Minnesota resident receives community service medal for reinvigorating nonviolence

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Minnesota resident Mandar Apte was recently presented with a community service medal of honor for effectively dealing with the growing issue of violence. Mayor Ardell Brede of Rochester, Minnesota and Lt. James Evenson of Rochester Police Department presented the award to Apte during a recent trip to India.

Apte is the founder of From India With Love, a social movement to reinvigorate nonviolence in the United States based on India’s ancient culture, wisdom and traditions. Through the initiative, designs transformational expeditions for America’s leaders to experience India’s ancient culture and discover solutions to their important social challenges, according to a From India With Love press release.

Mayor Brede and Lt. Jim Evenson were part of a visionary delegation of leaders from across the United States who had traveled to India from Jan 24-31, 2017 . The delegation also included social activists, law enforcement officers from Florida as well as victims of gun violence including Ron Davis whose son, Jordan, was brutally murdered at a gas station in Jacksonville, Florida in 2012.

The initiative is said to be inspired by the transformative journey taken by Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., when he visited India in 1959 to deepen his understanding of the teachings of nonviolence as used by Mahatma Gandhi.

Deeply pained by the ongoing violence prevailing in America, Mandar quit his day job in early 2016 (where he used to manage Shell’s GameChanger social innovation investment program) to produce ” From India With Love ” – a documentary film that shows the real life story of transformation of a group of Americans (who have all suffered from violence) during their pilgrimage to India in search of solace, healing and transformation.