Mahatma Gandhi’s Grandson To Give Gandhi Lecture at Yale

March 29, 2007

For Immediate Release

Contact: Marilyn Wilkes (203) 432-3413

Mahatma Gandhi’s Grandson To Give Gandhi Lecture at Yale

March 29, 2007. New Haven. – Professor Rajmohan Gandhi, Mahatma Gandhi’s grandson, will deliver the 2007 Gandhi lecture titled “Gandhi in Our Times” on April 19 at 4:30 p.m., Whitney Humanities Center, 55 Wall Street, Room 208, New Haven. It is sponsored by the Council on South Asian Studies at the MacMillan Center. Professor Gandhi’s lecture will focus on the relationship between Muslims and non-Muslims, the relationship between religion and politics, and coping with fanaticism and extremism. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Rajmohan Gandhi is Visiting Professor in the Program on South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Faculty Director of Global Crossroads, a learning and living community at the University of Illinois. He is a Jury Member, Nuremberg International Human Rights Award, and Co-chair, Centre for Dialogue & Reconciliation, Gurgaon, India.

A former member of the Rajya Sabha (the upper house of the Indian Parliament), he led the Indian delegation to the UN Human Rights Commission in 1990. He is a commentator in the Indian media, and the author of several books. In 2002, he received the Sahitya Akademi (India’s National Academy of Letters) Award for Rajaji: A Life, a biography of Chakravarti Rajagopalachari (1878-1972), leading figure in India’s freedom movement and Governor General of India, 1948-50.

Other books by him include Ghaffar Khan: Nonviolent Badshah of the Pakhtuns; Revenge & Reconciliation: Understanding South Asian History; The Good Boatman: A Portrait of Gandhi; Patel: A Life, a biography of Vallabhbhai Patel (1875-1950), Deputy Prime Minister of India, 1947-50; and Eight Lives: A Study of the Hindu-Muslim Encounter.

In 2004, he received the International Humanitarian Award (Human Rights) from the City of Champaign, and in 1997, he was awarded an honorary doctorate of law from the University of Calgary and an honorary doctorate of philosophy from Obirin University, Tokyo.

Following the lecture, Professor Gandhi will join the friends of South Asian Studies Council for dinner and a talk, “Gandhi You May Not Know” at Ahimsa Restaurant, 1227 Chapel Street, New Haven ($25 fee). To attend, please call Dr. Pravin Bhatt at 281-6208 or Dr. Kirit Vaidya at 203-371-4366.

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Contact Information:

Marilyn Wilkes
Yale Center for International and Area Studies
(203) 432-3413
marilyn.wilkes@yale.edu