Indian High Commission celebrates Mahatma Gandhi’s birth anniversary
The High Commission of India and Swami Vivekananda Cultural Centre (SVCC) on Monday celebrated the 154th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi at the Promenade Gardens, reflecting on his sterling contributions and teachings.
Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony; Public Service Minister Sonia Parag and Georgetown Mayor Alfred Mentore along with members of the diplomatic corps and members of the Indian diaspora offered floral tributes at Mahatma Gandhi’s statue.
British High Commissioner Jane Miller offers floral tributes to the Gandhi statue at the Promenade Gardens
Both Government Ministers delivered their insightful remarks, which emphasised that the observance can be used to commence an individual journey to follow Gandhi’s ideals for a better world.
Minister Parag outlined, “His actions bore so much fruit that the generations today and the generations beyond him and as we sit in contemporary times today, can benefit from all that he did.”
Minister Anthony added, “Some of the struggles that he started then, we were able to see an eventual change in South Africa.”
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869-1948) was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist, and political ethicist. He is best known for his efforts to defend persons of Indian origin in South Africa and, following his return to India in 1915, opposing British rule in India.
Gandhi is unofficially recognised by many Indians, past and present, as the “Father of the Nation”, and was accorded by his disciples and supporters the title of “Mahatma”, which means “great-souled”.
The message of non-violent struggle, or “Satyagraha”, was utilised by Mahatma Gandhi in his fight in India against the British between 1915 and 1948. “Satya” means “truth” and “graha” means “force”, and it proposes an active “truth force” that is deployed against the forces of oppression.
Through his activism, Gandhi brought the changes of Indian Indentureship in Guyana and other colonies to the attention of the Indian National Congress (INC), which petitioned the Indian Government and British Government.
Indentureship was consequently halted, first in South Africa in 1910, and in the rest of the world in 1917. As such, Gandhi and his work had a direct bearing on Guyana, since he played a critical role in ending this exploitative form of labour.
Gandhi was nominated five times (1937, 1938, 1939, 1947, and 1948) for the Nobel Peace Prize, but was assassinated by Indian nationalist Nathuram Godse before he could win it.
