Gandhi statue to be unveiled in London's Parliament Square on March 14

Gandhi statue to be unveiled in London's Parliament Square on March 14

The much-awaited Mahatma Gandhi's bronze statue at Britain's historic Parliament Square, London will be unveiled on March 14, Prime Minister David Cameron announced. The announcement came as the Gandhi Statue Memorial Trust surpassed the one-million pound mark in donations, with steel tycoon Lakshmi N Mittal adding 100,000 pounds and the Infosys Board chaired by K V Kamath 250,000 pounds in the last few weeks.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is expected to be the special guest at the ceremony to install the statue, which will be the last one to up in the square alongside South African anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela and Britain's war-time Prime Minister Winston Churchill.

"The statue in Parliament Square not only marks his huge importance in the history of both our countries, but will enrich the firm bond of friendship between the world’s oldest democracy and its largest," Cameron said in a statement.

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About 7,400 Gandhian Books worth Rs. 3.7 lakhs sold at a week-long Gandhi books exhibition in Mumbai

About 7,400 Gandhian Books worth Rs. 3.7 lakhs sold within a week

Week-long exhibition-cum-sale of Gandhi Books organized by Bombay Sarvodaya Mandal to commemorate 67th Gandhi death anniversary

Mr. Marciniak from France, who dresses up like Mahatma Gandhi, visited Gandhi books exhibition

In the present world, full of modern technologies like i-phones, tabs and e-books, it is difficult to believe that many people still interested in buying Gandhi books. But a week-long exhibition-cum-sale of Gandhi Books proves that Gandhiji's teachings are relevant than ever.

About 7,400 Gandhi-Vinoba-Sarvodaya books (in English, Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati) worth about Rs. 3.7 lakhs were sold within seven days at the books exhibition. It was organized by Bombay Sarvodaya Mandal and Gandhi Book Centre with the financial assistance from ‘Babulnath Mandir Charities’ and ‘Mahalaxmi Mandir Charities’ at Hutatma Chowk and Gandhi Book Centre at Nana Chowk from 27th January to 3rd February to commemorate 67th death anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.

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The Assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, 1948

The Assassination of Gandhi, 1948

Just an old man in a loincloth in distant India: Yet when he died, humanity wept." This was the observation of a newspaper correspondent at the death of Mahatma Gandhi. The tragedy occurred in New Delhi as the gaunt old man walked to a prayer-meeting and was engulfed by one of history's great ironies - a life-long pacifist and promoter of non-violence struck down by an assassin's bullet.

Gandhi's violent death came just months after the realization of his long sought-after goal - the independence of India from Great Britain. It was a bitter-sweet victory for Gandhi because along with India's independence came the partitioning of the sub-continent into two separate states - Muslim-based Pakistan and Hindu-based India - an action he thoroughly opposed. Gandhi did not take part in the celebration of India's independence.

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'Navjivan' to Open Cafe, Portal to Spread Gandhian Ideology in Ahmedabad

'Navjivan' to Open Cafe, Portal to Spread Gandhian Ideology in Ahmedabad

With a view to present Gandhian ideology in a modern way, Mahatma Gandhi-founded publication house Navjivan Trust will open an art gallery, cafeteria and a centre for sustainable development in Ahmedabad.

Gujarat Chief Minster Anandi Patel will inaugurate the art gallery, cafe and the sustainable development centre on January 29 at the Navjivan building, aimed to create a milieu, specially for the youth to connect with Gandhian ideology.

"People, especially the youths, are hesitant to get associated with Gandhian ideology. There is a need to create such an atmosphere by creating new activities where people can easily connect with his thoughts," Managing Trustee of the trust, Vivek Desai, told reporters.

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New Book Published : Gandhi at First Sight

GANDHI AT FIRST SIGHT

Edited and Introduced By : Thomas Weber

First Published : January 2015

Pages : 279

Price : Rs. 350/-

Published by : Roli Books Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi, India.

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Looking for Mahatma

Looking for Mahatma

Gandhi's face has returned to mass media. We now need space for Gandhi's mind and heart.

The return of a Mahatma to our newspapers in January 2015 should be considered almost as a welcome as the return of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi to his motherland on January 9, 1915.

The year 1915 marked a seminal moment in history, for Gandhi’s intervention in India’s freedom movement ended the era of European colonisation, a process that progressed without setback for three centuries, and never seemed stronger than it did in the first decade of the 20th century. It was said, famously, that the sun did not set on the British Empire. After Gandhi, the sun never rose on any empire.

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Celebrating 100 years of Gandhi's return to India from South Africa

Bapu's first Swaraj text now in French too

Bapu's first Swaraj text now in French too

One of the most important scholarly works by Mahatma Gandhi, the Hind Swaraj or 'Indian Home Rule', first published in 1910 has now been translated into French language. This feat has been achieved by a team of scholars from The Nantes Institute for Advanced Study in France. It is in the Hind Swaraj that Bapu first expressed his views on Swaraj, modern civilization and mechanization.

The translated work called 'Hind Swaraj: L'emancipation a I'indienne' carries a preface by renowned a linguist and anthropologist Charles Malamoud, who is a specialist of religions in India. The French version of Hind Swaraj relies on the Gujarati version that Bapu originally wrote as well as 'Hind Swaraj- A critical edition' by Suresh Sharma and Tridip Suhrud. The translation work was led by Annie Montaut in the institute.

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International Conference 2015

(January 28-30, 2015)

Organized by

Sabarmati Ashram Preservation and Memorial Trust (SAPMT), Ahmedabad

In Collaboration With

Gujarat Vidyapith and Centre for Environment Education 

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Gandhi - Peace Punchline Competition

International Non-violence Day

Gandhi - Peace punchline Competition

Give us a punch line that promotes tolerance, non-violence, equality, peace, justice and so on.

Organized by

Gandhi Centre - Australia Incorp.

Email: gandhipeacecentre@hotmail.com

For More Information

Virtual Gandhi in South Africa : New online resource lets you trace the footsteps of an icon

Virtual Gandhi in SA: New online resource lets you trace the footsteps of an icon

Mahatma Gandhi’s time spent in South Africa was a significant period in the history of the country. Tourism South Africa is offering locals and tourists the chance to virtually follow in Gandhi’s footsteps through a new website called Gandhi in South Africa (www.gandhi.southafrica.net).

Gandhi arrived in South Africa in 1893 as a young lawyer in his early 20s and remained for 21 years before leaving 1914 to take on British rule in India.

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Gandhi Journal Article - III : Bapu-Leader of Leaders

Bapu : Leader of Leaders

By Kavita Shah and Meha Todi

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

- Albert Einstein

Few men have ever had as much of an effect on our world as Mohandas Gandhi. He was charismatic, deliberate and analytical. Gandhi was very much a product of his times, yet one of his greatest sources of inspiration was the Bhagavad-Gita. He was a politician, a writer, an intellectual and an orator. Without doubt he was a complex man, believing in simple things.

Gandhi's leadership role was extremely complex. Knowing that violence only begets violence, he began practicing passive resistance, Satyagraha. Mahatma Gandhi was a leader that brought one of the world's most powerful nations to its knees... by using peace, love and integrity as his method for change. How could a meek and fragile person of small physical stature inspire millions to bring about a profound change in a way the mightiest had never achieved before? His achievements were nothing less than miracles. His life was a message - a message of peace over power, of finding ways to reconcile our differences, and of living in harmony with respect and love even for our enemy. Gandhi can be considered the most modern political thinker India has ever had. Today, in a polity steeped in corruption, perhaps there is a need to rediscover Gandhi.

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Gandhi Journal Article - II : Gandhi and status of Women

Gandhi and status of Women

By Jyotsna Kamat

When Gandhiji assumed India's leadership the average life span of an Indian woman was only twenty seven years. Babies and the pregnant women ran a high risk of dying young. Child marriage was very common and widows were in very large number. Only 2% of the women had any kind of education and women did not have an identity of their own. In North India, they practiced the purdah (veil) system. Women could not go out of the house unless accompanied by men and the face covered with cloth. The fortunate ones who could go to school had to commute in covered carts (tangas).

It is in this context that we have to recognize the miracle of Gandhi's work. Gandhiji claimed that a woman is completely equal to a man and practiced it in strict sense. Thousands and millions of women, educated and illiterate, house wives and widows, students and elderly participated in the India's freedom movement because his influence. For Gandhiji, the freedom fight was not political alone; it was also an economic and social reform of a national proportion. After a couple of decades, this equality became very natural in India. After India's freedom (in 1947) and adoption of constitution (1950), emphasized equality of women, when Hindu code was formulated, the population was not even impressed. They said -"Of course, it had to be done."

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Mahatma Gandhi and Winston Churchill

By Vishwanath Tondon

Most students of India’s fight for independence may only be aware of Churchill’s famous 1931 remarks on Gandhi, when he went to meet the Viceroy, Lord Irwin, in his usual dress. Churchill had said: “It is alarming and also nauseating to see Mr. Gandhi, a seditious Middle [Inner] Temple lawyer, now posing as a fakir of a type well known in the East, striding half-naked up the steps of the Viceregal palace, while he is still organizing and conducting a defiant campaign of civil disobedience, to parley on equal terms with the representative of the King-Emperor.”1

One may also be aware that while in London to attend the Round Table Conference, Gandhi wanted to meet Churchill but the latter had refused to see him, though his son Randolph met Gandhi. And then later in July 1944, Gandhi had written to Churchill a letter saying, “Dear Prime Minister, You are reported to have a desire to crush the simple ‘naked fakir’ as you are said to have described me. I have been long trying to be a fakir and that [too] naked - a more difficult task. I, therefore, regard the expression as a compliment though unintended. I approach you then as such and ask you to trust and use me for the sake of your people and mine and through them those of the world.”2

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Gandhi Journal Article - III

What I owe to Mahatma Gandhi

By G. Mohambry Naicker

I was eight years old when Gandhiji left South Africa. I could not understand then the intricacies of politics or the meaning of the struggle which for two decades he had to wage against the authorities, but I have a very distinct recollection of the image that was stamped upon my young mind of the national hero whose name was a household word among the Indian community. I faintly realised in those early days the powers of the simple man who was to achieve in the fullness of time such miracles as even in their heyday warriors like Napoleon could only dream of. As the years went by I was able to assess the full power of the weapon of satyagraha which Gandhiji had perfected during his career as a public man in South Africa. When I reached the age of reason I began to make a deep study of the writings of Gandhiji, and although I became an adherent of his great principles, little did I think that it would fall to my lot to take up the flaming torch he had left behind. I was scarcely prepared for such a task; I did not feel inclined to be in the forefront of the struggle that began half a century ago. Yet when the call came, the response in me was instantaneous. It was the voice of Mahatma Gandhi calling for action. Without any preparation, without any experience, without the slightest hesitation, I threw myself into the battle. With faith undiminished in the righteousness of the cause we had espoused, I became, with thousands of my fellow countrymen a satyagrahi. I made the vow of reaching the goal that we had in view, no matter what sacrifice was demanded of us.

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6TH AUGUST - 69TH HIROSHIMA DAY OBSERVED

6TH AUGUST - 69TH HIROSHIMA DAY OBSERVED

About 1,983 students gathered and took the pledge

to work for Peace & Nuclear-free World

Students, graphically depicting the horror of the atom bomb, along with about 1,983 NSS Volunteers of SNDT University and University of Mumbai, social activists and peace-loving citizens in the city marched for peace and a nuclear-free world from Azad Maidan to Hutatma Chowk today, 6th August, Hiroshima Day.

The Peace march was jointly organized by Bombay Sarvodaya Mandal and NSS Units of SNDT & Mumbai University to mark the 69th anniversary of the devastation of Hiroshima & Nagasaki with a deadly atomic attack by America during World War II & to join hands with millions of people of the world in their prayers to make a nuclear-free world.

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Gandhi Journal Article - I

Mahatma and Women in India-Miles to go

By Jitendra Aherkar & Sagar Poojari

Abstract

Gandhi is forever remembered in history, for he stood up for Indian civil rights, and has made a big difference for people in India today specially women. Women are God's greatest gift to humanity. She has the power to create or destroy. is a saying that behind every successful man there is a women Similarly, Gandhi was influenced by his mother Putlibai and wife Kasturba. As Gandhi has said: "The outstanding impression my mother has left on my memory is that of saintliness”. Gandhi's attitudes towards women were as much shaped by his innate sense of comparison and justice as they were by the patriarchal albeit benevolent conservatism that was the sheet anchor of his cultural and social discourse. The contradiction between his liberal feminist pronouncements, his egalitarian, loving and respectful concern for women, and his belief in their role in politics and in society are sometimes difficult to reconcile. Yet Gandhi, more than anyone else, struggled with these paradoxes in the existing social milieu. Comparing his vision of women with the current status of women and the ongoing struggle for women's empowerment will provide a measure of what has been achieved. The ultimate goal of empowerment of women based on Gandhi's vision is Sarvodaya the welfare of all through cooperation and trusteeship in the economic sphere, equal participation in the political sphere, and mutual aid in the social sphere without regard to caste, or class or gender. Thus, empowerment of village women cannot be imposed from above, it must grow from the bottom upwards. This paper gives a brief idea on Mahatma's vision for Indian women for success and progress of society in all walks of life.

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MANDELA-GANDHI WALL EXHIBITION LAUNCHED

MANDELA-GANDHI WALL EXHIBITION LAUNCHED

The Nelson Mandela Foundation has launched a Mandela-Gandhi wall exhibition to honour the two individuals' fight for freedom.

“This Gandhi-Mandela wall really commemorates and celebrates the enduring connection that has existed between these two great leaders. They may not have met, but they are connected through ideas, through the essential message that reverberates through lives,” Virendra Gupta, High Commissioner of India in South Africa, told CNBCafrica.com.

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Gandhi Journal Article - III

Mahatma Gandhi as a Journalist

By V Sundaram

As a powerful mass communicator and as a fearless journalist, Mahatma Gandhi was unrivalled. Almost everyone knows that Mahatma Gandhi was a Political Leader, but very few know that Gandhi was also a journalist! Yes, Gandhi was an outstanding journalist. For 45 years, starting from 1903, he edited and published weekly newspapers. Journalism was the factor that transformed ordinary Gandhi into Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi's work in the field of journalism had a strong influence not only on every newspaper in India but also on the entire literary world of every language in India!!!

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Gandhi relics on display, Gandhi Museum gets new website

Gandhi relics on display, Gandhi Museum gets new website

Razor, fountain pens, spectacles used by Mahatma Gandhi and bangles, vermilion, shawl and jacket used by Kasturba Gandhi from 1942 to 1948 were today put on exhibition by National Gandhi Museum, on the occasion of International Museum Day. 

The relics used by the Gandhis, 32 in all, also included soap-box, a small clock, brass 'diya', stone and a steel bowl, woolen rug, thread and needle, a spinning wheel, jute slippers among others have been acquired by the museum from Manubehn Gandhi's collection.

Manubehn, one of the grand niece of Mahatma Gandhi who had joined him during the Quit India Movement (1942) and stayed with Kasturba and him till his last breath in 1948, had kept these relics preserved, said A Annamalai, Director of the Museum. 

Also a new website of the National Gandhi Museum -www.Gandhimuseum.Org- was launched which aims to provide the museum's resources including text, audio-video footage and photographs online.

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