New Delhi, November 19 – The Prime Minister of the exile Tibetan government Prof. Samdhong Rinpoche arrived in the Indian capital earlier today to attend the opening ceremony of the Hind Swaraj Centenary Commemoration at a hotel in Surajkund near Delhi. The former academician who is serving his second consecutive term as the Tibetan Prime Minister had returned from Italy where he took part in the 5th World Parliamentarian’s Convention on Tibet in Rome.
Swarajpeeth Trust, an NGO run by Ghandian couple Rajiv and Niru Vora, is organizing the event which will also feature an international conference on Ghandhian principles and ‘Hind Swaraj’.
Noted Indian social activist Ela Bhatt inaugurated the four day conference this morning. His Holiness the Dalai Lama will grace the last day of the conference that aims to “discuss challenges for Nonviolence based on day-to-today lives of people in the conflict zones and how they face them practicing Gandhian values”. The Tibetan leader will spend the entire day at the conference.
More than hundred scholars, Gandhians – young and old, academicians, social-political activists like Prof Ashish Nandy, Ajarn Sulak Sivaraksa, Prof Anthony Parel, Prof UR Ananthamurty, besides activists from conflict zones like Iraq, Palestine, Pakistan, Kashmir, Burma and Tibet have converged at the conference to share and gain ideas.
“The conference plans to draw an action plan and request His Holiness the Dalai Lama, a winner of Nobel Peace Prize, to lead the global nonviolent movement,” said Rajiv Vora.
“Practitioners of nonviolence from different communities and countries are here to share experience and learn from each other in the growing challenging times of globalization and violence” said one of the participants from south India.
Prof Ashish Nandy who was in his passionate best while speaking on “untamed language of rebellion in our time” said he encourages what he called “militant nonviolence”.
Prof Samdhong Rinpoche described “Hind Swaraj” by Ghandhi as a treatise, a manual guide for modern world. The Tibetan Ghandhian said the thin book sold in India for five Rupees was written by Gandhi in ten days on a ship, while returning from England after the round table conference. He finished writing it on the 22nd November 1909, Rinpoche said.
Tsering Choedup of International Tibet Support Network, Tenzin Choeying of Students for a Free Tibet, and Tempa Samkhar of Active Non Violence Education Centre are participating in the conference. Tibetan independence activist Tenzin Tsundue will speak in one of the groups tomorrow on “Relevance of Hind Swaraj for Tibetans”.
