| ARUN
GHANDI:
SUMMARY OF SPEECH GIVEN TO THE INTERNATIONAL LEADERSHIP ASSOCIATION'S
ANNUAL CONFERENCE, NOVEMBER 15, 2002
Summarized by
Herb Rubenstein
President and Founder, Growth Strategies Inc.
Introduction
Arun Ghandi is the grandson of Mahatma Ghandi. He works to promote
world peace through the teachings of leadership and non –
violence. He has identified 200 categories of leadership including,
the category he promotes, “Moral Leadership.”
His favorite
story regarding Mahatma Ghandi is that his grandfather for most
of his early career could not speak in public. He was sent by his
family at great expense to England to study to be a lawyer and when
he returned he set up his law practice. However, more often than
not, when he was called upon by the Judge to speak on behalf of
his client, he could not get the words out of his mouth and he would
leave the courthouse embarrassed and would have to give his clients
their money back. His efforts at being a lawyer in India failed
miserably.
Mahatma then
went to South Africa to live. He was on a train and sitting in first
class at a time when no one other that those with white skin were
allowed to ride in first class. A man came up to him, a fellow passenger,
and told him that he could not sit in first class since he was not
white. Ghandi showed the man his ticket for a first class berth.
The man said his ticket did not matter. Ghandi told him that he
was not moving and told the man, “You do whatever you think
is right.” The other passenger went to get the security force
for the train. The security force then took Mr. Ghandi and his luggage
off of the train. Ghandi did not resist with force and on that day
began to work even harder to put his principles of non-violent resistance
into practice.
Throughout Ghandi’s
life he resisted the many efforts of his people to use force and
violence to fight the British occupying and brutal force. Ghani
consistently preached that non-violent action can be very powerful,
especially when one is taking the offensive in political action,
but can also be powerful when taking defensive positions.
Relevance
Today of Ghandi’s Teachings of Non-Violence
Ghandi believed
that acts of violence result in creating societies and cultures
that become based on exploitation whether it is social, economic
or political exploitation. Ghandi’s view was that all relationships
must be based on four key principles.
- Integrity
- Understanding
- Acceptance
- Appreciation
Ghandi believed
that we all are interrelated, interconnected as people. Humans are
not masters of creation. We do not own it, we are only part of it.
Ghandi believed there were seven basic evils in the world. They
are:
- Wealth without
work
- Pleasure
without conscience
- Knowledge
without character
- Commerce
without morality
- Science
without humanity
- Worship
without sacrifice
- Politics
without principles
Arun Ghandi has added one more:
- Rights without
responsibilities
The
Impact of Violence
Arun Ghandi
stated that every time we kill an innocent person, we create 100
terrorists using violent methods to resolve conflicts. This causes
the society that killed the innocent person to have to again escalate
its capacity for violence to overcome the people who are devoting
themselves to find ways to attack the other using violence.
Arun Ghandi’s
basic theme of the speech was that revenge is bad. No one should
act violently as a result of anger. Ghandi’s goal is to change
human behavior. He then asks the question, “Is Human Nature
violent?” He believes the answer is “No.”
Arun Ghandi
believes that the US is using the 9/11 World Trade Center attack
to gain power and that President Bush and the government have invested
substantial time and resources to arouse the emotions of the American
people to support that aim. By the actions President Bush is taking,
Ghandi believes he is actively seeking to capitalize on this event
and channel the anger of US people into violent actions by the United
States.
Arun Ghandi
recognizes that it is human nature to be angry. The goal of leaders
should be to channel the anger into positive action, to become better
than the people who perpetrate violence. A leader must tap into
the energy of anger, but not lead it down the usual path of violence.
Arun Ghandi
says that the worst development of the Bush administration is the
concept of “Preemptive War,” which may be adopted by
many countries and destabilize the world. Ghandi says that the purpose
of every leader is to look for the welfare of all of the people,
not just those in his or her immediate family, society, culture
or country.
Mission
and Purpose
Arun Ghandi
says we are all here for a purpose. We are part of a bigger picture.
Justice, not punishment, must be the guiding principle in dealing
with aggression. Justice does not mean revenge; Punishment is simply
another word for control which manifests itself first in physical
form toward the immediate person who is being punished, but more
pervasively it controls via creating and fostering fear among all
of the others who do not get directly punished. Leaders must become
the change what they want to create. Leaders must ask people to
do what they should do; not more. We have to live a life showing
what we want others to learn and be the example fo r all people
to follow.
Arun Ghandi
asked the audience to stop labeling people. We are all human beings
behind these labels and must appreciate our humanity in conjunction
with everyone else’s humanity. Humanity must not be divided
by labels or false categories.
Mahatma Ghandi,
in spite of his very busy schedule, spent one hour per day with
his grandson – Arun teaching him. Mahatma Ghandi demanded
that no person “kill” time. Ghandi could always, account
for every minute of every day he spent. He.was always working on
purpose, always accountable for every moment he spent.
Two
Stories
Mahatma Ghandi
made money by selling his autograph. Arun wanted one for free, but
in spite of all of the devious efforts by Arun, he could never get
one for free. Mahatma charged him just like everyone else for his
autograph.
Second, Mahatma
Ghandi had an uncle who was known for him amazing ability to help
people. There was a young boy, a family member who was ill, and
the doctor told him and his family that eating candy was making
him ill. The doctor told him that in order not to become sick, he
could never eat candy again. The family instructed the child not
to eat candy. The family, however, continued to eat candy, but was
stern with the child in their admonishment of the child not to eat
candy.
The child would
not eat candy for days, but over time the child would sneak some
candy. The family did not know what to do as the child became sicker
and sicker. They went to the uncle and asked him to talk with the
boy and convince him not to eat candy. The uncle said, “Come
back in 15 days.” The family insisted, “Please see our
son today and tell him not to eat candy.” The uncle said “No,
I will see him in 15 days.”
Fifteen days
went by and the family and the boy came to the uncle. The boy and
the uncle went into the study for just one minute. They came out.
Neither said anything about what they talked about. The uncle said
everything would be all right with the boy. The boy never ate candy
again. After a year, the family went to the uncle and asked, “What
did you say to the boy?”
The uncle replied
that “What he said did not make any difference.” The
family was puzzled and then asked, “Why did you make us wait
15 days to have our son see you when you only saw him for one minute?”
The uncle replied, “I had to quit eating candy myself before
I could see him again and before I could ask him to quite eating
candy.”
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