Sri Lankan Ambassador to Discuss Gandhi's Legacy

“The Relevance of Mahatma Gandhi’s Legacy in South Asia” will be the title of the Gandhi Lecture, held annually at Yale University in honor of the Indian civil rights and political leader. Jayantha Dhanapala, Sri Lanka’s ambassador to the United States, will present the talk 12:15-1:30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 2, in Rm. 127 of the Law School, 127 Wall St. The lecture, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by the Committee on South Asian Studies Committee and the Yale Center for International and Area Studies. Refreshments will be served.

Ambassador Dhanapala entered the Sri Lanka Foreign Service in 1965 and has held diplomatic assignments in London, Beijing, Washington, D.C. and New Delhi. In 1984, he was appointed ambassador and permanent representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations in Geneva, with concurrent accreditation to the U.N. agencies in Vienna. Three years later, he was appointed by the U.N. Secretary General to direct the Geneva-based United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research, UNIDIR. He returned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Colombo in 1992 and served as foreign secretary until his appointment in 1995 as Sri Lanka’s ambassador to the United States.

In addition to representing his country, Ambassador Dhanapala has chaired many international meetings, such as the recently concluded 1995 Review and Extension Conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. In 1995 he was awarded the “Jit” Trainor Award for Distinction in the Conduct of Diplomacy by the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. He was also a member of the Canberra Commission on the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons.

On April 2, the ambassador will be the guest of honor at a dinner sponsored by the Friends of South Asian Studies Committee, 6:30-9 p.m. at the Regal Inn in New Haven. Tickets are $25 for the general public. Reservations are required. Please call Pravin Bhatt at 281-6208.

Concurrent with the talk, an exhibition asking “Where was Gandhi on the Day of Independence?” will be presented March 31-May 2 in the Memorabilia Room of Sterling Memorial Library, 120 High St. The display was organized by the South Asia Society and the staff of the library’s manuscripts and archives department. The student organizers are Sujatha Jahagirdar, Sonushya Mathai, Vivek Chandaria, Karna Basu and Rahul Rajkumar.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi 1869-1948 was a successful lawyer who abandoned his practice to work in South Africa, where there was widespread oppression of Indian immigrants. It was during his 20 years in South Africa that Gandhi developed the policy of passive resistance for which he later became known. When he returned to India in 1918, Gandhi became the leader of the struggle to free the nation from the political and civil oppression of the British government. He also eschewed worldly possessions and adopted a spiritual and ascetic life of prayer, fasting and meditation. His followers revered Gandhi as a saint and began to call him “Mahatma,” or “great-souled.” The Indian leader was assassinated in 1948.