Mahatma Gandhi would never have agreed with the "idea that there is some connection between Islam and violence" and would have stood up to the Taliban and Osama bin Laden if he were alive today, his grandson has said.
Asked what he would have made of Al Qaeda leader bin Laden and the Islamist Taliban militia in Afghanistan, Rajmohan Gandhi said his grandfather would have tried to organise something "dramatic -- perhaps a mass fast -- to show how unhappy most Muslims were that their religion was being linked to terrorism.
"He would have stood up to them. The Muslim and non-Muslim issue was a very important issue in his life in India and he was killed because many Hindus thought he was friendlier to the Muslims than was necessary," the former member of Parliament told the BBC.
"So today, he would never agree with the idea that there's something connected between Islam and violence or Islam and terrorism. He would totally oppose that idea," Rajmohan said.
Rajmohan, who has just written a book chronicling the life and times of his grandfather, was in London as part of the city's three-month 'India Now' festival, featuring 1,500 events spanning theatre, dance, music, film and food.
Mahatma Gandhi's non-violent principles not only were instrumental in gaining India's independence from Britain, but they inspired people like Martin Luther King Jr and other leaders of the civil rights movement in the US.
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