Multi-faith prayers at the Gandhi camp. / Courtesy of Savita Patel

Set by the river Eel in Northern California’s Mendocino County, surrounded by majestic redwood trees and striking views of coastal mountains, Gandhi Camp welcomed 60 campers from all over the US to practice and imbibe values like truthfulness, honesty, gratitude, self-reliance and nonviolence. The annual week-long youth retreat is in its 39th year. Young students are painting an auditorium, designing murals, cleaning river beaches, trailblazing, pruning, weeding, cooking, serving, washing dishes, etc. Service learning woven with games, yoga, garba, singing, star gazing, talent shows, and no cellphones - make for fond memories while learning Gandhian values. It also features learning from the lives of Martin Luther King Jr, Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela, Peace Pilgrims, etc.,

Campers cleaning dishes. / Courtesy of Savita Patel

"The purpose is to make campers physically, mentally, and spiritually strong, to practice community service and social responsibility, and to learn about the interconnected nature of human experience and the planet’s natural environment,” says the camp’s organizer and community leader Abhay Bhushan, a San Francisco Bay Area based tech entrepreneur-turned-investor. He has been leading the camp since soon after its inception, now in association with the India Community Center.

Divided into teams, campers ranging from 10-18 years old wake up to light stretches and camp songs followed by a hearty breakfast. Then comes karma yoga - participating in counsellor led activities on the lines of self-reliance and community service. During free time, campers enjoy getting into the river, play sports, and enjoy arts and crafts. Meditation and yoga are a significant part of the daily routine. They reflect on principles including satya, ahimsa, and abhaya, in interactive smaller groups. Campers recite short prayers from the world’s major religions. 

Former technology professional and spiritual guide of the Gandhi camp, Dr Prasad Kaipa wishes to inculcate self-awareness and conscious leadership in campers, traits he finds ‘most critical in the age of artificial intelligence’. With the experience of designing learning processors at Apple in the 1980s, he has spent the last three decades connecting with Indic wisdom. He finds it to be a ‘scientific and logical spiritual philosophy’. Dr Kaipa says, “Being intelligent is not good enough. We know that being intelligent is an established part of being an Indian kid in the US. What we must pay attention to is emotional resilience, confidence and compassion.I want to ignite the passion in our campers for inner wisdom which does not rapidly change with trends and technology like outer wisdom does.”

High school and college students, and young working professionals, along with parent and community volunteers lead the camp. Some find deeper connections with the Indian independence leader. “My granddad managed Sevagram Ashram for Gandhiji for 35 years. Gandhiji was a big presence when my brother and I were growing up. Being at the camp with my brother and mother is a way of reconnecting with my grandfather, along with lessons we learn here and how they translate to modern days, being a lot of fun,” says camp leader, 25-year-old Mansi Saxena whose mother was raised at MK Gandhi’s ashram in Sevagram, Maharashtra, India.

The founding of the Gandhi camp in the 1980s stemmed from the late Dr SN Subba Rao, an Indian freedom fighter, conveying his interest to the Vedanta Society in wanting to share Gandhian principles of non-violence, truthfulness, fearlessness, etc., with children in the US, similar to youth camps he first established in India. Swami Vivekananda’s followers at the Northern California ashram welcomed the idea, bringing about the Gandhi Camp which was held at the Vedanta Society’s retreat in Olema, California till 2014. 

Nestled in the woods beside Richardson grove State Park, held since 2015 on the grounds of Chinmaya Mission’s Krishnalaya in California’s Piercy, it is appropriate that environment is one of the core themes at the retreat. Prakriti Devo Bhava (Honor nature as God), a Sanskrit verse from the Upanishads is a part of the teachings. The vegetarian food cooked and served by volunteers remains the highlight of the week for most campers.

The Gandhi Camp attracts returning campers year after year. Many of the junior and adult counselors attended the camp as young children. The stay-away camp has influenced many youngsters deeply over the years, hence some of the former campers now join as adult volunteers alongside their young children. Parent of two young campers and leader of sports at Gandhi Camp, Sandeep Shrimali who attended the Gandhi camp as a young child for numerous summers starting in the 1980s says, “My foundational values came from this camp. At a personal level, my life is split between two countries and two cultures. This camp rooted me in the universalism of values - I didn’t have choose a culture as these are principles that cross cultures. Now our kids have that, as we were always looking for activities where the kids could be Indian as well as citizens of the world.”

In its 39th year, this is an oldest running Indian American youth summer camp in the country. The Gandhi Camp is now in its second generation, a testament to participants not only finding Gandhian principles relevant to their lives in the US, but also building a values-based community to pass them on to the next generations.