Gandhi's vision of non-violence and love continued by grandson

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East and West met this month at a southern Alberta reserve when the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi shared his vision of a world filled with good will.

"It was against the British rule that my grandfather put up his big fight," Rajmohan Gandhi explained to the Stoney children among the guests at the Nakoda Lodge. "He believed in no-violence and love.

"But I forgot all that when I was fighting with my sister," Gandhi joked, referring to his own childhood.

He spoke at Nakoda Lodge in Stoney country on Dec. 9 at a reception which included performances by young Stoney dancers and drummers, and a visiting South American pipe and drum group.

Gandhi, who was travelling in Canada and the United States, was invited to the Stoney Reserve by Wesley Councillor Tina Fox. "Don't you dare leave Canada without setting foot on my land," she had said to Gandhi while he was in Western Canada recently.

The Stoney Elder travelled in India last April as part of a tour sponsored by the Moral Re-Armament group to Shillong, a city in northeast India.

"I told him we are on a healing journey, taking responsibility for our lives and trying to de-colonize ourselves," Fox said.

The Aboriginal people in that part of Indian know about the "Red Indian" of North America, she said. But often the knowledge is culled from comic books."

Gandhi has built his adult life around his grandfather's teachings. In Rajmohan's case, the enemy wasn't a colonial power, but misunderstanding between Hindus and Muslims in his own country. The conflicts between the two groups have lead to bloody confrontations, and continues to be a source of strife in the country.

Besides work for reconciliation between Hindus and Muslims, Gandhi was also head of India's Human Rights Commission. Currently, Gandhi is a research scholar at the Centre For Policy Research in New Delhi, India.

In 1975, he founded the Asia Plateau, a conference centre for the Moral Re-Armament group, located near Bombay. Asia Plateau is a meeting place where various regions, countries and industries can begin the process of reconciliation.

The movement believes that personal integrity, love and good will are the starting points for peace and good government.

"We have a lot of social problems on the reserve. To create peace anywhere, we must start with ourselves. Peace first comes from within," he said.

Gandhi ended his short address by thanking his hosts for their gift of peace to him through a pipe ceremony.

"I feel through the pipe that the spirit of these mountains will go all the way - 15,000 miles - to India."

As a leader, Mahatma Gandhi led his people to fight British rule not with guns and clubs but with passive resistance. Gandhi himself was imprisoned for 10 years by the British. Finally, in 1947, Britain granted Indian its independence. One year later, Mahatama Gandhi was assassinated.