Vision of world peace
By Tony Watt
Arun Gandhi, the grandson of famed pacifist M. K. 'Mahatma' Gandhi, promoted nonviolence at SIUE. Gandhi spoke at 7:30 p.m. Thursday in the Meridian Ballroom in the Morris University Center and answered questions from an audience of approximately 450 people. His speech, "Hitler, Malcom X and Gandhi: The Strange Connection," used the three men's lives as examples of what to do and what not to do to affect change in society. Gandhi said that his grandfather used nonviolence and "inclusiveness" to help make peace between Great Britain and India. Instead of fighting the British, he embraced them and showed them that the two countries did not have to hate each other. Arun Gandhi said that in Hitler's case, the idea was the exact opposite and World War II resulted. Sixty-eight million people died because of Hitler or trying to defeat him. However, the Nazi party and, more importantly, its message of hatred survive around the world today. A member of the audience asked if the current dilemma in Kosovo actually warranted the use of force. " There is no violence that is justified," Gandhi said. " But there is some that is necessary. We have become excellent crisis managers. We let something go until it blows up in our faces and then we use violence to solve the problem. If we were good situation managers, we could solve the problem with out violence." Gandhi also pointed out that there are different kinds of violence. His grandfather once sent Gandhi out at night to find a pencil he had thrown away. After he had found the pencil, his grandfather explained that by just throwing away a pencil, Gandhi had committed an act of violence by wasting resources which was violence against nature, and he had also committed violence against humanity by wasting a perfectly good pencil that someone else did not have. These are forms of what Gandhi called passive violence. Passive violence is any kind of oppression, verbal abuse, mental abuse, or prejudice. "Passive violence leads to anger," he said " And anger leads to physical violence." Someone in the audience asked how followers of nonviolence could protect themselves from people who were violent. " You would be right to use some violence to protect yourself or someone you love," Gandhi said. " The trick is to know how much violence to use." In 1991, Arun Gandhi founded the Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence in honor of his grandfather. Since the institute's founding, it has been responsible for the creation of educational programs aimed at conflict prevention, anger management, and relationship- and community-building. Gandhi's visit was made possible by the efforts of 25 campus and student organizations including Kimmel Leadership Center and the Indian Student Organization. Suzanne Kutterer-Siburt, assistant director of Kimmel Leadership Center said that this was the largest group of student organizations to ever come together for one event. " I hope this effort will not stop here," Gandhi said. " I hope SIUE will continue to work towards peace and harmony." |