Satendra Nandan’s new volume Gandjianjali  was published on July 8.

The volume celebrates the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948).

The book is a collection of Dr Nandan’s selected essays, articles, poems, meditations,  with the underlying theme of Mohandas Gandhi’s experiences and ethics from South Africa to the South Pacific.

And how the Great Soul gave hope to millions at a most critical time in human affairs with his creative power of love and luminous suffering.

There are essays here on Gandhi and C F Andrews whose efforts led to the abolition  of the abomination known as British Indian Indenture. Several pieces explore the poetics and politics of the FijianIndian indenture experience.

It also includes Mr Nandan’s  much-acclaimed keynote Public Lecture at the National Press Club  in Canberra on the United Nations Non-Violence Day observed internationally.

There are poems on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and refugees, among the themes of love and loss, life and loneliness, books and writing, and several contemporary issues, including the killings in the Christchurch mosque.

Mr Nandan’s own reading and writing narrations through Commonwealth Literature are given expression in a personal essay titled ‘An Uncommon Literary Journey’.

It tells the story of his shoeless school days in a home without an English book to his education and travels; and presumably the first non-native speaker of English from the South Pacific to be awarded a PhD in English from an Australasian university and made into an Emeritus Professor for his literary and professorial endeavours and contributions to the university community during his 17 years in Canberra, before returning to Fiji in 2005.

Mr Nandan is a former Cabinet Minister in the Fijian Government of Dr Timoci Bavadra and was elected to Parliament in 1982 and 1987.

He also helped with the first draft of Fiji’s new constitution on which two peaceful elections have been held in 2014 and 2018.

He’s currently writing a novel set in Fiji, India and Australia as a Visiting Fellow at the Humanities Research Centre, ANU, and as an Adjunct Research Professor at the Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture, Barton Campus, Charles Sturt University.

Gandhianjali, his 20th book, will be launched on July 23 at the Gandhi Symposium in Canberra  where Mr Nandan is a key-note speaker.

The publication of the volume has been supported by the Tappoo Charitable Trust in Fiji.

Gandhianjali (pp. 312) is available at The Tappoo Bookshops in Fiji.

ISBN:978-0-9924989-4-8

Contact: Anchalk@tappoo.com.fj

Edited by Percy Kean

Feedback:  avinesh.gopal@fijisun.com.fj