Archbishop and Ghandis granddaughter team up for peace

A Catholic Archbishop and the granddaughter of Mahatma Ghandi are to work together for peace and reconciliation.

Tara Gandhi Bhattacharjee is the vice president of Ghandi Smriti and Darshan Samiti, an organisation which promotes non-violence and civil rights across India.

She recently met the Most Rev Thomas Menamparampil, Archbishop of Guwahati and a respected peace advocate, to propose a new partnership.

Archbishop Menamparampil was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize this year for his peace work in northeast India, an area blighted by tribal, territorial, religious and political tensions.

“All my work has been about small things,” he said, according to Fides news agency.

“But I know that small things too count and that small, little things that we do in the right way at the right time, achieves [sic] great things in the cause of peace.

“The right way of dealing with people is important. That is why we fail most often.”

Mrs Gandhi Bhattacharjee recently toured the north-east to promote non-violent solutions to the region's problems.

She welcomed the partnership: “We are living through times when instances of hatred and violence are growing and we have greater need of peacemakers than ever.”

Her grandfather was the leader of the Indian independence movement and an admirer of Jesus Christ, despite being a Hindu.

He once said of Jesus: "For, he was certainly the highest example of one who wished to give everything, asking nothing in return, and not caring what creed might happen to be professed by the recipient.

"I am sure that if he were living here now among men, he would bless the lives of many who perhaps have never even heard his name, if only their lives embodied the virtues of which he was a living example on earth; the virtues of loving one’s neighbour as oneself and of doing good and charitable works among one’s fellowmen."