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Saturday, December 17, 2011

Albert Einstein on Gandhi





Translation:
Mahatma Gandhi's life achievement stands unique in political history. He has invented a completely new and humane means for the liberation war of an oppressed country, and practised it with greatest energy and devotion. The moral influence he had on the conciously thinking human being of the entire civilized world will probably be much more lasting than it seems in our time with its overestimation of brutal violent forces. Because lasting will only be the work of such statesmen who wake up and strengthen the moral power of their people through their example and educational works.
We may all be happy and grateful that destiny gifted us with such an enlightened contemporary, a role model for the generations to come.



Translation:

Respected Mr. Gandhi !
I use the presence of your friend in our home to send you these lines. You have shown through your works, that it is possible to succeed without violence even with those who have not discarded the method of violence. We may hope that your example will spread beyond the borders of your country, and will help to establish an international authority, respected by all, that will take decisions and replace war conflicts.
With sincere admiration,
Yours A. Einstein.
I hope that I will be able to meet you face to face some day.


Response

LONDON, October 18, 1931

DEAR FRIEND,
I was delighted to have your beautiful letter sent through Sundaram. It is a great consolation to me that the work I am doing finds favour in your sight. I do indeed wish that we could meet face to face and that too in India at my Ashram.

Yours sincerely,
M. K. GANDHI

Saturday, December 10, 2011

The Art of Auctioneering



Mahatma Gandhi's ability to raise funds was legendary; a reflection of it can be seen in the excerpt below:


5th April 1929
Gandhi arrived in Bombay on 5th April and addressed a public meeting at the Congress House on the importance of khaddar and the boycott of foreign cloth. About fifty foreign caps and few other foreign cloths were thrown on the platform. At the close of the meeting the foreign-made cloths were burned inside the Congress House compound.
A gold ring was presented to Gandhi at this meeting and it was auctioned thrice.
At a public meeting in Girgaum, Gandhi made an appeal for funds and several ladies threw their necklaces and ornaments which were auction after the meeting.

Monday, October 17, 2011

MAKE YOUR OWN KHADI JEANS


Designer khadi denim set to revive Mahatma’s legacy

Ahmedabad: The traditional khadi popularized by the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi, has been reinvented in the form of ‘khadi denim’ with a view to boost sales in today’s competitive market flooded with national and international apparel brands.

Rajkot based Saurashtra Rachnatmak Samiti (SRS) introduced khadi denim in the market about eight months back,which is now proving to be a hit.

Gandhi used khadi as a tool to fight against the British rule and made the khadi-producing ‘charkha’ a symbol of the Indian non-violent freedom movement.

He promoted khadi as a means of self-employment for people, that was ultimately aimed at reviving the villages. On Gandhi’s call, Indian people renounced Britain imported cloth to take up khadi, bankrupting Manchester in the process.

MORE

MAKE YOUR OWN KHADI JEANS

Friday, October 7, 2011




Peace, Truth and Ahimsa a digital and interactive museum being commissioned at Bapu Ghat Hyderabad provides an opportunity to experience information and facets of Mahatma Gandhi, and his life.
From large video walls to multiple interactive systems that will take you into the past with real time rendering of Mahatma Gandhi speeches to experiencing unique information on Bapu that’s relevant even to this day and age.
User technology such as surface touch and voice to interact with graphics and visual mediums will be on display. It will be an opportunity for people of all age groups to see first-hand the latest technologies of the world in synergy with the message of the Mahatma
It’s a must see for the youth of this world as it expands the mind to dimensions of the future ingraining the values of Peace, Truth and Ahimsa.

Monday, August 1, 2011

Words & Wisdom of Mahatma Gandhi



Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.

You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.

We must become the change we want to see.

Love is the law of our being.

I cannot teach you violence, as I do not myself believe in it. I can only teach you not to bow your heads before any one even at the cost of your life.

One needs to be slow to form convictions, but once formed they must be defended against the heaviest odds.

Always aim at complete harmony of thought and word and deed. Always aim at purifying your thoughts and everything will be well.

Hate the sin, love the sinner.

An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.

I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent.

You must be the change you want to see in the world.


My life is my Message - Mahatma Gandhi

Monday, July 25, 2011

The world continues to find him.....

“The world recognized Gandhi a long time ago and continues to find him. ...We need to ensure the children of our world do not forget this power of peace and truth.”


Birad Rajaram Yajnik @ the United Nations

on the 1st October 2010.





This is what I said at the UN, now meet Jes Richardson, a man who best emulates the words....He is a teacher living in the Bay Area, California. He built the ten foot tall Gandhi Puppet in 2003, with the help of some high school students, to protest the occupation of Iraq and to show support for the Mill Valley Seniors for Peace and their weekly demonstrations.

In 2007, Jes thought the U.S. was preparing to attack Iran. He went to Iran, fell in love with the people, and returned to Washington DC to spend five months trying to persuade Congress to pursue a path of diplomacy rather than sanctions. Then he traveled around the country giving presentations on Iran.

Be the change ....

More on Jes Richardson

Monday, July 11, 2011

Mahatma's book proclaimed a must read for Harvard graduates




As fresh Harvard degree holders head into the world, one of the authors featured in the unversity's Harvard Gazette considers Gandhi to be "the most important human being of the last millennium".


Howard Gardner, professor of Cognition and Education, Harvard University is currently recommending Mahatma Gandhi's The Story of My Experiments with Truth as an essential book for today's graduates.

Howard Gardner, professor of Cognition and Education, Harvard University, who authored Truth, Beauty and Goodness Reframed, says: "He [Gandhi] not only realised that individuals of different backgrounds, religions and values had to be able to confront one another non-violently; going beyond Christ's example, he worked out the methods, the algebra, whereby such confrontations would be staged and resolved, ultimately strengthening each of the struggling parties. In addition to his indispensable role in the Indian independence movement, he inspired activists in South Africa, China, Egypt and the America of Martin Luther King."


Commenting on Gandhi's autobiography, Gardner thinks it "is neither artfully worded nor elegantly composed but it describes in remarkably informative detail the ways in which Gandhi developed his own persona, learned from his mistakes, and inspired others. If one wants to understand the difference that one person can make, and how he went about his mission, there is no better source."

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Howard Gardner's work around multiple intelligences has had a profound impact on thinking and practice in education - especially in the United States. His work has been marked by a desire not to just describe the world but to help to create the conditions to change it.

I want my children to understand the world, but not just because the world is fascinating and the human mind is curious. I want them to understand it so that they will be positioned to make it a better place. Knowledge is not the same as morality, but we need to understand if we are to avoid past mistakes and move in productive directions. An important part of that understanding is knowing who we are and what we can do... Ultimately, we must synthesize our understandings for ourselves. The performance of understanding that try matters are the ones we carry out as human beings in an imperfect world which we can affect for good or for ill. (Howard Gardner 1999: 180-181)

More on Howard Gardner

Mahatma and the Montessori connection


Maria Montessori (August 31, 1870 – May 6, 1952) was an Italian physician and educator, a noted humanitarian and devout Catholic best known for the philosophy of education which bears her name. Her educational method is in use today in public as well as private schools throughout the world.


Mahatma Gandhi's Speech At Montessori Training College

London , [ October 28, 1931 ]


(Note: Dr. Maria Montessori met Mahatma Gandhi in the beginning of October, 1931 in London . And on October 28, 1931 Gandhi spoke at the Montessori Training College , London where Dr. Montessori was also in attendance. The following is the text of Gandhi’s Speech, which was published in the weekly newspaper, Young India , on November 19, 1931)

Madame, you have overwhelmed me with your words. It is perfectly true, I must admit it in all humility, that however indifferently it may be, I endeavor to represent love in every fiber of my being. I am impatient to realize the presence of my Maker, Who to me embodies Truth, and in the early part of my career I discovered that if I was to realize Truth I must obey, even at the cost of my life, the law of love. And having been blessed with children, I discovered that the law of Love could be best understood and learned through little children.

Were it not for us, their ignorant poor parents, our children would be perfectly innocent. I believe implicitly that the child is not born mischievous in the bad sense of the term. If parents would behave themselves whilst the child is growing, before it is born and after, it is a well-known fact that the child would instinctively obey the law of Truth and the law of Love.

And when I understood this lesson in the early part of my life, I began a gradual but distinct change in life. I do not propose to describe to you the several phases through which this stormy life of mine has passed, but I can only, in truth and in perfect humility, bear witness to the fact that to the extent that I have represented Love in my life, in thought, word and deed I have realized the “peace that passeth understanding”. I have baffled many of my friends when they have noticed in me peace that they have envied, and they have asked me for the cause of that priceless possession. I have not been able to explain the cause by saying that, if my friends found that peace in me, it was due to my attempt to obey this, the greatest law of our being.

It was in 1915 when I reached India , that I first became acquainted with your activities. It was in a place called Amreli that I found that there was a little school being conducted after the Montessori system. Your name had preceded that first acquaintance. I found no difficulty in finding out at once that this school was not carrying out the spirit of your teaching; the letter was there, but whilst there was an honest - more or less honest - effort being made, I saw too that there was a great deal of tinsel about it. I came in touch, then, with more such schools, and the more I came in touch, the more I began to understand that the foundation was good and splendid, if the children could be taught through the laws of nature - nature, consistent with human dignity, not nature that governs the beast. I felt instinctively from the way in which the children were being taught that, whilst they were being indifferently taught, the original teaching was conceived in obedience to this fundamental law. Since then, I have had the pleasure of coming across several of your pupils, one of whom had even made a pilgrimage to Italy and had received your personal blessings. I was looking forward to meeting the children here and you all and it was a great pleasure to me to see these children.

I had taken care to learn something about these little children. I had a foretaste of what I saw here, in Birmingham , where there is a school between which and this there is a difference. But I also saw that there also human nature was struggling to express itself. I see the same thing here and it was a matter of inexpressible joy to me that from their childhood the children were brought to understand the virtue of silence, and how, in response to the whisper from their teacher, the children came forward one after another in that pin-drop silence. It gave great joy to see all those beautiful rhythmic movements and, as I was watching those movements of the children, my whole heart went out to the millions of the children of the semi-starved villages of India, and I asked myself as my heart went out to those children, “Is it possible for me to give them those lessons and the training that are being given under your system, to those children”?

We are conducting an experiment amongst the poorest of the children in India . I do not know how far the experiment will go. We have the problem of giving real vital education to these children of India 's hovels, and we have no material means. We have to fall back upon the voluntary assistance of teachers, but when I look for teachers, they are very few, especially, teachers of the type wanted, in order to draw the best from the children through understanding, through studying their individuality and then putting the child on its own resources, as it were, on its own honor. And believe me from my experience of hundreds, I was going to say thousands, of children I know that they have perhaps a finer sense of honor than you and I have.

The greatest lessons in life if we would but stoop and humble ourselves, we would learn not from grown-up learned men, but from the so-called ignorant children. Jesus never uttered a loftier or a grander truth than when he said that wisdom cometh out of the mouths of babes. I believe it; I have noticed it in my own experience that, if we would approach babes in humility and in innocence, we would learn wisdom from them.

I must not take up your time. I have simply given you what is, at the present moment, agitating me, namely, the delicate problem, considered in human terms, of drawing out the best from these millions of children of whom I have told you. But I have learned this one lesson - that what is impossible with man is child's play with God and, if we have faith in that Divinity which presides over the destiny of the meanest of His creation, I have no doubt that all things are possible and in that final hope I live and pass my time and endeavor to obey His will. Therefore, I repeat that even as you, out of your love for children, are endeavoring to teach those children, through your numerous institutions, the best that can be brought out of them, even so I hope that it will be possible not only for the children of the wealthy and the well-to-do, but for the children of paupers to receive training of this nature. You have very truly remarked that if we are to reach real peace in this world and if we are to carry on a real war against war, we shall have to begin with children and if they will grow up in their natural innocence, we won't have the struggle, we won't have to pass fruitless idle resolutions, but we shall go from love to love and peace to peace, until at last all the corners of the world are covered with that peace and love for which, consciously or unconsciously, the whole world is hungering.

Young India , 19-11-1931

---------------------------------

Interview With Maria Montessori
LONDON

Gandhiji greeting her, said, “We are members of the same family”.

“I bring you the greetings of children,” said Madame Montessori.

GANDHIJI: If you have children I have children too. Friends in India ask me to imitate you. I say to them, no, I should not imitate you but should assimilate you and the fundamental truth underlying your method.

MADAME MONTESSORI: As I am asking my own children to assimilate the heart of Gandhiji. I know that feeling for me over there in your part of the world is deeper than here.

GANDHIJI: Yes, you have the largest number of adherents in India outside Europe .




I came across this photograph while exploring this story, its interesting to note that Maria Montessori is wearing a sari. in the 1920's - BRY

Monday, July 4, 2011

Salt, Tea and Civil rights


Time places MKG's Salt Satyagraha, 1930 between Boston Tea Party, 1773 and Civil Rights March on Washington, 1963 by Martin Luther King Jr., among the Top 10 Most Influential Protests in the world.

Britain's centuries-long rule over India was, in many ways, first and foremost a regime of monopolies over commodities like tea, textiles and even salt. Under colonial law, Indians were forbidden to extract and sell their own salt and instead were forced to pay the far higher price of salt processed in and imported from the U.K. In March 1930, Mohandas Gandhi, the charismatic and enigmatic independence leader, embarked on a 24-day march from the city of Ahmedabad to the small seaside town of Dandi, attracting followers along the way. The assembled throngs watched as he and dozens of others dipped into the sea to obtain salt. That act — for which more than 80,000 Indians would be arrested in the coming months — sparked years of mass civil disobedience that came to define both the Indian independence struggle and Gandhi himself. Known as the salt satyagraha — a Sanskrit term loosely meaning "truth-force" — it carried the emotional and moral weight to break an empire.


Original Article from Time Magzine 1930

MKG Ariana Park, Geneva, Switzerland



Pierre Combernous, left, Swiss Head of Political Affairs Division II Asia-Pacific, India's Ambassador Amitava Tripathi, center, and Patrice Mugny, right, Mayor of Geneva, unveil the statue of Mahatma Gandhi in the Ariana Park, in Geneva, Switzerland, Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2007. The statue of Mahatma Gandhi is a gift from the Indian government to the city of Geneva, underscoring the role of Geneva in promoting peace, harmony and friendship, values closely associated with Gandhi. The gift also marks the starting point of the activities celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Treaty of Amity of Aug. 14, 1948 between India and Switzerland.



Monday, June 13, 2011

Satyagraha House, Johannesburg









This is the house where Mahatma Gandhi lived from 1908 to 1911 in Johannesburg. Built by the German architect Kallenbach in the early twentieth century, this house has hosted the architect and his very dear friend Mohandas Gandhi who was then a lawyer in Johannesburg.
This house was built in the countryside near Johannesburg, bearing the name of Kraal farm. Built by Kallenbach, it consists of a thatched roof supported by round beautiful wood frame.
Gandhi made numerous visits to the house as it allowed him to remain close to Johannesburg, Pretoria (where he was negotiating with Jan Smuts) and he could also visit his family at the Tolstoy farm located 35km south of Johannesburg. It is recognized that Mahatma Gandhi often collected his thoughts in the loft of this house.
Since 1st January 2010 - The French travel company Voyageurs du Monde owns the Satyagraha house and plans to convert it into a boutique hotel.

During my visit to Johannesburg in May 2010 to celebrate the centenary of the Tolstoy farm, i had the pleasure of visiting this house. The new owners were kind enough to take me around. I also had the honor of sipping tea in the famous foyer and look forward to returning one day to stay at the Satyagraha house.

Website of Voyageurs du Monde

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Paulo Coelho's gift from the Sons of Gandhy ( Brazil)



Author of the book Alchemist - (more than 65 million copies sold, becoming one of the best-selling books in history, and has been translated into more than 70 languages ) posted on his blog a song from Gilberto Gilt.



The Sons of Gandhy marched to it on the 3rd of March 2011. Interestingly it is the largest annual march worldwide of over 10,000 people in the name of Gandhi.


Sunday, January 30, 2011

11.00 - 11.02 am (IST)


A two-minutes silence in memory of the Father of the Nation and other martyrs is observed throughout India at 11 a.m. Indian Standard Time

Monday, January 3, 2011

Unto This Last - John Ruskin


Unto This Last is an essay on economy by John Ruskin, first published in December 1860 in the monthly journal Cornhill Magazine in four articles. Ruskin says himself that these articles were "very violently criticized", forcing the publisher to stop the publication after four months. Subscribers sent protest letters. But Ruskin countered the attack and published the four articles in a book in May 1862.

This essay is very critical of capitalist economists of the 18th and 19th century. In this sense, Ruskin is a precursor of social economy. Because the essay also attacks the destructive effects of industrialism upon the natural world, some historians have seen it as anticipating the Green Movement.


Unto This Last had a very important impact on Gandhi's philosophy. He discovered the book in March 1904 through Henry Polak, whom he had met in a vegetarian restaurant in South Africa. Polak was chief editor of the Johannesburg paper The Critic. Gandhi decided immediately not only to change his own life according to Ruskin's teaching, but also to publish his own newspaper, Indian Opinion, in a farm where everybody would get the same salary, without distinction of function, race or nationality, which for that time, was quite revolutionary. Thus Gandhi created Phoenix Settlement.

Gandhi translated Unto This Last into Gujarati in 1908 under the title of Sarvodaya ("well being of all").

The original Article