Dr Arun Gandhi in Edinburgh

Dr. Arun Gandhi is one of the grandsons of Mahatma Gandhi who is keeping himself busy by taking Gandhiji's message across the world. Recently he was made to resign from the University of Rochester in the US for his remarks against Isreali violence. He is a journalist and his column appears in The Washington Post.

He was in Scotland for a couple of weeks and our university chaplaincy brought him to Edinburgh for a talk and then a workshop. I had an opportunity to listen to his message and even dine with him and ask him a few questions. At the outset, I must confess that I haven't read much about Gandhiji: neither his books nor books about him. But I have a huge respect and admiration for him and I do believe (with the limited knowledge about him that I have) that he was more than a mere politician. He was a visionary who wanted to build a stable and mature India. He saw India as its multi-cultural multi-religious people and wanted to create an atmosphere of equality, respect and understanding. He didn't see India as its borders as a piece of land bound between the Arabian sea, the Bay of Bengal and the Himalayas as others did. Indian independence was not the only thing in Gandhiji's mind. He had other things too and in the process of achieving that he mixed his pursuit for his other goals with that of independence, which many didn't like. And once India got independence from the British, the Congress party abandoned Gandhi's ideals but he kept going and worked towards his other goals like eradication of untouchability, Hindu-Muslim unity, etc. I was very much delighted at the idea of meeting Dr. Gandhi in person and talking to him. Much to my surprise, I was even invited to dine with him as I was the president of the University Vedic Society (a student society in pursuit of Reality taking the path as suggested in the Vedas, i.e. Hindu society). Along with me, the presidents of all other faith societies were invited. I will try to describe the essence of his message below to the best of my recollection.

In his talk, he talked to us about non-violence. It was not so much about non-violence as much as it was about root causes of violence. That struck with us well as he talked not about what not to do but about why violence happens. He mentioned three causes for violence: anger, passive violence and religious mis-understanding and disrespect. He said that anger is a good thing, but the way we react to it may not be always optimal. He suggested that we turn the reactive energy in to a positive one. May be we should try to understand why we are getting angry, get to the root cause of it and fix it there.

Many of us don't understand the concept of passive violence. But he told us that its one of the most important causes for physical violence. When you waste resources or overuse them mindlessly, what we do is called passive violence. He narrated a small story of his experience with his grandfather. This happened when he was a little boy in South Africa. He had a small pencil, which he thought is too small to write with. So he threw it away and went running to his grandfather and asked for a new one. He thought that his grandfather was so loving that he would certainly get one. But instead what he got was a good long lecture. He was asked thousands of questions like why he threw it away, where he threw it, etc. It was dark but it didnt stop his grandfather to ask him to look for the pencil he threw away. Disappointed, Arun looked for the pencil with a flashlight and brought it back to his grandfather. His grandfather then told him that there were two lessons for him - one, even in a small piece of pencil so many natural resources have been used and throwing it away is violence against Nature and two, that there are people who cannot afford even that short pencil and mindlessly throwing it away is violence against humanity. Arun understood that these are examples of passive violence, which we all commit either consciously or unconsciously that it becomes our second nature. His message was that we should carefully scrutinize our action, big or small, and avoid passive violence. He suggested that when we overconsume resources, we are depriving our brothers of that which is rightly theirs.

In the final part of his talk, he talked about religious intolerance. He said what we need is not tolerance but mutual understanding and respect between people of different faith. He suggested that we all take some time to learn and understand the teachings of other religions and respect them for what they are. That doesn't mean you abandon your beliefs and accept theirs. You can be yourself, but still understand and respect the other faith.

And when I met with him personally, I asked him a couple of questions. He agreed with me that the Indian govt has abandoned Gandhian ideal and is only doing lipservice to him. When I asked him, how in today's world a country like India could embrace Gandhian ideals of non-violence, he answered that it might not be possible to dismantle our defences immediately but it could be a step-by-step process of building trust and friendship among nations and that India along with the whole world move towards a non-violent world. He said that violence is acceptable when there is a very short time to respond and stop a larger violent act. For instance, he said the passengers fought with the terrorists on the ill-fated airplane which crashed in Pittsburgh during 9/11 and that is an act of non-violence, because they had to act quickly to avoid a major catastrophe.

Overall, Dr. Gandhi's visit to Edinburgh, his talk and workshop, his message were simple but profound and I am very glad that I got this opportunity to interact with him.