Diary Date - Gandhi Centenary, Ahmedabad, October 2007

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Preparing A Series of Stories from Gandhi's Lifetime
-compiled by the curious friends circle of GANDHImba

Story 1
18 Age (1887) went to qualify as a Barrister at the Bar of London
-extraordinary serendipity as had just matriculated at Ahmedabad, and couldn't find a university course that interested him- a friend of the family suggested: do law and go to the Bar at London - the source of Empire law
-the way Gandhi tells his 3 years in London : law did not involve much study but a lot of social networking; as a poor outsider but deeply passionate and transparent person about any practice he took on, he connected the most extraordinary diversity network possible in London at that time, almost by accident
-this was the start of multiplying many grassroots networks and practice communities which were given hi-trust gravity because Gandhi's source of learning openly "empired" higher legal qualifications than almost all of the great or good in the places the Gandhi wave for humanity moved through - over his lifetime to his assasination in Delhi 1948.
-in the view of media experts, hi-trust social networkers prior to mass media had an altogether different values set (those remembered through generations were those who were wholly loved by their peoples as leaders of deepest respect; there might be leaders who exercised more power while they were alive but why should their parables or sayings be relayed across genrations) Gandhi may be proposed as one of the 3 most networked hi-trust people of the 20th Century, as well as the one whose actions and histories are probably most truly recorded for any modern day mapmaker to work with. I am very interested to hear your views of anyone else in the top 3 of most trusted 20th C leaders and networkers - chris wcbn007@easynet.co.uk

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Under Construction

Story 0 - the women who helped nurture Gandhi's spirit including: his mother; his wife at age 13

Story 2 - A world's most travelled man between 1885-1925. Apart from professional sailors, Gandhi must have been one of these. He was criss-crossing hemispheres between India and Natal, South Africa- sometimes going via London (as on the occasion when he landed in the UK on the second day of world war 1 and with a group of 80 Indians volunteered to become a first aid team for the region. These were not the world travels of the posh brigade but deep in third class. However as his fame grew it does seem that increasingly compatriots chose to make a pilrimage sailing with him -and who knows what colective consciusness meetings such an environment may have facilitated.

Story 3 The World's First Satyagraha. This birth of a force by and for people out of the firmness of truth and the love (that integrates peace) happened first around Gandhi's gravity and grounding in South Africa. He'd just completed a year's commercial law work and was about to go home when local Indians asked him to take up their case: new apartheid-type laws were coming in that were to deny them a democratic voice. The South African Satyagraha turned out to be his core work (also referred to by Gandhi as the story of my experiments with truth) for the next 40 years; however its prototyping and the trust that waved around Gandhi's network of compatriots led to the even greater Satyagraha to come: the movement that resulted in India taking back Independence from the British. This is story 5 and much of it was campaigned out of The Ashram in Ahmedabad.

Story 4 continues lifelong from 1920. In this year, Gandhi turning 50 years of age found the time and the popular will to establish the University and schooling system of Gujarat Vidyapath in Ahmedabad. The mission statement this institution was given by Gandhi was : Knowledge is that which liberates us. Gandhi acted as chancellor to the university through his lifetime.

Story 5 - India's Independence tracking back from this future through 20 or so years of the world's greatest Satyagraha- launched and initially coordinated out of the Ashram in Ahmedabad.

Story 6 - The soul of the greatest nation to be? - Gandhi was assasinated just short of his 80th birthday, a remarkable tour de force for one who had lived through hardship.Yet his DNA as the national spirit of India may yet be the 21st Century's biggest story of all. India is set to become the most populous nation and with Gandhi's blessing -and practical teachings and hi-trust, transparent and sustainable systems of living from Be the Change up - perhaps the most united internally and uniting worldwide.

Ahmedabad, better known as ‘Amdavad’ is intial ‘ Karmabhumi ' of Mahatma Gandhi , Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Vikram Sarabhai and Abdul Kalam in western part of India. Formerly known as Manchester of India for its Textile industry is now better known by Gandhi Ashram, Sardar Patel Smarak Bhavan, Indian Institute of Management IIM, ATIRA , ISRO,Community Science Centre, National Institute of Design, Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industries , and AMA Ahmedabad Management Association.

In October 2007, Ahmedabad hosts a centenary event for all practice followers of Mahatma Gandhi.

Gandhi*London

1887-1891 Qualified at the bar of London

1914 enroute by ship from Natal to India landed in England 2 days after the start of World War 1 - volunteered with 80 Indian compatriots to serve as first aid squad for London region

May 2006 will be the third consecutive year that 500 people have gathered for 3-day Be The Change networking event held at the (Quakers) Friends House, Euston

I am not sure if I have got the courage to attend for a third time because the convenor I knew best was lost in 7/7 bombings in 2005, but there's certainly a tidal wave across London of Gandhi believers, and I hope some do get to Ahmedabad Oct 2007

Gandhi*Omidyar

I am very keen to establish loose connections between Gandhi and every type of community-up model. By loose connections I mean sufficient relationships of trust so that people who are exploring one community-up route can pass through Gandhi's core practices to any other method. Gandhi spent well over a decade in exile thinking through systemic logics to the practices he then put into peaceful revolutions and grassrot up activism. I can't believe there's any modern method of self-organising that can fail to be enhnaced by being connected with a few Gandhi alumni co-mentors

Modern community-up methods seem to include:
microfinance
crosscultural hubs embedded in cities, and seeding projects
social entrepreneurs

And as far as I know omidyar.net is the largest virtual space where practitioners of these methods share perspctives and questions - so why not start with this search of where gandhi has come into conversations

http://www.google.com/search?q=gandhi&ie=UTF-8&sitesearch=omidyar.net&x=29&y=2

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Initial resource/links to gandhi's core methods:
Renewing Einstein's Obituary of Gandhi IGNCA---MAHATMA ...First Words to Practice-Actioning
Satyagraha: non-violent direct action
Ahimsa
Hind Swaraj
Action Is My Domain
Constructive Programme
Be The Change
Sarvodaya: upliftment of all
UtellUSGenerations to come will scarce believe that such a one as this walked the earth in flesh and blood.—Albert Einstein about Gandhi
198 methods of non-violent action by Gene Sharp, author of Gandhi as Political Strategist (1979)

Gandhi's 7 Blunders Passive Violence
Wealth without work.
Pleasure without conscience.
Knowledge without character.
Commerce without morality.
Science without humanity.
Worship without sacrifice.
Politics without principles-
sourceBooks By Gandhi

From London's Bridge over Troubled Waters

If I understand correctly, the people of every city -let alone global villages- know who in their lifetime connects the best goodwill of their culture and everyone nurtured by the practice of Gandhi's teachings

Unlike today's mass media celebrities, people from other places (even now that networks often make geographic distance seem to have disappeared) usually never know who is a local place's deepest soul for uniting the world's flows of peace. However, sadly London is one of the cross-cultural test cities where anyone who links through Our Friend Colin's Wave 1 2 3 can see one such soul bearer's connections.

In the first 250 days of missing Colin, I have talked to many people who knew the changes he was searching in us to be. Most seem to remember a change project they were hoping to collaborate with him on. So that all these "be the change" projects do not get separated or lost in the mists of time, I invite anyone who remembers such a project (or idea for one) to join in cataloguing them.
August Fifteenth 1947: To-day our enemy is not outside us but within us. Hunger, poverty and disease, our ignorance, prejudice and folly, and above all the spirit of violence and disorder let loose by communal passions, are our enemies. Against these enemies we have to marshal all our forces. It is the sacred duty of every Indian to help the State fight these enemies. This new struggle will need even a greater spirit of sacrifice and self-discipline than we showed in our struggle for freedom.

Swaraj cannot be real for the masses unless it makes possible the achievement of a society in which democracy extends from the political to the social and economic sphere, and in which there would be no opportunity for privileged classes to exploit the bulk of the people, nor for gross inequalities such as exist at present. Such a society would ensure individual liberty, equality of opportunity and the fullest scope for every citizen for the development of his personality. Only in such a society will the common man be free from the triple exploitation of the communalist, the capitalist and the bureaucrat. Such a society derives its strength from the happiness of its people and its unity from their willing allegiance

Also if you didn't know Colin, but do know a circle of people who try with every breathe to live a "be the change" project that Gandhi would have united in blessing, please do share with us - if you will.

There are 3 ways to share that come to mind:
1) Just post it here
2) Mail me at wcbn007@easynet.co.uk and I will help you edit what you want posted
3) If your project has its own lively collaboration network or is in a family tree of other projects, and you want a section of this weblog to update project news through- mail me and ask for that space

The Road to Ahmedabad
I first heard of the intended Gandhi centenary alumni event when I was at the annual congress of Global Reconciliation Network which was convened in Delhi, December 2004. I will be trying to get Ahmedabad in October 2007, and it would be great to hear from people who have a similar intent. One of the questions I will try to ask our hosts at gandhi's Akram : is there a central clearing house on the web uniting all the world's peoples be the chnage project nominations. There is no wish on the part of this weblog or myself to reinvent the wheel. If you know of a place that already contains the most diverse listings of be the change projects and is open for allcomers to qualify their projects peace-spreading and community-rising intent, then please tell us.

Yours sincerely,
Chris Macrae, Gravity200

Ways you can collaborate with Club of Ahmedabad and with 40 million bookmarks loosely linked by collaboration knowledge city worldwide - part 1

we are always interested in suggestions, but here's part of an occasional series to illustrate

1.1 question hosts of big leadership conferences: do they have motivations 1 like Clinton's Global Initiative of developing project initiatives that change the world? do they expect the audience to become alumni and connect with other leadership networks or any of the missions of the speakers; -here's a sample mail on how it only takes 5 minutes to question a conference host, and how we can link the authority of collaboration knowledge city and project30000 and death of distance scripts for globalcharters since 1984 to your own reasons for asking

1.2 As our Death of Distance & Entrepreneurial Revolution archives of scripts at globalcharters since 1984 confirm, we believe that 7 waves are causing an unprecedented revolutionary challenge to our generation 1984-2024. If citizens everywhere connect in collaboration we may make a better world, otherwise the sustainability of future generations is in doubt. This is why we love to hear of any open space races that people and their social networks are piloting, and to circulate actionable project information. If this is your sort of endeavour with some of your time over the next 10 years, why not join our collaboration knowledge mapmakers
http://www.frappr.com/knowledge
cheers
chris macrae wcbn007@easynet.co.uk valuetrue.com

Network family tree maps

My friends and I at http://www.frappr.com/gandhimba
will be compiling a family tree map of networks that compound through Gandhi

meanwhile here is one of my family's


do you have one that you want to share with the peace co-creating world?