LONDON: The former governor of West Bengal and grandson of Mahatma Gandhi could soon be part of Scottish history.

Gopal Krishna Gandhi has been invited to deliver a lecture on “Independence: Dream and Reality” by Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) Jim Eadie on September 30.

If Scotland votes for a Yes in the upcoming historic referendum on September 18 and breaks away from UK, Gandhi will become the first Indian to address the independent Scottish parliament.

Explaining the idea on which Gandhi is expected to deliver the lecture, the parliamentary organisers said “The desire to be free is as old as the hills. And so, freedom, independence and autonomy have been the goals of great stirrings by people under colonial thrall, imperial hegemony and dictatorships. The oppressiveness of such a dominance is a form of violence which immiserates the human spirit. And in that lies the criticality of what Gandhi called svaraj or self-rule”.

Gandhi has been invited by the University of Edinburgh’s India Centre which will celebrate its first India day on October 2 to coincide with Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday. India has become the first country which will be celebrated in the campus of the sixth-oldest university in the English speaking world that boasts of over 18 Nobel laureates.

Professor Sir Timothy O Shea, principal and vice chancellor of the University of Edinburgh, which boasts of alumni like Charles Darwin, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Robert Louis Stevenson, Sir Walter Scott, philosopher David Hume, physicist James Clerk Maxwell and inventor Graham Bell announced that October 2 will be celebrated as the India Day in the campus from this year.

Speaking to TOI, Professor Shea said “The historical ties between India and Scotland are very old and so is the link between Indian scholars and Edinburgh University. One of our oldest alumnus is Acharya Prafulla Chandra Ray, known as the father of Indian chemistry and founder of Bengal Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals in 1893. By having a special India day, we announce how important the country is for us”.

The India week will see UK’s most famous Qawalli group - The Hussein Brothers performing at the George Square Theatre.

Lord Meghnad Desai MP, recipient of the Padma Bhushan, the third highest civilian award in the Republic of India will deliver a lecture entitled ‘Business, the Economy of India and the future of Indian democracy’.

Throughout the week Edinburgh will showcase a selection of photos from one of Scotland’s leading multicultural documentary and travel photographers, Hermann Rodrigues. His ‘Broon Scots’ collection celebrates the integration of ethnic minority groups in Scotland, with photographs depicting people of Asian background who have immigrated to Scotland.

