The 20th Annual GANDHI PEACE FESTIVALgandhi/festival/2012/... · 2013-09-27 · meaningful difference in the lives of present and future generations. ... University. Through research,

Living Gandhi Today A publication of

The 20th Annual GANDHI PEACE FESTIVAL Hamilton Ontario Canada

Towards a culture of nonviolence peace and justice 2012 Theme The Gandhian Path to Peace Truth Nonviolence Service Saturday September 29 2012

Sponsored by Centre for Peace Studies McMaster University The India-Canada Society Hamilton wwwhumanitiesmcmastercagandhi

Suggested Donation

$500

Gandhi Peace Festival 2012 2 wwwhumanitiesmcmastercagandhi

The 20th Annual Gandhi Peace Festival Saturday September 29 2012

A Word of Welcome 3 Mahatma Gandhi Peace Festival Sponsors 4 Themes of past Gandhi Peace Festivals 4 A Personal Message from the Premier 5 Message from the President and Vice-Chancellor 6 A message from the Consul-General of the Republic of South Africa in Canada Hon Tselane Mokuena 7 Message from Hon Preeti Saran Consul General of India 8 Message from Mayor Bob Bratina 9 Mahatma Gandhi Lectures on Nonviolence 10 The Gandhi Peace Festival 12 Community Service Award 2012 12 Community Service Award (Youth Category) 12 Twentieth Anniversary Special Awards 13 How do we build a belief in a culture of peace 15 Gandhi and Israel-Palestine 18 How do I deal with a bully without becoming a thug 20 Who speaks for the conscience of Canada 22 Omnibus bill a breach of public trust 22 Global Protest Movements and Gandhi 23 Truth Nonviolence and Service The Unity 24 Nonviolence in Action Hindu Samaj of Hamilton and Region 27 PEACE SOCIAL JUSTICE and COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS 28

Centre for Peace Studies 28 The Malhar Group 30 Sri Venkateswara Hindu Heritage amp Cultural Centre of Hamilton 30 Mahila Shanti Sena (MSS) 30 Peace Medal Breakfast 31 Project Ploughshares 31 Physicians for Global Survival 32 International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons 32 The Childrenrsquos International Learning Centre (CILC) 33 Department of Peace 33 Amnesty International 34 KAIROS Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives 34 Hamilton Centre for Civic Inclusion 35 Women for Women 35 Canadian Voice of Women for Peace 36 Act Locally ndash Local Events Information 36 Hamilton Mundialization 37 Ontario Public Interest Research Group - McMaster 37 Open Circle 37 The India-Canada Society of Hamilton and Region 38 Hindu Samaj Womenrsquos Outreach Group 38 Seniors Seva Mandal of Hamilton and Region 39 South Asian Heritage Association 39 Community-based Interfaith Peace and Cultural Groups 40

Friends of the Festival ndash Thank you 41 2012 Gandhi Peace Festival Committees and Volunteers 42 Memories of 2011 Gandhi Peace Festival 43 Programme Back Cover For more information please contact Dr Rama Shankar Singh Marisa Rosato Administrative Coordinator Gandhi Peace Festival Committee Centre for Peace Studies McMaster University E-mail singhmcmasterca E-mail rosatomcmasterca Phone 905-525-9140 Ext 24378 Phone 905-525-9140 Ext 23112


A Word of Welcome Dear Friends We welcome you to the 20th Annual Gandhi Peace Festival We are grateful for your continued participation in this annual event that keeps Gandhirsquos message of peace and non-violence alive in Hamilton This yearrsquos festival theme is ldquoThe Gandhian Path to Peace Truth Nonviolence Servicerdquo We wish to dedicate this edition of Living Gandhi Today to the numerous people who have dedicated themselves to providing service to others especially for promotion of peace and non-violence around world Gandhi Peace Festival is unique and probably the only event of its kind around the world Since its inception in 1993 Gandhi Peace Festival has come a long way Started by India-Canada Society it has become inclusive and has grown in size The festival is now organized by a city-wide inclusive committee It attempts to represent all peoples and groups aspiring for peace justice and human dignity - in our city or elsewhere We would like to acknowledge the foresight of India-Canada Society in starting the peace festival and Centre for Peace Studies McMaster University and the City of Hamilton for their help and support Special thanks go to past Directors of the Centre for Peace Studies to all our donors in the community and to hundreds of volunteers who have worked over the years to make the peace festival successful A Gandhi bust honours the Gilmour Hall of McMaster University This year thanks to the City of Hamilton a full size statue will now grace the grounds of Hamilton City Hall Our most sincere thanks go to Councillor Brian McHattie for championing the proposal for accepting a Gandhi statue for the City Hall Countless number of people in the City Hall have helped to get the statue installed The statue is a joint gift of the Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR) Government of India and the people of Indo-Canadian community We offer our sincere thanks to all our anonymous donors As the world is going through turmoil - from terrorism to economic exploitation from environmental catastrophes to political and moral defeatism Gandhis message is becoming more and more relevant The Gandhi statue will stand as the reminder of our commitment that the city stands united to speak on behalf the oppressed to help the needy and to help plan and construct a peaceful and just society that our grandchildren can be proud of Our long term goal is nothing short of putting Hamilton on the world map The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of Gandhi Peace Festival Committee or of the sponsors of the Festival Khursheed Ahmed Rama Singh Editor Living Gandhi Today Chair Gandhi Peace Festival ahmedmcmasterca singhmcmasterca


Mahatma Gandhi Peace Festival Sponsors

Centre for Peace Studies McMaster University The India-Canada Society Hamilton

Co-Sponsors

Amnesty International Antiviolence Network Black History Committee Canadian Indo Caribbean Association Canadian Voice of Women for Peace Canadian Department of Peace Initiative Childrenrsquos International Learning Centre Council of Canadians Culture of Peace Network - Hamilton Dundas Independent Video Activists Hamilton Action for Social Change Hamilton Centre for Civic Inclusion (HCCI) Interfaith Development Education Association Interfaith Council for Human Rights and Refugees McMaster Students Union McMaster Peace and Conflict Studies Society Ontario Public Interest Research Group (OPIRG) Peace Brigades International Physicians for Global Survival (Hamilton Chapter) Project Ploughshares - Hamilton Chapter SACHA - Sexual Assault Centre of Hamilton and Area Strengthening Hamiltonrsquos Community The Immigrant Culture and Art Association The Malhar Group Music Circle of Ontario The Mundialization Committee City of Hamilton UNICEF United Nations Assoc of Canada Hamilton United Way Unity Church and Retreat Centre World Federalists of Canada YMCA HamiltonBurlington YWCA of HamiltonBurlington 933 CFMU

Financial Supporters

The City of Hamilton Centre for Peace Studies McMaster University

The India-Canada Society Hamilton Hamilton Culture of Peace Canadian Indo-Caribbean Association Hamilton Hamilton Malayalee Samajam McMaster Students Union McMaster Ontario Public Interest Research Group Physicians for Global Survival

Immigrant Culture and Art Association KMalhotra Legal Professional Corporation West End Physiotherapy Clinic Hamilton Mississauga Vision Centre ndash Optometrists Population Health Research Institute United Nations Association of Canada - Hamilton

and a number of individual supporters listed near the end of this publication

Themes of past Gandhi Peace Festivals

2012 The Gandhian Path to Peace Truth Nonviolence Service

2011 No to Fear ndash Yes to Peace 2010 The Power of Nonviolence 2009 Swadeshi Gandhis Economics of Self

Reliance 2008 Living Gandhi and King Today 2007 Building Sustainable Communities 2006 First Nations Peacemakers Building

Inclusive Communities

2005 Breaking the Cycle of Violence An Eye for An Eye Makes the Whole World Blind

2004 Creating True Security Freedom from Fear 2003 Power to the People The Agenda of the

Peace Movement 2002 Peace and Human Security 2001 The Problem of Racism 1993 - 2000 Towards A Culture of Peace

Nonviolence and Social Justice

PDF version of this publication and previous Gandhi Festival publications can be downloaded from

httpwwwhumanitiesmcmastercagandhifestivalbookletshtml


Premier of Ontario - Premier ministre de lrsquoOntario

September 29 2012

A Personal Message from the Premier

On behalf of the Government of Ontario I am delighted to extend greetings to everyone attending the

20th

Annual Gandhi Peace Festival

Everyone deserves to live in a society where they are treated justly equally and with dignity By

bringing people together and raising awareness of justice and human rights issues this festival is

instrumental in engaging and empowering the community in peace building

I applaud everyone in attendance today for demonstrating your dedication to peace and to building

stronger communities Your compassion will continue to strengthen our province and make a

meaningful difference in the lives of present and future generations

I would also like to take this opportunity to recognize the Centre for Peace Studies at McMaster

University Through research action and outreach activities you contribute to making our world a

place where every person can live out their dreams and their lives in a way that gives them dignity

respect and acceptance

Special thanks to the organizers volunteers and sponsors who have devoted time and energy to

ensuring the success of this festival Take pride in knowing that your efforts will help to cultivate a

stronger understanding and awareness of human rights equality and peace

Please accept my best wishes for a memorable and inspiring festival

Dalton McGuinty Premier


Message from the President and Vice-Chancellor

On behalf of McMaster University I am delighted to welcome you to the 20th Annual Gandhi Peace Festival an inclusive event dedicated to the promotion of peace nonviolence and social justice Hamiltonrsquos Gandhi Peace Festival is probably the only peace festival of its kind in the world It has grown in size over the last twenty years and has become part of Hamiltonrsquos cultural landscape as well gaining recognition both nationally and internationally The Festival is jointly sponsored by the Centre for Peace Studies at McMaster the City of Hamilton and the India-Canada Society and is a splendid example of collaboration between the community and the academy I would like to take this opportunity to recognize the outstanding work and dedication of all three partners and to thank the many organizers and volunteers who have made this event possible The theme of the 2012 Festival is ldquoThe Gandhian Path to Peace Truth Nonviolence and Servicerdquo This promises to be an interesting and thought-provoking topic and provides a wonderful opportunity for members of the Hamilton community to raise awareness of social justice and human rights issues to engage in dialogue and to share resources and ideas I am delighted that you have chosen to attend and demonstrate your support for the promotion of peace and nonviolence in our society My very best wishes to you all

Patrick Deane President and Vice-Chancellor


A message from the Consul-General of the Republic of South Africa in Canada Hon Tselane Mokuena

SOUTH AFRICAN CONSULATE GENERAL 110 Sheppard Avenue East Suite 600 Toronto Ontario M2N 6Y8 T 416 944 8825 F 416 944 0925 Email torontodircogovza

It was during the 21 years in South Africa from 1893 to 1914 that Mahatma Gandhi moulded his Satyagraha (devotion to the truth) methodology of struggle or non-violent protest Gandhi became a pillar of strength for all those who fought for peace and friendship and an end to colonialism and his vision became a pinnacle for people to people cooperation Through his vision and determination he became one of the pre-imminent contributors to South Africarsquos heritage where all different races creeds faiths and religions lived together A heritage that the world continues to cherish to date The South African Consulate General is proud to be associated with the convening of the 20th Annual Hamiltons Gandhi Peace Festival (GPF) co-sponsored by the Centre for Peace Studies (McMaster) City of Hamilton and India-Canada Society Initiatives like these continue to encourage us to work hard and collaboratively towards building a democratic nonracial and nonsexist society We are equally determined that the participants of the Annual Gandhi Lecture on Nonviolence also linked to GPF will use this opportunity to emulate the spirit and philosophy of non-violent means in addressing the challenges of our society of which Gandhi became an embodiment of We are very proud that we share with our peace-loving people a common hero Mahatma Gandhi Lastly we would like to extend a special thanks to the organizers and participants on this Festival with an emphasis that working together we can do more in contributing to the building of a world that is just and equitable Best regards Ms Tselane Mokuena The Consul-General of the Republic of South Africa in Canada


Message from Hon Preeti Saran Consul General of India

September 17 2012

MESSAGE

I am delighted to learn that the India-Canada Society Hamilton in association with McMaster Universitys Centre for Peace studies is organizing ldquoThe Twentieth Annual Gandhi Peace Festivalrdquo on September 29 2012 This Festival has helped create a better understanding of Indias exemplary freedom struggle that was fought through non-violent means

The spirit behind our freedom movement was Mahatma Gandhi the Father of the Indian Nation - a great leader a deeply humane person and a strong proponent of peace and non-violence His philosophy of Ahimsa and Satyagraha inspired millions across India during the freedom struggle His vision of a participatory democracy overall development especially of rural areas and building an equitable society has guided our nation His values and principles are emulated and cherished by the entire international community The United Nations has accepted the importance of Gandhijis philosophy and declared his birthday October 2nd as the International Day of Non-Violence

I commend the India-Canada Society Hamilton and McMaster Universitys Centre for Peace Studies for organising the Gandhi Peace Festival for the 20th year in succession I extend my best wishes for a successful event and for all their future endeavours

(Preeti Saran) Consul General


Message from Mayor Bob Bratina

On behalf of the City of Hamilton I would like to extend warm greetings to all those in attending the 20th Anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi Peace Festival and Peace Walk This yearrsquos festival theme is ldquoThe Gandhian Path to Peace Truth Service Nonviolencerdquo The power and timelessness of Gandhirsquos ideas continue to embrace the world His message of non-violence has to be seen in a broad context that include harnessing anger and emotion and turning those energies into positive forces Hamilton is particularly well-suited to hosting this festival because of the amazing diversity of our City with well over one hundred cultures ethnicities and nationalities represented among our population Here people are learning that those they once may have held in low esteem are contributing at every level to the growth of our City Of the groups currently engaged in confrontation around the world almost all are represented here and they peacefully co-exist as Canadians I urge everyone to join together again for the annual Peace Festival and Peace Walk to help embed Gandhirsquos ideas in our hearts Sincerely

Robert Bratina Mayor


Mahatma Gandhi Lectures on Nonviolence Centre for Peace Studies McMaster University

The Mahatma Gandhi Lecture series was established at McMaster University under the direction of the Centre for Peace Studies to make the value and strategies on nonviolence widely known and to develop the concept and practice of nonviolence through intellectual analysis and criticism dialogue debate and experimentation Each year a respected analyst or practitioner of nonviolence chosen by a subcommittee of the Centre for Peace Studies is invited to McMaster to deliver one or more lectures or workshops on nonviolence The series is named after Mahatma Gandhi to honour his role in the revitalization and development of nonviolence Gandhi brought together East and West spirituality and practical politics the ancient and the contemporary and in so doing he helped rescue nonviolence from sectarianism and irrelevance Our aim is not to put Gandhi on a pedestal but rather to take seriously the tradition for which he gave his life The inaugural lecture was given by Ovide Mercredi in 1996 The Mahatma Gandhi lectures series was initiated by India-Canada Society of Hamilton and is funded through private donations Our goal is to raise $150000 to provide a sustained yearly income of $6000 to adequately fund the Lecture series We have already reached 60 of our target and need your support to bridge the gap We urge you to make a tax-deductible donation to support this worthy cause The date of this yearrsquos Gandhi Lecture will be announced as soon as the speaker has confirmed it Past Gandhi Lecturers

2011 Dr Richard Falk Distinguished Emeritus Professor Princeton University 2009 Rajmohan Gandhi a professor biographer and grandson of Mahatma Gandhi 2008 Narayan Desai Gandhian Scholar India 2007 Satish Kumar EcologistActivist UK 2005 Sulak Sivaraksa Peace Activist Thailand 2003 Acharya Ramamurti ndash Social Activist India 2002 Dr Lowitija OrsquoDonoghue ndash Elder of Australian Aboriginal Nation 2001 Professor Fatima Meer University of Natal South Africa 2000 Medha Patkar Human Rights Activist and Social Worker Mumbai India 1999 Douglas Roche OC Senator Ottawa Canada 1998 Dr Adam Curle Founding Chair Dept of Peace Studies Bradford University UK 1997 Dr Gene Sharp Director The Albert Einstein Institution Cambridge Mass USA 1996 Ovide Mercredi National Chief of the assembly of First Nations Canada Full text of these lectures has been published in previous issues of the Gandhi Peace Festival booklet These are available on-line through the Gandhi website at McMaster University wwwhumanitiesmcmastercagandhi Donations to Gandhi Trust Fund are tax-deductible Please make cheques payable to McMaster University (Gandhi Trust Fund) and mail it along with your name address and contact information to McMaster University (Gandhi Trust Fund) Phone 905-525-9140 x23112 The Centre for Peace Studies McMaster University TSH-313 E-Mail peacemcmasterca Hamilton ON Canada L8S 4M2

The organizers of the Gandhi Peace Festival wish to express their gratitude to all those who have contributed so generously over the years to the Mahatma Gandhi Trust Fund in particular the following major donors Dr Suboth Jain University of California Davis Drs Raj and Sudesh Sood Dr Shobha and Ravi Wahi Burlington Drs Khursheed and Maroussia Ahmed Dr McCormack Smyth Senior Scholar York University Dr Rama Shankar and Mrs Rekha Singh Hamilton Mr Devindar and Mrs Uma Sud Brampton Dr Sri Gopal and Mrs Shanti Mohanty Hamilton Dr Douglas and Mrs Sheila Davies Hamilton Mr Subhash amp Mrs Jayashree Dighe Hamilton Dr Naresh and Mrs Meena Sinha Dr Salim and Mrs Waheeda Yusuf Mr Kiran and Mrs Rupa Jani Dr Ashok and Mrs Nirmala Dalvi Mr Nithy and Mrs Lalita Ananth Hamilton Dr Hemant and Mrs Abha Gosain Hamilton


We would like to extend

Our Sincere Thanks

To the following major donors for their generous support

India Canada Society Centre for Peace Studies wwwindiacanadasocietyorg wwwhumanitiesmcmasterca~peace

The City of Hamilton wwwhamiltonca

Population Health Research Institute wwwphrica

The West-End Physiotherapy Clinic

wwwwestendphysioca


The Gandhi Peace Festival Community Service Award 2012

Gail Rappolt Gail Rappolt is a retired high school principal in Hamilton She was a member of the United Nations when Manifesto 2000 was first proclaimed by the UN She immediately joined with others to help create the Culture of Peace Network in Hamilton in the Millennium year Gail has been a mainstay of Culture of Peace and after 911 and the firebombing of the Hindu temple Gail was on the Culture of Peace United Nations board which obtained a federal grant of ($120000 over three years) to create and run what was called lsquoThe Citizen Protection Projectrsquo which was also supported by the City of Hamilton and the Police It was intended to set up lsquosafe havensrsquo downtown where vulnerable people could go for temporary shelter if they felt harassed because of religious differences skin colour or ethnic origin Just as a few Safe Havens were being created the money ran out so the initiative folded Since that time Gail has been one of the most active members of Culture of Peace Hamilton encouraging us all working endless hours and keeping everyone inspired and involved with minutes and correspondence etc She was the key organizer in the United Nations AGM when it was held in Hamilton a few years ago and the sparkplug for the highly successful celebration of the First Decade of the Culture of Peace which was held at the Unitarian Church in October 2011 Hamilton is the only city in Canada that has established an active Culture of Peace presence and the fact that it has kept running for 12 years or more is an added proof of Gailrsquos energy and commitment

Community Service Award (Youth Category) Chelsea Rothwell is so pleased to call Hamilton her hometown having lived here

since she was 16 Chelsea developed a passionate appreciation and fondness for Hamiltonrsquos unique collection of people communities and landscapes at a young age Her dedication to the Hamilton community sprouted at age 13 when she began volunteering in the kitchen at The Good Shepherd Centre Menrsquos Shelter During her high school career at Westmount Secondary School Chelsea continued to shape the Hamilton community between classes by founding the PALS peer-to-peer literacy program for newcomer-children at local elementary schools facilitating art and recreation programs at long-term care facilities across the city and helping to take care of babies at an inner city day care In the year after graduating Chelsearsquos commitment to volunteer work in her community both sharpened and broadened in focus as she travelled the country with the support a bursary program Between teaching young Aboriginal women basic literacy skills in an on-site classroom at a holistic rehabilitation centre in Winnipeg to being a support worker for women on house arrest at a womenrsquos shelter in Ottawa to facilitating international youth leadership camps in Nova Scotia Chelsea has connected with many communities across Canada over a common cause social justice In her five years of study at McMaster University Chelsea has been a dedicated advocate of the Centre for Peace Studiesmdashrepresenting them internationally as a Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) internship recipient working with the Mahila Shanti Sena in India She has helped to organize a number of conferences including the Millenium Goals Conference and special events including Mac Peace Week and Hamiltonrsquos Annual Gandhi Peace Festival She is a small animals caregiver at the Hamilton-Burlington SPCA a McMaster Research Ethics Board (HSREC) committee member and reviewer and a former board member of McMasterrsquos Ontario Public Research Interest Group (OPIRG) A poet potter and painter Chelsea has also demonstrated a passion for the arts by helping to organize social justice-oriented spoken word poetry slams at the Art Gallery of Hamilton and donated her artwork to auction in support of The Dundas Valley School of Art Chelsea is also the most recent recipient of the PEARL award for excellence in patient care in her role as an operating room porter at the Hamilton General Hospital trauma centre and the F W Waters Scholarship in Philosophy and Newcombe Prize in Peace Studies for her academic and community contribution efforts She is currently in India extending the efforts of her Honours Thesis work on food security and natural resource protection in solidarity with the poorest people in the worldmdashIndiarsquos tribal and farming populations She feels immensely honoured and blessed to have received recognition for her community contribution efforts by her mentors in the Hamilton peace activist community


Twentieth Anniversary Special Awards In recognition of outstanding service in spreading the message of the Gandhi Peace Festival nationally and internationally

Ajit Jain Ajit Jain well known journalist and author has made innumerable contributions to the Indo-Canadian community spanning the last 30 years During this time he has tirelessly covered the news from coast to coast making consistent personal sacrifice in highlighting the cause of Indo-Canadians Ajit is currently Managing Editor of India Abroad the largest circulated South Asian weekly newspaper in North America and of Rediffcom best known portal on IndiaSouth Asia He was a weekly columnist for the Toronto Sun (2006-2009) He was also the Toronto-based correspondent of India Abroad News Service (1986-2001) that catered to 34 daily newspapers in India He has appeared on TV networks in Canada He has been frequently interviewed by OMNI TV CBC TV Ontario CBC Radio Metro Morning etc Ajit was the co-anchor of a 13 half hour weekly shows on Vision TV regarding Jainism Ajit is the authoreditor of several books on Indiarsquos domestic and foreign policies and he edited two volumes on Marx and Marxism ldquoRights and Privileges Fifty Years of the Indian Constitutionrdquo was co-edited by him with Prof NK Wagle of the University of Toronto It was recognized by the Indian Government as the best Canadian publication on India during 2003 He has also edited three Power Lists (India Abroad publications) containing profiles of 100 most eminent and successful Indo-Canadians which has now become a brand name publication in Canada

Dr Budhendra Doobay Dr Budhendranauth Doobay was born in the Guyana He came to Canada in 1972 to practice medicine in Canada He started a place of worship in Scarborough Soon after in 1977 his charisma and aura enabled him to work with Harry Panday ji and the late Cyril Singh ji to form the Voice of the Vedas Cultural Sabha Inc in Canada He was the leader who took the organization from its humble beginning in a school auditorium to its present status at 8640 Yonge St Richmond hill Dr Doobays innovation and visionary thinking has kept Voice of the Vedas a dynamic and constantly growing organization His vision of a ldquoWall of Peacerdquo was inaugurated on May 27th 2007 by Dr Deepak Chopra He has headed many fund-raising events to provide disaster relief throughout the world such as Tsunami earthquake in Pakistan Haiti flood victims of Guyana Gujarat earthquake disaster and raised funds to build more than 200 homes He has also facilitated fund-raising to build an orphanage for young girls in Orissa His vision - Anand Bhavan the Seniors Residence near the temple that will assist in recovery of elderly patients is now a reality Under the leadership of Dr Doobay Voice of the Vedas Cultural Sabha Inc had launched Global Care Outreach Program in 2011 This program conceptualized and successfully launched the Doobay Renal Center in Guyana This renal center is now treating patients on a regular basis Mahatma Gandhirsquos birthday October 2 is universally declared as ldquoWorld Peace Dayrdquo On this fitting day on October 02 2011 the Canadian Museum of Hindu Civilization and unveiled a monument dedicated to Canadian soldiers who sacrificed their lives during Canadarsquos peace keeping efforts Canadian soldiers have displayed extraordinary courage and have helped to eradicate the very roots of conflict that vitiate global peace Through the creation of this monument the Indo-Canadian community led by CMOHC and its donors offers its respect and gratitude to our armed forces Furthermore inspired by the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi and the sacrifice for peace by Canadian soldiers the dream of developing a national Park called ldquoShanti Niketanrdquo (Peace Park) is now under construction Dr Doobayrsquos vision is to complete this project within next two years This landmark is located next to the Statue of Mahatma Gandhirsquos statue on the premises of Voice of the Vedas (Vishnu Mandir) at 8640 Yonge Street in Richmond Hill Ontario


Gyan Rajhans Gyan Rajhans has been serving the community by producing and broadcasting the only non-commercial Vedic religion radio broadcasts and webcasts (wwwbhajanawalicom) since 1981 Gyan Rajhans has published extensively on Religious and Spiritual matters and some of them have been republished by several spiritual journals and web sites worldwide including in the widely well known Hindu Web site wwwhinduismaboutcom and an independent e-monthly wwwSouthAsianOutlookcom Gyan Rajhans has also translated Sri Mad Bhagvad Gita (considered to be the Hindu Bible) in simple English and Hindi For his Spiritual services Gyan Rajhans has been given several titles including Rishi and Hindu Ratna by Torontos temples and Hindu organizations In 2005 an International Organization of global repute and influence ldquoIndia International Friendship Societyrdquo representing the people India Indians and Non Indians of various nationalities who support India honored Gyan Rajhans with ldquoBharat Gaurav Award (Pride of India Award)rdquo Gyan Rajhans was the first Indo Canadian to be selected for this highly honored award Gyan Rajhans was awarded the Canadian Ethnic Journalists and Writersrsquo Club 2005 Award for best internet series on South-Asian spirituality Gyan Rajhans has been bestowed with several Honors for his contributions in the field of Occupational Health and Safety including the Amethyst Award for outstanding achievement by an Ontario public servant Occupational Health Association of Ontarios Hugh Nelson Award of Excellence Life Achievement Award by Occupational Health and Safety Magazine Canada and most recently Life-Time Meritorious Achievement Award by the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists

Darshan Singh Sahota Mr Sahota is a pioneer in the field of Asian TV and Radio program in Toronto For over last thirty years he has produced and hosted the weekly Eye On Asia TV program which is disseminated from coast to coast He also runs a Radio program Over the years he has interviewed hundreds of artists celebrities politicians and local businessmen on his show His show is a staple of Indo-Canadians weekend entertainment Mr Sahota has done the immense service of disseminating news about the annual Gandhi Peace Festival over the years all across Canada Thanks to his TV program Gandhi Peace Festival has become a household name in the Indian Diaspora


How do we build a belief in a culture of peace

Dr Richard ldquoDickrdquo Preston Professor Emeritus Department of Annthropology McMaster University

(Address given at 67th Hiroshima-Nagasaki Commemoration Hamilton City Hall

August 9 2012)

At a peace gathering a few years ago Rabbi Bernard Baskin observed that for all the many centuries that people of good will have gathered and worked on regaining and preserving peace in our communities and nations we are still confronted with a world where people deliberately harm each other We still have wars We seem not to have nearly enough effectiveness in reducing violence and building peaceableness Humanity as a whole has not sufficiently taken the Nazi Holocaust and the Nuclear Holocaust to heart or many ethnic wars like Rwanda Kosovo Somalia and Sudan that seem to have taken up where wars of conquest have left off How can we become more effective How can we build on the nonviolent transfomation of much of Eastern Europe and the initially nonviolent ldquoArab Springrdquo For finding ways to build a stronger and more effective belief in the importance of a culture of peace we do not have to start from scratch We have good practical examples right around us in the numerous citizen groups working today for peace social justice and environmental protection We estimate that there are about 300 such groups in Hamilton alone One the annual Gandhi Peace Festival is comng up in two weeks Others include Ten Thousand Villages Hamilton Project Plowshares Environment Hamilton Hamilton Roundtable for Poverty Reduction The Social Planning and Research Council and there are many many more While many of these dedicated Hamilton folks may not use the word lsquopeacersquo in their grouprsquos name or even in their vision statements their goals serve the wider purposes of a culture of peace And we have some examples that trace back to ancient inspiration and still continue today to influence peoplersquos beliefs and actions ndash including the great religious traditions all of them voicing some variation of the Christian New Testament ldquogolden rulerdquo of doing unto others as you would have them do unto you Most of the people of the world know this rule however it may be phrased in their particular traditional religion The rule is that we should act peacefully toward each other Most of us believe deeply in the rule and want it to guide our actions But sometimes people fail to be guided by it ndash it loses ldquotractionrdquo in the face of competing rules that tell us to act aggressively to protect ourselves from threats or to

sieze the moment for personal advantage And nations do this too with military actions and by gaining control of the resources of other nations What are we to do to be more influential to have more ldquotractionrdquo in the political arenas that sooner or later will fail our ideals of peaceableness And in our home communities how can we become more effective What can we do to build a more peaceable community and a more peaceable world We are not likely to do it by hitting violent persons with a stick in order to make them stop their violence or by incarceration that deprives an aggressive person from the human contact that can help some of them mature into better neighbours Violent ways of responding to violence is not the pathway to peaceful families communities or nations This is our age-old fundamental problem Fundamental problems may require fundamental solutions I invite you to think radically about this problem ndash to truly ldquothink outside of the boxrdquo and consider a most unlikely sounding solution I propose that we work on building a stronger mythology of peace I know that some of you will think ldquoWhy a mythologyrdquo On the face of it myths sound like a hopeless path to peace If myths just result in delusions why do we need them Or why do we have them Is there more to myths than delusion Yes quite a lot more The word ldquomythrdquo covers a vast amount of ground historically and globally We know that they are sometimes a way of teaching essential moral truths like the myths of the Garden of Eden or of the Sermon on the Mount Was the ancient Greek mythology of the Olympians a similar kind of truth about how we should live using the play of the gods whose power and ambition provides tabloid-like Illustrations of human follies The results of these follies are entertaining stories that serve as cautionary guidance to humans Indigenous mythologies everywhere offer similar kinds of cautionary truth For some curious reason every culture including ours provides a body of stories that cohere in peoplesrsquo minds into a mythology that serves as a path for living and having a purpose in this world The fact of the universal presence of myths tells us that at some deep level we want to believe in some fundamental life-guiding truths


about the world and about ourselves ndash perhaps we hope for an invisible hand of compassion fairness and justice ndash of peacefulness Myths probably have to be gripping stories in order to get our attention and have a motivating traction A myth built upon a martyrrsquos cause has a special traction - is emotionally strong We feel this our reverence for the martyrs who were champions of peace such as Mohandas K Gandhi Martin Luther King Jr Jesus of Nazareth and Lao Tzu The problem of having to have emotional traction ndash of myths being gripping ndash is that violence in its very many forms is also gripping whether war riots vandalism bar fights airplane crashes rapes football games fireworks and so on and on and onhellip Now we are faced with the mythic but not trivial Doomsday Clock at 5 minutes to midnight looming environmental catastrophe nuclear terrorism and the necessity of a sustainable harm reducing and peace-building environmental transformation How much traction do these myths have So far not enough How can prevention of violence or harm reduction and processes of peace-building be given traction One way is to construct a persuasive and comprehensive mythology of peace that can be a corrective to the mythology of war In Hamilton our branch of the United Nations Association of Canada our Culture of Peace network and our chapter of the Canadian Department of Peace Initiative are good and practical strategies for achieving our mythic goal but these do not build the mythology of peace A peace mythology will be a coherent collection of myths expressing persuasive and memorable ideas about peacefulness and the recognition of the terrible foolishness and wastefulness of war We have a very large inventory of narratives to choose from The best known expert on comparative mythology Joseph Campbell believed that we have the task of evolving a planetary mythology ndash transcending the old and new imperial mythologies and below them the societal or national mythologies ndash in a kind of recapitulation of the ancient earth-based Gaia mythology of our ancestral hunting cultures The ecology movement with its premise of the holistic interconnected dynamics of our environment ndash the basis of reasoning about the spirituality of the earth - is a step in this direction And the peace movement with its premise of universal rights and responsibilities ndash the basis of reasoning about the spirituality of human nature - is a step in this direction We need to take one more step towards a planetary peace mythology ndash a body of moral narratives that guides us towards more peaceful lives We have learned that historically all peoples have developed a national or a traditional myth-based spirituality that was meaningful to their lives And now we have the challenge to develop a planetary spirituality that guides our attitudes and actions in living more peacefully in a globalized world

Mythologies are the fundamental notions of a culture comparable to the way that premises are fundamental to a system of thought belief and practice But myth is not abstract theoretical or intellectual Myth is a compilation of episodes of experience remembered or imagined that are gathered around a unifying theme Mythologies are clusters of myths that share common themes and they have the ability to evoke actions guided by our spiritual experience both emotional and perceptual and both imaginative and concrete We have some familiar examples of mythologies though we usually call them great religions rather than mythologies Judaism Christianity and Islam are the three great Abrahamic mythologies Buddhism Hinduism and Confucianism are the three great East Asian mythologies And these are only six religions among a great many others Are they obsolete Certainly not in the eternal values they teach such as compassion fairness and justice Mythologies teach these values while continualing adapting their view of the world to the changes experienced by people in their contemporary world The power of mythology is partly in the coherence that each of the stories gives to the other stories creating an aesthetic spiritual whole world view The power of myth is partly in realizing their guidance of our life experiences ndash an awareness that makes them not just plausible but forceful The mythology of Christianity is forceful for those who have actually learned it as for example the apostle Paul the dissident Martin Luther and the founder of Quakerism George Fox So mythology is a kind of ethos an emotional tone but it is also a network of experience bits of experience and these things coalesce around particular stories and make them sound far more than merely plausible ndash as being actually necessary to living a good life It took me the better part of a lifetime to realize just how profoundly we are influenced by our mythology It is something that from childhood comes so gradually into our lives that we rarely think of it consciously and are rarely aware of how all our accumulation of stories coalesces in our minds and hearts Thanks to my becoming an anthropologist I have as an adult consciously experienced this coalescence during just a few years I discovered the reality of another culture to my surprise while listening to the old stories and finding myself saying -- lsquoyeah that makes sensehellip yeah that makes sensehelliprsquo ndash until one day in the third summer I was there ndash I had a rush of recognition where I inwardly said lsquoand it really does make sensersquo That was the point at which I began to perceive a little of Cree culture When it really does make sense thatrsquos when it becomes forceful when you really ldquoget itrdquo It is like somebody getting classical music Or getting it in some other kind of experience of a breakthrough You suddenly realize this is a part of something much larger It carries with it a very powerful domain of meaning that makes sense of life ndash


and thatrsquos what Irsquom now looking for ndash in a mythology of peace The myth-makers and myth-tellers create by taking stories or pieces of stories from here and there to build a narrative ndash a work of art - that people will recognize and feel a deep emotional relation to In a real sense they will ldquoget itrdquo It may be a sudden epiphany or it may be a more gradual awakening where you perceive cumulatively until you ldquogetrdquo the whole in a way similar to ldquogettingrdquo any other work of art Finding our myths of peace is a fundamental way of orienting us to a hopeful way of life living well together in a society that we respect and cherish with nonkilling politics ecologically sustainable and fair-sharing economics and inclusive spirituality We know that we can find some of this in our own traditions and aspirations What is holding us back Unfortunately this is not the most common kind of contemporary myth What is our contemporary mythology It draws on a long tradition of The Triumph of Good Over Evil How does it appear We can take a lead from Joseph Campbellrsquos books and TV series The Power of Myth Campbell answered Bill Moyersrsquo question of what the American contemporary mythology is by pointing at Star Wars as a widely known example of a mythic narrative of the triumph of good over evil Luke Skywalkerrsquos epic of final victory in Star Wars and other big epic narratives like Frodorsquos victorious epic in The Lord of the Rings or Harry Potterrsquos victorious epic have this common underlying myth of overwhelming the evil that threatens us Indeed our three heros have much in common ndash nice non-threatening modest boys-next-door although with parents strangely absent ndash they are the proverbial orphan youth who overcomes awful adversities and saves his people Out of the conflict between opposites (good versus evil) comes the resolution where the well-meaning hero (who is really peace-loving at heart) is mortally threatened by a powerful villian At the last moment the hero miraculously marshalls overwhelming power to achieve victory The winner takes it all and evil disappears from its active part in the world But you might say this is just entertainment not reality Yes but notice that millions are spent on each of these mythic films and billions are spent by the vast audiences who go to see them I have seen them all and found them fascinating ndash and thrilling They resonate within us In the real world many billions no trillions are spent in the service of the myth of rising with overwheming power and destroying evil and the daily news of these struggles holds our rapt attention Think of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and hundreds of other cities bombed in WW2 and in Viet Nam Iraq and Afghanistan The myths of the triumph of good over evil are very engaging and exciting

They help convince political and military leaders of the rightness of using their power and motivate the wars that result in killing of millions of people mostly civilians Not only by deliberate and organized brutality but also by uncounted small acts of casual brutality And the victories are always I repeat always only temporary with more enemies gathering force while our formerly evil enemies are now our friends These are contemporary echoes of very ancient narratives mythologies of conflict the power to subdue enemies and the triumph of good over evil as Shelley envisions for us in his poem Ozymandias

I met a traveller from an antique land Who said Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert Near them on the sand Half sunk a shattered visage lies whose frown And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive stamped on these lifeless things The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed And on the pedestal these words appear `My name is Ozymandias King of Kings Look on my works ye mighty and despair Nothing beside remains Round the decay Of that colossal wreck boundless and bare The lone and level sands stretch far away

So how about contributing to a mythology of peace It is the role of us peace advocates to create a stronger mythology of peace using what we already know and also creating new myths I believe that it is within our power to do this and I am convinced that we have to Many peace myths are already here hellipat least pieces of them are here Its not going to take a genius who can create a mythology out of nothing It IS going to take the efforts of many of us to bring violence reduction and peace building narratives and story bits together in the way that gifted mythologists like Joseph Campbell George Lucas J R R Tolkien or Ekhart Tolle have done But its time to get started The first step is to listen read learn and then to tell the stories This is a non-violent kind of social action The next step would be to get involved in some of the groups involved in the telling and writing of the stories to learn more of our myths and then to share them and to add to them Not only the verbal arts are involved Peacefulness is expressed in all of the arts Mythology like culture is an aesthetic whole where the whole transcends its parts And finally as we keep up the telling we can be visible patterns for peaceful living ndash living our myths If there is going to be change in the world real change it will have to work its way from the bottom up from the people themselves (Howard Zinn)


Gandhi and Israel-Palestine Paul R Dekar Tuesday September 11 2012

Paul R Dekar was one of the founders of Centre for Peace Studies at McMaster University He also taught at Memphis Theological Seminary where he developed a curriculum for the study of the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr Currently he serves as chairperson of the governing body of the North American chapter of Fellowship of Reconciliation

Scarcely twenty years have passed since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War and freedom of Nelson Mandela and the end of South African apartheid Elsewhere nations have erected new separation barriers The United States has built a wall along its border with Mexico Stated goals are to prevent illegal immigration and to lessen the flow of illegal drugs from Latin America Israel has built a wall along its border with Palestine A stated goal is to prevent ldquoterroristrdquo attacks an unwritten objective is further to isolate the Palestinians I will reflect briefly on my having seen the latter wall during a weeklong visit in September 2012 with relatives They emigrated from Russia to Israel in the early 1990s During this recent trip three things struck me 1 Israel experienced the same economic downturn

experienced since 2008 in Europe and North America Prices are high for housing cars and most products Unemployment is high Stress is high

2 Many Israelis see war in the region as imminent 3 The Israel-Palestine situation is sobering I found few

hopeful signs for a just and enduring peace Someone told me ldquoI hate Palestinians They want to kill me and my familyrdquo I would not be surprised to discover that some Palestinian Christians and Muslims hold similar attitudes vis-agrave-vis Israeli Jews

In the early 1990s the arrival of large numbers of Russian Jews contributed to significant changes since 1985 when I was last in Israel For example a West Bank settlement Marsquoale Adumin - founded in the 1970s - now has a population of nearly 40000 Many residents speak Russian primarily shop in stores with Russian goods and travel to Russia for family business or tourist reasons The international community regards Marsquoale Adumin to be illegal under international law Rejecting this Israel has built a security wall separating Israeli Jews and Palestinians

1

The wall may have contributed to the absence at present writing of open conflict It also makes it unlikely that Israel will accept any future peace treaty that alters this fact on the ground As a result what prevails is a negative peace rather than a positive peace

2

1 Notable exceptions include the Druze and a small Arab Christian

population 2 ldquoLetter from Birmingham City Jailrdquo in James M Washington A

Testament of Hope The Essential Writings of Martin Luther King Jr

Opposition to Israel is manifest internationally and among Palestinians However the latter are isolated divided geographically (Gaza and West Bank) and politically (Palestinian Authority and Hamas) Increasingly impoverished Palestinians cannot travel into areas under Israeli control I have reflected on these conditions from a Gandhian perspective Writing on Jewish aspirations for a homeland Gandhi cautioned against resort to violence or pie-in-the-sky idealism Rather he urged nonviolent direct action

3 On March 23 1921 in an article in Young

India Gandhi observed 1 ldquoMuslim opinion hellip will not tolerate any non-Muslim

influence direct or indirect over the holy places of Islamrdquo

2 ldquoPalestine was not a stake in [World War I]rdquo 3 Zionists must revise their ideal with respect to

Palestine or face the prospect of ldquoholy warrdquo with Muslims and Christians throwing in their influence against Jews

4

In my reading of the situation at the time Gandhirsquos first point was very accurate the second not entirely accurate and the third prophetic Subsequently a friend in South Africa questioned Gandhi ldquoDo the Muslims claim Palestine or will they restore it to the Jews who are the original ownersrdquo Gandhi answered ldquoThe Muslims claim Palestine as an integral part of Jazirut-ul-Arab They are bound to retain its custody as an injunction of the Prophet However that does not mean that the Jews and Christians cannot freely go to Palestine or even reside there and own property What non-Muslims cannot do is to acquire sovereign jurisdiction The Jews cannot receive sovereign rights in a place which has been held for centuries by Muslim powers by right of religious conquestrdquo Gandhi repeated these points in a letter to ldquoa Sind criticrdquo and added ldquoBritish mandate is being imposed upon Palestine and Mesopotamia in the teeth of fierce Arab opposition hellip [it] is an act of treachery towards Indian Mussulmans and of pillage against the worldrsquos Mussulmansrdquo

5

(San Francisco Harper amp Row 1986) 295 3 ldquoI believe that if faced with the choice of violence or cowardice I

would advocate violencerdquo Gandhi quoted by Tamer Hermann

ldquoNonviolence as a Political Approachrdquo in Amos Givirtz ed

Nonviolent Possibilities for the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict (Jerusalem

Palestinians and Israelis for Nonviolence 1998) 27 4 Young India 1919-1922 (Madras S Ganesan 1924) 178-9 5 Young India 6 April 1921 quoted by Gideon Shimoni Gandhi

Satyagraha and the Jews A Formative Factor in Indiarsquos Policy


Though Gandhi had had close Jewish associates in South Africa the political context of Muslim-Hindu relations in India shaped his later thinking He dismissed Zionism casually and refused to recognize Jewish self-definition on its own terms Efforts in the 1930s to gain his sympathy for Zionism failed On November 26 1938 Gandhi published a short essay entitled ldquoZionism and Anti-Semitismrdquo

6 He rejected the Balfour Declaration

according to which ldquoHis Majestyrsquos Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish peoplehelliprdquo Subsequently Gandhi wrote ldquoThe Palestine of the Biblical conception is not a geographical tract it is in their [Jews] heartsrdquo

Gandhi

condemned Hitlerrsquos violence against Jews and urged Jews to resist through satyagraha [nonviolent truth force or soul force] Doing so ldquothey will find the world opinion in their favour in their religious aspirationrdquo

7

This article prompted a number of Jewish responses leading Gandhi to retract statements that could be read as attributing guilt for their treatment as Jews in Germany ldquoI only hope that my observation [now withdrawn] has not harmed any single Jewrdquo

8

During World War II Gandhi refrained from saying anything public regarding the Arab-Jewish conflict over Palestine After the war he rarely commented In one article published on July 21 1946 in Harijan Gandhi addressed the issue of ldquoJews and Palestinerdquo Recoiling against a growing number of incidents of Jewish ldquoterrorismrdquo Gandhi reiterated that the Jews had erred grievously in seeking statehood In 1946 Louis Fischer a journalist from the United States interviewed Gandhi and asked about correspondence

towards Israel Jerusalem Papers on Peace Problems 22 (Jerusalem

Hebrew University 1977) 23 second letter in Collected Works 20

(Delhi Government of India 1966) 129 Jazirut-ul-Arab refers to ldquothe

island of Arabiardquo a holy land that may not be trodden by the polluting

foot of a non-Muslim In Muslims interpret the Koran and Islamic

teaching differently most understand the world as divided into two

camps the abode of Islam the abode of war A country is Dar-al-lslam

when it is ruled by Muslims A country is Dar-al-Harb when Muslims

reside in it but are not rulers of it While Sufis emphasizes jihad as

spiritual striving most Muslims understand they are permitted to

prevent any part of the abode of Islam from becoming part of the

abode of war Kenneth Cragg The House of Islam (3rd ed Belmont

Wadsworth1988) 6 Two Letters to Gandhi from Martin Buber and J L Magnes

(Jerusalem Rubin Mass 1939) Homer A Jack ed The Gandhi

Reader A Source Book of His Life and Writings (Bloomington

Indiana University Press 1956 New York Grove Press 1994) 317-22

and Louis Fischer ed The Essential Gandhi (New York Vintage

1962) 328-31

7 Walter Laqueur and Barry Rubin eds The Israel-Arab Reader A

Documentary History of the Middle East Conflict (4th ed New York

Penguin 1994) 18 J M N Jeffries ldquoAnalysis of the Balfour

Declarationrdquo in Walid Khalidi ed From Haven to Conquest

Readings in Zionism and the Palestine Problem until 1948

(Washington Institute for Palestine Studies 1987) 173-88 and

Mahatma Gandhi ldquoThe Jews in Palestinerdquo 367-70 8 April 27 1939 letter in Harijan cited by Shimoni p 55

from two leading Jews Martin Buber and Judah Magnes Gandhi recalled only his own statements not their letters With respect to the holocaust Gandhi re-iterated his insistence that Jews ldquoshould have offered themselves to the bucherrsquos knife They should have thrown themselves into the sea from cliffsrdquo Fisher asked ldquoYou think then the Jews should have committed collective suiciderdquo ldquoYesrdquo answered Gandhi ldquothat would have been heroism hellip as it is they succumbed anyway in their millionsrdquo With respect to Palestine Gandhi acknowledged that the ldquoJews have a good case hellip a prior claimrdquo

9

In my understanding Gandhi never grappled deeply with Jewish self-definition on Palestine Concerned about Hindu-Muslim unity in the face of British imperialism Gandhi supported Muslim and Arab claims to Palestine Acknowledging that two peoples had to share Palestine Gandhi discounted any presumptive Jewish claim Gandhi consistently made the case for nonviolent action for which there is a long tradition in the region Decades later I believe Gandhi would see the enormous range of nonviolent action on both sides of the Palestine-Israel conflict as a sign of hope He would see two essential elements for a just and lasting peace respect for United Nations resolutions and creation of a truly independent Palestinian state with security guarantees for both Palestine and Israel Finally he would express concern about not only the possibility of a nuclear Iran but also calls for a preemptive strike He would likely point out that nowhere has the possession or use of nuclear weapons achieved a just peace During the 1980s I researched Israeli-Palestinian peace movements I ended an article I wrote at the time with the following Talmudic story

10 Our universe depends for its

very existence upon the presence in it of thirty-six just persons They are hidden and do not know themselves who they are Yet without even one of them the universe itself would collapse The dream of a just and stable peace between two people remains precisely that a dream If then we lift up our eyes to the hills and seek the vision without which the people perish we may be inspired with the hope that in our generation Jerusalem may begin to fulfil again her destiny of guiding humanity to peace both as a centre of religion and as a centre of science and the humanities And we may utter with a fresh conviction the words of our Jerusalem poet Pray for the peace of Jerusalem they shall prosper that love thee Let there be peace within thy border and tranquility in thy palaces

9 Ibid 58-59 Louis Fischer The Life of Mahatma Gandhi (New York

Harper amp Row 1983 [1950]) 424 10 ldquoThe Peace Movement in Israel Reflections on Why Peacemakers

Do Not Necessarily Make Peacerdquo Conflict Quarterly 5 1 (Winter

1985) 53-66


How do I deal with a bully without becoming a thug TED talk presented on 30 April 2012 by

Scilla Elworthy (Transcribed by Joanna Santa Barbara)

Scilla Elworthy was for many years the founder and director of the Oxford Research Group which did significant work on communicating with decision-makers on nuclear weapons policy She currently works with Peace Direct a closer-to-action organisation which expands peace in zones of conflict Dr Joanna Santa Barbara is a child psychiatrist who has been a life-long peace actisivt and was a prminent figure in Hamilton peace community She now lives in New Zealand and continues to support Gandhi Peace Festival

In half a century of trying to help prevent wars therersquos one question that never leaves me ndash how do we deal with extreme violence without using force in return When yoursquore faced with brutality whether itrsquos a child facing a bully in the playground or domestic violence or on the streets of Syria today facing tanks and shrapnel whatrsquos the most effective thing to do Fight back give in use more force This question ndash how do I deal with a bully without becoming a thug in return - has been with me ever since I was a child I remember I was about 13 glued to a grainy black and white television in my parentsrsquo living room as Soviet tanks rolled into Budapest and kids not much older than me were throwing themselves at the tanks getting mown down And I rushed upstairs and started packing my suitcase My mother came up and said lsquoWhat on earth are you doingrsquo I said lsquoIrsquom going to Budapestrsquo And she said lsquoWhat on earth forrsquo I said lsquoKids are getting killed there Therersquos something terrible happeningrsquo She said rsquoDonrsquot be so sillyrsquo and I started to cry And she got it She said lsquoOK I see itrsquos serious Yoursquore much too young to help You need training Irsquoll help you Buthellip just unpack your suitcasersquo And so I got some training and went to work in Africa during most of my twenties But I realised that what I needed to know I couldnrsquot get from training courses I wanted to understand how violence how oppression works And what Irsquove discovered since is this Bullies use violence in three ways ndash they use political violence to intimidate physical violence to terrorise and mental or emotional violence to undermine And only very rarely in very few cases does it work to use more violence Nelson Mandela went to gaol believing in violence and 27 years later he and his colleagues had slowly and carefully honed the skills the incredible skills that they

needed to turn one of the most vicious governments the world has known into a democracy And they did it in total devotion to nonviolence They realised that using force against force doesnrsquot work So what does work Over time Irsquove collected about half a dozen methods that do work (of course there are many more that do work) and that are effective The first is - the change that has to take place has to take place in here inside me Itrsquos my response my attitude to oppression that Irsquove got control over that I can do something about And what I need to develop is self-knowledge to do that That means I need to know how I tick when I collapse where my formidable points are and weaker points are When do I give in What will I stand up for And meditation or self- inspection is one of the ways (itrsquos not the only way) of gaining this kind of inner power And my heroine here hellip is Aung San Suu Kyi in Burma She was leading a group of students on a protest in the streets of Rangoon and they came round a corner and were faced with a row of machine guns And she realised straight away that the soldiers with their fingers hellipon the triggers were more scared than the student protesters behind her But she told the students to sit down and she walked forward with such calm and such clarity and such total lack of fear that she could walk right up to the first gun put her hand on it and lower ithellip and no one got killed So thatrsquos what the mastery of fear can do Not only faced with machine guns but if you meet a knife fight in the street But we have to practise So what about our fear I have a little mantra My fear grows fat on the energy I feed it and if it grows very big it probably happens So we all know the 3 orsquoclock in the morning syndrome when something yoursquove been worrying about wakes you up I see a lot of peoplehellip(laughter) And for an hour you toss and turn and it gets worse and worse and by 4 orsquoclock yoursquore pinned to the pillow by a monster this big The only thing to do is to get up make a cup a tea and sit down with the fear like a child beside you Yoursquore the adult The fear is the child And you talk to the fear and you ask it what it wants what it needs How can this be


made better How can the child feel stronger And you make a plan and you say lsquo OK now wersquore going back to sleep Half past seven wersquore getting up and thatrsquos what wersquore going to dorsquo I had one of these 3am episodes of fear on Sunday paralysed with fear at coming to talk to you So I did the thing got up made the cup of tea sat down with it did it all and Irsquom here still partly paralysed but Irsquom here (Applause) So thatrsquos fear What about anger Whenever therersquos injustice therersquos anger But anger is like gasoline And if you spray it around and somebody lights a match yoursquove got an inferno But anger in an engine is powerful If we can put our anger inside an engine it can drive us forward it can get us through the dreadful moments and it can give us real inner power And I learned this in my work with nuclear weapon policy makers because at the beginning I was so outraged at the dangers they were exposing us to that I just wanted to argue and blame and make them wrong Totally ineffective In order to develop a dialogue for change we have to deal with our anger Itrsquos OK to be angry with the thing the nuclear weapons in this case But it is hopeless to be angry with the people They are human beings just like us Theyrsquore doing what they think is best and thatrsquos the basis on which we have to talk with them So thatrsquos the third one ndash anger And it brings me to the crux of whatrsquos going on what I lsquove seen is going on which is that last century was top-down power It was still governments telling people what to do This century therersquos a shift - itrsquos bottom-up or grass-roots power Itrsquos like mushrooms coming through concrete Itrsquos people joining up with peoplehellip miles away to bring about change And Peace Direct spotted quite early on that local people in areas of very hot conflict know what to do They know best what to do So Peace Direct gets behind them to do that And the kind of thing theyrsquore doing is demobilising militias rebuilding economies resettling refugees even liberating child soldiers And they have to risk their lives almost every day to do this And what theyrsquove realised is that using violence in the situations they operate in is not only less humane but itrsquos less effective than using methods that connect people with people that rebuild And I think that the US military is finally beginning to get this Up to now their counter-terrorism policy has been to kill insurgents at almost any cost And if civilians get in the way thatrsquos written as collateral damage And this is so infuriating and humiliating for the population of Afghanistan that it makes recruitment for Al Qaeda very easy when people are so disgusted by for example the burning of the Quran So the training of the troops has to change And I think there are signs that it is beginning to change

The British military have always been much better at this But therersquos one magnificent example for them to take their cue from And thatrsquos a brilliant US colonel called Chris Hughes And he was leading his men down the streets of Najaf in Iraq actually And suddenly people were pouring out of the houses on either side of the road screaming yelling furiously angry and surrounded these very young troops who were completely terrified didnrsquot know what was going on couldnrsquot speak Arabic And Chris Hughes strode into the middle of the throng with his weapon above his head pointing at the ground and he said lsquoKneelrsquo And these huge soldiers with their backpacks and their body armour wobbled to the ground And complete silence fell And after about two minutes everybody moved aside and went home Now that to me is wisdom in action in the moment Thatrsquos what he did And itrsquos happening everywhere now You donrsquot believe me Have you asked yourselves why and how so many dictatorships have collapsed over the last 30 years Dictatorships in Czechoslovakia East Germany Estonia Latvia Lithuania Mali Madagascar Poland the Philippines Serbia Sloveniahellip I could go onhellip and now Tunisia and Egypt And this hasnrsquot just happened you know A lot of it is due to a book written by an 80 year old man in Boston Gene Sharp He wrote a book called From Dictatorship to Democracy with 81 methodologies for nonviolent resistance and itrsquos been translated into 26 languages itrsquos flown around the world and itrsquos being used by young people and older people everywhere because it works itrsquos effective So this is what gives me hope not just hope this is what makes me feel very positive right now Because finally human beings are getting it Wersquore getting practical doable methodologies to answer my question ndash how do we deal with a bully without becoming a thug Wersquore using the kind of skills that Irsquove outlined - development of inner power through self-knowledge recognising and working with our fear using anger as a fuel cooperating with others banding with others courage and most important commitment to active nonviolence I donrsquot just believe in nonviolence I donrsquot have to believe in it I see evidence everywhere of how it works And I see that we ordinary people can do what Aung San Suu Kyi and Gandhi and Mandela did We can bring to an end the bloodiest century that humanity has ever known And we can organise to overcome oppression by opening our hearts as well as strengthening this incredible resolve And this open-heartedness is exactly what Irsquove experienced in the entire organisation of this gathering since I got here yesterday

Thank you


Who speaks for the conscience of Canada Omnibus bill a breach of public trust

Rama Singh Professor Department of Biology and Centre for Peace Studies McMaster University

(First published in The Hamilton Spectator June 27 2012) I took my first job at McMaster University over three decades ago Prior to coming to Canada I had lived in the United States as a graduate student The United States was a war-torn country the Vietnam War had just ended - and Canada provided contrast and a healthy breathing space I loved Canada We had an intellectual prime minister immigrants were valued refugees were welcome draft dodgers were accepted and multiculturalism along with a Charter of Rights was in the pipeline Canada looked like a civil society on the move and a good place to raise a family Canada was seen around the world as a peace-loving nation and it became a peacekeeping nation Canada asserted its security linkages to NATO and the United States but at the same time it showed a growing sense of confidence as a sovereign nation This belief was implemented by using soft power and diplomacy in approaching and solving international problems Canadians were seen as a fair-minded people who had no enemy Our peacekeeping forces Blue Helmet became a symbol of safety and security in conflict zones around the world The Canadian flag was a symbol of acceptance and security It replaced so the story goes the Stars and Stripes on many American tourists backpacks The red maple leaf provided security and a friendly reception overseas The times have now changed Canada is no longer an open-armed welcoming nation for immigrants and refugees Canada has reduced the number of family-unification immigrants and has put tens of thousands of young and qualified prospective immigrants in queue Canada also no longer appears as a peace-loving nation Our image has changed from a peacekeeping nation to a war-ready nation The government wants to build a powerful military force and as a result our military expenditure has spiralled out of control Canada has fought in the Afghanistan war and provides logistical military support elsewhere - this is in spite of the fact that most Canadians support peacekeeping roles Canada has moved away from soft diplomacy and now openly sides with one party over another Canada is also no longer a friend of the environment The government is muzzling scientific discourse on public safety issues and punishing whistle blowers in the

process The omnibus bill will affect agriculture fisheries parks EI old age pensions but especially environmental assessment Tens of thousands of jobs will be eliminated Many social agencies have lost their support and environmental groups and charities are under ferocious attack The scope and breadth of these cuts make you think that Canada has entered a war Perhaps the Government of Canada wants to be ready for war Canada is buying over $25 billion worth of fighter jets and it still has to find money to pay for them The cost for one F-35 is approximately $75 to $85 million - public money the government will cut from dozens of significant social programs Canadas parliament has a tradition - it works on a combination of legislations and procedural precedence An omnibus bill may be legal but it is not just Just one bill to pass legislations affecting immigration fishery forestry unemployment environment foreign affairs trade and international development all in one Its silly These cuts will affect peoples life and health and yet they passed with hardly any discussion The impact of this bill will be felt for years to come The omnibus bill is not conscientious But who speaks for the conscience of Canada Who speaks for all Canadians on a nonpartisan basis Who can speak Gandhi spoke for the conscience of millions He nurtured a culture that produced thousands in all parts of India who literally donated their lives to serve the people He had a plan He prepared people to fight for public causes that affected their lives He prepared people to act as the fourth leg of democracy (alongside legislative executive and judiciary) He trained a cadre of high-minded civic leaders who spoke on behalf of the people They championed peoples causes and had no interest in being elected They took pride in calling themselves the Servant of India Where are the Gandhians of Canada Why dont we have such civic leaders in our country One reason is in the long run the political system succeeds in dividing the people into opposite poles - right and left liberal and conservative capitalist and socialist - as if we are people of different breeds with different needs We have developed a culture where everybody gets labelled as liberal or conservative democrat or republican


the good (meaning us) or the bad (meaning them) We may not know it but slowly we internalize these labels and begin to behave as if we are indeed born with political genes of different colours The current political system perpetuates division and animosity and there is simply no room or respect for serious and conscientious speakers on behalf of the people Given that the evolution of democracy was a social revolution in human relations the very idea of an omnibus should look idiotic in this age and time This bill is simply a breach of public trust Political opposition is made

irrelevant personal agenda supreme and bureaucracy entrenched Political oppositions are not defeated people They are elected to do their job to provide checks and balances So what can we do Well for one thing we need to shout out loud enough is enough But more seriously we need to nurture a culture that promotes civic leaders who are respected for their stands and who speak for the good of all Canadians We have a few but we need more Maybe our elders will take up this role

Global Protest Movements and Gandhi Binoy Shanker Prasad

A former president of the India-Canada Society Dr Binoy Shanker Prasad is the author of Violence Against Minorities Riots and the State in the United States and India He is currently on the faculty McMaster University Centre for Peace Studies

The Tunisian uprising in December 2010 was followed by the Egyptian protest movement in January 2011 The same month a 65-year old manrsquos self-immolation in a place called Samtah Jizan in Saudi Arabia led to an unprecedented peoplersquos revolt The outbreak of protest on the streets of Saudi Arabia was very similar to the Tunisian revolt except for the outcome In February-March of 2011 the rebellion against Colonel Gaddafi in Libya and the Qatar peoplersquos protest ensued The rumblings of the Syrian uprising also began in early 2011 The western press called it the Arab Spring The western world also had its own version of the Arab Spring Beginning with the November 2010 Central London protests and the studentsrsquo ldquoMillbank occupationrdquo the anti-capitalist protest movement reached Manhattan New York in September of 2011 What came to be known as the Occupy Wall Street in the USA it turned out to be a global protest movement from Sydney to Rome and Jerusalem to Madrid In over 900 cities in more than 80 countries (India included) protests proliferated Highlighting the gulf between the richest 1 and the rest of 99 the OWS targeted its grief and fury against the government which was more beholden to the big banks and corporations responsible for the financial crisis beginning 2008 Continuation of the protest movement by the students is still in evidence on the streets of Montreal or in the form of ldquoOccupy McMasterrdquo at the McMaster Student Centre Atrium Against the global and national backdrop we must revisit the Gandhian philosophy and method on protest violence and reconstruction as we celebrate 20th Gandhi Peace Festival in Hamilton Ontario

As a firm believer in non-violence Gandhi would never have approved of armed revolt against any ruler However he must have exhorted and led a non-cooperative peaceful civil disobedience movement against the tyrants The dictators and autocrats he believed ruled only because of the cooperation of their subjects If the subjects withdrew all their support the rulers however mighty would crumble The tyrants of the Middle East would have met their end but only after an incessant and patient non-cooperation movement which would have demanded a lot of faith sacrifice and patriotism Violence on the other hand generated more violence as was in evidence in post-Mubarak Egypt and post-Gaddafi Libya The process of abiding national and social reconstruction could be possible only through peaceful means As for the Occupy Wall Street movement and the world wide movements inspired by it the protesters have by and large followed the Gandhian non-violent method of civil-resistance In some cities the protest march did turn violent for a brief period but they were isolated and didnrsquot discredit the objectives of the movement According to a poll of a smaller sample whereas 98 of the protesters believed in civil disobedience to achieve goals only 31 would use violence ldquoif necessaryrdquo The OWS achieved at least two objectives in keeping with the Gandhian method First the movement aroused the general consciousness of the masses It informed that the 400 richest Americans had more wealth than the bottom 150 million put together One out of six Americans was supported by food stamps that meant they could not afford to put sufficient food on the table by themselves They were in poverty A just published book The Rich and the rest of US indicated that a vast swathe of the


American middle class which consisted of educated intelligent professionals had fallen into poverty More than a million quit looking for a job We know from history that a society gets in deep trouble if there is a wide income disparity The OWS reintroduced in the national dialogue such marginalized subjects as undermining of the democratic process under the influence of money financial corruption and environmental issues The power and greed of the ruling elites and the violence they carried out in peoplersquos name whether abroad or at home were unacceptable and had to be resisted Secondly the OWS did create along the Gandhian principles something that didnrsquot really exist in the US communities of mutual support cooperation open spaces for discussion Following the ldquosmall is beautifulrdquo concept they developed a health care system a library a common kitchenmdasha community living spreading the message of helping and doing things together That was remarkable The capitalist world is very much familiar with the individualistic mantra ldquome firstrdquo To advance consumerism the big corporations made attempts at every step to keep members of the families and community separate Thus as a Harvard Public Policy Institute study found out that less than half the children between18 to 24 thought that the government had no responsibility dealing with subjects like healthcare food and so on The propaganda system was designed to make one feel that the government was some alien force to be kept away from onersquos affair The OWS changed the perspective The OWS also showed to the country and the world that there was an abiding strength in following the Gandhian path of non-violence and civil disobedience It taught how

to struggle peacefully for a cause and yet stay committed to the principles of democracy A case in point was witnessed in the state of Wisconsin The governorrsquos anti-labour-anti-people actions had led to more than a year of organizing petitioning and campaigning for his recall At one time there was a virtual occupation of the Madison statehouse the Capitol because of the anger and frustration of the people However at the end of the agitation the governor survived the recall election and people of Wisconsin accepted the verdict There was no call given to resort to disruption or to a violent overthrow of the governor Those who were opposed to the governorrsquos policies realized they needed to work more on public education and peaceful agitation to democratically replace him The non-violent occupation of the Wisconsin State Capitol in February 2011 rekindled activists around the country In the Gandhian way there was no immediate expectation of results As long as it meant forced takeover of otherrsquos wealth Gandhi would have objected to the use of the term ldquooccupyrdquo An admirer of capital he advocated making the wealthy a voluntary ldquotrusteerdquo where his or her wealth would be under social ownership for constructive purposes In the USA Bill Gates and Warren Buffett were the living examples There were seven things that would destroy us Gandhi had warned ldquoWealth without work Pleasure without conscience Knowledge without character Religion without sacrifice Politics without principle Science without humanity Business without ethics The high-tech driven globalized economic and political order can ignore Gandhi only at its own peril

Truth Nonviolence and Service The Unity

Sri Gopal Mohanty Professor Emeritus McMaster University Hamilton

When Gandhi spoke to villagers he frequently pointed to the fingers of his left hand to represent five great calls for problem-solving action that confronted India in the struggle for independence spinning removal of untouchability impoverishment of the status of women abstinence from drugs and alcohol and achievement of Hindu-Muslim harmony Then it is said he would point out his wrist and say something like ldquoThis is nonviolencerdquo (Ref lsquoGandhirsquos contribution to global nonviolent awakeningrsquo the Third Gandhi Memorial Lecture delivered by Glenn D Paige on October 26 1990 sponsored by the Gandhi Smriti and Darshan Samiti India)

ldquoNonviolence is the first article of my faith It is also the last article of my creedrdquo Gandhi Young India March 23 1922 Why and where Gandhi got into nonviolence Narayan Desai who grew up with Gandhi in his childhood and worked with him and who is spreading the story of Gandhirsquos life and his philosophy through a folk narrative form called lsquoGandhi Katharsquo thinks that Gandhi discovered nonviolence in his unquenchable thirst for truth which became synonymous with God to him His constant pursuit for truth made him realize that onersquos own truth should allow grasping the other personrsquos truth and truth from other sources but not eliminate the other side by force This is


what led him to nonviolence (Ref Gandhirsquos Concept of

Nonviolence in lsquoMy Gandhirsquo by Narayan Desai Navjivan Publishing House Ahmedabad India 1999)

Desai describes Gandhirsquos first experience on nonviolence as an active love force that came from his father As a young boy Gandhi confessed a petty theft in writing a note to his father He expected some kind of punishment and was prepared for it But instead his father kept silent and on reading the note tears trickled down his cheeks The boy was intensely moved to experience the fatherrsquos agony and love To him it was pure nonviolence Gandhirsquos first lesson in nonviolent resistance to injustice came from his wife Kasturba The young Gandhi trying to play the role of the husband wanted the wife to take permission lsquobefore going outrsquo Kasturba refused to accept it and said she did not need any permission for example to visit the temple She would quietly accept her husbandrsquos harsh words but act exactly the way she thought was right to do Gandhi changed to understand the action ndash gentle but firm denial ndash an appropriate instrument of nonviolence What are the sources of Gandhirsquos inspiration and lessons As a child he was very much influenced by cultural heritage of Hinduism and Jainism A study of his life shows his following of Hinduismrsquos ten ethical restraints (yamas in Sanskrit) as stated in lsquoYajur Vedarsquo (one of the original scriptures) nonviolence (ahimsa) truthfulness (satya) non-stealing (asteya) chastity (brahmacharya) kindness (daya) steadfastness (dhriti) forgiveness (kshama) honesty (arjava) temperance in food (mitahara) and purity (saucha) (Ref Dancing with Siva by Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami Himalayan Academy 1993 pp 187-191) The core of Vedic philosophy is the universe being a part of God and God pervading through the universe To Gandhi the idea of oneness between the creator and the creation including humans is at the root of ahimsa Messages in Hindu scriptures Vedas and Upanisads were condensed in Bhagbat-Gita a book which became a source of inspiration to Gandhi From Hinduism point of view a seeker is guided by these scriptures for example the ethical restraints for the individualrsquos salvation However the message of ahimsa as envisaged in Buddhism was propagated by Emperor Ashoka who according to HG Wells was lsquothe only military monarch on record decided to abandon warfare after victoryrsquo and tried to introduce nonviolence in day to day government administration Further Charles Allen writes The religious tolerance that Emperor Ashoka called in his seventh Rock Edict where he spoke of his desire lsquothat all religions should reside everywherersquo lay at the heart of the new thinking that Ashokarsquos religious ministers promoted within the borders of his empire and his missionaries beyond (Ref Preface in Ashoka The Search for Indiarsquos Lost Emperor by Charles Allen published by Little Brown 2012)

Gandhi was influenced by Ashokarsquos principles that nonviolence is more than individualrsquos salvation and that of tolerance and respect for all religions For him if truth or God is undivided then so should be the universe its creation His fundamental belief in the principle of unity that an individual is not separate from the community led to universal humanism and all his work for instance spiritualization of politics just society and selfless service to bring the harmony ldquoI shall work for an India in which the poorest shall feel that it is that country in whose making they have an effective voice an India in which there shall be no high class and low class of people an India in which all communities shall live in harmonyrdquo (CWMG (Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi) Government of India Publication Division Vol XII 1999 p167) Besides considering self-purification at an individual level Gandhi thought of using it as a means to attain the well being of the society For the same belief in the principle of unity he was not sectarian even though he was deeply religious and spiritual Gandhi was impressed and influenced by the emphasis of social justice in the Koran the Buddhist and Christian principle of returning love for hatred and Tolstoyrsquos ldquoThe Kingdom of Heaven is Within Yourdquo Tolstoyrsquos principle of bread-labour meaning to earn onersquos livelihood by putting manual labour Ruskinrsquos view of equal opportunity for all jobs and Thoreaursquos civil disobedience appealed to him What are special features of Gandhian nonviolence Desai points out three fundamental features of Gandhirsquos nonviolence

Gandhirsquos method of fighting injustice is called satyagraha which is the combination of truth and nonviolence It is not passive resistance but as an active love force is the seed of nonviolent resistance to injustice ldquoSatyagraha is gentle it never wounds It must not be result of anger or malice It is never fussy never impatient and never vociferous It is the direct opposite of compulsion It was conceived as a complete substitute for violencerdquo ndash Gandhi Harijan April 15 1933

Gandhirsquos nonviolence is not only a personal code of conduct as commonly understood but of social value to be implemented in the social field and to embrace the whole world ldquoThe religion of nonviolence is not meant merely for the rishis and saints It is meant for the common people as well Nonviolence is the law our speciesrdquo Gandhi Young India August 11 1920

Gandhirsquos vision of a nonviolent society was a decentralized society where there would be minimum concentration of economic and political power The pattern of the society is like that of lsquooceanic circlesrsquo ldquoIn the pattern of oceanic circles the outermost circumference will not wield power to crush the inner


circle but will give strength to all within and derive its strength from itrdquo Gandhi Harijan July 28 1946

All these features imply the need of selfless service ldquoMy religion is based on truth and non-violence Truth is my God Non-violence is the means of realising Himrdquo - Gandhi ldquoThe best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of othersrdquo - Gandhi How is todayrsquos world responding to Gandhirsquos messages Glenn D Paige who is a founder of the Center for Global Nonkilling at the University of Hawaii and the author of lsquoTo Nonviolent Political Science from Seasons of Violencersquo continued in the 1990 Third Gandhi Memorial Lecture his using Gandhirsquos five-finger and wrist analogy to describe the pressing problems confronting our global village Pointing to the fingers of his left hand Gandhi might say ldquoHere are the problems we must solve peace and disarmament economic justice human rights preser-vation of the environment and realization of problem-solving cooperation among all the peoples of the earthrdquo Then pointing to his wrist he might add ldquoThis is nonviolence the way we must solve these problemsrdquo Paige moved from the violent problems of the fingers of the left hand to the nonviolent promise as Gandhirsquos legacy to be counted by the fingers of the right These are spirituality respect for science ndash an experimental attitude importance of both individual and mass action compassionate constructiveness and creative courage He then asked If we now bring Gandhian legacy to bear upon the global problems what are the grounds for confidence that nonviolent transformative action eventually can prevail In its answer Paige joined with Gandhi to recognize that nonviolence is the fundamental condition in which all the great spiritual teachers have called upon humanity to live and that nonviolence is the law of life Further making observations that from the time immemorial only a small minority have ever directly killed anyone that since roughly half of humankind are women who traditionally are not warriors and that since usually only a minority of men have been served as soldiers he inferred that we can have confidence that a nonviolent world is not beyond human attainment First Paige pointed out a number of nonviolent world leaders of distinction like Nobel peace laureates Martin Luther King Jr Mairead Corrigan and Betty Williams Amnesty International Mother Teresa Adolfo Perez Esquivel Bishop Desmond Tutu and Dalai Lama He recognized Mikhail Gorbachevlsquos participation with Rajiv Gandhi in the Delhi Declaration of Principles for a Nuclear-Weapon- Free and Nonviolent World on Nov 27 1986 as a significant show of non-violent political leadership

Then he mentioned a few examples of beautiful and dedicated nonviolent global problem solving resources in five problem areas Peace and disarmament War resisters International and Peace Brigades International to which Narayan Desai has a tremendous contribution Womenrsquos Peace Camp at Greenham Common air base in England Gruppe Schweitz ohne Armee (Switzerland without Army) in Switzerland Economic justice Sarvodaya movement in India Bhoodan-Gramdan movement by Vinoba Bhave and J P Narayan Buddhist based Sarvodaya movement in Srilanka guided by A T Ariyaratne United Farm Workers union in California guided byCesar Chavez the efforts of Jobs With Peace in USA and Lucas Aerospace workers in England to shift and resources from military to civilian needs and institutions that provide nonmilitary and need-responsive capital investment services such as Calvert Social Fund and Pax World Fund Human rights Amnesty International Humanitas International founded by the nonviolent folk singer Joan Baez Servicio Paz y Justicia guided by Nobel laureate Adolfo Perez Esquivel that grew out of the courageous protests of Argentinian women against the violent disappearance of their children under a military regime Environmental protection Greenpeace International lsquoChipkorsquo movement in India to which a senior village woman Gauri Devi made enormous contribution Development of peaceful relations and problem-solving cooperation the International Fellowship of Reconciliation the Jewish Fellowship the International Network of Engaged Buddhists guided by Sulak Sivaraksa of Thiland the Soka Gokkai International inspired by Daisaku Ikeda the American Friends Service Committee and the Friends World Committee for Consultation Resources for overall nonviolent global problem-solving that spring at least in part from Gandhian inspiration Green Peace parties New York State Martin Luther King Jr Institute for Nonviolence Albert Einstein Institution in Cambridge Massachusetts Gandhigram Rural Institute Tamil Nadu India founded by Dr G Ramachandran Paige cited some institutions in India dedicated to nonviolence Gujarat Vidyapith the Gandhian Institute of Studies the Centre for Gandhian Institute of Studies the Centre for Gandhian Studies and Peace Research the Gandhi Peace Foundation The katurba Gandhi national memorial Trust the Harijan Sevak Sangh the Self-Employed Women Association (SEWA) the Jamanlal Bajaj Foundation the Navajivan Trust the Gandhian publication division of Government of India and Gandhi Marg ndash the journal on nonviolent thought Paige concluded his lecture with the belief that it is within human capability to bring a nonviolent global community


Nonviolence in Action Hindu Samaj of Hamilton and Region

Mahendra Joshi and Dr Markad Kamath

The burning of the Hindu Samaj Temple of Hamilton on 15

th September 2001 was a watershed event for the

Hindus in the city and for the general population of Hamilton It exposed the fissures emanating out of racial biases of a small number of individuals involved in burning of the temple While the destruction of the temple itself was an isolated event the response from leaders of all religions and from all layers of government - municipal provincial and national was an extraordinary show of unity and support An interfaith committee was established with the slogan ldquoAn Attack on One is an Attack on Us Allrdquo We started the task of healing developing mutual respect and public education The Hindu temple was rebuilt not only as a place of worship but as a symbol of peace and as a gathering place for people to foster peaceful coexistence and harmony amongst various communities This overwhelming support by the community resulted in the temple being rebuilt in 4 years If there any lessons to be learned from the proverbial trial by the fire they are 1 Canadian society is imbued with the principles of not

only just tolerance of another religion but supports all religions and diversity on its soil and will go to great lengths to protect their places of worship

2 Voices of reason from people from all walks of life have

prevailed so that peace and harmony and trust have been restored

3 Hindu community stood by the basic tenet that a burning

of our temple was not a representation of the whole society of which we are a part Further our response was based on principles of nonviolence peace and harmony

4 It is not enough to enunciate principles of nonviolence

but to practice them during times of adversity is what really counts This message was delivered very effectively by our congregation

5 Time Heals We now have a larger physical structure in

the place of original temple Each idol of Hindu pantheon has been consecrated in the temple Artifacts of the burned down temple such as an idol of Lord Ganesha which cracked due to the fire and Gita a scripture which was partially burnt have been preserved in a mini-show case museum

Students from different educational institutions come to the temple to study and for discussions about Hinduism and its leading practitioner Mahatma Gandhi Local Health Integration Network has taken an initiative called ldquoAging at Homerdquo for South Asian seniors in the temple We have Yoga and exercise programmes for people of all ages and from all faiths We have improved security with help from Government grants Plans are in place to secure additional funds to make improvements to the building to accommodate the increased use of the facilities by different community groups Currently two learned priests well versed in Hindu scriptures lead the congregation Hindu community has returned to the temple in ever-increasing numbers Democratic processes are firmly entrenched and leaders from a younger generation actively participate in the administration of the temple A dedicated leadership is in place to preserve the Hindu heritage for coming generations


PEACE SOCIAL JUSTICE and COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS

Centre for Peace Studies wwwhumanitiesmcmasterca~peace

Peace Studies is a discipline that seeks to understand war and peace violence and nonviolence conflict and conflict transformation and it looks for ways to promote human well-being through this understanding Peace Studies is distinguished from other disciplines by its focus its integration of approaches from varied disciplines its explicit values and its engaged scholarship

Focus While many academic disciplines regard war and peace violence and nonviolence conflict and conflict transformation as important aspects of human social life Peace Studies is the only one that puts them at the centre of its study

Integration While Peace Studies is committed to drawing on the contributions of existing disciplines and disciplinary approaches it insists on integrating these within its distinctive values and approaches

Values Peace Studies is one of a number of emerging disciplines that explicitly regards certain conditions as problematic and commits itself both to understanding and to changing these conditions Just as Womens Studies regards male domination as problematic and Environmental Studies regards some kinds of environmental destruction as problematic Peace Studies regards war and certain kinds of violence as problematic This does not mean one must be a pacifist to enter this discipline and it does not mean one must condemn all violence or every call to arms but it does mean that Peace Studies as a discipline seeks the diminishment of war and large-scale violence and does not pretend to be neutral on the issue of whether these will dominate the human future

Engagement Peace Studies is an engaged discipline This means that the student of Peace Studies will be encouraged to become engaged in practical action in society and to relate this action to what is learned in the classroom Practical action is crucial to the students learning (theory and practice are intricately related) and to the empowerment of the student as an agent of change

The Centre for Peace Studies at McMaster University was established by the Board of Governors in 1989 In 1999 Peace Studies became part of the Faculty of Humanities and in July 2000 the Office of Interdisciplinary Studies was created to provide administrative support and form a home base for students in the three interdisciplinary areas based in Humanities Comparative Literature Womens Studies and Peace Studies

As well as offering academic programs the Centre for Peace Studies annually sponsors the independently endowed Bertrand Russell Peace Lectures and Mahatma Gandhi Lectures on Nonviolence It has organized several international conferences including the recent second McMasterLancet conference on Peace through Health initiated a number of scholarly publications and undertaken international projects dealing with peace and justice The centre has a wide range of international contacts especially in Central America Europe India Afghanistan and the Middle East

Teaching and research at McMasterrsquos Centre for Peace Studies currently focuses on four main themes Peace Through Health Human Rights Peace Education and Peace ActivismAdvocacy

If you would like to find out more about the Centres activities please contact Dr Nibaldo Galleguillos Director Tel 905-525-9140 ext 23112 Centre for Peace Studies Fax 905-570-1167 McMaster University TSH-313 E-mail peacemcmasterca 1280 Main Street West Hamilton ON Canada L8S 4K1 Website wwwhumanitiesmcmasterca~peace


Six Principles of Peace by Nobel Peace Laureates Respect All Life Respect the life and dignity of each human being without discrimination or prejudice Reject Violence Practice active non-violence rejecting violence in all its forms physical sexual psychological economical and social in particular towards the most deprived and vulnerable such as children and adolescents Share with Others Share my time and material resources in a Spirit of generosity to put an end to exclusion injustice and political and economic oppression Listen to Understand Defend freedom of expression and cultural diversity giving preference always to dialogue and listening without engaging in fanaticism defamation and the rejection of others Preserve the Planet Promote consumer behaviour that is responsible and developmental practices that respect all forms of life and preserve the balance of nature on the planet Rediscover Solidarity Contribute to the development of my community with the full participation of women and respect for democratic principles in order to create together new forms of solidarity

A Culture of Peace is far more than the absence of war between nations It calls on people everywhere to reduce violence and cultivate peace in their own neighbourhoods In the year 2000 Nobel Peace Laureates developed six things for people to do that can make a difference to the whole planet These lsquoPeace Principlesrsquo were proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly For the past twelve years Culture of Peace Hamilton (an offshoot of the United Nations Association in Canada) has worked to apply these principles locally and make them better known Everyone can contribute to this broader more inclusive concept of peace These principles provide a common link for those working for peace and justice from every background country or religion Though the word lsquopeacersquo may not be how they think about their goals it is a common bond that ties faith groups with environmentalist youth gyms with womenrsquos shelters anti-bullying programs with health promotion or poverty reduction Such combined energy shows us what a culture of peace really is

A planning meeting at the offices of Volunteer Hamilton

For more information and to get involved please visit wwwcultureofpeacehamiltoncom

wwwfacebookcomcultureofpeacehamilton Gail Rappolt ltgrappoltgoldennetgt


The Malhar Group wwwthemalhargrouporg

The Malhar Group Music Circle of Ontario is a not-for-profit charitable arts organization dedicated to the sole mission of promoting Indian classical music and musicians The Malhar Group operates in Southern Ontario of Canada and holds frequent musical events of excellent standards The group is focused to create opportunity for all to listen to and to learn about this great musical heritage in its traditional forms

bull Nov 3 2012 Screening of Raga Unveiled a film on North Indian Classical Music McMaster Innovation Park Room

1D 6 pm 175 Longwood Road S Hamilton ON L8P 0A1 bull Nov 9-16 2012 An Exhibition of Musical Instruments of Asia 51 Stuart Street Hamilton bull December 1 2012 Listening Session on Raga Kedar Mississauga 6 pm bull March 23 2013 Fundraising Event with Silent Auction amp more 170 Dundurn Street South Hamilton bull May 4 2013 HCCI amp TMG A joint event to celebrate South Asian Heritage 267 King Street East Hamilton 5-8 pm bull May 25 2013 Springfest A Festival of Indian Classical Music Molson Canadian Studio at Hamilton Place 630 pm

Email tmgthemalhargrouporg | Tel 905-627-7496 Please email or telephone for further details

Sri Venkateswara Hindu Heritage amp Cultural Centre of Hamilton

Wishes the Gandhi Peace Festival All the best as they celebrate their 20th anniversary

For more information about us please contact

Nithy Ananth at 905 730 5760 or email sreebalajihamiltonyahooca

Please visit our website at wwwsreebalajihamiltoncom

Mahila Shanti Sena (MSS)

It is a peace movement

To empower women in order to build a peaceful and just society

To raise mass awareness among women to realize their strength and power

To focus on problems facing women such as violence poverty illiteracy unemployment and neglect

To provide training in the rudiments of peace democracy and development

To promote Gandhian tradition of engaging in constructive village service Participation in MSS is open to both men and women ldquoCan we not use her (womenrsquos) creative talents to make society more human and enlightenedrdquo - Acharaya Ramamurti Contact us Rama Singh ltsinghmcmstercagt Sri Gopal Mohanty ltmohantymcmastercagt

Anne Pearson ltpearsoamcmastercagt Reva Joshee rjosheeoiseutorontoca


YMCA of HamiltonBurlingtonBrantford Peace Medal Breakfast

Tuesday November 21 2012 Hamilton Convention Centre

715 am to 1000 am

For tickets please visit wwwymcahbbca

or Call 905-681-1140 x233

Keynote Speaker Amanda Lindhout As Founder and Executive Director of The Global Enrichment Foundation (GEF) Amanda has gained international acclaim for her work supporting development and aid in Somalia ndash the country where she once spent 460 days as a hostage Formerly a freelance journalist Amandas concern for the humanitarian crisis in Somalia led her to the war-ravaged nation in 2008 where three days upon arrival she was abducted by teenage criminals Following her release in 2009 she left journalism and became an unlikely and passionate advocate for the people of Somalia She founded GEF to ignite leadership in Somalia through education and economic initiatives that the organization develops funds and implements In 2011 for the first time since her abduction Amanda returned to Somalia and led famine relief efforts for which she has raised millions of dollars Since GEFs inception in 2010 her award-winning humanitarian work has provided aid and education to over 300000 people living in the war-torn country Amandarsquos work has attracted the attention of President Bill Clinton who invited her to speak at his Clinton Global Initiative in 2012 and her personal commitment to Somalia has been supported by international organizations and companies including the United Nations Association Google and the WXN For tickets please visit wwwymcahbbcapeace-medalbreakfastcfm For nominations please visit wwwymcahbbcapeace-medalnominationcfm ldquoPeace has many dimensions It is not only a state of relationship among nations We cannot expect to live in a world of peace if we are unable to live in peace with those close to us ndash even those who differ from us The responsibility for peace begins with each person in relationship with family and friends and extends to community life and national activitiesrdquo

~ YMCA Statement on Peace

Project Ploughshares

Founded in 1976 as the ecumenical peace centre of The Canadian Council of Churches Project Ploughshares works with churches and related organizations as well as governments and nongovernmental organizationsto identify develop and advance approaches that build peace and prevent war and promote the peaceful resolution of political conflict The policy research analysis dialogue and public education programs promote the elimination of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction progressive reduction of the resort to military force in response to political and social conflict controls on the supply of arms and positive measures to build conditions of sustainable peace The Hamilton Chapter of Project Ploughshares commemorates Hiroshima Nagasaki Peace Day each year with a solemn ceremony at Hamilton City Hall on August the 6

th or 9

th This is a tradition well imbedded in the hearts of the citizens of

Hamilton and surrounding cities Annual Peace Luncheons are hosted by our chapter in the Fall and Spring Representatives from various peace and social justice groups in Hamilton and Area meet to share ideas and make connections and to network with each other For further information please contact

Ray Cunnington ltrayccogecocagt or Khursheed Ahmed ltahmedmcmasterca


Physicians for Global Survival We are physicians and colleagues (both health workers and others) who work together to be an informed and responsible voice for healing our planet We collaborate with other health workers across the planet to bring information to people about the continuing threats posed by nuclear weapons about the devastating effects on population health and on the environment of militarism war and arms acquisitions and about non-violent alternatives in conflict management We conduct dialogues with decision makers in our national government and other bodies We are part of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1985 In Hamilton we have an active group often enlivened by students and by peace-oriented physicians visiting from other countries We meet once a month at a home near McMaster University and welcome new members To contact PGS (Hamilton) call 905-979-9696 or send e-mail to ahmedmcmasterca Visit PGS website for current projects background papers and links to related sites at wwwpgsca

International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons

wwwicanworg Ignoring the message of Gandhi that violence only breeds violence has left the world to-day with the clock of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists at five minutes to mid-night The powerful peaceful protests and actions of Gandhi and King brought hope in their day and bring still in ours for non-violent solutions Today many voices are calling for nuclear abolitionICAN the Mayors for Peace Campaign the Ten Steps of the Federation of American Scientists all demonstrate practical and urgent steps to achieve a world without nuclear weapons

Sign the petition wwwicanworgtake-action ICAN is an international campaign to eliminate nuclear weapons organized by

International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (wwwippnworg)

BAND (Burlington Association for Nuclear Disarmament) The Burlington Association for Nuclear Disarmament (BAND) is a community organization established in 1983 to educate its members and the public on the dangers of nuclear weapons and to promote peace and disarmament Although BAND is a small group (about 60 members) from a small city our members believe strongly in the importance of raising public awareness at a community level We follow the motto think globally - act locally Our local actions have been mostly educational by organizing public talks by prominent peace advocates such as Joseph Rotblat Rob Green Barrie Zwicker Jim Loney and Rosalie Bertell We also lobby the Canadian government in peace and disarmament issues through a letter-writing committee BAND is a member of several regional national and international coalitions working for peace and nuclear disarmament including the November 16 Coalition and the Culture of Peace Coalition in the Hamilton the Canadian Peace Alliance and Abolition 2000 If you would like more information on BAND - or would like to become a member please contact us at bandcogecoca or Doug Brown at 905-632-4774

Our mission statement is Because of our concern for global health we

are committed to the abolition of nuclear weapons the prevention of war the promotion of nonviolent means of conflict

resolution and social justice in a sustainable world

ICAN Demands for a Nuclear Weapon Free World A Treaty to Eliminate the present 25000 weapons

No New Weapons or upgrading of old

Threat Reduction Off high alert amp No First Use

Nuclear Free Defence Policy dismantling of NATO

nuclear weapons no nuclear armed vessels in Canadian ports

No Fuel for Weapons no export of uranium to nuclear

weapons states or those not signatory to Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty


The Childrenrsquos International Learning Centre (CILC)

OUR MISSION With international resources and input from community and global experts we develop dynamic hands-on programmes which encourage attitudes of respect for all people and for our common environment WHO WE ARE The CILC was established on Oct 24 1970 as a volunteer project of UNICEF In 1988 the Centre was incorporated as a not-for-profit organization with its own board of directors The Centre is supported by admissions memberships donations grants and volunteers PROGRAMMES AVAILABLE Festivals of Light (November 1 2012 to January 31st 2013) Celebrated in our community as well as globally are many celebrations which use light to bring messags of peace hope love and harmony This programme gives the opportunity to discover 7 celebrations Iroquois Mid-Winter Ceremony Christmas Hanukkah Hajj Eid-ul-Adha Kwanzaa Diwali and Lunar New Year Ewwwww Gross Programme Run May- August 2013 So whatrsquos gross and whatrsquos not Elementarymdashitrsquos all cultural Mamarsquos thrilled with her newbornrsquos burps---but her hulking teenager Not so much To many cultures the best comment on your cooking-even from adults- is a heartfelt burp Learn all about this and many more of the things our culture and others find repulsive at Ewwwww Gross Orbit the Earth (January to October) A fun hands-on planetarium-like programme that enables participants to learn about the moon planets and the stars Emphasis on earthrsquos rare and special qualities which we need to nurture and preserve The Global Playroom (January to October) A programme for ages 3-5 Through play acting children will begin to understand that people far and near share the same basic needs OPEN TO School classes home schools community groups day camps guiding and scouting units adult groups and religious groups are welcome to book for a 2 hour programme We also do FUN-educational birthday parties For more information about the Centre to book a 2 hour programme or are interested in volunteering please contact us

The Childrenrsquos International Learning Centre 189 King William St (across from Theatre Aquarius) Hamilton ON L8R 1A7 Tel 905-529-8813 Fax 905-529-8911 E-mail cilc1970295ca Visit wwwcilcca

Department of Peace The Canadian Department of Peace Initiative is committed to the establishment of a Cabinet-level Minister of Peace and Department of Peace within the Government of Canada as well as other peace-building activities within the federal government Please visit our website wwwdepartmentofpeacehamiltonca to learn about the activities of the Hamilton Chapter of The Canadian Department of Peace Initiative and how can join the group E-Mail infodepartmentofpeacehamiltonca


Amnesty International

Group 1 (Hamilton) and Group 8 (McMaster University)

Amnesty International is a worldwide voluntary movement that works to prevent some of the gravest violations by governments and non-state actors of peoplersquos fundamental human rights The main focus of its campaigning is to free all prisoners of conscience - those who have been detained because of their beliefs ethnic origin sex colour or language and have not used or advocated violence Amnesty International also works to ensure fair and prompt trials for political prisoners to end extrajudicial executions and disappearances and to abolish the death penalty torture and other forms of cruel and inhumane treatment or punishment The organization has received the Noble Peace Prize Amnesty has always been very happy to co-sponsor the Peace Festival Amnesty Canada Website wwwamnestyca To get involved please contact Group 1 (Hamilton) Chair German A Alvarez E-mail amnestygroup1yahooca Group 8 (McMaster) Co-Presidents Avni Mehta Email macamnestygmailcom Find us on

KAIROS Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives

At KAIROS we support and encourage action that links individual responsibility with community national and global action Important as individual choices are their impact is limited when we confront the injustices facing humanity and the planet For example our own efforts to go green can be too easily undermined when our government refuses to legislate cuts to industrial greenhouse gas emissions Our own commitments to ending poverty can be blocked when governments continue to refuse to raise wages and benefits or support truly affordable housing Thats why we believe our actions must include and stretch beyond individual choices We invite you to get involved in and beyond your home and faith community Our annual education for action campaign is one way to learn about a specific issue and to educate for change Urgent actions which are sent out when lives are at stake are a more immediate form of action And we offer ongoing action opportunities on specific justice issues that are a long-term concern such as Indigenous and Aboriginal peoples rights refugee rights trade justice mining and many more Action is best taken in groups the better to support and learn from one another Whether youre involved with a faith community or not whether action for justice is new to you or not we welcome your participation in our cross Canada network of local groups

Become a KAIROS Companion Link up with a KAIROS Community or register your existing group We journey together as companions and build communities that seek to promote our vision of a more just and sustainable world for all of Gods creation There is no cost to becoming a KAIROS Companion andor Community although donations are always welcome and appreciated Join KAIROS as a Companion andor Community in a faithful movement for ecological justice and human rights This is your movement ndash you belong For inquiries please email connectkairoscanadaorg or call 1-877-403-8933 ext 221 Locally The Hamilton Burlington KAIROS Group welcomes new members

Please Email wfeunekessourcecablenet for information


Hamilton Centre for Civic Inclusion Hamilton Centre for Civic Inclusion is a community-based organization committed to working as a catalyst for creating a welcoming and inclusive community HCCI initiates and supports transformational processes that promote equity and create inclusive environments in all areas of civic life We assist the city major institutions business service providers and others to initiate and sustain transformative processes to create an inclusive and welcoming environments HCCI is a source of support and information to newcomer immigrant and refugee communities diverse ethno-racialcultural groups aboriginal communities persons with disabilities and LBGTQ communities Hamilton Centre for Civic Inclusion 267 King Street East Hamilton ON L8N 1B9 Tel 905-297-4694 Web wwwhccica E-Mail adminhccica

Women for Women

Who are we Women for Women of India a Grassroots Non-Political Association of Women dedicated to promoting a good quality of life through community partnerships for women of diverse cultural linguistic and religious backgrounds of Indian origin Calendar of Events include

Annual Mothersrsquo dinner Celebration

Circles that engage educate empower

Chat Chuckle Chai while you quilt

Fun and Fitness thru Bollywood Dance

Authentic Indian Cuisine Demonstrations

Monthly Executive committee meetings Objectives

To create a forum for exchange of ideas issues and common concerns and resolve challenges and tensions encountered while living in Canadian Society

To create opportunities for socialization to address the isolation experienced by Canadian Indian Women

Goals

To achieve full settlement and integration into Canadian Society while maintaining the culture and heritage of India

To celebrate and showcase the leadership and contribution of Indian Women to Canadian Society

To work towards the recognition and establishment of culturally sensitive appropriate programmes services to support counsel and mentor Women of Indian origin

Meetings are held on the second Tuesday of each month For further information call Carolann 905-389-0017


Canadian Voice of Women for Peace

Established in 1960 Canadian Voice of Women for Peace (VOW) is a non-partisan Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) comprised of a network of diverse women with consultative status at the United Nations ECOSOC For almost 50 years VOW has tirelessly advocated for a world without war VOW is one of the non-governmental organizations (NGO) cited by UNESCOrsquos standing committee in the working group report entitled ldquoThe Contribution of Women to the Culture of Peacerdquo An accredited NGO to the United Nations affiliated to the Department of Public Information (DPI) and the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) VOW was the Canadian lead group for peace at the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing VOW is a non-partisan non-religious organization that values women in all their diversities Our Mission To provide a means for women to exercise responsibility for the promotion of world peace and justice through education of themselves and others to take an equal part in the democratic process of decision making and to cooperate with women throughout the world to create the mutual respect and understanding necessary for the peaceful resolution of international conflict We welcome new members and donations There is now a chapter of VOW in Hamilton which meets the last Sunday of the month at 2 pm from September to May For more info contact Joy Warner at jw4peace44gmailcom VOW National Office is in Toronto at 416-603-7915 Email infovowpeaceorg or visit online vowpeaceorg

Act Locally ndash Local Events Information

Your Community Bulletin Board actlocallyinfo provides a place for environmental peace social justice anti-racism groups and other community organizations in the Halton Hamilton and Niagara regions of Southern Ontario to promote their activities and share information Non-profit groups can post upcoming events directly to the website its fast and easy Individuals can subscribe to receive a weekly e-mail list of the next weeks upcoming events The website is managed by Hamilton Area Eco-Network You may reach us at contactusactlocallyinfo


Hamilton Mundialization The Hamilton Mundialization Committee is a council mandated advisory committee which responsibility is to facilitate and support peace initiatives and the twinning relationships between Hamilton and its ten twin-cities around the world Its purpose is to assist City Council in implementing its Mundialization resolution The main functions are

To promote Hamilton as ldquoA World (Mundialized) Cityrdquo dedicated to global awareness international co-operation and

world law

To further the work of the United Nations through publicity and education and to have the United Nations flag flown with

the Canadian flag from City Hall at all times

To undertake twinning programs in international cooperation with like-minded municipalities in this and other countries

to foster an understanding of the increasing interdependence of the municipalities peoples and countries of the world

To involve Hamilton citizens of different cultures especially those from the countries of our sister communities to share

in our multicultural programs

To include representatives from City Council in the Committee for implementing the above programs

The Hamilton Mundialization Committee welcomes any individual or organization to join its membership and to

participate in any of the mundialization programs and special events throughout the year

Inquiries may be forwarded to The Hamilton Mundialization Committee co Customer Service Access and Equity 71 Main Street West Hamilton Ontario L8P 4Y5 Tel 905-546-2489 e-mail infomundializationca website wwwmundializationca

Ontario Public Interest Research Group - McMaster OPIRG McMaster links research with action on a broad range of social justice and environmental issues both locally and globally Through research proactive education community networking and action OPIRG empowers students to become active participants in the decisions which affect their lives And it is the energy and imagination of these students that is the driving force behind the work of OPIRG Subscribe to our e-mail events list to stay informed about our many public events including workshops on consensus decision-making and anti-oppression film nights and guest speakers Upcoming

Granito How to Nail a Dictator Film and discussion Sept 29 7 pm First Unitarian Church

OPIRGrsquos Fair Trade Fest Nov 7 10 am - 5 pm McMaster University Student Centre Marketplace

Alanna Mitchell Environmentalist and author of ldquoSea Sick The Global Ocean in Crisisrdquo Nov 8 730 pm McMasterrsquos Health Sciences Centre 1A1

Tel 905-525-9140 Ext 27289 or 26026 E-mail opirgmcmasterca Location MUSC 229 Web page opirgca Blog opirgmcmasterblogspotcom

Open Circle

A diverse and consensus-based community for McMaster students where we value respect and learn from each other

Creating forums to discuss life spiritual and societal issues

Linking McMaster students to volunteer together in weekly groups throughout Hamilton Web wwwopencirclemcmasterca Facebook wwwfacebookcomgroups108993179158750


The India-Canada Society of Hamilton and Region

So we celebrate the Twentieth Year of GANDHI PEACE FESTIVAL in Hamilton CONGRATULATIONS to all the people who worked relentlessly to reach this milestone India Canada Society of Hamilton feels proud to have started a modest Peace March and festivities 20 years ago which with the help of other partners and the whole Hamilton community has blossomed into this amazing event Many Hamiltonians look forward to attend this India-Canada Society started the Annual Mahatma Gandhi Peace Festival in 1993 a year before Gandhirsquos 125th birth anniversary It is now a co-sponsor of the Festival with the Centre for Peace Studies McMaster University It saddens to see that PEACE is still elusive in many parts of the world today but there is always HOPE Even the birth country of Gandhi is frequently marred by violent incidents The memories of Gandhirsquos peaceful non-violent demonstrations being attacked violently by the rulers during Indiarsquos fight for independence come to mind when we see similar violent attacks by the present rulers on non-violent demonstrations by Anna Hazare and his supporters against corruption today How can this happen in the Land of Gandhi Founded in November 1973 the India-Canada Society is a secular non-profit organization devoted to upholding the rich social and cultural heritage of Indians of South Asian origin contribute to the enrichment of Canadian life and culture and championing the social and cultural interests of the Indo-Canadian community In the year past India Canada Society of Hamilton was very active celebrating ldquoYear of India in Canada 2011rdquo We organized several wonderful events which were enjoyed by many With an explicit intention to contribute to the variety of Canadian life and experience the Society has actively sought to facilitate mainstream dialogue around the rich Indian philosophy and culture Society is always in active communications with other organizations in the city like Dialogue Group Hindu Samaj HCCI and Seniors Seva Mandal to name a few and is always prepared to lend a helping hand In short India Canada Society is ldquoHelping to build an engaged communityrdquo For more information please check our web site wwwindiacanadasocietyorg (which will be up and running again very soon) or contact any of the board members listed below Ashok kumar President Arvind aasahaygmailcom Ashok ashokksympaticoca Daljeet dsjunejagmailcom

Jay jparekh11yahooca Krish krishmorogmailcom Nidhi jain_n33hotmailcom

Rajeev rajeevgoeljpyahoocom

Hindu Samaj Womenrsquos Outreach Group Every 2nd and 4th Tuesday from 730pm to 9 pm Sharp

A non-political non-denominational intergenerational group that promotes links between diverse groups to build an inclusive culturally rich community and promotes civic awarenessrdquo

President Surekha Parekh (Ph905-388-5791) EmailSurekha_globalyahoocom Secretary Nidhi Jain (Ph 905-628-9194) Emailjain_n33hotmailcom We meet at Hindu Samaj Temple 6297 Twenty Road Hannon Ontario

A secular non-profit organization devoted to upholding the rich social and culture heritage of India contribute to the enrichment of Canadian life and culture and championing the social and cultural interests of the Indo-Canadian community


Seniors Seva Mandal of Hamilton and Region

CONGRATULATES

the organizers of Gandhi Peace Festival and wishes them the best on the 20th

year of celebration Seniors Seva Mandal is a group which is dedicated to selflessly serving South Asian seniors of Indian origin in this region

bullHamilton Niagara Haldimand Brant Local Health Integration Network (HNHB LHIN) is supporting ldquoaging at homerdquo for seniorsrsquo initiative started by LHIN

bullSome members of our Indian community felt that our seniors may not be getting the services suited to their ethno-cultural needs

bullIn order to facilitate the modifications in the services for our seniors and to identify their unique needs the seniors Seva Mandal of Hamilton region was formed with volunteer participation of concerned community members

bullIn collaboration with VON of Hamilton and a grant from LHIN Seniors Seva Mandal has started a Congregate Dinning program for South Asian Seniors

bullCurrently this weekly program is running successfully at 3 centers 1 Stoney Creek on Tuesdays 2 Hindu Samaj Temple on Wednesdays and 3 Chedoke Twin Pad Arena on Thursdays The program runs from 1030 AM to 230 PM This program is just a beginning and Seniors Seva Mandal will be looking into many avenues to help our seniors Seniors Seva Mandal was nominated for SAGE award (Service Award for Geriatric Excellence) for 2010 For participation and further information please contact Narendar Passi at 905-383-9199

South Asian Heritage Association

On December 14 2001 the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Ontario passed MPP Raminder Gillrsquos Private Members Bill Bill 98 proclaiming May as South Asian Heritage Month in Ontario Raminder Gill was the second South Asian elected to the Ontario Provincial Legislature in 1999 The South Asian Heritage Act 2001 also marks May 5th as South Asian Arrival Day commemorating the first arrivals from the Indian subcontinent to the Americas beginning May 5 1838 South Asian immigrants began arriving in Ontario at the start of the 20th century South Asians came to Canada from India Pakistan Sri Lanka Bangladesh Nepal Bhutan Maldives and Afghanistan Six years ago a number of community leaders representing various countries and sectors of the South Asian community in Hamilton came together to form a committee to celebrate and promote South Asian Heritage Month in Hamilton in the month of May To give spirit to the Legislation we host our annual event on second Saturday in the month of May Every year we have different themes such as ldquoBrides of South Asiardquo ldquoFolk Dances of South Asiardquo ldquoand Tribute to Slumdog Millionairerdquo and ldquoA Tribute to Bollywoodrdquo Our events are free of charge the next event is on Saturday May 11 2013 Please contact us If you want to join our Committee or need any information E-Mailofficesouthasianheritageorg Indu Singh 905-807-4638 Jesmin Haq 905-304-3350 Web wwwsouthasianheritageorg Noshi Gulati 905-692 5596 Zafar Pasha Siddiqui 905-296 6636


Community-based Interfaith Peace and Cultural Groups Hamilton Quakers Hamilton Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends Proclaiming a testimony of peace since its founding 355 years ago the Quaker faith is one of the officially recognized peace churches in Canada Meeting for Worship is every Sunday at 1030 am Childrens Religious Education is provided most weeks -- call to confirm Anyone who feels called by the Spirit to speak may offer ministry during this time of worship All are welcome Friends in Hamilton Meeting are involved in a wide variety of peace social justice and environmental activities We invite you to join us Hamilton Quaker Meeting 7 Butty Place Hamilton ON L8S 2R5 Phone 905-523-8383 Website wwwhamiltonquakersca E-Mail infohamiltonquakersca

IDEA Burlington (Interfaith Development Education Association) IDEA Burlington (est 1985) is an association of people from many faiths It strives through study spiritual reflection and resultant action to empower us and others to promote peace and justice locally and globally For information resources and speakers or to connect with other organizations please call Laura Martin 289-313-0741 ideacogecoca

Hamilton Eat Local In a Gandhian spirit Hamilton Eat Local works to promote a sustainable food system in the City of Hamilton Our objectives are to

Create a more supportive environment for local farmers and urban growers

Assist and encourage Hamiltonians to eat more locally produced food

Improve food knowledge and skills in our community and

Empower people to utilize neglected food sources For more information on any of the projects hamiltoneatlocalblogspotcom E-Mail contactusenvironmenthamiltonorg Phone 905-549-0900

A Tiny Shift In Connecting Schools Our mission is to advance education through access to the Internet in under-serviced schools and communities by providing equipment services technical expertise and assistance to educators in areas of computer and Internet userdquo wwwatinyshiftca 905 921 6899

The Theatre of Liberation Community Project We are a socio-environmental-arts based program that works with young people (ages 7-17) in an effort to bring about a greater awareness of the interconnections between humans the earth peace and social justice The TLC Project provides a comfortable space where you can learn more about these arts and how they can contribute to positive individual amp collective creative expression Plus you will be working with Professional Theatre and Visual Artists The TLC Project is presently in Partnership with IWC - Immigrant Womens Centre and Many Hands Art Group providing engaging arts based programming for children in Hamilton If you are interested in Collective Creation Performance Visual Arts Dance and Social Justice even if you have NO Experience Come PLAY and Learn with Us wwwtlcprojectca e-mail infotlcprojectca

McMaster Free the Children Free The Children (FTC) was originally founded by Craig Kielburger in 1995 when he was just 12 years old Since its founding FTC has become the worldrsquos leading youth-driven charity inspiring an entire generation to stand up and have their voices heard The primary goals of the organization are to free children from poverty and exploitation and free young people from the notion that they are powerless to affect positive change in the world The McMaster branch of Free The Children is dedicated to raising awareness about issues faced by children around the world while raising money to help be the change Email ftcatmacgmailcom Website httpwwwfreethechildrencom Facebook wwwfacebookcomgroupphpgid=156647421029973


Friends of the Festival ndash Thank you

The Gandhi Peace Festival Committee has launched a drive to establish an endowment fund in support of the Gandhi Peace Festival at the Centre of Peace Studies McMaster University The Gandhi Peace Festival was started in 1993 a year before the 125th anniversary of Gandhirsquos birthday and has been held annually in the City of Hamilton To our knowledge this is the first Gandhi Peace Festival of its kind and we would like to do everything possible to make it a permanent part of Canadian cultural heritage We encourage individuals as well as organizations to support it Donations to Gandhi Peace Festival are tax-deductible Cheques should be made out to ldquoMcMaster University (Memo Gandhi Peace Festival)rdquo and mailed to The Centre for Peace Studies For information please contact McMaster University TSH-313 Dr Rama Singh 905-525-9140 x24378 1280 Main Street West E-Mail singhmcmasterca Hamilton ON L8S 4M2 wwwhumanitiesmcmastercagandhi As a token of our appreciation the names of all donors to Gandhi Peace Festival Fund with their consent will be listed in this publication to serve as an encouragement to others WE THANK THE FOLLOWING FRIENDS OF THE FESTIVAL FOR THEIR DONATIONS Anand Bose Anne Pearson Anthony and Philo Vayalumkal Arun and Sashi Sharma Arvinda and Ratna Bobba Ashok and Nirmala Dalvi Bhagwati and Bairavi Gupta Bhawani and Rama Pathak Binoy and Reeta Prasad Canadian Afro-Carobbean Assoc Cathy and Paul Younger Comondore and Shanti Ravindran Dinesh and Usha Singh Douglas and Sheila Davies Douglas Scott East Plains United Church Gary and Joy Warner Girija and V S Ananthanarayanan George and Leonor Sorger Hamilton Health Sciences Hamilton Malayali Samajam Harish and Connie Jain Hemant and Abha Gosain Hirsch and Indra Rastogi Jay and Surekha Parekh

Jayaram Nair Jose and Anita Kudiyate Kanwal Shankardass Karn and Dolly Malhotra Khursheed and Maroussia Ahmed Kiran and Rupa Jani Lakshman and Saraswati Das Mahendra Deonarine Mahendra and Jyoti Joshi Mala Singh Mani and Sujatha Subramanian Mark Vorobej Monolina and Saurav Ray Narendar and Chitra Passi Naresh and Meena Sinha Naresh and Munmuni Singh Naresh and Saroj Agarwal Nawal and Veena Chopra Nidhi and Mukesh Jain Nikhil and Bharati Adhya Nithy and Lalitha Anand OP Bhargava Om and Anjana Modi OPIRG (McMaster) PL Kannappan

Prakash and Sunita Abad Prem and Nisha Lal Radhey and Rajni Gupta Raj and Sudesh Sood Rajat and Manju Bhaduri Rama and Rekha Singh Ramesh and Darshana Kumar Ray cunnington Salim Yusuf Sanatan Mandir (Toronto) Saroj Ram Satendra and Rita Varma Shobha and Ravi Wahi Shrinath Singh (Toronto) Karun and Nomita Singh Sri Gopal and Shanti Mohanty Srinath and Pushpa Singh Subhash and Jayashree Dighe Sushil and Shashi Sharma T Biswas Tilak and Krishna Mehan Uma Sud VK Sehgal Vishal and Shivani Sud


2012 Gandhi Peace Festival Committees and Volunteers

Chair Rama Shankar Singh Editor Khursheed Ahmed

Festival Coordinator Sumbul Syed

Advisory Committee Anne Pearson - Hamilton Interfaith Council Anupam Bagchi ndash The Malhar Music Group Ashok Dalvi Ashok Kumar - India-Canada Society Binoy Prasad - India-Canada Society Carol Wood- Chaplain McMaster University Christopher Cutler- YMCA Nibaldo Galleguillos ndash Director Ctr for Peace Studies Gary Warner -(Emeritus) McMaster University George Sorger - (Emeritus) McMaster University Graeme MacQueen- (Emeritus) McMaster University Marisa Rosato - Centre for Peace Studies Jahan Zeb- Hamilton Centre for Civic Inclusion Janice Lukas - Hamilton Media Advisory Committee Jay Parekh - India-Canada Society Joy Warner - Kairos Voice of Women

K Shankardass

Khursheed Ahmed - Physicians for Global Survival Leonor Sorger - Interfaith Council for Human Rights Mahendra Joshi ndash Hindu Samaj Temple Mani Subramanian ndash Hindu Samaj Temple Mark Vorobej - Department of Philosophy Mohan Ragbeer Nancy Doubleday ndash Centre for Peace Studies Nikhil Adhya - India-Canada Society Paul Dekar Raj Sood- India Canada Society Ray Cunnington ndash Hamilton Culture of Peace Sofia Mavumba Suzie Miller Sri Gopal Mohanty ndash India-Canada Society Shelly (OPRIG)-McMaster University Subhash Dighe - West End Physiotherapy Clinic Sumbul Syed - McMaster Peace Society

Organizing Committee

Anne Pearson Ashok Kumar Binoy Prasad Christopher Cutler Daljeet Juneja Gary Warner Jay Parekh

Janice Lukas Joy Warner Khursheed Ahmed (Editor) Mark Vorobej Nancy Doubleday Nidhi Jain Nikhil Adhya

Rama Singh (Chair) Ray Cunnington Sofia Mavumba Sri Gopal Mohanty Subhash Dighe Sumbul Syed (Coord)

Mac Peace Week Nancy Doubleday (Co-Chair) Rama Singh (Co-Chair) Anne Pearson Mark Vorobej Sumbul Syed (Coordinator) Publicity

McMaster Student Union (MSU) Radio CFMU 933 The Silhouette (MSU Newspaper) The Hamilton Spectator Hamilton Radio 900 CHML Y953 FM Bhajanawali Webcast (wwwbhajanawalicom) CJMR 1320 CHML Radio - Hamilton Eye on Asia (TV) - (Phone 905-274-4000)

Sound System

Jordan Abraham Studio J (Phone 905-522-7322)

Food Food Supplied by India Village Restaurant

DundasAncaster 905-304-1314 Coffee provided by Homegrown Hamilton

27 King William St Hamilton ON Multimedia Photography Khursheed Ahmed Subhash Dighe Videographer Paul Kuchar Facilities Arrangements Hamilton City Hall staff members Special Help (City of Hamilton) Rose MacGowan

Volunteers Asiana Elma Emily Rose Bell Francesa Stevenson Guido Sakhi

Lamia Syed Manisha Maharajh Mehreen Mashiat Mukid Syed

Maisha Chowdhury Naushin Rashid Sama Sultana Sehar Khalid

Zaheen Ahmed

and many more Thanks to them all


Memories of 2011 Gandhi Peace Festival (Theme No to Fear ndash Yes to Peace)

Dr Atif Kubursi Keynote Speaker Start of the Peace Walk

Gandhi Festival ndash a family affair Johannes Linstead Band

Jude Johnson a Hamilton icon singing peace songs Lamia Syed dancing on Wavin Flag by Knaan (Photos by Khursheed Ahmed)


Printed by PostNet Dundas 3055 Dundas St W MississaugaON L5L 3R8 Tel 905-412-3333 Email randeepsoodpostnetca

The 20th Annual Gandhi Peace Festival

Hamilton City Hall 71 Main Street West Hamilton ON Canada

2012 Theme The Gandhian Path to Peace Truth Nonviolence Service

Saturday September 29 2012

Programme

900 ndash Refreshments set up Informationdisplay tables 1000 ndash Cultural programs

- A Celebration of Native Heritage Hamilton Indian Cultural Centre - Emily C General School Soft shoe Dancers lsquoThe Moccasin Dancersquo

lsquoThe Friendship Dancersquo and lsquoSmoke Dancersquo - Dance by Lamia Syed

1100 ndash Master of Ceremonies - Mr Chris Cutler - Unveiling of Gandhi Statue ndash Councillor Brian McHattie

Greetings - Dr Rama Singh Chair Gandhi Peace Festival - Mr Ashok Kumar President India-Canada Society - Dr Nibaldo Galleguillos Director Centre for Peace Studies Prayer - Dr B Doobay Preident Vishnu Temple Toronto Greetings - Hon Bob Bratina Mayor of Hamilton - Dr Patrick Deane Preident McMaster University - Hon Preeti Saran Consul General of India Toronto

Keynote Speaker - Hon Ms Tselane Mokuena Consul General of South Africa in Toronto Community Service Awards 1230 - Peace Walk 100-300 pm - Lunch

Hon Ms Tselane Mokuena


The 20th Annual Gandhi Peace Festival Saturday September 29 2012

A Word of Welcome 3 Mahatma Gandhi Peace Festival Sponsors 4 Themes of past Gandhi Peace Festivals 4 A Personal Message from the Premier 5 Message from the President and Vice-Chancellor 6 A message from the Consul-General of the Republic of South Africa in Canada Hon Tselane Mokuena 7 Message from Hon Preeti Saran Consul General of India 8 Message from Mayor Bob Bratina 9 Mahatma Gandhi Lectures on Nonviolence 10 The Gandhi Peace Festival 12 Community Service Award 2012 12 Community Service Award (Youth Category) 12 Twentieth Anniversary Special Awards 13 How do we build a belief in a culture of peace 15 Gandhi and Israel-Palestine 18 How do I deal with a bully without becoming a thug 20 Who speaks for the conscience of Canada 22 Omnibus bill a breach of public trust 22 Global Protest Movements and Gandhi 23 Truth Nonviolence and Service The Unity 24 Nonviolence in Action Hindu Samaj of Hamilton and Region 27 PEACE SOCIAL JUSTICE and COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS 28

Centre for Peace Studies 28 The Malhar Group 30 Sri Venkateswara Hindu Heritage amp Cultural Centre of Hamilton 30 Mahila Shanti Sena (MSS) 30 Peace Medal Breakfast 31 Project Ploughshares 31 Physicians for Global Survival 32 International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons 32 The Childrenrsquos International Learning Centre (CILC) 33 Department of Peace 33 Amnesty International 34 KAIROS Canadian Ecumenical Justice Initiatives 34 Hamilton Centre for Civic Inclusion 35 Women for Women 35 Canadian Voice of Women for Peace 36 Act Locally ndash Local Events Information 36 Hamilton Mundialization 37 Ontario Public Interest Research Group - McMaster 37 Open Circle 37 The India-Canada Society of Hamilton and Region 38 Hindu Samaj Womenrsquos Outreach Group 38 Seniors Seva Mandal of Hamilton and Region 39 South Asian Heritage Association 39 Community-based Interfaith Peace and Cultural Groups 40

Friends of the Festival ndash Thank you 41 2012 Gandhi Peace Festival Committees and Volunteers 42 Memories of 2011 Gandhi Peace Festival 43 Programme Back Cover For more information please contact Dr Rama Shankar Singh Marisa Rosato Administrative Coordinator Gandhi Peace Festival Committee Centre for Peace Studies McMaster University E-mail singhmcmasterca E-mail rosatomcmasterca Phone 905-525-9140 Ext 24378 Phone 905-525-9140 Ext 23112






Co-Sponsors




















September 29 2012



20th



























September 17 2012

MESSAGE
















Our Sincere Thanks






wwwwestendphysioca

















August 9 2012)



















1


2










4


5











Gandhi


7


8



















1962) 328-31









9







1985) 53-66










Thank you
























































































715 am to 1000 am


or Call 905-681-1140 x233





th or 9




































Women for Women










Goals













world law
















Open Circle















CONGRATULATES































K Shankardass








Sound System








Zaheen Ahmed













Programme













Co-Sponsors




















September 29 2012



20th



























September 17 2012

MESSAGE
















Our Sincere Thanks






wwwwestendphysioca

















August 9 2012)



















1


2










4


5











Gandhi


7


8



















1962) 328-31









9







1985) 53-66










Thank you
























































































715 am to 1000 am


or Call 905-681-1140 x233





th or 9




































Women for Women










Goals













world law
















Open Circle















CONGRATULATES































K Shankardass








Sound System








Zaheen Ahmed













Programme











Co-Sponsors




















September 29 2012



20th



























September 17 2012

MESSAGE
















Our Sincere Thanks






wwwwestendphysioca

















August 9 2012)



















1


2










4


5











Gandhi


7


8



















1962) 328-31









9







1985) 53-66










Thank you
























































































715 am to 1000 am


or Call 905-681-1140 x233





th or 9




































Women for Women










Goals













world law
















Open Circle















CONGRATULATES































K Shankardass








Sound System








Zaheen Ahmed













Programme










September 29 2012



20th



























September 17 2012

MESSAGE
















Our Sincere Thanks






wwwwestendphysioca

















August 9 2012)



















1


2










4


5











Gandhi


7


8



















1962) 328-31









9







1985) 53-66










Thank you
























































































715 am to 1000 am


or Call 905-681-1140 x233





th or 9




































Women for Women










Goals













world law
















Open Circle















CONGRATULATES































K Shankardass








Sound System








Zaheen Ahmed













Programme


















September 17 2012

MESSAGE
















Our Sincere Thanks






wwwwestendphysioca

















August 9 2012)



















1


2










4


5











Gandhi


7


8



















1962) 328-31









9







1985) 53-66










Thank you
























































































715 am to 1000 am


or Call 905-681-1140 x233





th or 9




































Women for Women










Goals













world law
















Open Circle















CONGRATULATES































K Shankardass








Sound System








Zaheen Ahmed













Programme














September 17 2012

MESSAGE
















Our Sincere Thanks






wwwwestendphysioca

















August 9 2012)



















1


2










4


5











Gandhi


7


8



















1962) 328-31









9







1985) 53-66










Thank you
























































































715 am to 1000 am


or Call 905-681-1140 x233





th or 9




































Women for Women










Goals













world law
















Open Circle















CONGRATULATES































K Shankardass








Sound System








Zaheen Ahmed













Programme










September 17 2012

MESSAGE
















Our Sincere Thanks






wwwwestendphysioca

















August 9 2012)



















1


2










4


5











Gandhi


7


8



















1962) 328-31









9







1985) 53-66










Thank you
























































































715 am to 1000 am


or Call 905-681-1140 x233





th or 9




































Women for Women










Goals













world law
















Open Circle















CONGRATULATES































K Shankardass








Sound System








Zaheen Ahmed













Programme



















Our Sincere Thanks






wwwwestendphysioca

















August 9 2012)



















1


2










4


5











Gandhi


7


8



















1962) 328-31









9







1985) 53-66










Thank you
























































































715 am to 1000 am


or Call 905-681-1140 x233





th or 9




































Women for Women










Goals













world law
















Open Circle















CONGRATULATES































K Shankardass








Sound System








Zaheen Ahmed













Programme















Our Sincere Thanks






wwwwestendphysioca

















August 9 2012)



















1


2










4


5











Gandhi


7


8



















1962) 328-31









9







1985) 53-66










Thank you
























































































715 am to 1000 am


or Call 905-681-1140 x233





th or 9




































Women for Women










Goals













world law
















Open Circle















CONGRATULATES































K Shankardass








Sound System








Zaheen Ahmed













Programme










Our Sincere Thanks






wwwwestendphysioca

















August 9 2012)



















1


2










4


5











Gandhi


7


8



















1962) 328-31









9







1985) 53-66










Thank you
























































































715 am to 1000 am


or Call 905-681-1140 x233





th or 9




































Women for Women










Goals













world law
















Open Circle















CONGRATULATES































K Shankardass








Sound System








Zaheen Ahmed













Programme
























August 9 2012)



















1


2










4


5











Gandhi


7


8



















1962) 328-31









9







1985) 53-66










Thank you
























































































715 am to 1000 am


or Call 905-681-1140 x233





th or 9




































Women for Women










Goals













world law
















Open Circle















CONGRATULATES































K Shankardass








Sound System








Zaheen Ahmed













Programme



















August 9 2012)



















1


2










4


5











Gandhi


7


8



















1962) 328-31









9







1985) 53-66










Thank you
























































































715 am to 1000 am


or Call 905-681-1140 x233





th or 9




































Women for Women










Goals













world law
















Open Circle















CONGRATULATES































K Shankardass








Sound System








Zaheen Ahmed













Programme















August 9 2012)



















1


2










4


5











Gandhi


7


8



















1962) 328-31









9







1985) 53-66










Thank you
























































































715 am to 1000 am


or Call 905-681-1140 x233





th or 9




































Women for Women










Goals













world law
















Open Circle















CONGRATULATES































K Shankardass








Sound System








Zaheen Ahmed













Programme












August 9 2012)



















1


2










4


5











Gandhi


7


8



















1962) 328-31









9







1985) 53-66










Thank you
























































































715 am to 1000 am


or Call 905-681-1140 x233





th or 9




































Women for Women










Goals













world law
















Open Circle















CONGRATULATES































K Shankardass








Sound System








Zaheen Ahmed













Programme
























1


2










4


5











Gandhi


7


8



















1962) 328-31









9







1985) 53-66










Thank you
























































































715 am to 1000 am


or Call 905-681-1140 x233





th or 9




































Women for Women










Goals













world law
















Open Circle















CONGRATULATES































K Shankardass








Sound System








Zaheen Ahmed













Programme





















1


2










4


5











Gandhi


7


8



















1962) 328-31









9







1985) 53-66










Thank you
























































































715 am to 1000 am


or Call 905-681-1140 x233





th or 9




































Women for Women










Goals













world law
















Open Circle















CONGRATULATES































K Shankardass








Sound System








Zaheen Ahmed













Programme
















1


2










4


5











Gandhi


7


8



















1962) 328-31









9







1985) 53-66










Thank you
























































































715 am to 1000 am


or Call 905-681-1140 x233





th or 9




































Women for Women










Goals













world law
















Open Circle















CONGRATULATES































K Shankardass








Sound System








Zaheen Ahmed













Programme












Gandhi


7


8



















1962) 328-31









9







1985) 53-66










Thank you
























































































715 am to 1000 am


or Call 905-681-1140 x233





th or 9




































Women for Women










Goals













world law
















Open Circle















CONGRATULATES































K Shankardass








Sound System








Zaheen Ahmed













Programme

















Thank you
























































































715 am to 1000 am


or Call 905-681-1140 x233





th or 9




































Women for Women










Goals













world law
















Open Circle















CONGRATULATES































K Shankardass








Sound System








Zaheen Ahmed













Programme











Thank you
























































































715 am to 1000 am


or Call 905-681-1140 x233





th or 9




































Women for Women










Goals













world law
















Open Circle















CONGRATULATES































K Shankardass








Sound System








Zaheen Ahmed













Programme































































































715 am to 1000 am


or Call 905-681-1140 x233





th or 9




































Women for Women










Goals













world law
















Open Circle















CONGRATULATES































K Shankardass








Sound System








Zaheen Ahmed













Programme


























































































715 am to 1000 am


or Call 905-681-1140 x233





th or 9




































Women for Women










Goals













world law
















Open Circle















CONGRATULATES































K Shankardass








Sound System








Zaheen Ahmed













Programme



















































































715 am to 1000 am


or Call 905-681-1140 x233





th or 9




































Women for Women










Goals













world law
















Open Circle















CONGRATULATES































K Shankardass








Sound System








Zaheen Ahmed













Programme












































































715 am to 1000 am


or Call 905-681-1140 x233





th or 9




































Women for Women










Goals













world law
















Open Circle















CONGRATULATES































K Shankardass








Sound System








Zaheen Ahmed













Programme




































































715 am to 1000 am


or Call 905-681-1140 x233





th or 9




































Women for Women










Goals













world law
















Open Circle















CONGRATULATES































K Shankardass








Sound System








Zaheen Ahmed













Programme
































































715 am to 1000 am


or Call 905-681-1140 x233





th or 9




































Women for Women










Goals













world law
















Open Circle















CONGRATULATES































K Shankardass








Sound System








Zaheen Ahmed













Programme
















































715 am to 1000 am


or Call 905-681-1140 x233





th or 9




































Women for Women










Goals













world law
















Open Circle















CONGRATULATES































K Shankardass








Sound System








Zaheen Ahmed













Programme




































715 am to 1000 am


or Call 905-681-1140 x233





th or 9




































Women for Women










Goals













world law
















Open Circle















CONGRATULATES































K Shankardass








Sound System








Zaheen Ahmed













Programme






























715 am to 1000 am


or Call 905-681-1140 x233





th or 9




































Women for Women










Goals













world law
















Open Circle















CONGRATULATES































K Shankardass








Sound System








Zaheen Ahmed













Programme











715 am to 1000 am


or Call 905-681-1140 x233





th or 9




































Women for Women










Goals













world law
















Open Circle















CONGRATULATES































K Shankardass








Sound System








Zaheen Ahmed













Programme








































Women for Women










Goals













world law
















Open Circle















CONGRATULATES































K Shankardass








Sound System








Zaheen Ahmed













Programme























Women for Women










Goals













world law
















Open Circle















CONGRATULATES































K Shankardass








Sound System








Zaheen Ahmed













Programme


















Women for Women










Goals













world law
















Open Circle















CONGRATULATES































K Shankardass








Sound System








Zaheen Ahmed













Programme










Women for Women










Goals













world law
















Open Circle















CONGRATULATES































K Shankardass








Sound System








Zaheen Ahmed













Programme
















world law
















Open Circle















CONGRATULATES































K Shankardass








Sound System








Zaheen Ahmed













Programme











world law
















Open Circle















CONGRATULATES































K Shankardass








Sound System








Zaheen Ahmed













Programme



















CONGRATULATES































K Shankardass








Sound System








Zaheen Ahmed













Programme










CONGRATULATES































K Shankardass








Sound System








Zaheen Ahmed













Programme





























K Shankardass








Sound System








Zaheen Ahmed













Programme


















K Shankardass








Sound System








Zaheen Ahmed













Programme













K Shankardass








Sound System








Zaheen Ahmed













Programme



















Programme














Programme








Documents

The 20th Annual GANDHI PEACE FESTIVALgandhi/festival/2012/... · 2013-09-27 · meaningful difference in the lives of present and future generations. ... University. Through research,