Small snippet from one of her interviews:
Ela Gandhi was seven years old when she first met her grandfather. She and her family were in India and had spent some 3 to 4 months with him before returning to Durban, South Africa where her family lived. Her father was taking care of the ‘Phoenix settlement’ that Gandhiji had started before he left South Africa to come to India. Gandhiji had left it in the care of Ela’s father to carry forward the work.
After her return to South Africa, she would regularly receive letters from her grandfather; the last one being a few days before his death. This she says goes on to show how much he was equally interested and invested in the younger members of the family too. Ela says that she would talk nonstop as a child and enjoyed it equally as much. In his last letter to her; he had written: “It is very nice to talk, but sometimes we must also learn to observe silence – it’s very important.” And till date; she has heeded his advice of his and has silently done a tremendous amount of work across different areas to stop the practice of apartheid and violence.
Born into the family she was from; she has been an anti-apartheid activist from an early age. She was banned from political activism in 1973 and was placed under house arrest for a total of nine years. Despite this she continued to do her work to end the practice; even losing one of her sons in the fight.
Her area of work is very vast and to list down a few – She has been a Member of the Parliament in South Africa from 1994 to 2004. She has served and continues to serve in various organizations donning important roles. She founded the Gandhi Development Trust which promotes non-violence and is a founder member and chair of the Mahatma Gandhi Salt March Committee. She has won numerous International awards to her credit and continues to walk in the footsteps of her Grandfather; untiringly doing her work.
In her own words –
“I think activism is working at the grassroots. It also trains you in democracy to consult, to value the opinions of people, not to have a judgment, not to make up your mind in a drawing room or something. To go out in the community and experience what the community is experiencing and work with them and listen to what they are saying, rather than saying that they are having a bad time, so we need to do something about it”.