THE EDITOR: 'His life of selflessness we all know. Although he preached civil disobedience, he was an advocate of non-violence. He said humanity and its problems could be solved by embracing a policy of love. Laudation to his glory will never cease, the wonderful great apostle of peace.'

Thus sang Atilla the Hun, politician Raymond Quevedo, in a calypso entitled Panegryic to Gandhi on his death in 1948. In TT and across the globe then and now, Mahatma Gandhi's life, message and philosophy know no bounds, for he commanded international respect, admiration and love for the principled stand he espoused on peace, non-violence and respect for all mankind.

January 30 marked the 74th death anniversary of Gandhi who was felled by an assassin's bullet at his prayer ground in New Delhi, India. Late TT prime minister Dr Eric Williams, in a radio broadcast marking Gandhi's 135th birthday, October 2, 1959, commented: 'Gandhi freed India by means of a particular method of political revolt, the method of passive resistance of a whole population.'

Williams continued: 'Students of history and politics are increasingly inclined to place Gandhi in the great tradition of revolutionists with the men of the French Revolution, with Karl Marx and others, in the sense that he developed a new method of struggle, carried through successfully over a vast area of human activities and has left it as a heritage which has been studied and followed in areas as Ghana and Montgomery, Alabama.'

To this we must add South Africa with president Nelson Mandela and apartheid.

The Caribbean and the world regarded Gandhi's death as an international disaster.

Gandhi's philosophy of non-violence must be integrated in the education system worldwide. In fact, Gandhi's life should be compulsory reading for all students, teachers, civic leaders, politicians - all leaders. For to continue to ignore his thoughts on world peace is to continue to deny mankind the legacy of a peaceful existence.

Gandhi gave the world a philosophy of satyagraha, defined as non-violence, truth, peace and love. And this was founded on several moral and ethical pillars: the equality of man, the dignity of the human person, the transcendent nature of the soul of man, the supremacy of the spiritual over the material, the ultimate victory of truth over falsehood, the ultimate defeat of brute force by the all-pervading strength of the inner moral force of man.

Gandhi is revered in TT probably even more than in his homeland. There are several busts of Gandhi across this country and his thoughts are invoked at regular intervals by religious leaders and politicians. The Indian High Commission must do all within its power and competence to keep the works and thoughts of Gandhi alive.

A similar initiative must be done with the works of Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore, Pundit Nehru, Swami Vivekananada and Dr S Radhakrishanan.

The recent completion of the Mahatma Gandhi Centre for Cultural Co-operation here has given a new and additional impetus for Gandhi in the Indian d