SEMINAR PRESENTATION: Where have all the Gandhis gone?

On the occasion of the 140th Birth-Anniversary Celebration of the Mahatma (Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi 1869-1948 Following in the Footsteps of the Mahatma Embassy of India & Indian Cultural Centre in collaboration with AlphaMax Academy Speaker: Sean F. Taylor, Principal, AlphaMax Academy ICC Auditorium, Paramaribo, Suriname rd Saturday, October 3 , 2009 Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was a man for all seasons. And because he is truly a man for all seasons, 140 years later, we are gathered here old and young, diplomats and scholars, the extraordinaire with down-to-earth folks, parents and grandparents, students and friends we are gathered here to ponder and reflect on his life and work. This remarkable man brought the mighty British Empire on which the sun at that time never set he brought the mighty to their knees without a bomb, much less a gun, spear, or sword. He did it armed with an unflinching commitment to TRUTH and a persistent, iron determination. With a single, sosimple, defiant, and symbolic act he walked to the sea and made the most common of substances salt! And with this defiant act, through him, the Universe set in motion from India the modern movement for political independence. It swept across the ocean engulfing Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and it even inspired the leaders in the struggle for civil rights in the United States of America. Today, when we look around the world and see people and their leaders deeply bewildered groveling for solutions to the problems that confront mankind and as the calls of doubt grow shriller the smallest child here must be silently asking: Where have all the Gandhis gone? Where, O where, have all the Gandhis gone? The truth is We need a Mahatma in our midst! My friends, if we had a Gandhi in every national palace across this earth, the Earth would not be in the state it is today: CLIMATE CHANGE IS ON OUR DOORSTEP! WHAT DO WE DO? If the Mahatma is to be any assistance in helping us to plot a course forward, we must first rehearse three cardinal principles which he was prepared to die for: the first is TRUTH, the second, ahimsa which translates into a deep respect for ALL LIFE yes, even the Earth and clay under our feet and third, but not least, what he made central to all he undertook PEOPLE and let me underscore ordinary people. But we have major problems in these modern times! How can we achieve the much sought-after and desired results when in point of fact we simply pay lipservice to truth? And people who pay lip-service to truth those who prattle, but fail to walk the talk eventually end up on the rocks we are thrust on today: our common-sense standards and values all washed away to seeming oblivion! How 1

can we guide the modern state which is just an extension of the family - and discern lasting solutions when we embrace a too-simplistic world-view of sheer relativity? In the Gandhian universe the world of relativities has an absolute antecedent which upholds the standards and measuring rods that must of needs guide the conscience of human conduct, actions and decisions. It is out of this world of an absolute antecedent and its subsequent relativities that the Gandhian concept of TRUTH is ideally fashioned for the individual and the social order; and it is based on this that the serious student, artist, and scholar of life must learn to attune him or herself, and eventually seek to connect and anchor his or her will and determination in the drive to establish Satyagraha, the force of truth that must eventually engulf our every thought, action, strategy, enactment, desire and deed. Mr. Ambassador, when your Embassy and cultural center, approached the Academy th to collaborate in presenting this 140 Birth Anniversary Celebration, we unhesitatingly accepted, for in the halls of the AlphaMax we see with amazing clarity that the way forward in this era of challenges whether we think of life in Suriname, or elsewhere requires the invocation of a new vision, a new approach, another way if peace, liberty, and happiness are to be our childrens inheritance. I know these are lofty ideas peace liberty happiness but lets simplify it, for the Mahatma would have done so. Lets break it down to terms that speak to the children here, to our beings, indeed to our very cells: Im talking about the right to clean air, the right to work, the right to dream and hope for a better future, the right to safety, the right to a life of clearly articulated values, the right to receive a quality higher education, the right to enjoy the emerald green forests of Suriname and Amazonia with all of its rich natural bounty. Im delighted Mr. Ambassador that the ICC and Academy students arose without much prompting to the task of writing essays on the Mahatma and his significance. The names of their works speak volumes: Gandhi and Mandela, Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Gandhi and Einstein, Gandhi and Animals, Gandhi and Jesus, the Gandhi World Peace Memorial, Gandhis Concept of Satyagraha, Gandhis Use of Fasting: a Tool of Transformation, Gandhis Influence on the Role of Women in India, Gandhi and Technology. To Your Embassy, Mr. Ambassador, we say thank you from our hearts. But on the eve of his Birth Anniversary, to the Mahatma himself, we should also say, thank you! Great Noble Soul! You have touched the hearts and minds of yet another generation who from youth deeply intuit that the principles you tenaciously upheld define the way forward to solving the problems confronting us. It may sound funny, Great Sir, but, in point of fact, you have definitively entered their worlds and become a silent unseen icon in the Facebook of their hearts. My friends, if you think this apostrophe to the Mahatma himself is some cute platitude, allow me to share with you the following information which attests to the relevance of the Mahatma today: 2

During a visit to Wakefield High School in Arlington, three weeks ago, U.S. President th Barrack Obama revealed to a group of 9 grade students who his real hero is. He made this revelation when a student by the name of Lily asked: Mr. President, who would you like to have dinner with if you could have dinner with anyone, dead or alive? In response, Mr. Obama pondered aloud, Dinner with anyone dead or alive... Well you know dead or alive, thats a pretty big list. After everyone laughed for a moment, the American President became quite serious and stated, If I could, it would be Mahatma Gandhi, whom I consider my real hero. He repeated the statement, If I could, it would be Mahatma Gandhi, whom I consider my real hero; Mr. Obama, however, added, but I guess it would be a really small meal, because Gandhi did not each much. And the audience, children and adults, laughed aloud. President Obama said Mahatma Gandhi was an iconic figure a source of inspiration for millions. He said if it hadnt been for the non-violent movement in India, people might not have seen the same non-violent movement for civil rights in the United States. th On this 140 Birth Anniversary celebration, the child in each of us earnestly asks, Where have all the Gandhis gone? Contrary to what some may think, great souls do not come to be worshipped, but more significantly, they come and are sent to inspire us about the human potential and human possibilities so that we might also rise to similar, perhaps, greater heights. Such was the relationship between Gandhi and Jesus. It is amazing that what Jesus did not achieve in his lifetime, Gandhi achieved: bringing about a political revolution based on the principles of nonviolence and satyagraha. So I repeat: if there were a Gandhi in every national palace across this world, the Earth would not be in the state it is today. Our world, including our little Suriname, needs Mahatmas! It starts with the simplest of acts recognition: Hats off to Barrack Obama. And on this occasion, Id like to say hats off also to Take Initiative, the undertaking by three young academy scholars (Tos, Marciano & Vijoya) who have decided to do exactly that take the initiative in the greening of their environments! Yes, we must all go still further, and not behave like the philistines who merely speak the sweet words. Rather we need to be like Mahatmaji himself: live and walk the talk be the change we want to see in the world: unswervingly committed to truth and integrity prepared to fight the antithesis whatever it might be with ahimsa, strength, courage and renunciation. My friends, with Satyagraha and ahimsa in our hearts and lives, well find the way out of our difficulties and challenges. For the sake of the Earth and our childrens children, may Gandhiji help us too!