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Living Gandhi award
Today
Guest Editor: Dr. Paul Dekar Editor: Dr. Khursheed Ahmed
GANDHI 150
The 28th Annual Phote: Courtesy of Bob Litch GANDHI PEACE FESTIVAL Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Towards a culture of peace, nonviolence and justice
2020 Theme: Black Lives Matter Saturday, October 17, 2020
Sponsored by India-Canada Society, Hamilton City of Hamilton McMaster University Faculty of Humanities www.humanities.mcmaster.ca/gandhi The 28th Annual Gandhi Peace Festival, October 2020 GANDHI 150
Words of Welcome ...... 3 Our Sincere Thanks ...... 4 Message from the President and Vice-Chancellor ...... 5 Greetings from the Centre for Peace Studies ...... 6 Our Guest Editor ...... 7 The City of Hamilton Senior of the Year Award Dr. Sri Gopal Mohanty ...... 8 Dr. Gary Warner to be honoured by McMaster University ...... 9 An unusual Gandhi Peace Festival ...... 10 The 28th Annual Gandhi Peace Festival: ...... 11 Black Lives Matter with Adrienne Shadd ...... 11 Gandhi’s Influence on the Civil Rights Movement in the United States ...... 13 Racism in Canada Leads to Inequitable Health and Social Outcomes ...... 18 Abiding relevance of Mahatma Gandhi ...... 19 Reply to Motion on Gandhi Square ...... 21 Gandhi's Influence In British Guiana ...... 23 Report from the Working Groups ...... 25 Individuals and Community Working Group ...... 26 Municipal Government and Services Working Group ...... 27 Businesses, Organizations and Agencies Working Group ...... 28 Institutions Working Group ...... 31 Mahatma Gandhi Peace Festival Sponsors ...... 33 Themes of Gandhi Peace Festivals ...... 33 Friends of the Festival – Thank you! ...... 34 Memories of 2019 (Gandhi 150) Gandhi Peace Festival ...... 35 2020 Gandhi Peace Festival Committees ...... 36
PDF version of this publication and previous Gandhi Festival publications can be downloaded from:
http://www.humanities.mcmaster.ca/gandhi/festival/booklets.html
Living Gandhi Today 2020 2 www.humanities.mcmaster.ca/gandhi
Words of Welcome
In 1993, McMaster University established the Gandhi Peace Festival under the direction of the Centre for Peace Studies, to make the value and strategies of nonviolence widely known, and to develop the concept and practice of nonviolence through intellectual analysis, dialogue, debate, and experimentation. Living Gandhi Today, published annually, has featured contributions by individuals, including one Nobel Peace Prize recipient, from eight countries. Each in their personal lives has integrated action, creativity, imagination, and thought.
This year’s theme, Black Lives Matter, responds in part to the growth over the past decade of a movement by that name in the United States. The fatal shootings of Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old African-American emergency medical technician in Louisville, Kentucky on March 13, 2020, and of George Floyd, an unarmed African-American man who was choked to death by police in Minneapolis, Minnesota on May 25, 2020 are but two of many tragedies that have fueled outrage and demonstrations, generally nonviolent, in the face of hatred, threats, and violence by some whites, police, and indifferent politicians.
Such manifestations of racism are known in Canada. In 1946, Viola Desmond, a civil rights activist, was sold a ticket at a New Glasgow, Nova Scotia theatre good only for the balcony. Diamond offered to pay the difference in price but was refused: “You people have to sit in the upstairs section.” When she refused to move, authorities hauled her off to jail. Her courage gave strength to Canada’s black community. Her photograph now graces Canada’s $10 bill.
In 1991, at Cole Harbour District High School, a fight that escalated into a brawl involving fifty youths of both races. This and several other incidents led provincial Black activists to mobilize for equal educational opportunities and to passage of reform laws.
On May 4, 1992, a daytime demonstration against the acquittal of police officers in the Rodney King case in Los Angeles descended into a nighttime riot on Toronto's Yonge Street. Ignoring the local context, media decried United States style violence by the young Black men.
Such incidents are not anomalies and have prompted many Canadians to address the root causes of racism in our country. The media regularly reveal how far we have yet to go to create a society that recognizes the full humanity of every person. But, there are also myriad examples of those who demonstrate a way forward, including former Hamilton MP Lincoln Alexander, who from 1985 to 1991 served as Lieutenant Governor of Ontario; and Michaëlle Jean, who from 2005 to 2010 served as Governor General of Canada.
Living Gandhi Today, 2020, celebrates the contributions of two leaders in our community who have lived the Gandhian path to peace through service in pursuit of the common good: Sri Gopal Mohanty, a founding member and chair of the Gandhi Peace Festival, and Hamilton’s Senior of the Year for 2020; and Gary Warner, recipient of an honorary doctorate by McMaster University in recognition of his crucial contributions. Both have modeled ways to respond to six challenges of Nobel Peace Prize recipients named twenty years ago. The culture-of-peace pathways are to respect all life, reject violence and practice active non-violence; share with others time and material resources in a spirit of generosity to end exclusion, injustice, and political and economic oppression; to listen to understand, always giving preference to dialogue, to preserve the planet through behaviour that respects all forms of life and preserves the balance of nature on the planet; and to help build a Hamilton in which all Canadians attain full personhood. As you read the contributions of Dr. Mohanty, Dr. Warner, and others in this edition of Living Gandhi Today, we trust you will join in seeking to ensure that black lives and indeed every life matters.
Paul R. Dekar Khursheed Ahmed Guest Editor Editor, [email protected] [email protected]
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We would like to express
Our Sincere Thanks to the following organizations for their generous support
City of Hamilton Canadian Heritage McMaster University www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage www.hamilton.ca www.mcmaster.ca
Population Health Research Institute The Hamilton Spectator www.phri.ca www.Thespec.ca
India Canada Society of Hamilton & Region Hamilton Malayalee Samajam www.indiacanadasociety.org www.hmsnet.org
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Gilmour Hall, Room 238 (905) 525-9140 x 24340 1280 Main Street West (905) 522-3391 Hamilton, ON L8S 4L8 [email protected] mcmaster.ca
Message from the President and Vice-Chancellor
On behalf of McMaster University, I am delighted to welcome you to the 28th Annual Gandhi Peace Festival, an inclusive event dedicated to the promotion of peace, nonviolence and social justice.
Hamilton’s Gandhi Peace Festival has grown in size over the last twenty-eight years and has become part of Hamilton’s cultural landscape, as well as gaining recognition both nationally and internationally. The Festival is jointly sponsored by McMaster University, the City of Hamilton, the India-Canada Society, and a host of community and other partners, and is an excellent example of collaboration between the community and the academy. I would like to take this opportunity to recognize the outstanding work and dedication of all our partners and to thank the many organizers and volunteers who have made this event possible, and have worked hard to ensure that it is able to proceed in the virtual environment.
In this year that has been dominated both by the COVID-19 pandemic, and by a number of tragic and horrifying incidents of anti-Black racism, it is particularly fitting that the Gandhi Peace Festival has taken Black Lives Matter as its theme. Over the past few months we have all been challenged to urgently address the systemic racism that persists in our society and to take positive and concrete action. The series of lectures and webinars that will take place over the coming weeks remind us of the ongoing relevance and importance of Gandhi’s teachings of peace, nonviolence, and inclusivity, and challenge us to effect positive change. We all have a part to play in working to combat the hate and racism that we see at a global level, and also within our own community.
Even though we are not able to gather together in person this year, I look forward to the opportunity to demonstrate our collective support for the promotion of peace and nonviolence in our society.
My very best wishes to you all.
David Farrar
President and Vice-Chancellor
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Greetings from the Centre for Peace Studies McMaster University
The Centre for Peace Studies at McMaster University is pleased to join hands with the Gandhi Peace Festival this year to address anti-Black racism in Canada, United States, and around the world.
Since our founding, the Centre for Peace Studies has endeavored to educate students and the community-at- large about past and ongoing injustices, to recognize systemic violence, and work collectively to correct a system that allows injustice to continue. In solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, the Centre for Peace Studies is committed to continue to study, dialogue, collaborate, and act together to achieve a society that is just, equitable, and peaceful.
With the long-standing race-related inequities becoming more visible due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this is an important moment to reflect on Gandhi’s lessons, such as employing non-violence as a mode of resistance, cultivating community self-reliance, promoting inter-religious harmony, and working for the welfare of all. The influence of Gandhian thought on the Civil Rights movement in the United States also seems pertinent to reflect upon in these challenging times, as we recognize that anti-Black racism and anti-Indigenous racism is a daily lived experience for many in our communities. We hope that open, inclusive conversations on Gandhi’s legacies can prompt us to work together across our individual differences and identities to take on the urgent task of becoming agents of positive social transformation.
We look forward to collaborating, participating, and learning together through the webinars on Black Lives Matter and continuing our longstanding support of the Festival.
Best wishes,
Dr. Chandrima Chakraborty Director, Centre for Peace Studies University Scholar and Professor, English and Cultural Studies
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Our Guest Editor
Dr. Paul Dekar
Dr. Paul Dekar has kindly agreed to be our guest editor for this publication this year. He has deep personal knowledge of race relations in USA and Canada. He has conductied in- depth studies of the lives of Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi.
Paul Dekar taught at McMaster Uiversity from 1976-1995 and subsequently in Memphis, Tennessee at the University of Memphis and Memphis Theological Seminary. He teaches, writes, and volunteers with several organizations including the Canadian Friends Service Committee, Dundas Community Services, and the Fellowship of Reconciliation. His new book, Thomas Merton, God's Messenger towards a Mew World, to be published this fall, has a chapter on Dr. Paul Dekar writings by the Cistercian monk on Gandhi.
Paul was the co-founder of the Centre for Peace Studies at McMaster University in 1989.
Paul has devoted all his life studying and lecturing on creating understanding between religious and racial divides. His PhD thesis at University of Chicago was entitled. “Crossing Religious Frontiers. Christianity and the Transformation of Bulu”
He has received numerous honours and awards including “Canada World Citizen of the Year 1994” in Hamilton. Paul humbly states, “Over the years, I have taught, preached and participated in friendship visits in 40 countries. Retired since 2008, I still teach, write, and volunteer with Dundas Community Services, Canadian Friends (Quakers) and other groups.” He has published 10 books and many research articles and book chapters. A list of his books follows.
Books Thomas Merton: God’s Messenger on the Road towards a New World Foreword Christine M. Bochen, Afterword, Mark C. Meade. Eugene: Cascade Books, 2020. Dangerous People: The Fellowship of Reconciliation Building a Nonviolent World of Justice, Peace, and Freedom. Foreword: Kristin Stoneking. Virginia Beach: Downing Company, Publishers, 2016. Thomas Merton. Twentieth Century Wisdom for Twenty-First Century Living. Foreword Paul M. Pearson. Eugene: Cascade Books, 2011. Building a Culture of Peace. Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America. The First Seventy Years. Foreword: Mary Lin Hudson. Eugene: Pickwick Publications, 2009. Community of the Transfiguration. Journey of a New Monastic Community. Foreword: Phyllis Tickle. Eugene: Cascade Books, 2008. Creating the Beloved Community. A Journey with the Fellowship of Reconciliation. Foreword: Donald B. Kraybill. Telford: Cascadia Publishing House and Scottdale: Herald Press, 2005. Holy Boldness. Practices of an Evangelistic Lifestyle. Foreword: David Waters. Macon: Smyth and Helwys, 2004. For the Healing of the Nations. Foreword Martin E. Marty. Macon: Smyth and Helwys Publishing, 1993. Crossing Barriers in World Mission. Toronto: Canadian Baptist International Ministries, 1983. The Renewal We Seek. Toronto: Baptist Convention Ontario and Quebec, 1982.
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The City of Hamilton Senior of the Year Award Dr. Sri Gopal Mohanty
Dr. Sri Gopal Mohanty, a founding member and the Chair of Gandhi Peace Festival was awarded the The City of Hamilton Senior of the Year in September 2020.
Arriving in Hamilton in 1964, Dr. Sri Gopal Mohanty began to play a pioneering role in intercultural learning and exchange in Hamilton, many years before Canada’s adoption of multiculturalism. Over the last 55 years, his mission has been to make Indo-Canadians proud of their rich heritage and their newly adopted home, Canada.
Around 1973, he realized the need for an organization to help new immigrants from India to integrate with the local community. On November 3, 1973, he and a few friends launched the India Canada Society (ICS) which is the flagship organization of Indo- Canadians in the Hamilton region. He took a leading role in involving the Indo-Canadian community in the Folk Arts Council and Multicultural Center through ICS.
In the 1970s, responding to racist attacks faced by the South Asian community, he took a leadership role in forming the Hamilton Mrs. Shanti Mohanty and Dr. Sri Human Rights Committee, which became the precursor of Mayor’s Gopal Mohanty Race Relations Committee. The Committee’s role was commended nationally in curbing racism.
In 1993, Dr. Mohanty helped organize the 20th anniversary celebration of ICS—A Celebration of Gandhi—, which became the starting point for the Annual Gandhi Peace Festival (GPF). This very popular Hamilton Peace Festival is now in its 27th year. Most recently, as Chair of GPF and Co-Chair of Gandhi’s 150th Birth Anniversary Celebrations, he helped to organize an important conference1 on how to eliminate racism in Hamilton.
Besides community work and peace activism, Dr. Mohanty has a lifelong passion in intercultural learning, producing various dance and drama performances. He is a source of inspiration to many in the community. At the golden age of 87, Dr. Mohanty continues to be actively involved in promoting peace and inter-cultural understanding. His life-long contributions in the above areas have immeasurably enriched the life of Hamiltonians.
A number of community members nominated Dr. Mohanty for the award, including Roma Juneja (President, India Canada Society), Dr. Anil Varughese (Secretary, India Canada Society), Dr. Ashok Dalvi, and Dr. Paul Younger)
1 https://www.humanities.mcmaster.ca/gandhi/onefifty/Gandhi150Conference.pdf
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Dr. Gary Warner to be honoured by McMaster University
McMaster University will honour Dr. Gary Warner with an honorary Doctor of Laws (LL.D.) Honoris Causa for his many outstanding and significant community contributions at the local, national, and international levels.
Born in Trinidad and Tobago and with a PhD from Université de Caen France, Gary Warner began his academic career at McMaster in 1967 as an Assistant Professor of French literature in the Department of Romance Languages. Consistently over the past 50+ years, Dr. Warner has held the vision of establishing what Martin Luther King, Jr. called the “beloved community”—one where the structures that generate poverty, hunger and homelessness have been dismantled and where racism and all forms of discrimination, bigotry and prejudice are replaced by an all- inclusive understanding of the benefits of equity within a diverse society. For his many accomplishments in creating the conditions of the beloved community at McMaster, in Hamilton, and globally, Dr. Warner has been Dr. Garry Warner a recipient of many recognitions, including the McMaster Students Union Lifetime Achievement Award, the Royal Bank Distinguished Citizen of the Year Award, the Order of Canada, and the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal. He has served in so many capacities that it will be impossible to list here.
Mentor/Teacher Dr. Warner has influenced the lives of thousands of students as a teacher and mentor. He consistently challenged students to become “global citizens” who explore how their own education can contribute to improving the lives of people at home in Hamilton and around the world. From 1979 to 1984, Dr. Warner served as Chair of the Department of Romance Languages. Dr. Warner went on to become Associate Dean of Humanities, and later the Director of McMaster’s prestigious and renowned Arts and Science Programme. In 1972 (almost 50 years ago!), Dr. Warner launched undergraduate and graduate courses in Francophone African and Caribbean Literature at McMaster. In the 1970s, Dr. Warner also joined CUSO (Canadian University Service Overseas) and became involved in designing and administering programs in West Africa where students and professors could gain direct international experiences. He was the founding Director of McMaster International, whose vision was to engage students and faculty in direct exchanges and experiential learning with universities in the global south, especially in Africa and Central America.
Community leader and builder Throughout his career, Gary Warner has integrated his life as a researcher and teacher with his consistent passion for building the beloved community everywhere he goes. While some university professors rarely cross the imagined divide between “town” and “gown,” Dr. Warner has never allowed such a gap to exist between his life as a researcher and teacher and his life as a builder of the beloved community. For his unusual contribution to academic achievements and community participation, he was awarded Order of Canada in 2005.
Dr. Warner’s gentle and welcoming spirit, his passion for justice and peace-building, his attention to helping each person he meets feel part of the community makes people want to work with him. One of his biggest challenges is to prioritize the many requests he receives to serve on committees, function as an advisor, present the keynote conference talk, or serve as a speaker at Black History Month events.
Dr. Warner is valued member of Gandhi Peace Festival Organizing Committee and has organized several conferences and public events in this role. We congratulate Dr. Gary Warner for his remarkable achievements and an illustrious career.
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An unusual Gandhi Peace Festival October 2, 2020
Because of COVID-19 pandemic this year, all in-person Gandhi Peace Festival activities were cancelled.
On the morning of October 2, a webinar on "Black Lives Matter" was held by historian Adrienne Shad in conversation with Dr. Gary Warner, hosted by Dr. Chandrima Chakraborty in collaboration with Centre for Peace Studies, McMaster University.
Several community members later went to Gandhi Statue at Hamilton City Hall, in mask and with social distancing to garland Bapu. Mahatma Gandhi, keeping up with changing times
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The 28th Annual Gandhi Peace Festival:
Black Lives Matter with Adrienne Shadd
A screen shot of the conversation with Adrienne Shadd on Black Lives in Hamilton, condcuted by Dr. Gary Warner
This year, because of COVID-19 pandemic, instead of the usual gathering and Peace March at Hamilton City Hall, two online presentations are organized. The first one was held on Mahatma Gandhi’s borthday on Octiober 2nd. It consisted of a a conversation with Adrienne Shadd on Black Lives in Hamilton. The conversation was condcuted by Dr. Gary Warner. The entired video presentation can be viewed at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjP3HhPKlXw&feature=youtu.be
Adrienne Shadd is a Toronto-based consultant, curator, and author. A descendant of Abraham Doras Shadd, a prominent abolitionist in the 19th century, and Mary Ann Shadd Cary, the first Black woman to publish and edit a newspaper in North America, Adrienne is herself a noted historian, specializing in the heritage of African Canadians. Her publications include, the first book on Toronto Black history, The Underground Railroad: Next Stop, Toronto! with Afua Cooper and Karolyn Smardz Frost and The Journey from Tollgate to Parkway: African Canadians in Hamilton.
The second presentation will feature a Webinar on October 17, 2020 by Prof. Vinay Lal, Professor of History at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). See the poster of the event on the next page.
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Gandhi Peace Festival Committee presented The 28th Annual Gandhi Peace Festival Festival Theme: Black Lives Matter a Zoom Webinar with Prof. Vinay Lal on Gandhi and Racism in the Wake of Black Lives Matter October 17, 2020 at 1:00 pm EST (10:30 PM India, 10 AM PST) Hosted by Dr. Anne Pearson
Vinay Lal is Professor of History at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and his most recent book is The Fury of Covid-19: The Passions, Histories, and Unrequited Love of the Coronavirus (Pan Macmillan). He blogs at vinaylal.wordpress.com and has an academic channel at https://www.youtube.com/user/dillichalo
In recent years a number of Gandhi's critics have alleged that he was a racist; the harsher critics maintain that he remained a racist throughout his life, and that he was a master at manipulating his public persona. The criticisms are largely directed to his South African years, and it is argued both that he consistently used derogatory language in speaking of Black people and that he failed to involve them in the struggle that he initiated for the rights of Indians. Dr. Lal offered a brief account of Gandhi's activities in South Africa and go beyond the usual defence that his views evolved, though such an argument is not without merit.
For further information, please contact: Dr. Rama Singh
(The audio of this seminar will soon be available on Gandhi Peace Festival website)
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Gandhi’s Influence on the Civil Rights Movement in the United States
Paul R. Dekar
Paul R. Dekar taught at McMaster University from 1976-1995 and subsequently in Memphis, Tennessee at the University of Memphis and Memphis Theological Seminary.
By the 1920s, Gandhi had begun to influence civil rights activism in the U. S. John Haynes Holmes (1879-1964), a In 1935, Baptist pastor, theologian, and educator Howard prominent Unitarian minister, reformer, and pacifist in Thurman (1899-1981) was part of a delegation to India World War I, was an early exponent of Gandhi's ideas. He along with his wife Sue and two other African-Americans. co-founded the National Association for the Advancement Thurman met Rabindranath Tagore and Gandhi. During an of Colored People (NAACP) and American Civil Liberties interview, Gandhi urged Thurman to return to the U. S. Union (ACLU). He spoke of Gandhi in sermons entitled prepared to adopt what he learned in India. He told "The Christ of Today" and "Who is the Greatest Man in the Thurman, "It may be through the Negroes that the World Today?" Unity, the magazine that Holmes edited, unadulterated message of nonviolence will be delivered to was the first publication in the U. S. to publish Gandhi's the world." Autobiography, The Story of My Experiment with Truth. At the end of their tour, the delegation stood at Khyber Gandhi influenced members of several bodies, including Pass, between what is now Pakistan and Afghanistan. As the Religious Society of Friends, a historic peace church he looked out, Thurman reflected on the fact that racism, along with the Brethren and Mennonites. On a visit to as he had experienced it in church life, was a “monumental India in 1926, Quaker leader Rufus Jones (1863-1948) betrayal of the Christian ethic.” He returned to the U. S. interviewed Gandhi, who said to Jones, “Faith in the resolved to adopt Gandhian ideas in his pastoral work. For conquering power of love and truth has gone all the way example, he established an interracial congregation known through my inmost being and nothing in the universe can as the “Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples.” In the ever take it from me.” (The Testimony of the Soul, p. 163). 1950s, Thurman accepted a position as chaplain and In this autobiography, Jones highlighted Gandhi’s concept professor of spiritual disciplines in Boston where Martin of satyagraha, a Sanskrit word loosely translated as Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) studied. A close friend of the nonviolence or soul force. family, Thurman urged King to adopt nonviolence through loving rather than demonizing opponents. In the Members of the International Fellowship of Reconciliation Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955-1956, King carried a (IFOR), an interfaith body begun during World War I in copy of Thurman’s Jesus and the Disinherited. response to the horrors of war in Europe, studied Gandhi’s works. Many traveled to India where they adopted In an essay entitled “Peace Tactics and a Racial Minority,” Gandhian nonviolence to delegitimize power and uproot Thurman wrote: such violence as segregation in administrative, economic, At the very center of the Christian faith, even the enemy educational, and social spheres. IFOR has grown to 71 must be loved. The injunction is, “But I say unto you, branches, groups, and affiliates in 48 countries on all love your enemies, that you may be children of your continents. Father who sends His rain on the just and the unjust.” It is clear and needs no underscoring that what seems to Gandhi influenced the leadership of the civil rights be the natural thing is to hate one’s enemy. The movement. James Lawson trained in nonviolence and insistence here is that the individual is enjoined to move served in Nagpur. Ralph Abernathy, James Baldwin. from the natural impulse to the level of deliberate intent. Marian Wright Edelman, Jim Farmer, Martin Luther King, One has to bring to the center of his focus a desire to Jr., Rosa Parks, A. Philip Randolph, James Herman love even one’s enemy. Robinson, Bayard Rustin, Howard Thurman, and others drank from the wellspring of Gandhian influence. A prolific author, Thurman placed Gandhian ideas at the heart of his ministry. Today, many regard him as the The death of Congressman John Lewis in July, 2020 spiritual godfather of the civil rights movement. highlighted the role of a remarkable generation of leaders who challenged racism. In this short essay, I can cite only India provided the backdrop to an initiative in an a few examples of Gandhian influence on the civil rights impoverished area of New York City known as Harlem. and black power movements. James Herman Robinson (1907-1972), African-American
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pastor of a Presbyterian congregation, believed people Gandhi including Romain Rolland, Mahatma Gandhi could be organized to end racial segregation. He (1924); Charles Freer Andrews, Mahatma Gandhi His Life encouraged a local IFOR chapter to create an interracial and Works (1930); Richard Gregg, The Power of ashram, a spiritual community in India. The Harlem Nonviolence (1935), salt march veteran Krishnalal Jethalal Ashram existed from 1940 to 1946. Shridharani, War without Violence (1939); and Nonviolence in an Aggressive World by labor leader and The first (white) members circulated a broadsheet onetime FOR executive director A. J. Muste (1940). addressing the question, why had they chosen to reside in a part of New York City in which residents were largely The Harlem Ashram provided a bridge by which nonviolent African-American or Puerto Rican. direct action techniques crossed from India to North America. Harlem Ashram members successfully WE LIVE IN HARLEM BECAUSE: campaigned to desegregate New York City’s YMCAs. In We regard the problem of racial justice as America’s 1942, members undertook a two-week interracial No. 1 problem in reconciliation, and most of our work pilgrimage. Fourteen persons walked two hundred and concerns the Negro-white aspect of this problem. forty miles from New York to the Lincoln Memorial in Living here makes it easy for us to contact Negro Washington, D. C., to support anti-lynching and anti-poll leaders. tax bills before Congress. Harlem is the opinion-making center of Negro America, the Negro capital of the nation. To develop satyagraha in the struggle against racism, FOR Living here helps us who are white to get something of staff John M. Swomley Jr., a white, and James Farmer, an the “feel” of being a Negro in America. African-American, roomed together in Chicago where they helped form the Congress for Racial Equality (CORE). Almost at once, three African-Americans joined. All were FOR encouraged local chapters to deal with race prejudice Christian. A Hindu from India also joined the core group. in employment, housing, and public facilities such as The ashram included single men and women as well as prisons. Each weekend, FOR staff conducted Race families. Located at 2013 Fifth Avenue, near 125th Street, Relations Institutes in northern cities. Programs typically the ashram was near FOR’s office. Residents were FOR began on a Friday night. Various theologians would give a members. talk. Scientists gave presentations on the similarity of blood types of whites and blacks. Need for this initiative The Harlem Ashram exemplified primitive Christian arose during World War II, when segregationists objected communalism as described in the Biblical book of Acts 2: to blood transfusions from African-Americans for white 42-47 and Acts 4:32-35. Adopting voluntary poverty, each casualties. Saturday activities generally involved direct member gave according to her or his ability and received action with the goal of integrating establishments such as a according to his or her need. Each contributed to the restaurant, theater, or bowling alley. common purse that part of his or her income they were led to give and withdrew only what was needed. Living in In June 1943, two FOR staff members, Farmer and solidarity with the wider Harlem community, members Swomley went to Detroit after a race riot where a local served by chapter sought to mediate. On another occasion, Rustin helping African-Americans migrating from the South to went to Boulder, Colorado, and worked with Marjie find housing; Carpenter, a student and member of the campus chapter investigating the use of violence by the police in strikes; of FOR, to organize a sit-in at an off-campus drugstore- creating a credit union run by and for African- sandwich shop. The demonstration led to making services Americans, Puerto Ricans, and other minorities; available to everyone, African-Americans included. FOR organizing neighbors into a cooperative buying club; also campaigned to prevent the Pentagon from making conducting play activities for children on the streets of wartime conscription universal after the war. African-American and Puerto-Rican neighborhoods. FOR worked to desegregate public transportation. In 1945, Among speakers who addressed the community, Muriel staff members George Houser and Bayard Rustin Lester (1883-1968) was an English friend- of Gandhi, proposed an action that proved one of the most daring that traveling secretary for IFOR, and founder of a community FOR members had undertaken to date. Having resolved to in London called Kingsley Hall. Gandhi stayed there in challenge Jim Crow laws in interstate travel, they floated 1930-1932 when he attended the Round Table several ideas. The one that engendered the most support, Conference, a series of meetings in three sessions called and debate, was a two-week freedom ride called the by the British government to consider the future Journey of Reconciliation. constitution of India. Two key NAACP leaders, Walter White and future U. S. In the early 1930s, Lester lectured in the U. S. where she Supreme Court Associate Justice Thurgood Marshall shared her experience of Gandhi's nonviolent resisted this kind of direct action as potentially counter- undertakings. At the Harlem Ashram, Lester helped shape productive. Marshall warned that a “disobedience a course on “total pacifism.” Members studied books on movement on the part of Negroes and their white allies, if
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employed in the South, would result in wholesale slaughter and Arabic. Most recently, during the so-called Arab with no good achieve.” From April 9 to 23, 1947, the Spring, thousands of copies in Arabic circulated among interracial team road a bus through fifteen cities in Virginia, protesters in Tunisia and Egypt. North Carolina, Tennessee, and Kentucky. Along the way, the freedom riders spoke at meetings organized by From February 2 to March 10, 1959, Martin Luther King, churches, colleges, and civil rights groups. Jr. toured India accompanied by Coretta Scott King and Lawrence D. Reddick, African-American professor at In several cities, local officials arrested participants, who Alabama State University in Montgomery. Returning, King welcomed an opportunity to present their arguments in a commented on the relevance of India for those seeking court of law. In one North Carolina case, Judge Henry racial and economic justice in the U. S. Whitfield ruled that the defendants had violated the state’s I left India more convinced than ever before that Jim Crow laws. He found the behavior of the European nonviolent resistance is the most potent weapon Americans--Joseph Felmet, Andrew Johnson, and Igal available to oppressed people in their struggle for Roodenko-- “especially objectionable.” In sentencing team freedom. It was a marvelous thing to see the amazing members, Judge Whitfield admonished, “It’s about time results of a nonviolent campaign. The aftermath of you Jews from New York learned that you can’t come hatred and bitterness that usually follows a violent down her bringing your niggers with you to upset the campaign was found nowhere in India. Today a mutual customs of the South. Just to teach you a lesson, I gave friendship based on complete equality exists between you black boys thirty days, and you whites ninety.” the Indian and British people within the commonwealth. The way of acquiescence [to violence] leads to moral Trained in Gandhian tactics, participants did not respond to and spiritual suicide. The way of violence leads to violence with violence. They demonstrated the promise of bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the nonviolent direct action, without which, they believed, the destroyers. But, the way of nonviolence leads to Jim Crow pattern in the South could not be broken. Many redemption and the creation of the beloved community. African-Americans discovered that they were not alone in (A Testament of Hope, p. 25) their struggle for racial justice. Many were arrested and able to contribute to moderating the way prison guards Early in the civil right movement, campaigns exhibited treated people of colour. These first “freedom riders” tested deep commitment to nonviolence in all forms struggle to successfully court decisions outlawing discrimination in advance the equality of everyone, especially the most interstate travel. vulnerable such as children, adolescents, the elderly, or the disabled. In 1963, during the Birmingham campaign, In 1948, an African-American FOR staff member Bayard Martin Luther King, Jr. set forth a radical action-plan for Rustin spent a month in India where he had conversations culture change. King required each participant in protests with young intellectuals who urged him to help shape a to abide by the following “Ten Commandments: mass effort in the U. S. modeled on Gandhian satyagraha. An organizer of the August 20, 1963 March on Meditate daily on the teachings and life of Jesus Washington, Rustin headed the U. S. chapter of War Remember always that the nonviolent movement in Resisters International and worked with other leading Birmingham seeks justice and reconciliation—not victory. organizations including the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and CORE. Walk and talk in the manner of love, for God is love.
Pray daily to be used by God in order that all men might be FOR deputed staff to work with Martin Luther King, Jr. free. during the Montgomery bus boycott and later to conduct workshops and other actions throughout the South. In Sacrifice personal wishes in order that all men might be 1955, FOR published a full-color comic book, Martin Luther free. King and the Montgomery Story, which has had wide influence. Observe with both friend and foe the ordinary rules of courtesy. For example, future Georgia Congressman John Lewis Seek to perform regular service for others and for the read the comic book as a teenager. The comic book world. demonstrated in clear fashion to Lewis the power of the philosophy and the discipline of nonviolence. Later, he Refrain from the violence of fist, tongue, or heart. attended weekly meetings with other students from Fisk Strive to be in good spiritual and bodily health. University, Tennessee State University, Vanderbilt University, and American Baptist College to discuss Follow the directions of the movement and of the captain nonviolent protest, The Montgomery Story served as one on a demonstration. (Why We Can’t Wait p. 61) of their guides. Dr. King drew the phrase “beloved community” from the Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story has been ethical and pastoral discourse of his father and key translated into several languages, including Spanish, Farsi, African-American mentors such as Benjamin Mays and
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Howard Thurman, as well as social gospel pioneers Josiah or of the great religions of South Asia (Buddhism, Royce and Walter Rauschenbusch. For King, the beloved Hinduism, Jainism) those of us who are steeped in the community entailed the realm of God coming to be. A legacies of contemporary disciples such as Gandhi, Thich foundational ideal of the U. S., African-Americans could Nhat Hahn, Badshah Kahn, Chȃn Khȏng, Martin Luther actualize the dream by loving action. King observed, King, Jr., Rosa Parks and others must be peace and model for others the peaceful world we dream. … love might well be the salvation of our civilization. This is why I am so impressed with “freedom and Many readers of this article will have lived through the Justice through Love” [motto of the Montgomery Montreal Massacre at which fourteen women were Improvement Association]. Not through violence; not murdered and others insured on December 6, 1989; 9/11; through hate; no, not even through boycotts; but murders at Ferguson and Baltimore; wars in China, through love. It is true that as we struggle for freedom in Yeman, and Armenia-Azerbaijan. Climate catastrophe America we will have to boycott at times. But we must threatens to engulf millions living close to oceans rising remember, as we do so, that a boycott is not an end due to the melting of the Arctic and Antarctic ice caps. itself; it is merely a means to awaken a sense of shame Violence fills the earth. within the oppressor and challenge his false sense of security. But the end is reconciliation; the end is I believe such violence is deeply rooted in the human redemption; the end is the creation of the beloved heart. We must remove it violence from the heart before it community. (Fellowship Magazine, 1957) destroys us, both physically and psychologically. The root of violence is fear, misunderstanding, and hatred. In the Fifty-two years after the death of King, the beloved Christian Newer Testament, James puts it this way: “Those community is not yet reality. Despite contrary evidence, I conflicts and disputes among you, where do they come believe the dream still has power to motivate people to from? Do they not come from your cravings that are at war walk the road of peace and justice. As a Quaker, I define within you?” (James 4:1). the dream as described in the mission of the American Friends Service Committee: “We seek a world free of war In his epistle, James provided something of an antidote: and the threat of war; we seek a society with equity and “Show by your good life that your works are done with justice for all; we seek a community where every person’s gentleness born of wisdom…. A harvest of righteousness potential may be fulfilled; we seek an earth restored.” is sown in peace for those who make peace.” (James 3:13- While there has been significant progress in some areas, I 18). Fear cannot be uprooted by the military. Security do not believe there can be peace on earth until, as cannot be achieved by bombs and missiles. Rather, look described in a United Nations document, all children daily deeply inside and change the object of our desiring. Only eat their fill, go warmly clad against the winter wind, and by changing the source of satisfaction can we then prepare learn their lessons with a tranquil mind. And thus released for a harvest of righteousness sown in peace. from hunger, fear, and need, regardless of their color, race, or creed, look upward smiling to the skies, their faith In Hebrew Scripture, Proverbs 31:8-9 enjoins that we in life reflected in their eyes. speak up for the people who cannot speak for themselves; protect the rights of all who are helpless; speak up for What do the theory, history, and practice of Gandhian them and be a righteous judge; protect the rights of the nonviolence have to do with such events as the September poor and needy. 11, 2001 attacks on three United States cities? Or the fatal shootings of Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old African- The writer Wendell Berry observes, “One must begin in American emergency medical technician in Louisville, one’s own life the private solutions that can only in turn Kentucky on March 13, 2020, and George Floyd, an become public solutions.” To this end, I share three basic unarmed African-American man who died while he was ABCs: being detained by police in Minneapolis, Minnesota on May 25, 2020? Is nonviolent protest adequate in the face Awareness: personal experience of social ill, and how that of violence by those we trust to calm troubled waters? affects oneself and others in one’s family and community can generate social action and broader movements such At the time of the Twin Tower attack, I was living and as the Occupy movement, Black Lives Matter, or the teaching in Memphis, Tennessee. My friend Jeff Irwin was school climate strikes initiated in August 2018 by the pastor of Everett United Methodist Church. After the young Swedish activist Greta Thunberg. In an interview attacks, he gave a sermon cautioning against violent with broadcaster Amy Goodman on Democracy Now!, retaliation. A member of the congregation came to him and Thunberg said she first got the idea of a climate strike after to threaten the group: “If following Jesus Christ means school shootings in the United States in February 2018 led turning my check, I’m not following Jesus.” to several youths refusing to go back to school. Teen activists at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in While I do not want to critique a “straw man” I believe that, Parkland, Florida, went on to organize the March for Our to live with any semblance of fidelity to the teachings of the Lives in support of greater gun control. As one response, three Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, or Islam) in May 2018, Thunberg won a climate change essay
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competition held by Swedish newspaper Svenska Peacemakers (Macon: Smyth and Helwys, 1993), especially the Dagbladet in which she wrote "I want to feel safe. How can chapters on Muriel Lester and Howard Thurman I feel safe when I know we are in the greatest crisis in ---- and Lewis V. Baldwin, eds., ”In an Inescapable Network of human history. Mutuality”: Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Globalization of an Ethical Ideal (Eugene: Cascade, 2013), Mohandas K. Gandhi and To prod my own awareness of the human condition, I carry Martin Luther King Jr.'s Bequest: Nonviolence Civil Resistance in in my diary Gandhi’s Talisman. It invites me to reflect on a Globalized World.” how I might concretely address a human need, as follows: Fluker, Walter E., “Gandhi and American Civil Rights” at https://consortiumnews.com/2019/02/01/ghandi-and-the- Whenever you are in doubt, or when the self becomes american-civil-rights-movement/ too much with you, apply the following test. Recall the Gandhi, Mohandas K., An Autobiography, The Story of My face of the poorest and the weakest man [woman] Experiment with Truth (1927, 1929) whom you may have seen, and ask yourself, if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him [her]. Graeber, David, The Democracy Project (New York: Spiegel & Will he [she] gain anything by it? Will it restore him [her] Grau, 2013), a case study of application of Gandhian satyagraha to a control over his [her] own life and destiny? In other in the Occupy Wall Street movement words, will it lead to swaraj [freedom] for the hungry and Hentoff, Nat, Peace Agitator. The Story of A. J. Muste (New York: spiritually starving millions? Then you will find your Macmillan, 1963) doubts and yourself melt away. (Gandhi, The Last Jones, E. Stanley, Gandhi. Portrait of a Friend (Nashville: Phase, Vol. II (1958), p.65) Abingdon, 1948)
Begin locally. Over the years, the Gandhi Peace Festival Jones, Rufus M., The Testimony of the Soul (New York: has supported grass roots initiatives to promote a culture Macmillan, 1936) of peace in Hamilton, for example by supporting specific King, Martin Luther, Jr., “My Trip to the Land of Gandhi,” in A projects such as the peace garden at Hamilton City Hall, Testament of Hope. The Essential Writings, ed., James M. where there is a statue of Gandhi. As well, the Gandhi Washington (New York: Harper & Row, 1986) Peace Festival has supported small development projects ------. Why We Can’t Wait (New York: Harper & Row, for women in India. 1963)
Lester, Muriel, The Rebel Passion. A Short History of Some Confidence: we can make a difference; never Pioneer Peace-Makers (Nyack: Fellowship Publications, 1964) underestimate the “power of one.” Anthropologist Margaret Mead is often quoted, “never doubt that a small group of Muste, A. J. Non-violence in an Aggressive World (New York: thoughtful committed citizens can change the world; Harper & Brothers, 1940) indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” African-Americans Prashad, Vijay, "The Influence of Gandhi on the American Non- express this as follows, “I am a somebody, and I can make Violence Movement" Little India website a difference.” As Howard Thurman wrote, Robinson, James Herman, Road without Turning. (New York: Farrar, Straus, 1950) There is in every person an inward sea, and in that sea there is an island and on that island there is an altar Southern Poverty Law Center, https://www.splcenter.org/ and standing guard before that altar is the ”angel with Thunberg, Greta, interview on Democracy Now, September 11, the flaming sword.” Nothing can get by that angel to be 2019. placed upon that altar unless it has the mark of your https://www.democracynow.org/2019/9/11/greta_thunberg_swedi inner authority. Nothing passes ”the angel with the sh_activist_climate_crisis flaming sword” to be placed upon your altar unless it be Thurman, Howard, Jesus and the Disinherited (New York: a part of ”the fluid area of your consent.” This is your Abingdon-Cokesbury, 1949) crucial link with the Eternal. [Meditations of the Heart] ------, With Head and Heart (New York: Harcourt Bibliography Brace & Company, 1979) Walker, Charles C., "The Impact of Gandhi on the U. S. Civil Dekar, Paul R., Dangerous People: The Fellowship of Rights Movement." Reconciliation Building a Nonviolent World of Justice, Peace, and https://www.mkgandhi.org/g_relevance/chap16.htm#:~:text=The Freedom (Virginia Beach: Downing Company, 2016) %20Impact%20Of%20Gandhi%20On%20The%20U.S.%20Peac e,and%20an%20outspoken%20pacifist%20in%20World%20War ------, For the Healing of the Nations. Baptist %20I
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Racism in Canada Leads to Inequitable Health and Social Outcomes
Abstracted from Canadian Race Relations Foundation News Release September 28, 2020
https://www.crrf-fcrr.ca/en/news-a-events/articles/item/27329-racism-in-canada-leads-to-inequitable-health- and-social-outcomes
The Canadian Race Relations Foundation (CRRF) survey also shows the impact of racism on Black strongly endorses the recent release of a new Canadians highlighting the socioeconomic situation resource entitled “Social determinants and of Canada’s Black population from 2001 to 2016 has inequities in health for Black Canadians: A not improved. For example, while the employment Snapshot”, the result of ongoing work of the Health rate of the Black population was lower than that of Inequalities Reporting Initiative. the rest of the population, the unemployment rate was higher. “For the total Black population, for all The Snapshot reports national data on inequalities in generations, the unemployment rate was 10% health outcomes and determinants of health for Black in 2016 for both women and men, compared with 6% Canadians, and highlights how Anti-Black racism and for women and 7% for men in the rest of the systemic discrimination are key drivers of health and population. Also, the unemployment rate of the Black social inequities faced by diverse Black Canadian population has grown since 2001, mainly among communities. men.”
The report highlights “Social, economic, and political CRRF believes these three reports show an factors shape the conditions in which individuals alignment that Black Canadians are greatly affected grow, live, work, and age, and are vitally important for by the racism they face and on multiple aspects of health and wellbeing. their lives. More needs to be done to tackle systemic anti-Black racism in Canada to help the Black Inequalities in these conditions can lead to population in Canada to thrive. And for this to inequalities in health.” The report also mentions that happen, multiple organizations need to collaborate “in recent years, racism has been increasingly towards this common goal, and it starts with recognized as an important driver of inequitable education. At CRRF, our work and project, Behind health outcomes for racialized Canadians.” Racism: Challenging the Way We Think, leads us to strongly believe the introduction of scientific Visit the Promoting Health Equity: Mental Health of approaches to the study of racism will be instrumental Black Canadians Fund, for more information, in helping to open new exciting approaches in our including a list of currently funded projects. collective anti-racism work.
These findings from the Public Health Agency of Canada, committed to the ongoing measuring, monitoring, and reporting of health inequalities and determinants of health for Canadians, align with recent findings from other organizations working to identify inequalities and eliminate racism in Canada.
Statistics Canada recently released figures highlighting hate crime affecting Black Canadians. In this report, the number of hate crimes in 2018 was higher than any other year in the past 10 years. And hate crimes targeting the Black population remained one of the most common types of hate crimes, representing 16% of all hate crimes. A recent labour
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Abiding relevance of Mahatma Gandhi K.P. Fabian, The Hindu, June 21, 2019
Ambassador Pascal Alan Nazareth was scheduled to speak in Hamilton in April 2020. Because of COVID pandemic, the talk was cancelled. This is a review of his recent book published in 2019. The review by Ambassador K. P. Fabian is reproduced from The Hindu newspaper and can be found at: https://frontline.thehindu.com/books/article27548696.ece?fbclid=IwAR3Tjmv8P1Emw6sEt0Q N8n-fbeVzukRtFeiUXl-RNkiKaHpSl71OMZeuma8
A timely book on Mohandas past three or four years Karamchand Gandhi that moving away from Gandhi and holds valuable lessons for the closer to Savarkar. Amb. Pascal Nazareth country today and shows why The relevance and timeliness Gandhi remains important. of Nazareth’s book should be appreciated against this Ambassador Alan Nazareth, background. He reasons out the relevance of Gandhi to the author, needs no our troubled times. His style is pellucid, his logic flawless, introduction to the reading and his approach holistic, taking in the views of scholars public in India or abroad. across continents and centuries. Retiring in 1994 after a The author demolishes the common error that all that distinguished career in the Gandhi did was to preach and practise non-violence by Indian Foreign Service that turning the other cheek as Christ said in the famous started in 1959, the author has Sermon on the Mount. Let us look at the last line in the emerged as a globally title, Revolutionised Revolution and Spiritualised It. recognised scholar on Nazareth has delivered what he promised in the title. Mahatma Gandhi. His book Gandhi’s Outstanding Leadership, published in 2016, has been translated into 32 In his foreword, the Dalai Lama says: “Non-violence languages, including 12 Indian ones. means more than the mere absence of violence. It is something more positive, more meaningful; for the true Let us reflect briefly on the current state of India to which expression of non-violence is compassion.” Nazareth this book holds a mirror. Imagine a set of class 12 students expands on this idea in his preface. “Gandhi is most often going to the Central Hall of Parliament; they see a portrait lauded as an ‘Apostle of Non-violence’. Though of Mahatma Gandhi and opposite that a bigger portrait of heartwarming, it is inaccurate as it fails to indicate his far another leader. Will the guide from the Parliament greater commitment to truth and attenuates the Secretariat tell them that Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, revolutionary nature of his ideology and praxis, and his whose portrait it is, “blessed” Nathuram Godse as he left remarkable achievements in diverse fields.” This slim Pune for Delhi in January 1948 with the ignoble goal of volume of 135 pages is a commendable exercise in brevity assassinating Gandhi? We doubt it. If the guide did tell that and reasoned argument as the author draws attention to story, what would the students think about a parliament Gandhi’s many-splendoured personality. that honours in equal measure the Father of the Nation and the man who conspired to get him killed? The first chapter, “Revolutions: Their Progenitors and Diverse Forms”, examines briefly what Aristotle, Let us take another look at contemporary India engaged in Machiavelli, Copernicus, Toffler, Gene Sharp, Tocqueville, the grand “festival of democracy” as the general election Hegel, Marx, Lenin, Mao Zedong, Ho Chi Minh, Arendt and has been described by some. In the 2014 general election, a few others have said or done in the matter. We have 185 of the 542 winning candidates had declared that they listed the names only to give an idea of the author’s ability had criminal cases against them. In 2019, 213 candidates to see the big picture in history, an ability that is rare in our have criminal cases against them, and there are 401 times, when we know more and more of the less and less, crorepatis contesting the election. as Toffler put it in the early 1970s. The ruling party is openly campaigning on a communal The second chapter, “Gandhi’s Revolutionary Vision, platform and advocating a Hindu Rashtra propounded by Ideology and Praxis”, explains the linkages between truth, Savarkar as early as 1921 while in jail in the Andamans, love and non-violence by quoting Gandhi and explaining from where he wrote an abject letter of apology to the where necessary. In Gandhi’s “historical perspective, he British government seeking an early release. saw dictators and tyrants maintaining their fearful sway, If our set of class 12 students is told all this, they will but temporarily. All empires built by the sword end up in correctly conclude that independent India has been in the the dustbin of history...”
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A quotation from Gandhi is painfully pertinent: “It has been Which Gandhi Operated”, the author points out that said Swaraj will be the rule of the majority community, i.e., Gandhi was a contemporary of Tsar Nicholas, Lenin, the Hindus. There could be no greater mistake than that. If Stalin, Kaiser Wilhelm, Hitler, Wilson, Roosevelt, Sun Yat it were to be true, I for one would refuse to call it swaraj Sen, Chiang Kai-shek, Mao Zedong and so on. The Indian and would fight it with all the strength at my command. For National Congress did not accept Gandhi’s principles with me Hind Swaraj is the rule of all people and the rule of alacrity. At the 1919 Amritsar Congress, when Gandhi justice.” spoke of truth and non-violence, Tilak retorted, “My friend, truth has no place in politics.” Alas, Tilak’s words apply to The reader will wonder how many candidates in the 2019 2019 India. Lok Sabha election will agree with Gandhi, though some may pretend to do so. Many of them openly disagreed with After the 1938 Munich Agreement, Gandhi wrote with Gandhi and brazenly campaigned for a Hindu Rashtra in prophetic insight, “England and France quailed before the gross violation of the Constitution, while a timid Election combined violence of Germany and Italy. The agreement Commission abandoned its primary responsibility to that has been signed is a peace that is no peace. The war enforce the Model Code of Conduct it had proclaimed with is only postponed.” much fanfare. We are all familiar with the argument that Gandhi’s soul The third chapter explores the influences on Gandhi, the force would not have been of any avail to the Jews whom scriptures and thinkers. As a student in London, Gandhi Hitler was murdering. It has been affirmed that the British read the Bhagavad Gita first in English, Edwin Arnold’s were less inhuman than Hitler and hence Gandhi The Song Celestial. The author has given an analytic succeeded in India and a German Gandhi had no chance. account of Gandhi’s reading ranging across Christianity, Nazareth has thrown fresh light on this debate. The Islam, Tolstoy, Thoreau and Ruskin. Some people have Swedish philosopher Johan Galtung has written: “The argued that Gandhi was no scholar. But Gandhi absorbed major reason why non-violence did not work in Hitler’s what the books had to convey, unlike most readers who Germany was that it was not tried.” There was at least one rapidly forget what they read. instance when it worked: In February 1943, the Gestapo Nazareth’s exposition of Satyagraha is exceptional. arrested the approximately 10,000 Jews still in Berlin. Of Gandhi said: “There is an indefinable mysterious power these about 8,000 were sent to Auschwitz. As to the that pervades, that holds all together, that creates, remaining 2,000, they had German wives and they were dissolves and recreates. That power is God.... It is the acid kept in a “collection centre”. The wives rushed in asking for test of non-violent conflict resolution that there is no their husbands. The number of wives increased day by day rancour left behind and in the end the opponents become and the Gestapo resorted to violence, but the women friends.” stood their ground. On the eighth day, they got their husbands. The author is not a totally uncritical worshipper of Gandhi. “He was undoubtedly unwise in making the sweeping There is much more to say on this book. But we conclude affirmation that ‘the tendency of Indian civilisation is to with one or two observations. The author has listed many elevate the moral being, that of Western civilisation is to leaders who came under the influence of Gandhi. The list propagate immorality’.” includes Aung San Suu Kyi of Myanmar. In view of her treatment of the Rohingya, does she qualify to be on the The author has dealt at length and in depth on the list? She is not the only one listed whose credentials can influence of Christ on Gandhi who did not endorse the Old be questioned. Politicians can be good wordsmiths, but we Testament. But the New Testament, particularly the need to look at their deeds. Sermon on the Mount, “went straight to my heart”. On a visit to the Sistine Chapel, Gandhi wrote, “What would not I The book has come out in the year of the centenary of the have given to be able to bow my head before the living massacre of innocent people at Jalianwala Bagh. Gandhi image of Christ crucified. I saw there at once that nations was fortified in his conviction that non-violence alone like individuals could only be made through the agony of would take India to freedom. He saw with rare insight that the cross and in no other way. Joy comes not out of there were enough Indians able and willing to shoot down infliction of pain on others but out of pain voluntarily borne their fellow Indians if ordered by their British masters. by oneself.” This book should be compulsory reading for the Less known is Gandhi’s “profound admiration” for Prophet candidates in the 2019 general election and for all Mohammad, about which C.F. Andrews has written. All politicians and bureaucrats. For the under 40s, this book is told, Gandhi was a universal man whose search for truth a revelation. In the context of all the pernicious rewriting of took him beyond his country of birth and beyond the history that goes on in India, with or without official century of his birth. He knew more and more of the more support, this book will stand out as an instance of calm and more. He was truly holistic. reasoning with no partisan axe to grind. It is written with a sincere wish to see a better India and a better world for In the fourth chapter, “The Global and Indian Scenarios in humanity.
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Reply to Motion on Gandhi Square
Ela Gandhi South African Member of Parliament
Ela Gandhi, granddaughter of Mahatma Gandhi, is a South African peace activist and was a Member of Parliament in South Africa from 1994 to 2004, where she aligned with the African National Congress party representing the Phoenix area of Inanda in the KwaZulu-Natal province
As indicated by Councillor Nelson Mandela was well aware of the racist Mabona, some of Gandhi’s statements made by Gandhi when he was young. early views on Africans were Mandela wrote in an article in 1995: racist. But that was before he “All in all, Gandhi must be forgiven those prejudices became the Mahatma (Great and judged in the context of the time and Soul). circumstances. We are looking here at the young Gandhi, still to become the Mahatma, when he was Gandhi said ‘My life is my without any human prejudice save that in favour of message”. His life shows how truth and justice”. Ela Gandhi an ordinary human being who has many weaknesses can rise to great heights by With the benefit of experience gained in South Africa, shedding his early prejudices and turning to ideas of Gandhi changed his views and publicly defended shared humanity and public service. African rights.
Gandhi practised what he preached. He overcame In his landmark speech to the Young Mens’ Christian fear and defied the racist regime in South Africa, and Association (YMCA), delivered in Johannesburg on the colonial power of imperialist Britain. During the 18 May 1908, Gandhi declared course of his struggle against racism and colonialism, “South Africa would probably be a howling Gandhi went to prison five times in South Africa and wilderness without the Africans”. Now in his late nine times in India. 30s, Gandhi spoke at the YMCA of his vision of an inclusive, multi-racial society in South Africa: “If we Gandhi was also incorruptible, and sets a powerful look into the future, is it not a heritage that we leave example for a country like South Africa, which has to posterity that all the different races commingle been scourged by corruption. and produce a civilisation that perhaps the world has not yet seen”. At the age of 24, Gandhi arrived in South Africa in 1893 as an inexperienced Indian colonial lawyer who After returning to India, Gandhi kept up his interest in shared prejudices towards Africans which were then South Africa, and wrote often about the oppression of current. Africans. In a speech at Oxford in 1931, he said: “ … as there has been an awakening in India, even Yet Gandhi had no malice, and during this same so there will be an awakening in South Africa with period he asserted that Africans had as much right to its vastly richer resource – natural, mineral and the franchise in Natal as the whites or the Indians. In human. The mighty English look quite pygmies a letter published in the Times of Natal, 26 October before the mighty races of Africa. They are noble 1894, Gandhi wrote: savages after all, you will say. They are certainly “The Indians do not regret that capable natives can noble, but no savages and in the course of a few exercise the franchise. They would regret it if it were years the Western nations may cease to find in otherwise. They (the Indians), however, assert that Africa a dumping ground for their wares”. they too, if capable, should have the right. You, in your wisdom, would not allow the Indian or the After his release from prison, Nelson Mandela made native the precious privilege under any a number of statements that are worth recalling. circumstances, because they have a dark skin”.
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At the unveiling of unveiling of the Gandhi Statue at began in 1907 and reached its climax in 1913 with Gandhi Square in 2003, the speech from Mandela the epic march of 5, 000 workers indentured on the said: coal mines of Natal”. “Gandhi’s political technique and elements of the non-violent philosophy developed during his stay in The Indian Passive Resistance movement was a Johannesburg became an enduring legacy for the source of inspiration for the Programme of Action continuing struggle against racial discrimination in adopted by the ANC in 1949. Speaking years later, South Africa”. during the Treason Trial of 1956-1961, ANC leader Prof. Z.K. Matthews described the passive resistance In 2007, Mandela wrote: of 1946 as the “immediate inspiration” for the decision ‘Gandhi’s philosophy contributed in no small of the African National Congress in 1949 to take up measure in bringing about a peaceful transformation civil disobedience”. in South Africa and in healing the destructive human divisions that had been spawned by the abhorrent In 1952 the first mass anti-apartheid campaign, practice of apartheid”. organised by the African National Congress and South African Indian Congress, was modelled on the In an article from 1999, Mandela wrote: pattern of non-violent civil disobedience set by “Gandhi threatened the South African government Gandhi. during the first and second decades of our [Twentieth] Century as no other man did. He In conclusion, Gandhi started out an ordinary person established the first anti-colonial political with many received opinions and prejudices of his organisation in the country, if not the world, time. His greatness lay in his progressive founding the Natal Indian Congress in 1894. The development beyond these positions. African peoples’ organisation (APO) was In view of Mahatma Gandhi’s huge contribution to established in 1902, and the ANC in 1912, so that civil rights movements and anti-colonial struggles in both were witnesses to and highly influenced by South Africa and internationally, the Gandhi name Gandhi’s militant Satyagraha campaign which and statue should be kept at Gandhi Square.
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Gandhi's Influence In British Guiana Ramnarine Sahadeo
Ramnarine Sahadeo, born in Leguan, Guyana, is a retired lawyer in Ontario, Canada. He edited pocket size Gita by Gandhi for each home; authored many articles and two books, Mohandas K. Gandhi, Thoughts, Words, Deeds, and his inspiration the Bhagavad-Gita. Mr Sahadeo initiated Mahatma Gandhi scholarship at McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada. E-mail: [email protected]
Once again, as we plan to celebrate October 2, the Reverend Charlie Freer Andrews following his visit to birthday of one of the greatest souls of the 20th century, Guiana for three months in 1929. some are questioning the relevance of this old man with a walking stick who wanted the sun to set on the British Charlie was sent to India about 1904 to propagate the Empire. Yet there are many who know little or nothing gospel but soon found himself immersed with the freedom about him. struggle after he witnessed the arrogance and discrimination of English policies and practices. In 1913, Indentureship he was sent by Gokale to South Africa to assist Gandhi in All indentured servants and independent nations of the confronting the dehumanising laws against Indians there. commonwealth are indebted to Gandhi and can still learn Described as Gandhi's adopted brother with the name from his life. Born in Asia, educated in Europe, and Deana Bandhu (friend of the poor) and the man who aside matured in Africa, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi never from Gandhi was most respected by Indians Charlie, as a touched the soil of the Americas yet his influence was guest of British Guiana East Indian Association, (BGEIA) global and even reached tiny far away British Guiana spent three months across the Coastland observing where about 238,900 indentured were sent from 1838 to firsthand the conditions of the children of Bharat. On his 1917. return to India, it was his assessment that influenced Gandhi and Congress not to approve the Colonisation "My life is my message," stated the Mahatma and even Scheme. That is only one of countless reasons why the though he was never willing to leave India during its descendants of Indentured servants all over the world lengthy struggle for freedom from the masters that ruled should honour and remember them. the waves, he had observed and experienced the discriminatory laws of Indentured Servants in South Africa. Charlie's report is summarized here for the reader who is When he returned to India in 1915 one of his missions with asked to compare the conditions in 1929 to those today his political guru Gopal Krishna Gokhale, and other even though Guyana became Independent in 1966. He Congress leaders was to end this new form of slavery. But, had similar concerns about those in Natal, Fiji and to some his was not a simple task as they had to find evidence to extent even India. change the policy from one of Benevolent Neutrality. A 1914 deputation visited British Guiana, Suriname Trinidad They include child marriages, illiteracy, non registration of and Fiji but returned with a conclusion that indentureship religious marriages resulting in children deemed should continue, as there were more benefits than illegitimate; nominal priests not qualified to raise the moral disadvantages. This incensed not only Gandhi but also his standards of the society leading to gross superstitions and trusted friend Rev. Charlie Freer Andrews. This English demoralization; religious conversion, government born missionary had studied the conditions in Fiji and his encouraging missionary work instead of practicing religious detailed report exposed the evils of the practice and neutrality; absence of Indians on the police forces who did persuaded Lord Hardinge, Viceroy of India, to suspend the not speak or understand Indian language or customs; system in 1917 by the passage of the Defence of India Act buildings unfit for human habitation; overcrowded and then finally ended it in 1920. classrooms with few girls; Hindu and Muslim children compelled to say Christian prayers in government aided The effect on the plantations again experienced labour schools; few Indian teachers in Christian run schools since shortages, similar to what happened after slaves were many refused to change their religion in order to be freed. Deputations were sent to India, in 1919 and again in employed; excessive alcohol consumption unlike the 1923, headed by Attorney General J.J Nunan and lawyer lifestyle of Indians from northern India; non registration of J.A.Luckhoo proposing a Colonization scheme. This was voters particularly East Indian women who could not read rejected even though it painted a picture of equality and not write the English form; poor race relations which if prosperity for Indians in the colony. Their report was in ignored can create tensions that can escalate anytime. stark contrast with the assessment of Gandhi's Emissary
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A few of the current challenges are canvassed below. Satyagraha many colonies across the globe, not just those governed by the British, began to form organisations to rid Alcohol Abuse themselves on Dandi beach Alcohol related issues including domestic violence are worse today. As recent as 2019 Fred Stella of the HINDU Of their European masters. AMERICAN FOUNDATION (hafsite.org) visited Guyana on While Cheddi Jagan was still studying and working in the a fact finding trip as this advocacy group was persuaded USA in 1943 he identified with the movement and that they should assist the Hindus in Guyana. In fact they considered freedom as indivisible and needed in Guiana wrote to the US Secretary of State about the 2020 election also. He was exposed to the "mystique of Gandhi "and on and the impact general sanctions may have on the his return quickly got involved in labour struggles and was vulnerable and innocent. Fred was invited to speak at a a founding member of PAC (political action Committee) wake in Region 5 where he was heckled by a drunk for and then the current PPP. interrupting the party of card/ domino players and a few consumers of rum. This seems to be a common scene at However, even before that Jung Bahadur Singh led the too many events including funerals. Fred was shocked and British Guiana East Indian Association formed since 1916 had to be consoled by reference to the treatment of Charlie with similar political aims as the Congress Party in India. Andrews, friend of the MAHATMA who had suffered the Later the Gandhi Youth Organisation took up the challenge same embarrassment at meetings in 1929 that was in the 1950s. organised by priests in several locations across the country. John Peters, now residing in Canada, was once an assistant secretary and confirmed that the GYO taught This is so serious a problem that many religious and other Bapuji's life and philosophy. Books on Indian community leaders are convinced that it cannot stop. Independence movement were shipped free of cost from Those priests and others who insist that they will not take the Bhavan HQ in Mumbai. Lectures were frequent, Hindi, part in a wedding or other religious events where alcohol is music, and classical dancing were taught. Numerous consumed must be congratulated for their courage. For cultural activities made Oct. 2 a very colourful day in the those who think that this cannot even be reduced in a entire country. country with less than one million should again look to the influence of the Mahatma. Gujarat, with a population of Even in his death Gandhi's influence could be felt across about 64 million once had serious problems with alcohol the seas. Cremation was illegal in Guiana until a bill consumption, a problem that still bedevils other States. introduced by Dr. Singh made this possible in 1956. However since May 1, 1960 out of respect for the However he died before it became law so special Mahatma, it has been illegal to manufacture, store, sell or exemption had to be sought before he became the first consume alcohol. This law is strictly enforced not only by person to be cremated at Ogle foreshore. the State but by every person in the form of social pressure. Arranged or even love marriages may not Peaceful disobedience is here to stay as violence and happen if one of the parties are seen imbibing. Violence force are not the ways of a civilized society. There is still a against women has also been reduced as a result. One lot that can be learnt from the life and message of the has to wonder where is the courage to make this change Mahatma even if a few still see only his foibles as a human happen in Guyana, a land rife with domestic violence being. A few admirers making short speeches on his alcohol related crimes including public drunkenness. Even birthday are not enough to challenge the prediction of if the entire country cannot be an alcohol free zone Einstein as mankind has now a duty to prove the greatest certainly some regions or even some villages may want to scientist wrong. We can only do this by teaching and experiment with the idea and see the positive changes that persuading future generations that indeed the Mahatma in may result as more people move to that area to live in flesh and blood walked upon this earth. His messages of peace. Truth and Nonviolence even though as old as the hills will always be relevant for all mankind. The world should be Independence Movements eternally grateful that he lived and encourage studies and The road to Indian Independence was a long one and if Scholarships in his name. there is one incident that showed that the British were not invincible it was the Salt March to Dandi Beach in 1930. How difficult would it be to name a few streets after him The beatings of nonviolent protestors at Dharsana salt starting with one near the monument of the Jahajis in mines enabled the world to witness the injustice and Region 6? brutality Even Times magazine named Gandhi Man of the Year. Once the world knew that the invincibility of the Could this area also be the first alcohol free zone? British was giving way to the immovable force of
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Report from the Working Groups Gandhi 150 Conference on Waging Action on Hate and Racism in Hamilton
Conference Chair: Dr. Gary Warner. Report Compiled by: Justine Becker, Katerina Simantirakis, Elle Klassen, and Katya Korol
Topic 1: What and who are enabling and mobilizing hatred? Topic 2: How do we, individually, as a community, and as institutions counter this hatred? ….continued on the next page
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Individuals and Community Working Group
Topic 1: What and who are enabling and How do we begin to mobilize ourselves and pressure our mobilizing hatred? institutions?
Key Issues Discussed: Topic 2: How do we individually, as a community, and as institutions counter this 1. Importance of reflecting on who is outside of the hatred? room and what might prevent them from being here ● Barriers can prevent youth, organized labour, religious Key Action Items Discussed: leaders, people of low socio-economic status, and people without access to technology from being a part of these 1. Push for education and communication strategies discussions which address hate, racism and violence. ● Need to be attentive to spatial, financial, and social ● Promoting ‘peacekeeper’ and ‘allyship’ training within our barriers which may prevent various groups of people from education systems in order to show the white community attending these events how to show allyship to marginalized groups ● Spreading positive, anti-hate messages in the news 2. Importance of civil society involvement media ● Need to bring these discussions into our everyday life ● Having news outlets cover successful immigration stories ● Civil society needs to be part of administration and ● Having coverage of collaborative, anti-hate events such regulation – government is not enough as the Gandhi 150 Peace Conference ● Peace-making has not been a democratic process ● Starting grassroots social media campaigns which treat ‘hate’ as a public health issue 3. Importance of educating people about power ● Community members can start Twitter campaigns similar structures to ‘Parents for Peace’, a nonprofit organization which ● Recognizing that it is not enough to bring people treats extremism as a public health issue together –need to acknowledge power structures ● Addressing privilege in our education system ● Recognizing that it is rare for people to voluntarily give ● Education system should make individuals conscious of up or share power the privileges that they carry and recognize that institutions ● Understanding that when white, elite males are work best for those who have the most privilege threatened in their positions of power, they will push back ● Universities should teach people to increase their 4. Importance of bringing diverse groups together capacity to take action against hate and violence as ● Supporting a variety of communities including those ethical, active and safe bystanders which are not your own ● Using social media in a ‘positive way’ ● Our community is operating in a ‘silent’ way – there are ● Individuals should spread positive messages on social so many cultural dualities, and not enough support for media and understand the ‘power of the click’, meaning cultural commonalities that what individuals ‘click’ on social media influences what ● Need to support communities which are not our own, in stories and advertisements will appear in their newsfeeds which we are not the centre of attention ● Individuals and community organizations should keep language accessible on social media in order to engage a 5. Important to be conscious of the privileges that we larger audience carry ● Individuals and community organizations can create and ● Importance of naming and claiming our privilege and spread anti-hate ‘memes’ and ‘snack-bites’ or ‘snippets’ of confronting the many voices within us as human beings information on the internet ● Need to make the unconscious privileges conscious ● Individuals and community organizations could create ● Need for honest, loving conversations about privilege something similar to the Canadian television show, ‘Heritage Minutes’, for understanding peace and promoting 6. Importance of engaging the non-activists anti-hate ● Need to reach the ‘mushy middle’ ● Targeting news outlets and their polarizing coverage of issues 7. Importance of self-care in doing this work ● Having a number of community groups form a coalition ● Must remember self worth and practice self preservation of organizations in order to increase their chances of ● “Self-care is not selfish” having an editorial board meeting with news outlets, such Questions: as The Hamilton Spectator, to challenge their polarizing How do we begin to even talk about the mushy middle coverage of issues pertaining to hate, racism, and violence when we have people with guns? ● Having ‘Media-Watch-Dog’ groups who monitor
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polarizing coverage of issues pertaining to hate, racism, Month events and violence in the media and leveraging individuals who are doing this work 3. Push for funding for anti-hate event ● Influencing news outlets, such as CBC, to cover anti- ● Asking for ‘pay what you can’ donations for anti-hate hate events such as the Gandhi 150 Peace Conference events such as the Gandhi 150 Conference
2. Bring diverse individuals and communities together 4. Developing anti-hate and anti-racism strategies ● Having individuals interacting with cultural groups other ● Encouraging policy-makers to address hate by drawing than their own attention to the ‘cost’ of hatred ● Hosting or attending events like ‘People’s Suppers’ ● Drawing attention to health care and policing costs— which seek to bring diverse individuals together in an effort which could be reduced with the use of anti-hate to bridge differences, find common values, and connect strategies—in order to emphasize tothose in power that over the common human experience of having a meal prioritizing anti-hate and anti-racism strategies is in ● Seeking out events to learn about cultures other than everyone’s best interest your own ● Understanding and pushing to use our criminal code and ● Having the white community attend Islamic Heritage laws regarding hate and racism
Municipal Government and Services Working Group
Topic 1: What and who are enabling and mobilizing ● Equity and inclusion matter for everyone. We need to hatred? make it clear that any anti-discriminatory policy changes benefit all of us. Key Issues Discussed: ● Idea that there are winners and losers with these policy changes, when in reality it would benefit everyone to see 1. Lack of accountability discrimination lessened. ● Plans are made and consultations with marginalised ● Hamilton community member who is active during groups are held, but with little result. Saturday anti-protest mentioned actively trying to prevent ● Marginalised communities are tired of spending their themselves from being pigeon-holed into certain time giving consultations with elected officials and getting identities. seemingly nothing in return. ● They don’t want anti-protesters to be regarded as ● If there are no measurable results from an enacted ‘anarchists’, ‘marxists’ etc. People of different ages and plan, then it may as well have not have happened. races are participating in the anti-protest movements on ● Different plans are made after being triggered by a Saturdays. A community member had to explain this fact serious incident, but these plans fail to enact real change to the city council. over time because of a lack of ongoing action or ● Hate crime is not an issue that can be isolated to underfunding after a period of time has passed since the specific groups; it is a human issue. This distinction crisis. matters because it may be easier to dismiss individual ● Need to start holding city officials accountable for what issues that have been isolated to specific groups (ie., they say and their responsibility to the citizens who saying this is a ‘black/Muslim’ issue when it affects elected them. everyone).
2. We can exclude people on the basis of incomes 4. Lack of representation in leadership roles ● Result is that our neighbourhoods are built on ● Police service board is not diverse exclusion. ● We need to see more diverse people running for office. ● We have discounted the value of public spaces where We should have representation in our offices. you can meet people not just from our own neighbourhood. 5. Lack of action and support from the mushy middle ● Long term implication of this exclusion is that when you ● We need to focus more on the ‘mushy middle’. The stop seeing the difference, you stop seeing the humanity people who are less invested in these issues, and are not in the differences. trying to prevent the issue of hate crime and ● If we can’t see the impact of these disparities in discrimination. Either this lack of action is due to apathy income, then we don’t feel accountable to them. or a lack of understanding and awareness. ● Following the violence of the last pride parade, a ward 3. Isolating issues to specific groups instead of counsellor had received more phone calls about pot- acknowledging it as an issue that affects everyone holes than hate crimes.
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● While this is probably not a measure of who voters are 2. Avoid placing the responsibility on marginalized (it may just be reflective of a citizen’s expectations of groups to bring attention to and rally action on the politicians and what their jurisdiction is) it does point to a issues that are affecting them. Marginalised groups concerning lack of action from the average citizen. are tired of having to constantly justify the space that they need to voice their concerns. Topic 2: How do we individually, as a community, ● Prepare a fact-based resource (for example, a and as institutions counter this hatred? pamphlet or website) explaining the seriousness of the Key Action Items Discussed: issue in Hamilton, to help avoid it becoming minimised and denied. 1. A Tangible and Public Action Plan from the City (A Sign of Solidarity) 3. Get out of a Point-of-View that is ward-based ● Want city council to think of the city as a whole. Having ● Community members want to see city officials a place for them to be a voice for their ward, but also how acknowledge hate crime and discrimination as serious they think holistically of the city. and legitimate issues. Overwhelmingly, community members felt like city council members and other 4. Have the city form a Hate Crime Committee Hamilton politicians were not overly invested in these ● Specialised group addressing hate crime in Hamilton issues. that is supported by, and is a part of, the city. ● Beyond the spoken word, people need a sign of ● Signals to people taking part in hateful acts that it is solidarity in a measurable form. People need to see now becoming an official matter. measurable action from the city and publicized proof of ● It is not an issue that can be isolated to a specific that action. group; it is a human issue which matters because it may ● The city needs to develop a multi level strategy to be easier to dismiss individual issue that have been engage racism, at individual, social, and structural levels, isolated to specific groups (ex., saying this is a with dedicated resourcing for each component and ‘black/Muslim’ issue when it affects everyone) accountability measures including outcome evaluation, ● Municipal body helping to direct conversation. reporting, and deliverables as well as a workplan for the ● Need to direct agreement among council members and strategy with transparent timelines. mayor. ● Support the capacities and expertise that currently ● Difficult to continue and enact real change if people are exists in the community, including with resources, not in agreement. This committee would help to facilitate acknowledge the strengths and assets they bring, and dialogue and promote continuous work on the issues. allow them to lead aspects of the work. ● Consider taking a strong stance on a anti-hate initiative 5. Communication even if there is a likelihood that the city will fail ● Community members expressed a desire for the city to (constitutional changes to having hate groups gather for provide more public awareness of what they are doing example). Even if the change is unsuccessful, it would be about hate crimes and what resources are being allotted a worthy initiative that can be viewed as a sign of to these issues. solidarity and of the city’s commitment to change. People ● Resources being used by the city need to be more want to see a palpable piece of action that can help to publicised. move things forward. ● What can the average citizen do if they want to get ● Consider investing money into billboards and involved in anti-hate initiatives with the city? It is difficult education. Get a positive message of inclusion out into to navigate our current political system especially when the city. getting involved with politics is not a part of many people’s daily experiences.
Businesses, Organizations and Agencies Working Group
Topic 1 : What and who are enabling and mobilizing Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak hatred? out— because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out— Key Issues Discussed: because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me—and there was no one left to 1. Selfishness and lack of empathy enable hatred. speak for me.” “First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak ~ Martin Niemöller out—because I was not a socialist.
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hate ● This poem points out the need to confront hate when it starts 4. The asymmetry of power in society mobilizes ● Metaphorically, the last line does not mean that all the hatred. rest of the people are gone, but perhaps that those fighters ● “If we are suppressed, there is a suppressor. If we are are done fighting, tired of being unsupported silenced, there is a silencer.” ● We need to fight through till the end and keep things ● What can we do to counteract it? going in our anti-hate efforts ● Our dependence on the goodness of society (the ● We have the privilege to not fight, and the burden of our goodness of power) sustains the asymmetry of social inaction is on the shoulders of a few strong, longstanding power activists ● If you are impacted by an action, to stay silent is to enable 2. Intersectional communication is a problem area for ● In order to counteract this asymmetry, social hierarchies those opposing hatred. must understand the widespread implications of seemingly ● How do we have difficult conversations across sectors individual issues while supporting each other? ● We must look for specific strategies and actions to ● We are siloed in our organizations here in Hamilton counteract social asymmetry ● Opportunities to do intersectional work are rare ● It is important to make sure that we don’t forget what ● Those suffering from the same illness or predicament we’re actually fighting for when we finally get to that level have different backgrounds, and it is important to of power recognize this ● Otherwise, the imbalance will continue indefinitely ● People in poverty who are suicidal are different from transgendered or indigenous people who are suicidal 5. Strain on resources prevents the innovation of anti- ● Organizations need to work together by participating in hate measures. the events of other sectors ● Organizations are so busy serving people in need that ● Each organization has limited time to achieve their they are not using resources to discover and counteract mission, so making time for intersectional communication root causes will be challenging to all participants ● Many anti-hate organizations began as grassroots, but ● Intersectional support will allow for the sustained fight then allowed institutionalization to corrupt them against hatred ● One effect of this is the lack of searching for new ● Organizations need to address certain concerns about strategies to fight hate intersectionality before it can become a reality for them ● Government funding is never enough to provide for all of ● For example, looking at how clients accessing services the needy, let alone to fund research into better methods are impacted by the organization’s increased of counteracting hate intersectionality 6. The inability to accept the severity of hatred in 3. Anti-hate forces must reorganize themselves into Hamilton enables it to continue. one body to maximize their impact. ● Many people think Hamilton is post-rac ial because of ● Anti-hate forces exist in isolated groups, each with a multiculturalism and the Canadian narrative small goal within the movement ● We don’t have to deal with the issue if we don’t ● Perpetrators of hatred do not enact their hate in silos, acknowledge it exists rather, hate groups exist to attack people for many ● We have to acknowledge that we are a white different reasons supremacist country without sounding radical…this needs ● Those who hate one minority generally hate many to be knowledge! minorities ● This must occur at staff level, client service level, all ● There is strength in numbers within and between hate levels groups ● Hatred must be countered on all fronts ● Hate groups use the internet with their common theme ● We must pressure the city of Hamilton to openly and desire to discriminate, while organizations/agencies do announce that hatred is not welcome not communicate well, particularly online ● Agencies hearing this will be more likely to unite ● The anti-hate movement must have a strong, united front strategies and coordinate into a greater network ● Different groups must voice t heir concerns juxtaposed ● This will cause agencies themselves to make it clear that with their knowledge hatred is not welcome here ● Different community representatives should pitch in on boards to speak to how they experience certain issues 7. Those fighting hatred at an organizational level ● We should develop a network for shared, ongoing must learn from the experiences of their peers and conversations about Hamilton’s progress in combatting coworkers.
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● The isolated act of forming an organization does not understanding and support different identities ensure its impact ● Ask questions of colleagues who have experienced ● Once a group is organized, it must be functional within social oppression or hatred the mainstream to make an impact ● Spread the mentality of healing dialogue ● Efforts towards better representation must make room for individual contributions, or else we are ignoring the 3. Focus on these recommendations not only social most valuable resource we have for research service sector, but in the larger business community. “In my previous job as an executive director I was faced ● Cross-populate business and social sector with with discrimination on so many levels [being a gay woman individuals boosting anti-hate mentality of colour]. I had allies who would speak about these things ● Include anti-hate mentality in banks, retail stores, on a systemic level, engage in research projects on insurance companies, and other organizations not in the representation in leadership, yet would never ask me what social service sector was going on, and where I could use support. There were ● Make anti-hate more of a Hamilton issue by engaging times I was exhausted. I was exhausted from historical the people that we don’t usually see at the professional trauma in my family. I had so many comrades in the problem-solving table community who could speak about this so articulately and ● ex. Supercrawl entrepreneurs would be thrilled to help were part of the work we were doing every day, yet no one develop inclusive practices for organizations, businesses, ever asked me what they could do to support me or what and agencies alike, perhaps going between sectors as my experience might be like, different from the identities I third parties, working alongside liaisons from each sector have…and I see other women of colour in leadership positions in Hamilton and hear what people say about 4. Hold onto successful strategies and perpetuate them rather than supporting them. So when I talk about them. Ensure succession plans, ensure sustainability. support network coalition, I don’t just mean speaking out (Don’t reinvent the wheel!) when someone says something in a broad way in the ● Revive hate crime resource manual online media. We need to take it on an everyday basis. It is not ( http://hcci.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/revised-final- just that we all stand with linked arms at city hall. You 2011-van-training-manu know, [research can be] so specific and I think people feel al-english-for-print1.pdf ) for Hamilton ill-equipped to participate in that ● Store best anti-hate practices for all organizations to way.” consult ~ Working Group Participant ● Offer discourse on the question “What do you mean by hate crime?” Topic 2: How do we, individually, as a community, and ● Translated into many languages, designed to reach a as institutions, counter this hatred? broad spectrum of the community Key Action Items Discussed: ● Built up but didn’t really have lasting effect ● Look into methods of revitalizing and sharing strategies 1. Empower workers to respond to workplace hate within and outside of our silos respectfully but assertively. ● Look systemically, institutionally, agent-wide, ● Staff often hear a lot of racist, oppressive comments individually, for past examples of successful anti-hate work ● Organizations must give people tools and info to respond and model new projects on those to racism, whether it’s directed at them or not ● Actively encourage and honour those who are already ● In the context of a service providing organization exemplifying strong allyship with marginalized populations ● Limit service to those who are showing hate ● Individual organizations must develop a comprehensive 5. Promote recognizable best practices. action plan: governance, management, service delivery, ● Establish a recognition prize for best anti-hate practices. community engagement, HR ● Create an award through the city of Hamilton (or, if ● Understand who they are serving and the hate they are necessary, another platform that will be legitimate) likely to face ● Part of the recognition prize should be funding for the ● Share this with other organizations, particularly those promotion and circulation of the best practice who have diverse frontline workers ● Make sure the fund-providing entity is not the chooser of ● Developing an infographic or other method of the recipient communication ● Attempt to create a stronger culture of inclusivity and anti-hate in the business community 2. Focus on learning from those around you, rather ● Work anti-hate into a business’s model for success than conceptualizing local hatred as a distant phenomenon. 6. Support the wellness of each other within and ● Take things down to the individual level between anti-hate groups. ● You don’t need to look far to expand your own ● Honour the existing diversity within anti-hate groups
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● Look to individuals to understand massive social ● People doing the same type of work and suffering in situations similar ways do not talk about it with each other ● Enhance the culture of support within anti-hate groups, ● Trust is a barrier to communication; open dialogue about so that internal burnout rates decrease and those in personal issues which are relevant to larger social issues positions to combat hate are cared for and able to act should be promoted ● Learn from the wisdom of indigenous teachers on ● People from marginalized communities are afraid of reserves being vulnerable and hold it in and tough it out ● Don’t make suggestions or impose views…offer help ● We need to determine how to reach out to these people only with enacting their methods of meeting needs in an honest and sympathetic manner ● Understand the delicacy of working with people with ● Broader communication can help combat mistrust and differences increase shared anti-hate knowledge ● Promote the healing power of listening ● Increase inter and intra organizational communication ● Combat mistrust ● Patience, persistence, open-mindedness
Institutions Working Group
Topic 1: What and who are enabling and mobilizing hatred? 3. Racism has become embedded in our systems and institutions, and institutional change is very difficult to Key Issues Discussed: bring about. ● Part of the value of institutions is that they preserve 1. People in power in institutions are largely white, values throughout time, but this is also what makes them cisgender, able-bodied heterosexual males. so difficult to change. ● They don’t necessarily represent the communities they ● People often feel trapped by bureaucratic nature of are a part of, and don’t reflect everyone’s interests. policies and procedures and feel that they don’t have the ● Only a small group of people’s perspectives are heard. power to change the system. ● Because our institutions are not representative, they don’t recognize how different people have different Topic 2: How do we individually, as a community, and barriers, so certain people are systematically as institutions counter this hatred? disadvantaged. ● These systemic inequalities foster hatred and division. Key Action Items Discussed: ● There is no accountability around diversity in institutions. The question of whether an institution is diverse enough is 1. Our institutions need equity and diverse rarely even asked, and there are no consequences for representation. having inadequate diversity. ● When our institutions are made up of only certain types ● Equity and diversity are never seen as the core of of people (usually white cis-hetero able-bodied men,) we institutions, they are always seen as accessories, and the only hear a small group of people’s perspectives and other responsibility always falls solely on the shoulders of a few group’s voices are not heard. This leads to institutionalized marginalized people to push the whole institution to do inequalities, which ultimately serve to create environments better. Discrimination is not seen as everyone’s problem. that foster hatred and division. ● The police, the judiciary, and those who make the laws ● We need equity and diversity to be seen as a are not representative of the community. fundamental core value of our institutions, not a token or ● Hatred begins with power and privilege, because those an afterthought. people are the most complicit in holding up systems of ● Discrimination needs to be seen as everyone’s problem oppression which is where hatred comes from. within institutions, not just the few racialized people within the institutions. We need to take action even when we are 2. Institutional issues begin with individual issues, and not the ones being threatened. we are lacking in self-reflection and personal accountability. 2. Institutional change needs to happen throughout the ● We don’t reflect enough on how we are fence-sitters – system, beginning with early childhood education. the moderates who don’t mobilize for either side, and how ● Early education is where people learn many of their we subtly contribute to societal injustices. earliest prejudices, biases, and stereotypes, which ● Hate crimes are just an extreme by-product of moderate, continue into their later lives and into larger institutions. mainstream ideologies with entrenched prejudices. ● We need to spark change by changing our curriculums
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to educate people on issues of race and oppression. people, it is not safe. ● We also need to address the representation issue in ● Everyone needs to challenge themselves by holding schools – students need to see themselves reflected. If all themselves accountable and questioning the ways in of our teachers are white, non-white children are less likely which we are complicit in harmful structures. to feel like their education reflects their lived experiences. ● We also need to make space for people to make This in turn gives non-white children less enjoyable school mistakes, and allow them to grow. experiences, which makes them unlikely to want to be ● We need to move away from talking about the intent of teachers, perpetuating the cycle. our actions, and start talking about the impact .
3. We need to build our institutions on principles of 5. We need to spend less time having hypothetical care, respect, and empathy for one another. discussions, and more time strategizing about how to ● Institutional change begins with changing ourselves. We take action. need to ask whether our behaviour is restorative or not, ● We need to stop asking, and start demanding safety and and decolonize our own thinking. human rights. ● The Haudenosaunee have a concept of having a “good mind,” which means being free of fear, anger, negativity, 6. Even though there are many different types of racial and being healed from our traumas, should be brought into discrimination, we need to recognize the common our institutions, hiring processes, and activism. elements and use these to unite us against racism. ● We need to interact with each other with compassion ● We have made our understanding of discrimination too and understanding of diverse and potentially trauma- compartmentalized, and we don’t focus on the common informed experiences, and this needs to be brought into causality. the structure of our institutions. ● We need to heal factionalism in our communities at the ● We should try, when possible, to understand prejudice in same time that we address racism as a whole. It is an a compassionate way, and understand that people often ongoing process, but we need collaboration. come from places of hurt, trauma, and scarcity. ● We need to recognize each other as equals, and 7. We need to make sure we don’t get stuck within understand that having titles bureaucratic systems and feel trapped by the system, within institutions doesn’t give people fundamental allowing ourselves to become stagnant. authority over others. ● We need to be aware of our own autonomy. Rules are not set in stone and we are not bound by them – we have 4. We need to make our institutions safe spaces for the power to change them. everyone to be seen and heard, and we need to ● We don’t always have to work within prescribed policies acknowledge when they are not safe spaces. and procedures. ● Our institutions need to recognize that those with the ● We need to remember to always think bigger than most privilege have the most responsibility to disrupt established rules, and question why things are the way hatred and oppression, and that not everyone is in an they are. The people who made the rules often did not equal position to disrupt these kinds of systems – for some have it all figured out.
Small groups groups discussing the above mentioned issues during the conference
Living Gandhi Today 2020 32 www.humanities.mcmaster.ca/gandhi
Mahatma Gandhi Peace Festival Sponsors
The India Canada Society, Hamilton City of Hamilton McMaster University
Co-Sponsors
Amnesty International, Canadian Voice of Women for Peace, Children’s International Learning Centre, Council of Canadians, Culture of Peace Hamilton, Empowerment Squared, Hamilton Centre for Civic Inclusion (HCCI), Hamilton Interfaith Peace Group, Hamilton Malayalee Samajam, Hindu Samaj of Hamilton and Region, Interfaith Development Education Association, Interfaith Council for Human Rights and Refugees, Ontario Public Interest Research Group (OPIRG), Physicians for Global Survival (Hamilton Chapter), SACHA - Sexual Assault Centre of Hamilton and Area, The Immigrant Culture and Art Association, The Malhar Music Group of Ontario, The Mundialization Committee of City of Hamilton, UNICEF, United Nations Association Canada, Voice of Women, YMCA Hamilton/Burlington, YWCA of Hamilton/Burlington
Financial Supporters
The City of Hamilton McMaster University The India-Canada Society, Hamilton Population Health Research Institute, Hamilton
Culture of Peace Hamilton Hamilton Malayalee Samajam McMaster Ontario Public Interest Research Group United Nations Association in Canada - Hamilton Branch and a number of individual supporters listed near the end of this publication.
Themes of Gandhi Peace Festivals
2020 Black Lives Matter 2009 Swadeshi: Gandhi's Economics of Self 2019 Waging Action on Hate and Racism Reliance 2018 Preventing Violence Agaist Women 2008 Living Gandhi and King Today 2017 The Hamilton Gandhi Peace Festival: 25 2007 Building Sustainable Communities Years of Moving Towards a Culture of 2006 First Nations Peacemakers: Building Peace, Nonviolence and Social Justice Inclusive Communities 2016 Refugees and Sarvodaya - Opening Our 2005 Breaking the Cycle of Violence: An Eye for Hearts and Homes An Eye Makes the Whole World Blind 2015 Learning from Gandhi in the Age of Climate 2004 Creating True Security: Freedom from Fear Change 2003 Power to the People: The Agenda of the 2014 Nelson Mandela's Life & Legacy Peace Movement 2013 STOP Violence Against Women 2002 Peace and Human Security 2012 The Gandhian Path to Peace: Truth, 2001 The Problem of Racism Nonviolence, Service 1993-2000 Towards A Culture of Peace, 2011 No to Fear – Yes to Peace Nonviolence and Social Justice 2010 The Power of Nonviolence PDF version of this publication and previous Gandhi Festival publications can be downloaded from:
http://www.humanities.mcmaster.ca/gandhi/festival/booklets.html
Living Gandhi Today 2020 33 www.humanities.mcmaster.ca/gandhi
Friends of the Festival – Thank you!
The Gandhi Peace Festival was started in 1993, a year before the 125th anniversary of Gandhi’s birthday, and has been held annually in the City of Hamilton. The festival is co-sponsored by India-Canada Society, McMaster University and the City of Hamilton.
To the best of our knowledge, this is the first Gandhi Peace Festival of its kind and we would like to do everything possible to make it a permanent part of Canadian cultural landscape. We encourage individuals as well as organizations to support it. Donations to Gandhi Peace Festival are tax-deductible.
Cheques should be made out to: “McMaster University (Memo: Gandhi Peace Festival)” and mailed to: The Centre for Peace Studies For information, please contact: McMaster University, TSH-723 Dr. Sri Gopal Mohanty, Chair- Gandhi Peace Festival 1280 Main Street West, E-mail: [email protected] Hamilton, ON, L8S 4M2. Dr. Chandrima Chakraborty , 905-525-9140 x 23777 www.humanities.mcmaster.ca/gandhi E-mail: [email protected]
As a token of our appreciation, the names of all donors to Gandhi Peace Festival Fund, with their consent, will be listed in this publication to serve as an encouragement to others.
WE THANK THE FOLLOWING FRIENDS OF THE FESTIVAL FOR THEIR DONATIONS: Abad, Prakash and Sunita Immigrant Culture and Art Assoc. Ram, Saroj Adhya, Nikhil and Bharati Jackson, Geri and Max Rastogi, Hirsch and Indra Agarwal, Naresh and Saroj Jadon, Raj and Sunanda Ravindran, Comondore and Shanti Ahmed, Khursheed and Maroussia Jadon, Rajkumar Ray, Monolina and Saurav Anand, Nithy and Lalitha Jain, Harish and Connie Sahadeo, Ramnarine Ananthanarayanan, Girija and V S Jain, Nidhi and Mukesh Sahni, Balbir Singh (Montreal) Bagchi, Anupam Jani, Kiran and Rupa Sanatan Mandir (Toronto) Baxter, June Jani, Rupa and Kiran Scott, Douglas Bhaduri, Rajat and Manju Jayaram Nair Sehgal, V.K. Bhargava, Om Prakash Jha, Pramila Shankardass, Kanwal Bhawani and Rama Pathak Joshi, Mahendra and Jyoti Sharma, Arun and Sashi Sharma Biswas, T. Juneja, Mohan and Veena Sharma, Sushil and Shashi Bobba, Arvinda and Ratna K. Malhotra Legal Association Singh, Dinesh and Usha Bose, Anand Kannappan, P.L. Singh, Karun and Nomita Canadian Indo-Carobbean Assoc. Kudiyate, Jose and Anita Singh, Mala Chakraborty, Chandrima Kumar, Ramesh and Darshana Singh, Naresh and Munmuni Chiu, Bipasha Kumar, Shiva Singh, Prabha Chopra, Monica Lal, Prem and Nisha Singh, Rama and Rekha Chopra, Nawal and Veena Lauer, Janie Singh, Srinath and Pushpa Chopra, Veena Maharaj, Dee Sinha, Naresh and Meena Cordoba House Majumdar, Basanti Sood, Raj and Sudesh Culture of Peace Hamilton Malhotra, Karn and Dolly Sorger, George and Leonor Cunnington, Ray Mehan, Tilak and Krishna Subramanian, Mani and Sujatha Dalvi, Ashok and Nirmala Modi, Om and Anjana Sud, Uma and Davinder Das, Lakshman and Saraswati Mohanty, Sri Gopal and Shanti Sud, Vishal and Shivani Davies, Douglas and Sheila Mondal, Tapas Taploo, Arun Dekar, Paul Morton, Richard United Nations Assoc. Canada Deonarine, Mahendra Nundy, Seema Varma, Satendra and Rita Dighe, Subhash and Jayashree OPIRG (McMaster) Varughese, Anil East Plains United Church Padhi, Hara and Sumitra Verma, Bhagwat Fox-Threlkeld, Jo-Ann Parekh, Jay and Surekha Verma, Manish Gupta, Bhagwati and Bairavi Passi, Narendar and Chitra Vorobej, Mark Gupta, Radhey Shyam and Rajni Patel, Mark Wahi, Shobha and Ravi Hamilton Health Sciences Pearson, Anne Warner, Gary and Joy Hamilton Malayali Samajam Philo, Anthony and Vayalumkal Wickens-Perrie, Sheryl Hemant and Abha Gosain Population Health Research Institute Younger, Cathy and Paul Hindu Samaj of Hamilton & Region Prasad, Binoy and Reeta Yusuf, Salim and Waheeda
Gandhi Statue at the city hall – was installed on the Twentieth Anniversary of Gandhi Peace Festical (2012) with help from the Government of India and Indo-Canadian community, with generous donations from: Subhash and Jayashree Dighe Hemant and Abha Gosain Mani and Sujatha Subramanian
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Memories of 2019 (Gandhi 150) Gandhi Peace Festival
‘ Waging Action on Hate and Racism Keynote Speaker Dr. Barbara Perry Panelist Shylo Elmayan, Azeezah in Hamilton’ Conference Kanji, Bernie Farber Anthony Morgan
Dr. Chandrima Chkaraborty introducing Keynote speake Hon. Bob Ray Peace Narch getting ready in front and wlcoming guest speakers (Former Premier of Ontario) of Hamilton City Hall
The Peace March led by local drummers Garlanding Gandhi statue at Community lunch after Hamilton City Hall the Peace March
‘No Hate No Fear’ event at Hindu Samaj Temple, where a number of people were honoured, including Dr. Paul Younger and Srimati Ela Bhat, pictured here
Gandhi Peace Festival 2020 35 Peace March through Downtown Streets
Peace March through Downtown Streets
2020 Gandhi Peace Festival Committees
Organizing Committee:
Sri Gopal Mohanty(Chair) Anne M Pearson (Past Chair) Rama Singh (Chair, Gandhi 150) Jay Parekh (Treasurer) Khursheed Ahmed (Editor) Jan Lukas (Media Relations) Kojo “Easy” Damptey Afro-Soul musician, Raj Sood Manager, Hamilton Centre for Civic Inclusion Jose Kudiyate Anil Varughese Gary Warner Gail Rappolt
Advisory Committee:
Ashok Dalvi Hemant Gosain Mahendra Joshi Mani Subramanian Chandrima Chakraborty Mark Vorobej Subhash Dighe Joy Warner Jayashree Dighe Chris Cutler Leo Nupolu Johnson Image from in.Pinterest.com
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