Gandhi Jayanthi is celebrated on the 2nd of October every year across India. It marks the birthday of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, the Father of the Nation and an Apostle of Non-Violence.
General
Assembly announced on 15 June 2007 that it adopted a resolution which
declared that 2 October will be celebrated as the International Day of
Non-Violence.
Gandhiji
assumed leadership of the Indian National Congress (INC) only in 1921,
six years after his return to India from South Africa where he was an
expatriate lawyer. There he successfully employed non-violent civil
disobedience campaigns to fight for the civil rights of Indian settlers.
Gandhi,
with cooperation from numerous prominent Indian leaders, transcending
caste, religion, etc took on the mighty British to free India. They gave
him whole-heated support and this helped him lead nationwide
campaigns for easing poverty, expanding women's rights, building
religious and ethnic amity, ending un-touchability, and, above all, for
achieving Swaraj or self-rule. His leadership during the Dandi Salt
March in 1930 covering a distance of 400km challenging the
British-imposed tax on salt and later his clarion call in 1942 for the
British to quit India drew the attention of the entire world and his
frequent non-violent civil disobedience campaigns and Satyagrahas to free
India from the British yoke, showed the British Crown and their cronies
in India in bad light. In August 1947, at last India got her freedom,
but the Indian Empire was partitioned to the dismay of Gandhi. A new theocratic nation called Pakistan was carved out India - purely on the basis of religion. On January 30, 1948 Gandhi was assassinated by one Nathuram Godse, a Hindu nationalist. In a jiffy, he prayed to him and then pumped three bullets into his bare chest at point - blank, range. Seconds later, Gandhiji fell down dead uttering "HEY RAM" (oh God).
Gandhi landed at Durban in May 1893 as a Barrister. His employer was one Dada Abdulla, one of the wealthiest Indian merchants in Natal. He took him to the Durban court in connection with a case. When Gandhi was asked to take off his turban by the European magistrate, he refused to budge. He left the court - room and wrote a letter of protest in the local press in which he was mentioned "as an unwelcome visitor". He had another dose of racial intimidation in the apartheid South African nation. On his journey from Durban to Pretoria at Maritzburg station late in the evening, he was ordered to leave the first class compartment and shift to the van compartment. He refused, but was unceremoniously turned out of the carriage. It was a bitterly cold night and he had spent the time in the unlit waiting - room. Till then he had no idea about the humiliating conditions under which Indians lived in South Africa. He took a resolution to fight out the injustice directed against non whites in the name of skin color and racial supremacy. South Africa became his experimental field to fight racial disparity, etc by using non-violent civil dis obedience struggles against the apartheid administration.
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| Gandhi, Azad and Kripalani "Quit India" meeting Aug.1942.gandhi ashramsevagram.org | | |
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Above image: Gandhiji with Maulana Kalam Azad and J. P. Kripalani at the historic "Quit India" meeting of the All India Congress Committee, August 1942. The Quit India moment impacted the entire subcontinent and shock the morale of the British rulers.
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| The Aga Khan Palace,Poona,gandhiashramsevagram.org |
Above image: The Aga Khan Palace near Poona, where Gandhi was interned from August 1942 to May 1944..
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| Mohandas Gandhi in South Africa,www.alamy.com |
Above image: Mohandas Gandhi as a lawyer in South Africa, wearing Hindu cap and European clothes, with HSL Polak (clerk) and others
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| Gandhiji supporting the British in S.Africa (Gandhi, . 2ndlook.wordpress.com/tag/gandhi |
Above image: Gandhiji supporting the British in South Africa (Gandhi, middle row 5th from left with stretcher bearers of the Indian Ambulance Corps - 1899-1900).
Above-image: Gandhiji-1869-1948-Indian - nationalist-and-spiritual-leader-Photographed-on-board-the-SS-Rajputana-with-Madeline-Slade-1931.
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| Gandhi in London, he prefers goat milk.www.alamy.com |
Mahatma Gandhi arrived in London, England in 1931 with his disciple, Madeleine Slade, and his two goats. Madeleine Slade aka Mirabehn, 1892 – 1982 was a British woman who left her home in Britain to live and work with Gandhi. Gandhi never stayed in posh hotel. He stayed in an ordinary place.
On invitation, he stayed in Kingsley Hall in the East end, London in order to be "among the same sort of people to whom I have given my life" Every morning he got up at 4 am for the morning prayer. He had his morning walk in the main streets of the East End.
There he met with British labor community, famous satirist Bernard Shaw and also comedian Charlie Chaplin.
Gandhiji was fond of peanuts and drank goat's milk. Perhaps, a cup of tea or coffee made from goat's milk would give him relaxation and the needed energy to engage in long parley with the British, who were hard nuts to crack.
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| Gandhiji in London.www.alamy.com |
Above image: Gandhi was quite popular among the poor, labor class. The British aristocracy tagged them as untouchables of England. The rich and the royal will never entertain marriage proposal between them and the poor factory people. .............
Gandhi was the preeminent leader of the Indian independence movement in British-ruled India. Employing nonviolent civil disobedience, he led India to independence and inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world.
The pleasant surprise was the courtesy and affection Gandhi received from the cotton operatives of Lancashire, which had been very much affected by total the boycott of British goods in India. Gandhiji was sympathetic to their tale of woe of those who were jobless. Fortunately, those poor workers understood Gandhi and his mission and never failed to see the reason for the boycott. Gandhi said: "You have three million unemployed, but we have 200 million unemployed for half the year. Your average unemployment dole is seventy shillings. Our average income is 7s. 6d. a month
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| Jan 30,1948,Delhi, Gandhi was shot dead alamy.com. |
Above image: Mahatma Gandhi: Indian independence leader is cremated after his murder by Nathram Godse on 30th January,1948 in the Birla Hose on his way to evening payer. The tragic end of a simple, but strong - willed man who shook the British Empire.
Gandhiji in art form:
Presented
below are some rare images of Gandhiji taken from some sources. The
credit is given below each image. Some of the images show the remarkable
imagination of the artists and their subtle interpretation.
Above image: Israeli artist Amit Shimoni takes a fresh take on world leaders. He re-imagines them as hipsters. His series Hipstory, combines modern-day hipster culture with history. In this portrait, Gandhi wears a tye-die shirt with the sixties style shades, which reflects his peaceful stance and message of love.
Above image: This Philip Jackson statue of Mahatma Gandhi is in the Parliament Square in London. Standing 9 feet tall, cast in bronze, this sculpture is a fitting tribute to the friendship that has emerged between the two nations United Kingdom and India in the recent years and Gandhi being a symbol of that.
Above image: The capital of this country, New Delhi, saw a mural of Gandhi peeping from the walls of the Delhi Police Headquarters. Unveiled on the death anniversary of Gandhi, this mural was a part of the first ever street art festival in India held in February, 2014. For the first time that Hendrik painted a famous face like that of Gandhi. A freelance artist from Koblenz, Germany, Hendrik Beikirch ‘ECB’ completed this mural with an Indian graffiti artist Anpu. Known for the black and white portraits on canvas or large buildings,
Political Cartoons - Indian Nethas now and Gandhiji:
Above image: Gandhijiis in rage because the netha (politician) sitting in the car is corrupt and dishonest.
Above image: Politicians are tackling rampant corruption and
misrule, all in the name of Gandhiji.........
Above image: Clever politician; He blocks Gandhiji's stare in the image his bare hand, while receiving the ill-gotten money. If Gandhiji were alive he would make the dishonest netha face the back of the skunk!!
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