Dialogue

A Dialogue with Krishnammal Jagannathan

Date: November 03, 2008
Time: 4:00pm to 6:00pm
Location: Cal Poly Pomona, Bronco Student Center – 2 nd Floor, Orion A & B

Krishnamal Jagannathan will be a distinguished guest speaker for the students in the Nonviolence in the Modern World Class. She will share her decades long experience in leading nonviolent protests against many kinds of injustices and for the upliftment of the poor and the oppressed. Campus students, staff, facutly and members of the community are welcome. Refreshments will be served.

Event Flyer

Krishnammal Jagannathan

Krishnammal Jagannathan, currently in her early 80s, is a Gandhian social activist and a humanitarian from the Indian state of Tamil Nadu.

She is the founder of Land for the Tillers Freedom (LAFTI), an organization inspired by Gandhi's ideas and rooted in the Bhoodan (gift of land) movement led by Vinoba Bhave. The rural projects undertaken by LAFTI include housing for the poor, youth empowerment, literacy and protest against the prawn industry to protect the interests of the local poor.

She and her husband, Sankarlingam Jagannathan, have protested against many kinds of social injustices. She has worked tirelessly for the upliftment of women, Dalits (the oppressed or the "untouchables"), the landless, and the poor; and has led nonviolent protests against governments as well as big industries in India. She participated in the India's independence movement led by Mohandas K. Gandhi. She was also a close associate of Vinoba Bhave, had shared the stage with Gandhi and had hosted Martin Luther King Jr and Coreta King at her modest home.

She is a recipient of numerous prestigious awards, including the Jamnalal Bajaj Award, the Padma Shri award from the Government of India, the Bhagavan Mahaveer Award for propagating nonviolence, and the Summit Foundation Award (Switzerland). More recently, Krishnammal has been honored with the 2008 Opus Prize and the Right Livelihood Award (Alternate Nobel Peace Prize).