South Bay camp celebrates 40 years of teaching Gandhi’s values

Surrounded by the redwood-covered mountains of Mendocino County by the river Eel, the grounds of the Chinmaya Mission’s Krishnalaya came alive earlier this month with the sound of teen campers having fun while working hard.

Organized by India Community Center in Milpitas, Gandhi Camp is coordinated and led by Palo Alto-based computer scientist Abhay Bhushan. His children attended the camp decades back, and he continued volunteering.

The Gandhi Camp brought in over 60 fifth- through 12th-graders from across California and from other states July 11-18. In its 40th year, the purpose of the outdoor retreat is for youth to reflect on universal values including nonviolence, respect, fearlessness, honesty, equanimity and self-reliance as exemplified by Indian freedom leader Mahatma Gandhi.

There are about a dozen regular parent volunteers involved in running the camp. Some former campers have become counselors.

Mornings at the camp are dedicated to light exercise, camp songs, positive affirmations and a gentle initiation into meditation. After breakfast come karma yoga projects—Sanskrit for “selfless service.” Tasks include trailblazing and uprooting invasive weeds at the adjacent Richardson Grove State Park; river beach cleanups; painting barns, auditoriums, cabins and kitchen walls; building benches and greenhouses; and planting fruit trees. Every camper is assigned a day to prep, cook and serve vegetarian meals to other campers and staff, which also involves washing dishes and cleanup.

Bay Area-based technologist and author Prasad Kaipa breaks values-based teaching into interactive snippets for the young campers, who also engage in yoga, small-group reflections and journaling—all in a low-pressure culture. There are no cell phones allowed.

The idea of the camp came about in the 1985 when SN Subba Rao, an Indian freedom fighter and champion of Gandhian principles who was known for running youth service initiatives, expressed a wish to share values of nonviolence and equality among American children. The Vedanta Society of Northern California agreed, and Gandhi Camp was founded in 1986 at the society’s retreat center in Olema. Subba Rao traveled from India every summer to helm the camp until his death in 2021. The camp expanded and moved to the Chinmaya Mission ashram in Piercy in 2015.

Gandhi Camp was the second camp established in the U.S. related to Indian languages, arts, religions and sports Forty years later, the retreat remains unique in its popularity and intent.