Remembering Gandhi’s Martyrdom of Peace

Today is the 64th anniversary of Gandhi’s death.

“Gandhi was inevitable. If humanity is to progress, Gandhi is inescapable. He lived, thought and acted, inspired by the vision of humanity evolving toward a world of peace and harmony. We may ignore Gandhi at our own risk.”

– Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

“Generations to come will scarce believe that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth.”

– Albert Einstein

On the 30th of January 1948, Gandhi woke up at his usual hour, 3:30 a.m. After the morning prayer he put the final touches to the new constitution for Congress which he had been unable to finish the previous night. The rest of the morning was spent answering letters. Someone mentioned the fact that despite his poor health he was working incessantly.

‘Tomorrow’, he explained, ‘I may not be here’. ‘If I have to die I should like to die at the prayer meeting. You are wrong in believing that you can protect me from harm. God is my protector.’  Then, while holding a prayer meeting at Birla House, Delhi, Gandhi was shot dead.  A nation’s father was dead. Mahatma Gandhi’s body lay on the pyre with his head to the north. In that position Buddha met his end. At 4:45 p.m., Ramdas Gandhi, the third son of the Mahatma, set fire to the funeral pyre. The logs burst into flames. The vast assemblage groaned. Women wailed; men wept. The wood crackled and seethed and the flames united into a single fire. Now there was silence.

Gandhi’s body was being reduced to ashes and cinders. May the Light of India and the world continue to shine with Gandhiji’s vast influence. The Mahathma Gandhi is considered the greatest Indian of the 20th century. Born on October 2, 1869 at Porbandar, Kathiawar in India, Gandhi began his service to India and humanity in South Africa where the white race ruled and Indians and native Africans alike were treated as slaves and outcasts.

When Gandhi found himself subjected to racial discrimination. He established the Indian Congress and organized the first Satyagraha campaign against the proposed Asiatic Ordinance directed against Indian immigrants in Transvaal and then against compulsory registration of Asiatics (The Black Act). For this he was sentenced to two months’ imprisonment in Johannesburg jail. Gandhi then again campaigned against British General Smuts, with a bonfire of registration certificates and was again sentenced to jail, this time for three months. After returning to India, he established the Satyagraha Ashram on Sabarmati River in 1917. He led a successful Satyagraha for rights of peasants on indigo plantations in Champaran; let a strike of mill workers at Ahamedabad,a satyagaraha for peasants in Kheda; organized a nation-wide hartal by suspension of activity for a day against the Rowlatta Bills; organized Satyagraha of non-cooperation; burned foreign cloth in Calcutta; led the historic salt march to Dandi; launched civil disobedience in 1940 against Britain and launched the Quit India Movement.

Gandhi was arrested and imprisoned many times. He resolved to wear a loin cloth to promote homespun cotton and to signify his identification with the people. He went on several fasts almost to death. He attended several conferences with the British, and rebelled against virtually all of their proposals.

Gandhi brought out “Young India”, an English weekly and “Navajivan” in Gujarati. He tried to help end untouchability and encouraged spinning and weaving and handicrafts and cottage industries. He opposed the Congress decision to accept division of the country into India and Pakistan. When communal clashes between Hindus and Muslims broke out in many parts of India he undertook fasts till there was peace.

The only effective way is to change the mindset of the people with a culture of peace by spreading the Gandhian thought of ‘live and let live.’ Gandhi had taught us that eye-for-an eye can lead only to the whole world going blind.” And in India’s capital of New Delhi a group of Gandhians will sit on a “fast unto death” beginning Sunday, demanding stern government action against corruption.

The Times of India –

The indefinite hunger strike beginning on the 64th death anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi will see seven Gandhians enlarging their protest canvas from the month-long dharna at Jantar Mantar to another level.

The Gandhians had given a one-month ultimatum to the government to appoint a commission to look into charges against public servants, disqualify candidates with criminal backgrounds and forfeit illegally acquired property of corrupt public servants, including politicians.

“We are going for hunger strike as the government failed to take action on our demands. To sacrifice our life will the only thing we are capable of at this age. Therefore, we will fast unto death unless the government concede to our demands,” 93-year-old Shambhu Dutta, who took part in the 1942 Quit India Movement, said.

Also, according to the Times there was planned a ‘March Against Corruption’ –

The drive against corruption will not be restricted to just Delhi; people all over the country will organize their own protest rallies. More than 52 cities, including a few in the US like New York and Washington, will see Indians come together to demand an end to corruption. In India, protests have been organized at Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Agra, Aurangabad, Jaipur, Jhansi, Bhagalpur, Lucknow, Chandigarh, Kanpur, Gwalior, Gorakhpur, Coimbatore, Surat, Varanasi, Aligarh, Patna, Panaji, Pune, Guwahati, Pondicherry, Trichy and Jammu.

Timeline: original post dated Jan 29, 2012