Vandana Shiva on Gandhi
Recorded December 31st, 2008 in New Delhi, India
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, dubbed the Mahatma, great soul, was born on October 2, 1869. After training as a lawyer in England, Gandhi went to South Africa. It was there his emergent philosophy began to take shape. Returning to India in 1915 he fairly quickly becomes the most prominent leader in the country's struggle to oust the British. It was Gandhi who promoted non-violent resistance and civil disobedience. It was Gandhi who led the Salt March to break the British monopoly on salt. He spent years in jail. India finally achieves independence, but to Gandhi's regret, is divided. He is assassinated by a Hindu extremist in 1948. Upon his death Einstein said: "Generations to come will scarce believe that such a one as this walked the earth in flesh and blood." Gandhi's example strongly influenced Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela.
Vandana Shiva is an internationally renowned voice for sustainable development and social justice. A physicist, scholar, political activist and feminist, she is Director of the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Natural Resource Policy in New Delhi . She's the recipient of the Right Livelihood Award, the alternative Nobel Prize. Author of many books, her latest are "Earth Democracy" and "Soil Not Oil."