Arun Gandhi, grandson of legendary freedom fighter Mahatma Gandhi said people to build relationships among each other and shed anger and hatred Saturday morning in Tempe.
Urging people to interact with each other more, Gandhi said a better sense of community alone will solve hatred among people.
"We live in ghettos and do not care to build relationships," he said.
"Beyond the 9 to 5 integration, we live in ghettos," he said. "Hispanics live together, Asian-Americans live together, African-Americans live together."
Ghandi said that ghettos lead to stereotypes causing hatred against each other.
"This leads people to think that every Muslim is an Osama Bin Laden," he said. "We need to break down barriers."
Addressing the fourth annual "Together we're better" celebrations at the Tempe Library to commemorate Martin Luther King Jr. Day, he said Martin Luther King, Jr. was the only person who truly understood Mahatma Gandhi's philosophy of non-violence.
He reminded the audience of an incident in 1959 when King visited India as a guest of the Indian government. Although he was lodged in one of the most expensive hotels in Mumbai, King preferred to spend his time in a modest house used by Mahatma Gandhi during his struggle for India's freedom.
"Martin Luther King, Jr. went to grandfather's (Mahatma Gandhi's) room in the house and meditated for several hours. When he came out of the room he said he was prepared to begin his fight for civil rights in America," he said.
Talking about racism, Gandhi said it evolves out of prejudice.
"Until we eliminate prejudice, we cannot eliminate racism," Gandhi told the audience of Tempeans. "Prejudice comes out of ignorance and in not understanding others."
He urged people to understand the fact that we are not independent individuals.
"We are interrelated and interdependent individuals. We need to recognize and respect that connection," he said.
He said several people have asked him about the relevance of non-violence after the incidents of September 11.
He explained that acts of violence only breed violence and that we need to look inward and we should be the change we wish to see.
Gandhi told the audience to understand anger and learn to control it.
"Anger is like electricity," he said. "We must learn to use it positively."
Earlier, addressing Tempeans, Mayor Neil Giuliano paid tributes to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
A new model for Kashmir
Gandhi proposed a new model for solving the Kashmir problem which has recently erupted into a warlike situation between India and Pakistan. Both countries are fighting over the disputed region.
"India and Pakistan need to accept Kashmir as a disputed territory," Ghandi said. "They should establish a governing council with representatives from India, Pakistan and Kashmir and establish normalcy in Kashmir."
He added that any country divided on the basis of religion will not succeed and that over the last 50 years, neither India nor Pakistan has succeeded in quelling violence.
Attributing that partition of India and Pakistan was a mistake, he said once freedom was won, Gandhi's teachings were sidelined. He reiterated that non-violence was the only way to solve problems between India and Pakistan.
