This is where he walked his last steps before collapsing with a peaceful "Hey Ram" on his lips, forgiving even in death his assassin. Sixty years after that day "when the light went out of our lives", Mahatma Gandhi's spirit forces introspection at the sprawling white bungalow in central Delhi now named Gandhi Smriti.
The lane where the house stands is now called Tees January Marg after that Jan 30, 1948 when the world's greatest apostle of peace was felled by a bullet fired by Nathuram Godse. The house is 5, Tees January Marg. A mere address that is so much more for the nation.
And as India observes Wednesday as Martyrdom Day, children at Gandhi Smriti, or Gandhi Memories, look inwards to see what Mahatma Gandhi really meant to them. Even amidst the buzz of getting ready for the function that will be attended by President Pratibha Patil and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
"Do I follow Gandhi's thoughts? Yes and no! I don't use abusive words against anybody," says Sheetal Panwar, a Class 8 student. "But, I do lie," admits her classmate Sajal Jain, shamefacedly, "and I do fight, but not with punches."
Hauling their bags, the two students of St Paul's in south Delhi school are looking at the small canopy marking the exact area where Gandhi fell at 5.17 p.m. on Jan 30, 1948.
The two are among the many schoolchildren in the complex, where marigold garlands hang from fences, strings of little bulbs line paths and awnings of white cloth billow in the chilly breeze.
As they walk in the weak sunlight, children in a dozen different school uniforms sit in clusters, sharing their food or talking animatedly. Meanwhile, workers run from one end to another, looking busy, sometimes armed with a can of paint or hauling a cart, laden with wooden boards or potted plants.
About 1,500 school students are rehearsing Gandhi's favourite hymns for the prayer meeting to mark the 60th anniversary of the assassination.
For others, this is where Gandhi moves out of textbooks to become a real figure, who lived - and made a difference.
Inside the two-storey whitewashed building, 54-year-old Hannah Thomsen, a Danish tourist, moves from one wall panel to another, reading quotes from Gandhi.
"I first thought, is this a school?" laughs Thomsen. She and her husband have come to take a look at the place because "like Hans Christian Andersen is identified with Denmark, for us, India means Gandhi".
On the covered walkway beside the extensive lawns, Tia Shuyler and her family read the story of the 1942 Quit India movement.
Her father, William Shuyler, points to his daughter as the "prime motivator" for getting them to Gandhi Smriti on the last day of their India sojourn.
"I had studied about Gandhi in my school, but it was really in context of his spirituality, where he is grouped along with Martin Luther King Junior and Mother Teresa," says Tia, 23, a student of political science from the US. "I was more interested in learning about his political views."
During her first visit to this country, Tia has often been asking herself what the Mahatma would think of modern India. "In fact, when I saw the traffic here, I asked my mother, what would Gandhi think about it."
She feels it is time for another Gandhi. "I am very glad that he was in India, but we need somebody like him right now in America."
As news came in that terrible day, India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru said over All India Radio: "Friends and comrades, the light has gone out of our lives and there is darkness everywhere..."
He then went on to say in an unforgettable, moving speech: "The light has gone out, I said, and yet I was wrong. For the light that shone in this country was no ordinary light. The light that has illumined this country for these many years will illumine this country for many more years later, that light will still be seen in this country and the world will see it and it will give solace to innumerable hearts."
The warmth of that light still shines, as is evident from just a walk through Gandhi Smriti.
Indo-Asian News Service
The first information report (FIR) of Mahatma Gandhi's assassination, which has been lying at a police station in the Indian capital for 60 years, has got a new lease of life.
The FIR copy has been translated into Hindi and stored in computer records to maintain its longevity even though the original written in Urdu is now laminated and lies in the dusty racks of the Tuglak Road police station.
Senior Delhi Police official Rajan Bhagat said FIR records concerning Mahatma Gandhi's assassination had been preserved in their software records to maintain longevity.
"Although we have a laminated copy of an FIR, we still cannot ignore the fact that these papers have to be preserved for the future," Bhagat told IANS.
Gandhi was assassinated on Jan 30, 1948, at Birla House here. He was shot at point blank range by Nathuram Godse, a political activist from the Hindu Mahasabha.
The case was reported at the Tughlak Road police station by one Nand Lal Mehta, a resident of Connaught Place.
For a long time, the government had felt the need to secure the FIR document of Gandhi's assassination. Interestingly, the central government has requested Delhi Police to hand over the original FIR to the National Archives.
"Gandhi was someone whom the world knows and admires. He is a figure of historical importance and a world leader. Therefore, we are keen to keep the original, " said a senior official of the culture ministry.
Raghunath Meena, deputy director (records) at the National Archives, said the organisation was yet to receive the original FIR relating to Gandhi's assassination.
Indo-Asian News Service
Sixty years after he was assassinated, Gandhi lives. Not just in textbooks and speeches but also through his autobiography "The Story of My Experiments with Truth" which continues to sell an incredible 200,000 copies a year.
As the world Wednesday marks his 60th death anniversary and remembers the man who lived and died for his mantra of nonviolence, hundreds of thousands of people are still buying his autobiography to try and get an understanding of the man who went from becoming Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi to simply the Mahatma - or the great soul.
"Love for Gandhi and his ideology has not faded even 60 years after his death. Every year we sell about 200,000 copies of his autobiography," said Jitendra Desai, managing trustee of Navajivan Trust, copyright owner of all his works.
"His autobiography was a bestseller, is a bestseller and will be a bestseller in the coming years," Desai told IANS.
Interestingly, Kerala accounts for nearly half of all the copies sold in India.
"Nearly 100,000 copies are sold only in Kerala every year, followed by Tamil Nadu. The credit goes to the high literacy rate as compared to north Indian states like Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar," added Desai.
The first edition of Gandhi's autobiography was rolled out by the trust in 1927 in Gujarati. It is now available in Assamese, Bengali, English, Hindi, Oriya, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Urdu and Punjabi.
Indian language versions of the 452-page work are offered at Rs.30. The hardbound version costs Rs.120.
The book is widely sold across the globe as well with various publishing houses possessing copyrights. China and Russia are among the exceptions, Desai said.
The royalty from global sales goes to the Navajivan Trust according to Gandhi's wishes.
"His family has not at all profited from the royalty. If they publish something regarding Gandhi they give the money to the trust," Desai said, adding that the Navajivan Trust gives 35 percent of royalty money to the Hari Sevak Sangh, which looks after the welfare of the underprivileged.
Given the enormous popularity of Gandhi's autobiography, it is evident that the youth are following Gandhism more than perhaps their elders did, say experts.
"The youth is finding Gandhi's principles more relevant today to combat modern day problems like violence. For instance, thousands of young boys and girls are working with me in spreading the message of peace," said Nirmala Deshpande, a noted Gandhian and a social activist.
Vinod Tyagi, a reader in Delhi University and a former member of the Gandhi Bhawan Committee, agreed: "Apart from his autobiography being a bestseller, the overwhelming response from students to the newly introduced course - Reading Gandhi - says it all."
"The truth is that we hesitate in utilising Bapu's ideologies practically, but the youth do not," added Anil Dutta Mishra, director of the National Gandhi Museum.
He said Bollywood had contributed in a big way in revitalising people's interest in Gandhi.
"Director (Richard) Attenborough's 'Gandhi' increased his global visibility, while films like "Maine Gandhi Ko Nahin Mara", "Lage Raho Munnabhai" and "Gandhi My Father" keep the interest of the audience alive."
Indo-Asian News Service
Sixty years after his death a portion of Gandhiji's ashes, stashed away by Madalsa and Shriman Narayan, the daughter and son-in-law of Jamnalal Bajaj, will be immersed at Chowpati Beach in Mumbai.
Although I will be thousands of miles away in the United States the memories of 60 years ago will be refreshed and the day will be as poignant as Jan 30, 1948.
In 1969 when the world celebrated Gandhiji's 100th birth anniversary many of us who had lived in Sewagram Ashram, Wardha, with Gandhiji were invited for a reunion. The person who organised this event was Shriman Narayanji who was then the governor of Gujarat. He shared with us a story of his experience with Gandhiji which emphasises an aspect of Gandhiji's philosophy that is all but forgotten today.
Sometime in the early 1930s when Shrimanji received his doctorate from the London School of Economics he returned to India full of enthusiasm to change and rebuild the economy of India according to western standards. When he told his parents how impatient he was to begin work his father said: "You cannot begin to do anything until you receive Gandhiji's blessings. So, if you are in a hurry to begin working you had better go as quickly as possible to Sewagram Ashram and get Bapu's blessings."
This will be a piece of cake, Shrimanji thought, and still bubbling with enthusiasm Shrimanji arrived in Sewagram and relentlessly poured his enthusiasm into Bapu's lap and said: "Now give me your blessings so I can get to work."
"Not so fast," Gandhiji said. "If you want my blessings you will have to earn them. Tomorrow morning you will join the group and clean the ashram toilets."
These were not the modern water closets. The ashram toilets were primitive with buckets to collect urine and faeces. The buckets had to be carried into the fields and emptied into holes, washed and replaced for use. It was the meanest kind of work that is responsible for untouchability in India. Gandhiji wanted to teach us the dignity of labour. Shrimanji was aghast but did not argue. He had no enthusiasm for this kind of work but to satisfy Gandhiji's whim he had to do it. After the morning ordeal and a refreshing bath he rushed back to Gandhiji and said: "I've done what you asked me to do. Now give me your blessings."
"Not yet," said Gandhiji. "You will get my blessings only when you satisfy me that you are capable of cleaning toilets with the same enthusiasm as changing the economy of the country."
The moral of the story was that we must be willing to do any kind of work that is necessary and break the stranglehold of the master-servant relationship that persists in India even to this day. It is the feeling that those of us who are rich and educated are superior and those who are poor and uneducated are inferior that breeds arrogance in us, instead of the humility that Gandhiji sought to instil.
I am often asked in India and in the United States if Gandhiji's philosophy can be relevant today. My answer is that a philosophy that is based on Respect, Understanding, Appreciation and Compassion has to be relevant at all times. If we conclude that nonviolence is not relevant today we are saying in effect that the positive attitudes of Respect, Understanding, Appreciation and Compassion are not relevant. If that be so then we cannot claim to be a civilised society.
Over the years many have concluded that nonviolence is a "negative" philosophy because we insert a hyphen in the word and make it the opposite of violence. In reality it is the other way around. What we forget is that to practice violence we have to be arrogant, hateful, angry and capable of dehumanising people so that we can hurt and even kill them. These and more are negative emotions and attitudes that dominate our psyche to such an extent that we have now become victims of a Culture of Violence that controls every aspect of human life.
On the other hand, to practice nonviolence one has to be dominated by positive emotions and attitudes like love, understanding, respect, compassion and so on. It is only when we learn to respect people as human beings that we will be able to truly practice nonviolence. We cannot and should not be selective in whom we respect, it has to be unconditional and all pervasive.
For centuries human beings have been working to create peace and we fail more often than we succeed. The reason is that peace is not the absence of physical violence. No country can claim that they are at peace because they are not at war with anyone. Human nature has learned to practice violence in many ways - both physical and passive, or non-physical. It is the non-physical violence that is more insidious because we commit it knowingly and unknowingly and it leads to anger in the victim and the anger results in physical violence. Gandhiji's talisman was: "Ask yourself if the action you contemplate will hurt or harm someone."
The Culture of Violence has resulted in the erosion of relationships across the board. Everyone has become selfish and self-centred. If we have no relationships based on mutual respect, understanding and appreciation there will be no harmony. And, if there is no harmony in a home, office, neighbourhood, society or a nation there cannot be peace. When Gandhiji said: Peace begins with you he did not mean the selfish peace that we seek through 'sadhana' or meditation but the peace that we need to bring about through love and respect for all living creatures - whatever their economic, social or political standing in life.
Can we become the change we wish to see?
(Arun Gandhi is a grandson of Mahatma Gandhi and the founder of the MK Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence, New York. He can be contacted at arun@totalnonviolence.org)
Indo-Asian News Service
Marigold garlands hang from fences, strings of little bulbs line paths, awnings of white cloth billow in the chilly breeze. The leader exhorts the singers to raise their pitch an octave. In the run-up to the 60th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi's martyrdom, it is busy at 5, Tees January Marg, where he was assassinated.
Hauling their bags, four students of St Paul's school walk companionably on the green lawns, looking at the small canopy marking the exact area where Gandhi fell at 5.17 p.m. on Jan 30, 1948.
"Do I follow Gandhi's thoughts? Yes and no. I don't use abusive words against anybody," says Sheetal Panwar, a Class 8 student. "But, I do lie," admits her classmate Sajal Jain, shamefacedly, "and I do fight, but not with punches."
As they walk in the weak sunlight, children in a dozen different school uniforms sit in clusters, sharing their food or talking animatedly. Meanwhile, workers run from one end to another, looking busy, sometimes armed with a can of paint or hauling a cart, laden with wooden boards or potted plants.
Sajal, Sheetal and their friends, along with over 1,500 school students, are in Gandhi Smriti to rehearse for the prayer meeting to mark the 60th anniversary of the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi Wednesday.
Besides schoolchildren rendering bhajans, violin maestro L. Subramaniam and his wife Kavita Krishnamurti will perform at the solemn function that will be attended by President Pratibha Patil and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh among others.
With the wind blowing hard, the rehearsal is moved indoors to a pavilion, where over a thousand children huddle together to practise the chorus.
Their voices rise and fall together in some of Gandhi's favourite hymns. "I did not know you could sing so well... with such feeling," says the director of the show, encouragingly. "Now, why don't I just raise the pitch by an octave," he suggests, drawing groans of protest.
Inside the two-storey whitewashed building, 54-year-old Hannah Thomsen, a Danish tourist, moves from one wall panel to another, reading quotes from Gandhi.
"I first thought, is this a school?" laughs Thomsen. She and her husband have come to take a look at the place because "like Hans Christian Andersen is identified with Denmark, for us, India means Gandhi".
On the covered walkway beside the extensive lawns, Tia Shuyler and her family read the story of the 1942 Quit India movement.
Her father, William Shuyler, points to his daughter as the "prime motivator" for getting them to Gandhi Smriti on the last day of their India sojourn.
"I had studied about Gandhi in my school, but it was really in context of his spirituality, where he is grouped along with Martin Luther King Junior and Mother Teresa," says Tia, 23, a student of political science from the US. "I was more interested in learning about his political views."
During her first visit to this country, Tia has often been asking herself what the Mahatma would think of modern India. "In fact, when I saw the traffic here, I asked my mother, what would Gandhi think about it."
She feels it is time for another Gandhi. "I am very glad that he was in India, but we need somebody like him right now in America."
Indo-Asian News Service
byname Mahatma (“Great-Souled”) Gandhi leader of the Indian nationalist movement against British rule, considered to be the father of his country. He is internationally esteemed for his doctrine of nonviolent protest to achieve political and social progress.
Gandhi was the youngest child of his father's fourth wife. His father, Karamchand Gandhi, who was the dewan (chief minister) of Porbandar, the capital of a small principality in Gujarat in western India under British suzerainty, did not have much in the way of a formal education. He was, however, an able administrator who knew how to steer his way between the capricious princes, their long-suffering subjects, and the headstrong British political officers in power.
Gandhi's mother, Putlibai, was completely absorbed in religion, did not care much for finery and jewelry, divided her time between her home and the temple, fasted frequently, and wore herself out in days and nights of nursing whenever there was sickness in the family. Mohandas grew up in a home steeped in Vaishnavism—worship of the Hindu god Vishnu—with a strong tinge of Jainism, a morally rigorous Indian religion, whose chief tenets are nonviolence and the belief that everything in the universe is eternal. Thus he took for granted ahimsa (noninjury to all living beings), vegetarianism, fasting for self-purification, and mutual tolerance between adherents of various creeds and sects.
Read More at Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi