The grandson of one of the most influential world figures of the 20th century, Mahatma Gandhi, Rajmohan Gandhi has written widely on the Indian independence movement and its leaders, Indian-Pakistani relations, globalization, human rights and conflict resolution. He has held appointments as a visiting professor in the United States and Japan and received honorary degrees from universities in Canada, Japan and the Kyrgyz Republic. Gandhi has also served as a member of the upper house of India’s parliament and led the Indian government delegation to the U.N. Human Rights Commission annual meeting in Geneva. He is currently academic director of the Global Crossroads program and visiting professor in the Program in South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
A learned Professor who is happy to say, ‘I don’t know’, when asked a question to which he has no answer – is rare. A Hindu serving as a bridge between Muslims and Christians may be rarer still. Rajmohan Gandhi is a visiting Professor in the Program of South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Faculty Director of Global Crossroads. He is a Jury Member, Nuremberg International Human Rights Award and Co-chair, Centre for Dialogue and Reconciliation, Gurgaon, India
He is also a seasoned campaigner. In 1963 he led a ‘March on Wheels’ for a ‘clean, strong and united India’. In the mid-Seventies the weekly magazine he edited ‘Himmat’, was a prominent opponent of Indira Gandhi’s ‘Emergency’, a semi-dictatorship. In recent years he has worked for understanding between Hindus and Muslims, Pakistanis and Indians, and between Muslims and the West.
Rajmohan Gandhi is a noted journalist and a prolific writer. His books have included biographies of both his grandfathers, Mahatma Gandhi and Chakravarti Rajagopalachari, India’s first and only Indian Governor General. More recently, Gandhi’s major new biography of his grandfather – Mohandas: A True Story of a Man, his People and an Empire, was published in January by Penguin Books India, launched in New Delhi in the presence of political and social leaders, and has received great critical acclaim!
Other books by him include Ghaffar Khan: Nonviolent Badshah of the Pakhtuns (Penguin 2004); Revenge & Reconciliation: Understanding South Asian History (Penguin, 1999); The Good Boatman: A Portrait of Gandhi (Penguin, 1995); Patel: A Life, a biography of Vallabhbhai Patel (1875-1950), Deputy Prime Minister of India,1947-50 (Navajivan, Ahmedabad, 1990); and Eight Lives: A Study of the Hindu-Muslim Encounter (SUNY, 1987).