Posted on Oct. 3: Festival celebrates love, kindness and non-violence
Steady growth and a budding reputation for inclusiveness have brought the Gandhi Peace Festival into its eleventh year.
The festival, born in 1993, has become an annual celebration of the quest for peace in memory of the social reformer who's best known for leading India to independence in the 1940s while preaching love, kindness and non-violence.
“Gandhi's teachings of non-violence are particularly important today,” says biology professor Rama Singh, a founder of the festival. “Historically speaking, there has never been a stronger peace movement than we've seen against the war on Iraq.”
Saturday's festival, co-sponsored by McMaster's Centre for Peace Studies and the India-Canada Society of Hamilton, will feature an information fair, the annual Gandhi peace walk, and an address entitled “Power to the people: the agenda of the peace movement” by this year's guest speaker, Tom Nagy, George Washington University.
The festival will also offer food, drumming, activities, and a chance to learn about organizations with a peace or human rights focus. At noon, participants leave for the annual peace walk, with drummers keeping pace.
“We try to keep the festival appealing to all types of people by offering variety and inviting good speakers who will focus on current topics,” says Singh. “It seems like there's always an important issue on the front burner, and we want to make sure we stay relevant by addressing that.”
Last year more than 500 people were in attendance, up from the first year which saw just over 100.
Despite limited resources, the festival continues to grow. Last year, organizers implemented a Gandhi essay contest for high school students. Essay topics change each year, and they're separate for younger and older students. Winners receive a certificate of recognition and $100 cash prize each, awarded in a ceremony at the Festival.
Another popular event that precedes the festival is the annual Gandhi Peace Lecture. This year, Acharya Ramamurti, director of a non-governmental organization and the Institute of Gandhian studies in Varanasi, India, spoke about “the new culture of peace.”
While he's in Canada he'll be raising awareness of a women's peace training corps, he works with in India. The group called Shanti Sena is committed to educating Indian women about their rights and making them aware of the principles of non-violence and democracy.
After a decade in the Hamilton area, the festival has been temporarily moved this year from City Hall to Gage Park due to the World Cycling Championships. Organizers are running a shuttle bus from a location near Wentworth House to Gage Park, at 9:30, 10:30 and 11:30 a.m.
For more information about the Gandhi Peace Festival, visit http://www.humanities.mcmaster.ca/gandhi/Festival2003.htm or call the McMaster Centre for Peace Studies at 905-525-9140 ext. 24729.
