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LETTER FROM INDIA Dear Family and Friends, Driving along the shaded streets of New Delhi, I approached the center of the city with a sense of anticipation. And why not? Although I had arrived there from Boston and elsewhere in India several times before, this time our destination was the Presidential House (Rastrapati Bhavan). Turning into the Rajpath, our driver moved slowly through the traffic and crowds surrounding India Gate, then toward the palace: a thirty-seven acre complex of gardens, fountains, Victorian archways, long corridors, and meeting rooms, designed by the British architect, Sir Edwin Lutyens, in 1929. We came to a stop at the bottom of the wide steps approaching the massive front entrance. It was a scene recognizable to anyone familiar with Richard Attenborough’s great film Gandhi, 1983, after Gandhi’s successful nonviolent protest against the British tax on salt in 1930, the Mahatma (Ben Kingsley) walked purpose-fully up those front steps for a meeting with the British viceroy. The event symbolized a major victory in the long effort to end British rule, with independence seventeen years later. From the parking lot, my friend and I entered a side entrance, through various security posts, to a handsome waiting room, where other guests awaited a meeting with Mrs. Patil, the first woman president of India. After tea and delicious treats, Professor Naresh Dadhich and I were escorted to the president’s receiving room, where she greeted us cordially. Governor of Rajasthan when we first met in 2006, Mrs. Patil had been elected president by Congress and the state assemblies only two months before At our first meeting in 2006, at the Governor’s House (Raj Bhavan) in Jaipur, she had presented me with a large sculpture of Palace of the Winds, (Hawa Mahal), a landmark in \"the pink city.\" So I was happy to accept her invitation to join Professor Naresh Dadhich at this later meeting, with an opportunity to express my appreciation for her generous gift and to congratulate her on her recent election. Naresh, whom she had named Vice Chancellor of Vardhaman Mahaveer Open University (VMOU), Kota, earlier, reported on his efforts to initiate a Gandhi Studies program there. As a young child, Mrs. Patil, and especially her parents had actively supported Gandhi's Freedom Movement, and as governor had encouraged Naresh's contributions to peace, conflict, and nonviolence studies, by welcoming participants in the Asian Pacific Peace Research Association conference in 2006. In Jaipur, Naresh and I had a similar meeting with Mrs. Patil's successor as governor of Rajasthan, S.T. Singh, former ambassador to Austria and Pakistan. Our hour's conversation took place beneath a very large portrait of Gandhi in his office, discussing, among other things, his effort to limit nuclear proliferation as a consultant to the United Nations. Meetings with the president and the governor were two of several memorable experiences during my fifth time in India over the past twelve years. The week before traveling to Delhi, I had given the inaugural Gandhi lecture at VMOU, \"Gandhi and Global Nonviolence,\" emphasizing his legacy to the world, Although the people of India revere the \"Great Soul\" as the father of their country, they are not always aware of him as a brilliant political strategist, as Gene Sharp, Albert Einstein Institute, and other scholars and researchers, have demonstrated in recent years. In emphasizing Gandhi's influence around the world, I focused on the United Nations Decade for the Culture of Peace and Nonviolence for the Children of the World; the Nonviolent Peaceforce, modeled on Gandhi's Peace Army (Shanti Sena); and nonviolent campaigns, such as Gaviria Cathedra in Colombia and Father Roy Bourgeois's School of America Watch in the U.S. Before and after these events, I spent time in with Naresh's family in Jaipur: his wife, Rita, a professor of sociology; their daughters, Archa and Shruti, now in their second and final years of college; and his father Manmohan (pictured below), In the morning, we walked to the park near their home, to meet with his friends, and often spent evenings in conversation, as the temperature cooled from 90 to 60 degrees, the hills and desert in the distance. Twice we drove six hours from Jaipur to Kota, a city of a million people and home to VMOU, on the main road to Mumbai. As on most highways in India, large Tata trucks, buses, cars, motorbikes, pedestrians, an occasional cow, pig, or herd of goats shared the narrow strip of paved highway, the driver negotiating his way among them. As an America friend said about travel by car in India, for the first few days he hid in the back seat unable to face what the driver contended with. Although the landscape of Rajasthan, India's largest state, on the border with Pakistan, is arid, the area around Kota is verdant farmland, because of the Chambal River, the only permanent river in the state. A characteristic, major attraction nearby is the massive hillside fort in Bundi. Although the palace and fortress remain in disarray, the brilliant turquoise and gold murals, paintings of ancient myths, gods, and goddesses, convey something of the majesty of this former princely state. Back in Jaipur, I had several days to relax before flying to Mumbai, then London. Before returning home to Massachusetts, I enjoyed the benefits of a marvelous Quaker retreat, \"Riches of the Desert,\" at Charney Manor, in Oxfordshire, After several opportunities to see India at close range, and some acquaintance with its history and literature, I am aware of significant changes in the country over the past decade, as it assumes its rightful place among major world powers. Although it still harbors millions of desperately poor people, in a total population of one billion, one is constantly aware of the culture’s richness, power, and beauty, Increasing prosperity for some citizens is evident in new office buildings, malls, department stores, and cultural centers in every major city. Although highly qualified professionals, including 75,000 doctors, continue to leave their native land for higher salaries and career opportunities elsewhere, that trend is being reversed as a result of competitive salaries and better working conditions. Although it’s almost a cliché to say so, I marvel at the fact that such a huge, complex society, with obvious economic, political, and religious challenges, continues to function as a democracy. That fact, along with significant improvements in literacy and agriculture during the sixty years since independence, is an enormous achievement. My affection for India, has deeper roots, of course, because of my remarkable friendships and professional associations, and I am often aware of Gandhi's legacy in all my travel there. Without his fifty-year-long struggle, what he called his \"experiments with truth,\" the world might have remained unaware of a nonviolent tradition that he revived and strengthened for the benefit of us all. ; Sincerely, Michael True< |