Apply Gandhi's ideas and encourage others to do the same: Ela

DURBAN: Mahatma Gandhi's grand-daughter has urged practitioners of non-violence to promote the father of the nation's philosohpy to win over detractors of his ideas instead of attacking them.

Ela Gandhi, a former MP for South Africa's ruling ANC and presently chairperson of the Mahatma Gandhi Foundation here, was reacting to criticism of the non-violence method by certain Gandhi detractors.

Ela, who also runs a non-violent desk at the Durban University of Technology where she is the Chancellor, said it was not part of Gandhi's philosophy to attack people who disagree with him.

"He (Gandhi) always maintainted that the strength of a philosophy lay in its own intrinsic value," she said.

"Let us, therefore, spend time in seeing how we can apply Gandhiji's ideas within our own lives and encourage others to do the same, rather than wasting time attacking other people who do not believe in his ideas.

"They will come around if we can prove the value of the ideas by applying them," she said.