Dalai Lama may receive South African Gandhi award in India

Thursday, October 13, 2011

PTI

File Photo: His Holiness the Dalai Lama

Durban, South Africa-- Ela Gandhi may travel to India to present the Dalai Lama with a peace award associated with Mahatma Gandhi, which was given to the Tibetan spiritual leader in absentia at a function in this South African city.

Ela is a granddaughter of Mahatma Gandhi. The Dalai Lama had cancelled his trip to South Africa after delays in his visa being issued by South African authorities, allegedly because of pressure from the country''s largest trading partner China. The government denied this.

The annual Mahatma Gandhi International Award for Reconciliation and Peace was part of the annual accolades by the Gandhi Development Trust to people in various fields who have excelled in promoting peace and reconciliation.

The event at the Durban City hall was one of several across the country that the Dalai Lama would have attended after he was invited by his friend Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu for his 80th birthday celebrations at the weekend.

The Dalai Lama participated in some events by video link from his exiled residence in Dharamsala in India.

Although the Dalai Lama''s representative in South Africa, Sonam Tenzing, accepted the award symbolically, there would be a formal presentation by Ela Gandhi to the leader in India if he did not come to South Africa within the next six months, according to the Chairman of the Trust, Paddy Kearsney.

Six South Africans received the Mahatma Gandhi Satyagraha Awards. They included veteran sports activist Sam Ramsamy, who campaigned for the isolation of South Africa in the international arena because of separatist apartheid policies and Manibhen Sita, who continues to serve as a member of the African National Congress in fighting for equality and human rights at the age of 85.

Other recipients were lawyer Rabbi Bugwandeen, Saydoon Nisa Sayed and Paddy Meskin who promote reconciliation across all faiths, and Gertrude Shope, who fought for the rights of women all her life.