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Bishop Desmond Tutu has been named for the Gandhi Peace Award for the year 2006. The announcement was made by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday night.
Bishop Desmond received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 in recognition of 'the courage and heroism shown by black South Africans in their use of peaceful methods in the struggle against apartheid'.
He was born in 1931 in Klerksdorp, Transvaal. He studied at Johannesburg Bantu High School and then graduated from the University of South Africa in 1954.
In 1975, Bishop Desmond was appointed dean of St Mary's Cathedral in Johannesburg, the first black to hold that position.
From 1976 to 1978 he was Bishop of Lesotho, and in 1978 became the first black general secretary of the South African Council of Churches.
He is also an honorary doctor of a number of leading universities in the US, Britain and Germany.