The answer to this question came to me fortuitously (thanks perhaps to 11/11/11!) through a conversation I just had with Tobias Huber , an incredible musician, long-time member of WiserEarth, and part of the Cuture of Peace Initiative , and all around wonderful human being. I wanted to talk to him about his work, so he started telling me about The Gandhi Tour for Peace that he had organized through his work with Music4Peace.

An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind. Gandhi, Mahatma.

“I stumbled across a rare recording of Mahatma Gandhi’s voice – the one in which he shares a spiritual message where he explained his views about God and the world. When I heard that recording, I immediately felt the need to create a song and so I made a recording with his voice as it was recorded back in 1931. Then I made a whole album with the spirit of peace that was within that message. Before I released the album, I sent a copy to Mahatma’s Gandhi’s grandson, Dr Arun Gandhi, who approved  immediately. That was the birth of the Gandhi Tour.”

Tobias Huber Founder of Music 4 Peace and The Gandhi Tour and Dr. Arun Gandhi

I asked Tobias why he felt the need to highlight Gandhi’s words as well as the origins of his passion for peace?

“I had a vision since I was a boy that there could be some sort of a peace call around the world. When I heard about Hannibal that conquered Europe with elephants, I thought there was something wrong in the story. How could something like an elephant be used in war? The vision that I had back then was for peace. [ …] So in 2001 I started Music 4 Peace. I feel that it is so important to bring a message of understanding between people and to build bridges between cultures and religions. Music provides this bridge. Music allows you to talk heart to heart to people.”

The Gandhi tour launched in 2006 at the Earthdance festival in California with about 20 countries around the world participating (and about 200 events around the world at the same time with people dancing for peace). The Gandhi Tour included a multimedia performance with music as well as an original film and footage of Gandhi combined with the voice of Gandhi’s spiritual message.

The Gandhi Tour Documentary was shared at the Cannes Film Festival and has just been released on YouTube. The documentary aims to further inspire artists and youth to show that the bridges and conversations between different cultures spark fruit and that music can help to create new hope, build peace and create understanding between cultures.

Tobias would love to collaborate with others interested in music for peace. If you have any ideas to share, please connect with Tobias:www.wiserearth.org/user/Music4Peace

Useful Links:

The Gandhi Tour – the documentary

Music4Peace