Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Pilgrimage of Peace

A Team of 11 Peace activists from USA visited India on a Pilgrimage of Peace from December 29, 2008 to January 9, 2009. Dianne Henke and Bob Graf led the team who started their visit from Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh. They had an experience of Nature Cure - Body massage, Steam bath, Mud bath and nature food. The Team visited Bhoodan Pochampalli in Nalgonda district where Bhoodan movement was born to tackle an important problem of land related violence through a process of love. Acharya Vinoba Bhave toured the length and breadth of the Country on foot to collect 43 lakh acres of land for redistribution among the poor.

The Pilgrimage went to Sevagram - Mahatma Gandhi's Ashram for three days and visited institutions engaged in Gandhian constructive work.

Later in Delhi the Pilgrims paid their homage to Mahatma Gandhi at Rajghat - the Samadhi and at Gandhi Smrithi - where the Mahatma was assassinated.

The Jawaharlal Nehru University, Gandhi Peace Foundation and the US Embassy organized programmes for interaction with the visitors.

The Team also visited The Taj Mahal in Agra, Jaipur and Dehra Dun before leaving for the US on January 10.