Public Lecture
A Recipe for Nonviolence: The Ethics and Politics of Gandhi’s Diet
Time: 2:30pm to 3:45pm
Location: Zoom
Mahatma Gandhi weighed about one hundred pounds. He stood five feet, six inches tall. More than anyone in history, Gandhi proved that you do not have to be big to have a big impact on the world. Gandhi’s size was one of his assets. His body, renowned for its spare strength, symbolized Gandhi’s humility, his nonviolence, and his identification with the poor. His body was, however, much more than a symbol. In his slim but strong frame, Gandhi made manifest one of his greatest obsessions, a passion that helped make him who he was—his diet. Understanding Gandhi’s relationship to food is to understand the man and his life, and to connect two of history’s perennial questions: how to live and what to eat.
The talk will be followed by Q & A and dialogue with the speaker.
Nico Slate
Nico Slate is Professor of History and Chair of the Department of History at Carnegie Mellon University. His research focuses on struggles against racism, imperialism, and other forms of oppression in the United States and India.
He is the author of four books and the editor of a collected volume. His most recent books are Lord Cornwallis Is Dead: The Struggle for Democracy in the United States and India (Harvard University Press, 2019) and Gandhi’s Search for the Perfect Diet: Eating with the World in Mind (University of Washington Press, 2019).
Dr. Slate is the founder and director of the Bajaj Rural Development Lab and SocialChange101.org. Born in Los Angeles and raised in California's Mojave Desert, he earned degrees in Earth Systems and the Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities from Stanford University and in Environmental Change and Management from Oxford University before completing his Ph.D. in History at Harvard University.