Scott Katora

Arun Gandhi will deliver the Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Lecture Feb. 13.

Arun Gandhi, grandson of Indian activist Mohandas K. Gandhi, will deliver the Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Lecture at Cornell Monday, Feb. 13, at 7:30 p.m. in Sage Chapel.

Gandhi's lecture will focus on nonviolence, food insecurity and social justice, linked to the King legacy. Following a Q&A, a reception and book signing will be held in the rear of the chapel.

The lecture is free and open to the public, and is co-sponsored by Cornell's Martin Luther King Commemoration Committee and Cornell United Religious Work.

Growing up Indian under apartheid laws in South Africa, Gandhi experienced racial tension with blacks and whites at an early age. He was sent to live with his grandfather in India, and with 18 months under Mahatma Gandhi's guidance, he developed a lifelong commitment to the ideals of nonviolence and social harmony and has initiated several programs to further his grandfather's work.

In India he founded the Center for Social Unity, an organization seeking to alleviate poverty and caste discrimination by providing economic self-help models.

Gandhi and his wife, Sunanda, traveled to the United States in 1987 to work on a comparative study of prejudices in South Africa, India and the United States. They founded the M.K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence in 1991. The institute moved to the University of Rochester, New York, after Sunanda's death in 2007. It seeks to foster understanding of nonviolence and to put that philosophy to practical use through workshops, lectures and community outreach programs.

On campus Gandhi will meet with students, staff and MLK Commemoration Committee members, and with Padre Alejandro Solalinde, who is visiting from Mexico as a guest of the Committee on U.S./Latin American Relations.