Sept. 18, 2014

Rajmohan Gandhi, biographer and grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, to speak at VCU

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By Mike Porter

Virginia Commonwealth University’s L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs will host the 2014 India Chair in Democracy and Civil Society lecture, featuring Rajmohan Gandhi, a historian, biographer and grandson of Mahatma Gandhi.  

Gandhi will discuss “Popular Movements and the Popular Vote in Today’s India” on Monday, Sept. 22. A panel discussion focusing on the politics and economics of a changing India will begin at 5:30 p.m. and the lecture will begin at 7 p.m. Both events, which are free and open to the public, will take place in the Commonwealth Ballrooms at the VCU Student Commons, 907 Floyd Ave. Parking is available for a fee at the Main Street Parking Deck at the corner of Main and Laurel streets.

Gandhi is a professor emeritus at the Center for South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His most recent book, “Punjab: A History from Aurangzeb to Mountbatten,” traces the history of the Northwest region of India during its most tumultuous phase from the death of Aurangzeb in the early 18th century to its brutal partition in 1947.

The $1 million India Chair in Democracy and Civil Society Campaign was launched in 2012 to support a new India Chair in Democracy and Civil Society, the first of its kind in the United States. Gandhi’s visit to VCU will honor Ranjit K. Sen, inaugural campaign chair for the India Chair lecture series.

For more information, visit http://www.wilder.vcu.edu/news/gandhi.html. If special accommodations are needed, call (804) 827-0867.