Grandfather's lessons live on

The Journal Sentinel staff

Waukesha When Arun Gandhi was 12, he decided to test his grandfather's patience, not an unusual decision for 12-year-old boys.

But Arun's grandfather was the great Indian leader Mohandas K. Gandhi, a man patient enough to outlast the British Empire and gain independence for India. The time of his grandson's test came in 1946, when Gandhi was deep in negotiations for that independence.

The elder Gandhi used his autographs as a fund-raiser among the crowds who came to see him. Arun would collect the autograph books and the fees and give them to his grandfather.

"One day I slipped my autograph book into the pile," Arun Gandhi said at a speech at Carroll College this week. Wednesday.

"When he came to my book, he asked, `Where is the money for this book?' I told him it was mine," Gandhi said. "He said he would not make an exception, and that I had to earn the money, not get it from my parents.

"I said, `no way,' and told him I would get the autograph. He laughed and said we would see who would win the contest.

"Every day for weeks, I would burst into his room during his meetings with Indian and British leaders, pestering him for his autograph," Gandhi said. "I became very boisterous, thinking he would give in just to be Leg 1 ends here rid of me. But he would simply put his hand on my mouth, press my head to his chest and keep on talking politics.

"I never got the autograph and he never told me to leave him alone and get out," said Gandhi. "He could control his anger to such an extent that if we could control ours for 50% of that, it would be a remarkable accomplishment."

Arun Gandhi, a native of South Africa, lived with his famous grandfather for 18 months. In South Africa, Arun had been beaten by white boys because he was not white, and by black boys because he was not black. He was filled with "anger and rage," he said.

His parents took Arun to India to resolve that anger. The experience left him "eternally grateful." Lessons Lasted Lifetime

Nearly 50 years later, Arun Gandhi is this year's recipient of the Gamaliel Chair in Peace and Justice of the Metropolitan Milwaukee Lutheran Campus Ministry. He has been a journalist in India, written four books and helped found the Center for Social Unity in India.

In 1991, he founded the M.K. Gandhi Institute for Non-violence at Christian Brothers University in Memphis, Tenn.

Gandhi told the 700-plus students in Shattuck Auditorium at Leg 2 ends here Carroll College that he wanted to share two things with them: some of the lessons his grandfather taught him during those 18 months, and how to use non-violence to resolve conflicts.

One of the lessons was the importance of controlling anger, and of using it intelligently to achieve something constructive.

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