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Found in Translation

Dr. Munr Kazmir
5 min readAug 11, 2020

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Indian-American businessman Raj Patel is translating the spirit of Gandhi’s coalition building into philanthropy and bipartisanship.

The Mohandas Gandhi statue located outside the Secaucus Recreation Center on June 2, 2014. (Photo: Michael Dempsey/The Jersey Journal)

One of the great things about America is that anyone can be an American.

While still an imperfect union, the United States of America has welcomed immigrants from all over the world. Many modern American success stories, like the stories of America’s first inventors, investors, and captains of industry, started somewhere else.

The U.S. boasts a rich culture and great wealth; much of it brought to American shores from far distant places. America’s success is hardly an argument for American exceptionalism; rather, it is an argument against it.

You don’t have to be born in the U.S. to be an American; to create a great American company, to leave a legacy, to contribute your intelligence, hard work and talents to this grand experiment in multiculturalism, self-governance and the free market.

With people immigrating to the U.S. has come an expanded cultural heritage, a more dynamic experience for everyone. From India for instance, immigrants to America brought, among other things, the influence of great leaders like Mohandas Gandhi.

Besides shaping American cultural icons like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. with a legacy of nonviolent resistance, Gandhi's…

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