The Gospel has been much talked about but practically sidelined under Christendom, says Jonathan Bartley. Rediscovering the radicalism of Jesus' message is vital to the recovery of a proper public role for Christian faith.

Young Catholics are being urged to follow the example of Mahatma Gandhi as they gather for National Youth Sunday. A new DVD, produced for National Youth Sunday, in association with Catholic Youth Services (CYS) and Pax Christi explores the themes of non-violence, peacemaking and justice.

They are people seldom spoken of - the rural poor, landless and tribal people of India - at time when their country is being hailed as a new economic superpower. But last week they demanded to be heard, at the start of one of the biggest non-violent protests since Gandhi chased out the British.

The sixtieth anniversary of India's independence reminds us, says Jonathan Bartley, that the nonviolent activism of Gandhi and the the peaceful and environmental 'awkward squads' point to a more hopeful form of politics and social change.

India gained independence through nonviolence, but partition involved much brutality, says Savi Hensman. Independence means embracing peace and justice in spite of intolerant ideologies, both religious and secular.

Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu has dedicated the receipt of India's highest international honour, the Gandhi Peace Prize, to "the people of South Africa, to the freedom of Darfur and to Aung Sans Suu Kyi", the Burmese leader held under house arrest - writes Anto Akkara from Thrissur, India, for Ecumenical News International(ENI).

On the third Monday of every January, the United States marks Martin Luther King Day. The national holiday celebrates the birth and life of the civil rights activist and Baptist minister, whose Christian convictions about justice and the Gospel led him to a path of non-violence and peacemaking.

A group of peacemakers has demanded that the US President be kept out from a Mahatma Gandhi memorial, during his visit to India, as "George Bush knows nothing about non-violence".