New Delhi: The Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) for setting up the Gandhi-Luthuli Chair for Peace Studies in Durban, South Africa.

ICCR Director General Mr. Pavan K Varma and Professor Malegapuru W Mokgova, Vice-Chancellor, UKZN, signed the MoU in the presence of ICCR President Mr. Karan Singh.

The varsity has setup the chair under the broad framework of the Centenary of Mahatma Gandhi's 'Satyagraha' movement and has dedicated the chair to Mahatma Gandhi and anti-apartheid activist Inkosi Albert Luthuli.

The academic programme was a vision of former Indian Prime Minister Mr. Atal Bihari Vajpayee when he visited the University of Durban-Westville in 1997.

UKZN spokesperson Mr. Dasarath Chetty said, "The programme will start from January 2008. The ICCR and UKZN are in the process of choosing a candidate for the chair."

"We agreed on locating the chair at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, for, it was here in the province of KwaZulu-Natal that Mahatma Gandhi's Satyagraha movement started and Albert Luthuli's defiance programme was based."

Inkosi Albert Luthuli, who led the African National Congress for over a decade, was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1960 in recognition of his struggle against the apartheid regime.

Luthuli was also one of the leaders of the Defiance Campaign - a non-violent protest against the discriminatory pass laws in South Africa.