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Rajiv Vora, writer, speaker and educator, is a preeminent interpreter of Gandhi's works and in particular his root text, Hind Swaraj. He is frequently interviewed in national and international press and is known for his lucid, fresh, insightful, and unorthodox interpretation of Mahatma Gandhi's thought and practice.
He was born into a Gandhian family in the Gujarat region of India and received his primary education in the alternative Gandhian residential rural schools. A scientist and keen student of Indian classical music, he earned his reputation as a writer, commentator, and public speaker.
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In the mid-seventies while he was doing his doctoral research with the late renowned Prof. Sugata Dasgupta on the subject of protest violence, a mass protest movement started taking shape in Bihar under the leadership of Jai Prakash Naryan. He left his academic career and plunged into the Bihar Movement becoming a prominent young leader organizing, guiding, and overseeing all of the various Satyagraha actions (nonviolent Protests, demonstrations, picketing, etc.) at the center of the movement.
When democracy was restored in 1977, Mr. Vora walked away from power politics and joined the
Gandhi Peace Foundation. In 1992, he founded Swarajpeeth with his wife Dr. Niru Vora. Swarajpeeth
brings a fresh approach to Gandhian vision, thought, and methods and is involved in dialogue on
nonviolence at the community and national level. Through Swarajpeeth, Mr. Vora trains and supports
Tibetan and Burmese refugees in their nonviolent struggles for justice and has worked with Muslim
leaders to develop nonviolence training for a Shanti Sena (Peace Army) in the Indian Muslim
community.
Mr. Vora is also the Asia Regional Coordinator of Nonviolent Peaceforce (NP), a nonpartisan
professional peacekeeping force. In partnership with local groups, unarmed Nonviolent
Peaceforce Field Team members apply proven strategies to protect human rights, deter violence,
and help create space for local peacemakers to carry out their work. Mr. Vora helped NP launch
a peacekeeping project in late 2003 in Sri Lanka where more than 64,000 people have been
killed and 1.6 million displaced in the civil war that has ravaged this country since 1983. The
NP Sri Lanka Team has grown to 30 members who have been recognized for their work in
reducing violence in four communities.
Rajiv Vora was one of the leading music critics in 1980s and 1990s. His column on culture of music appeared regularly in the Economic Times, Jansatta and Nav Bharat Times. He has lectured on Indian classical music and was invited as a consultant by the World Music Department of Rotterdam Music Conservatory, Rotterdam the Netherlands in 1993. He helped Rev. Musicologist and Tabala maestro Late Pandit Nikhil Ghosh plan Encyclopedia of Indian music, dance and drama at the Sangeet Mahabharati Mumbai (1971-73). He lived with and received lesion from Late Ustad Amir Khan, considered to be the one of the great musicians born in the history of Indian classical music (1971-73).
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