Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

Grandson of Mahatma Gandhi to give peace talk at the Cascade Campus

Photos and story by Kate Chester

Arun Gandhi, the fifth grandson of India’s legendary leader, Mohandas K. “Mahatma” Gandhi, will visit PCC’s Cascade Campus (205 N. Killingsworth Street, Portland, 97217) on Thursday, Jan. 22 to offer a presentation, “Teaching Peace in Turbulent Times.” The talk will be followed by a question-and-answer session with attendees.

Staff, faculty and students are encouraged to attend the presentation, which also is free and open to the general public. The event will take place in the Moriarty Auditorium. Doors open at 10:45 a.m.; the presentation will take place from 11-11:30 a.m., and the question-and-answer session will follow from approximately 11:30 a.m.-noon. Complimentary parking in the underground garage will be available.

Gandhi was born in 1934, in Durban, South Africa. He grew up under the discriminatory apartheid laws of South Africa, beaten by white South Africans for being too black and by black South Africans for being too white. While his experience could have led him to seek “eye-for-an-eye” justice, his parents and grandparents emphasized that justice does not mean revenge. Rather, it means transforming the opponent through love and suffering. Gandhi’s grandfather taught him to understand nonviolence through an understanding of violence. As such, he has dedicated his life and career to sharing a message of peace and working for social justice.

Today Gandhi travels the world teaching peace and nonviolence through education and writes a popular blog for the Washington Post.  He is the founder of M. K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence in New York and is the recipient of numerous awards and honorary degrees for his work on peace and reconciliation. For more information about him, visit: arungandhi.net. For questions about his Cascade Campus talk, contact Mariah Dula at (971) 722-5574 or at Mariah.dula@pcc.edu.