Museum honoring Mahatma Gandhi scheduled to open in Houston

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- This summer, you and your family will get an opportunity to visit a new museum dedicated to civil rights and nonviolence.

Eternal Gandhi Museum Houston is weeks away from opening, becoming the first free standing museum in the United States dedicated to the renowned Indian leader.

"When I first read the autobiography of Mahatma Gandhi almost 21 years ago," said co-founder and trustee Atul Kothari. "It went straight to my heart because the lessons that I learned from the biography was practice your truth, whatever it is.

Mahatma Gandhi was an Indian lawyer and activist who led the country to independence in 1947.

His model of nonviolent protest started an international movement that influenced other leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela and continues today.

Walk through the 13,000 square foot museum, and you'll find themes of equality and justice.

The museum has been a community effort - a $13 million dollar initiative paid for with your donations, along with federal and local grants.

The goal is to fill the museum with students visiting from neighboring schools.

"In this day and age there is a lot of gun violence. There is violence in schools and there is even one child who comes here and changes his mind and says, 'I'm going to settle my conflicts peacefully and I'm not going to use a gun,' I think this museum has paid for itself," explained trustee Sesh Bala.

"We don't know when the next Gandhi is going to be born, so when they visit, maybe one of them will the Gandhi that can make a difference in the future," added interim museum director and trustee G. V. Krishnan.

More information visit the museum's website.