The Coretta Scott King Center, in collaboration with the Dayton International Peace Museum, orchestrated a profound dialogue on Sunday, Jan. 28.
The event featured the Rev. Joel King, an activist and cousin of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.; author and activist Tushar Gandhi, great-grandson of Mahatma Gandhi; and Gregory Foster, a retired social worker and cousin of Coretta Scott King.
The event helped kick off the Peace Museum’s observance of “A Season for Nonviolence,” an annual 64-day initiative that runs from Jan. 30, the date of Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination, to April 4, the date of Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination. “A Season for Nonviolence” was originally established in 1998 by Arun Gandhi, grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, as a way to honor the legacies and philosophies of both Gandhi and King.
Tushar Gandhi also visited Mills Lawn Elementary School and McKinney Middle and Yellow Springs High schools the previous Friday, speaking to students about “A Season of Nonviolence” and the legacy of the Gandhi family.
The conversation at the Coretta Scott King Center provided a platform for attendees to discuss nonviolent social change. Tushar Gandhi emphasized the importance of individual action, highlighting the often overlooked contributions of women in social movements. Foster echoed the sentiment in his remarks, stressing the significance of love and communication within families to foster peace. Joel King addressed ongoing racism and bigotry, urging individuals to challenge societal norms.
The dialogue underscored the need for broadening definitions of peace and nonviolence to address contemporary issues and served as a reminder of the enduring relevance of collective action in pursuit of social justice and harmony.
Tushar Gandhi told those gathered for the event that he feels strongly that individuals must recognize their importance in creating a peaceful community, as their actions have a cumulative effect.
“An individual’s responsibility is not to consider oneself to be insignificant, because many times we don’t do things because we consider that we are insignificant and that what we do doesn’t matter at all,” he said. “And so the first thing that a peace worker needs to do is to consider himself or herself to be important in the design of things, and if we do that, then I think we will achieve the results that we desire.”
He also highlighted the need to address overlooked issues, reminding the audience: “We talk about grace and we talk about caste and we talk about class discrimination. We sort of forget gender discrimination.” Gandhi said he found walking into the Scott Coretta Scott King Center fascinating because the center recognizes and celebrates a great person who was, many times, in the shadow of her husband, another great person.
“I have seen that with my great-grandmother, too,” he said. “She was, in a sense, the woman who lived in the shadows of her husband, who was so much more illustrious. People forgot to give her the credit that she deserves.”
In 2022, Gandhi published “The Lost Diary of Kastur, My Ba,” a 135-page diary written by his great-grandmother, Kasturba Gandhi, who was previously believed to be illiterate. Kasturba Gandhi was an activist in her own right, and her diary, written in 1933, includes mention of her own imprisonments due to peaceful civil disobedience.
Tushar Gandhi’s parents wrote a biography about his great-grandmother, but he said it was widely viewed as the biography of a great man’s wife — “Ms. Gandhi” — and not the story of an individual with her own contributions, the credit for which he believes is long overdue.
“All that was written was with the ghost of Mahatma [Gandhi] in the narrative, and my great-grandmother was just there because she was tagging along,” Tushar Gandhi said. “I’ve seen that in all societies; the patriarchal oppression is so that everyone is programmed to look in a way that the individual does not get the credit or importance that they deserve.”
