibition interpreting and critiquing satyagraha in various forms its concept, its evolution is also attracting buyers.
The exhibition presenting the works of 67 artistes from India and South Africa is a tribute to the spirit of satyagraha .
At least 20 of the 100 odd works of art on display have been sold. Five of them are by South African artistes.
A mixed media work by artist K G Subramanyan has been snapped up for Rs 15 lakh.
“The combined price of art on display is around Rs 1 crore. Paintings worth one-third of that amount has already been booked by buyers,” says V K Cherian, coordinator of the project put together by NGO, Afrikhadi.
The fortnight-long exhibition continues till September 15. Publisher and art collector Anoop Kamath has bought two water colours from the exhibition. He says, “With Gandhi as a subject, these paintings will be collectors items in future.”
However, curator Jayaram Poduval disagrees with that point of view. “I dont think people are buying these paintings because of Gandhi. But because of the high quality of these works,” he says.
Interestingly in South Africa where Gandhi unveiled his concept of non-violent public protest on September 11, 1906 though the term satyagraha was coined later there is a growing interest in art crafted or woven around Gandhis principles of truth and non-violence.
Nella de Wall, who teaches art in Durban, says she made a power point presentation on satyagraha to art agents back home.
“It’s a wonderful concept and we can sell it, they told me after the presentation,” says Wall, who was in India for the exhibition.
Groups Across US Transform September 11th Into A Day of Hope and Healing
News Blaze – USA – September 6, 2006
Local showings of the movie Gandhi will remind people that even after violence, peace is possible, and will heighten awareness of legislation to establish a U.S. Department of Peace and Nonviolence
September 11th stands out as a day in history. On that day in 2001, violent acts were inflicted on this country in ways few will ever forget. And 100 years ago, on September 11th, 1906, Mohandas K. Gandhi launched Satyagraha, the modern non-violent movement that changed the course of history. In honor of these events, grassroots movements across the country have come together in an extraordinary venture of peace-building.
Led by New Yorkers for a Department of Peace (and in conjunction with Sony Pictures and the M.K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence), on Monday, September 11th, groups in 35 cities in 17 states will screen Richard Attenborough’s 1982 classic film Gandhi. By doing so organizers of these events hope to accomplish two related goals: to transform September 11th into a day of hope and healing – and to raise awareness of legislation currently in the House and Senate to create a cabinet-level U.S. Department of Peace and Nonviolence.
“Movies have the power to inspire and influence,” said Dot Maver, Executive Director of the citizen action organization The Peace Alliance. “Gandhi’s story reminds us that a single individual can change history, and that individuals working together can change the world. We hope that people watching Gandhi on September 11th will be inspired to learn more about the Department of Peace, and to tell their legislators they want this bill supported in Congress.”
“The Department of Peace and Nonviolence would benefit everyone,” continued Maver. “For a small fraction of what we currently allocate to the Department of Defense ($8 billion versus more than $419 billion) it would provide a coordinated, proactive approach to reducing violence and would reap enormous benefits in our homes, in our schools, in our communities, our nation, and throughout the world.”
“A Department of Peace would send a message of hope to people throughout America and around the globe,” adds Peace Alliance founder Marianne Williamson. “We are devoted to creating a new political consciousness, based on the nonviolent principles articulated by Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. A Department of Peace would embody those principles. It would send a clear signal that the United States is committed to using its great strength to participate in peace.”
Domestically, the department would develop policies and allocate resources to effectively reduce the levels of domestic and gang violence, child abuse and various other forms of societal discord.
Statistics reveal that each year, medical expenses from domestic violence alone total at least $3 to $5 billion, and businesses forfeit another $100 million in lost wages, sick leave, absenteeism and non-productivity.
Internationally, the Department of Peace and Nonviolence would advise the President and Congress on the most innovative techniques to create peace among nations. It would also research and analyze the root causes of war and other forms of discord to help prevent conflicts from escalating to the point of violence. A Peace Academy, on par with the Military Service Academies, would train civilian peacekeepers and the military in the latest nonviolent conflict resolution strategies and approaches.
Gandhi showings are scheduled in California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, Maine, Michigan, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Washington, Wisconsin, and Washington, D.C. The Student Peace Alliance is planning showings of the film at a number of college campuses across the country, and showings are also scheduled in Bombay, India and Pisa, Italy.
The Peace Alliance is a nonprofit, trans-partisan organization spearheading the national campaign for a U.S. Department of Peace and Nonviolence. For more information on this legislation and our campaign, please visit the Peace Alliance website at: www.thepeacealliance.org.
For information about local showings of Gandhi, please visit the Ghandi Showings website.
For more information, visit the websites of New Yorkers for a Department of Peace and the Student Peace Alliance.
NATIONAL CONTACTS: Matt Harris, 206.331.9728, Patty Kuderer, 206.910.2422, press@thepeacealliance.org
To Bapu with love
Indian Express – India – September 6, 2006
Dear Bapu,
After a long time I saw you in a film, not in a documentary or a bio-pic, but in a mainstream movie with a title like Lage Raho Munnabhai.
A few years ago watching you was mandatory in the newsreels preceding the main show.
As a child and later as an adolescent, we resented watching the black-and-white grainy footage covering your Quit India and Dandi March movements over and over again. We would desperately wait for the newsreel to end so that we could be transported into the colourful fantasy world of formula films. When that happened we would rejoice loudly and that was more out of relief than irreverence.
Over the years, I don’t know how and why but you gradually disappeared from the cinema halls. From the big screen. One hardly ever saw you on the marquee, and to be honest we got too absorbed in our progress and technology to miss you. Our children never made any reference to you and we were too caught up in ourselves to notice that they were growing up without an idol.
Once a while some noble soul enchanted by your charisma and philosophy tried capturing your life on celluloid. Hollywood director Richard Attenborough made the bi-lingual Gandhi (1982) and mesmerised the global audience with happy and sad anecdotes from your life. A decade and half later, our very own Shyam Benegal unfolded the anxieties of your youthful days with Kasturba in The Making Of The Mahatma released in 1996. Now I’m told even Anil Kapoor is ready to release his production delving on your volatile and turbulent relationship with your eldest son Hiralal in Mahatma vs Gandhi. Interestingly Anupam Kher also produced a stirring film inspired by you. Though not directly connected to you, it related to your ideology and the myth behind your assassinator Godse in Maine Gandhi Ko Nahin Maara.
But no filmmaker has in all these years portrayed you as a character. Second-time director Rajkumar Hirani in a sequel to Munnabhai MBBS is the only one to possess the vision and genius to portray you as yourself. He has portrayed you as an inspiration to his protagonist Munna, a golden-hearted don.
This is a novel first experience for you and also for us as audience. When you first appear on screen you looked strangely unfamiliar… And it took a while to place you. There was a time when we were familiar with your dhoti, your spectacles and your walking stick. We echoed your thoughts and took pride in simplicity. Now it took a while to revive the old memories… even to visualise you.
You appeared leaner, more tanned. Is this really the effect of pollution, as Circuit pointed out, or have you been wandering extensively – looking for an abode?
I’m curious to know, Bapu, what really made you accept Rajkumar Hirani’s film?
It cannot be money because you never needed it. It cannot be fame because it was never important to you. It can only be for the revival of values. Only someone as selfless as you can think of enriching humanity. You never tired of reforming those around you.
It’s your philosophy that transforms Munna to Murli Prasad, Circuit to Sarkeshwar and Lucky Singh into a noble, straight man.
It’s because of you that viewers like us are reintroduced to forgotten virtues like truthfulness, non-violence, simplicity, fortitude and abstinence.
Many years ago B. Nagi Reddi produced Yehi Hai Zindagi (1977), starring Sanjeev Kumar, wherein Lord Krishna keeps visiting the hero, a simpleton. The hero is an atheist and challenges the deity to alter his life. The deity keeps his word but the hero is unable to cope with the changes. It was an engaging story of faith and fortitude.
In the new millennium I guess it had to be the Father Of The Nation who reintroduces us to ourselves. In present times we needed a secular leader and not a deity to make us introspect and alter our worldview.
Lage Raho Munnabhai is the purest, simplest and most original story ever told on celluloid in recent times. It is a story that restores our faith in humanity.
Thank you Bapu, for re-visiting us and restoring our conscience.
Thank you Rajkumar Hirani, for bringing Bapu back.
Hope Or Terror – The Other 9/11
MettaCentre.org – USA – by Michael Nagler
Nine-eleven 2001 came as a deep shock to those who have dedicated their lives to peace. Whether or not we lost a loved one in that explosion of hatred (as I did), violence challenges our faith and adds an extra dimension of grief for those who feel most poignantly the futility of violence. 1,500 years ago, in response to a similar crisis, St. Augustine declared his faith that the search for peace is embedded in human nature. Whether we’re aware of it or not, he said, our deepest desire is “to seek fellowship and as far as we possibly can, peace with every man” and woman – and all that lives. But those of us who work for peace are perhaps more aware of this desire and feel violations of it all the more deeply, for we not only long for but believe in peace – believe that it is possible even in our time.
And we have reason to. By a strange coincidence it was exactly a century ago, on September 11th, 1906, that Mahatma Gandhi launched a new way of waging conflict that many believe can lead humanity from the mire of hatred in which we seem to be bogged down out into the clear land of peace. These two 9/11s, the one freshly smarting and the other much less appreciated or understood (or in most cases, even remembered), seem like signposts for two paths that can be taken by the human race. Our added grief, therefore, does not open into the pit of despair. This booklet tells the story of the older and more helpful 9/11: the story of Satyagraha.
The articles of the Mahatma Gandhi News Digest originate from external sources.
They do not represent the views of GandhiServe Foundation.
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