THE TRANSITION OF ARUN GANDHI

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CATALYST HOUSE ANNOUNCES THE TRANSITION OF ARUN GANDHI

The 5^th Grandson of Mahatma Gandhi was known to millions worldwide for promoting his grandfather’s message of peace and for helping under-privileged children. He was 89.

NORTH LAS VEGAS NV: May 2, 2023 — Anuradha Bhosale, President of AVANI School & Residence for Children, made the sad announcement from Kolhapur India May 2, 2023.

A Tireless Warrior for Interfaith Cooperation, Peace & Social Justice

Born in 1934 in Durban, South Africa, Arun Gandhi was the fifth grandson of India’s legendary leader, Mohandas K. “Mahatma” Gandhi. Growing up under the discriminatory apartheid laws of South Africa, he was beaten by “white” South Africans for being brown and by “black” South Africans for being too light. He began to beat back and that is when his parents knew it was time to travel to India so young Arun could learn directly from Mahatma Gandhi.  Arun between ages 12-14 learned from his grandfather that, “Justice does not mean revenge, it means transforming the opponent through love.” 

Grandfather Gandhi taught Arun Gandhi to understand nonviolence through understanding violence. “If we know how much passive violence we perpetrate against one another we will understand why there is so much physical violence plaguing societies and the world,” Gandhi said. Through daily lessons, Arun says, he learned about violence and about anger.

Arun Gandhi shared the lessons taught to him by his Grandfather around the world. In recent decades his speaking engagements have included addressing the United Nations General Assembly, the unveiling of Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Washington DC, the Parliament of World Religions, Chicago Children’s Museum and the Women’s Justice Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He also delivered talks at the Young Presidents’ Organization in Mexico, the Trade Union Leaders’ Meeting in Milan, Italy, as well as the Peace and Justice Center in St. Louis, Missouri. Arun has spoken in Croatia, France, Ireland, Holland, Lithuania, Nicaragua, Brazil, China, Scotland, and Japan. He was a very popular speaker on college campuses and has spoken at, North Dakota State University, Concordia College, Baker University, Morehouse College, Marquette University, and the University of San Diego, to cite a few.

Arun was involved in social programs and writing, as well. Prior to moving to the U.S., in 1987, he worked 30 years as a journalist at the Times of India.  Arun and his late wife, Sunanda, rescued hundreds of orphaned children and placed them in loving homes around the world while living in India. 

In 1991 Arun and Sunanda started the M. K. Gandhi Institute Nonviolence at the Christian Brothers University in Memphis Tennessee. In 2008 the Institute was moved to the University of Rochester, New York.  Arun continued throughout his life to deliver his grandfather’s message of nonviolence and peace to hundreds of thousands of high school and University youth around the US and much of the Western World. Season for Nonviolence was established in 1998 by Arun Gandhi, as a yearly event celebrating the philosophies and lives of Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr.  Arun founded Gandhi Legacy Tour which introduces people to the major sites Gandhi was associated with in India and South Africa . He founded the Gandhi Worldwide Education Institute in 2008. The Institute promoted community building in economically depressed areas of the world through the joining of Gandhian philosophy and vocational education of children and their parents. 

Arun was the author of several books. The first, A Patch of White (1949), is about life in prejudiced South Africa; then, he wrote two books on poverty and politics in India; followed by a compilation of M.K. Gandhi’s Wit & Wisdom. He also edited a book of essays on World Without Violence: Can Gandhi’s Vision Become Reality? He wrote The Forgotten Woman: The Untold Story of Kastur, the Wife of Mahatma Gandhi, jointly with his late wife Sunanda and his bestseller Legacy of Love: My education in the path of nonviolence, most recent is The Gift of Anger published by Simon & Shuster, and he was writing memoirs up until the day of his passing.

 

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For more information on life and legacy of Arun Gandhi,

Contact:   Lynnea Bylund

Email:   [email protected]