Arun Gandhi

Arun Gandhi grew up in his grandfather's ashram, a small, remote settlement in South Africa. Growing up, Gandhi had the advantage of education over the illiterate farm families who worked the surrounding fields, for which his grandfather urged him to play after school with the neighbor children in order to "learn what it was like to live in poverty", as well as to teach those children what he learned in class each day, which Gandhi saw as "the most creative and enlightening experience for me." Eventually, crowds of children and their parents started showing up for his lessons, which is when Gandhi learned about compassion and the need to share. Arun Manilal Gandhi (born 1934) is an Indian-American socio-political activist and the fifth grandson of Mohandas Gandhi through his second son Manilal. Although he has followed in the footsteps of his grandfather as an activist, he eschews the ascetic lifestyle of his grandfather.