Non-violence is natural: Sumitra

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When Sumitra Gandhi Kulkarni, granddaughter of Gandhiji, stepped onto the dais to commemorate her grandfather on his birthday, she was asked, by popular request, to speak in Hindi. The picture of simplicity herself, dressed in a white saree and speaking in chaste Hindi, she talked about her grandfather and all that he stood for. “When I was 14 years old, Bapuji had just been released from prison and our village was celebrating his birthday. There was a plant growing in his honour and it had bloomed, so we decorated it. Times were so simple then, we had to count every penny,” she said. “And our life is still like that.” Two generations down the line, the Mahathma's doctrines are a way of life for his family, not just something they think of once a year on his birthday.

Ms Sumitra Gandhi was delivering the inaugural address at a workshop on ensuring a clean and green urban environment – “Emerging Challenges and Solutions in Urban Waste Mangement – oganised by the Centre for Gandhian Studies at Bangalore University. She said, “I was asked to talk about solid waste management and I spent a long time thinking about it. But I’ll admit I don’t know enough,” she said. She took a few moments to reflect on the philosophies her grandfather lived by, instead, talking about ahimsa and equality. “Nonviolence comes naturally to all of us. Deep down, we all just want to be peaceful. If we remain true to ourselves and believe in the goodness of everybody else, life becomes very simple.”