75th year of the Punyatithi of the Mahatma - January 30, 2023.

It was on this day – 30th January – 1948 that the father of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi, was assassinated by Nathuram Godse in the compound of the Birla House, New Delhi, where was taking a routine walk in the campus after the multi-faith prayer meeting. This place now serves as a pilgrimage and the lane on which the Birla House is located is aptly called 30 January Marg. It is said that the last words Gandhi ji uttered after he received bullet wounds on his chest, when was fired at close quarters, were “Hey Ram”. Ever since this day is also commemorated as Shaheed Diwas. It is now universally recognised that Gandhi chose satyagraha and ahimsa over guns to achieve Independence for India. Gandhi and his philosophies, thoughts and ideas have not only touched Indians but also globally with Nelson Mandela and Martyn Luther King Jr. among many other global leaders, who looked up to the Mahatma as their inspiration for their freedom struggle and were majorly influenced by the Mahatma and his Satyagraha – nonviolence.

I attended the commemoration of this event  at the Mani Bhavan, home to Gandhi ji in Mumbai and so also his headquarters in Mumbai for about 17 years, from 1917 to 1934 and a historic place which houses a small museum of Gandhi and so also an excellent library. What was very pleasing was to see good number of school students taking part in the event with the singing of the Sarva Dharma Prarthana (multifaith prayers) and other events, which were organised at the Mani Bhavan to mark this occasion and to pay our reverence to the man about whom the great scientist Albert Einstein had said ‘Generations to come will scarce believe that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth'. 

This year’s Mahatma’s Punyatithi is special for me since the members of the Board of Trustees of Gandhi Smarak Nidhi, Mumbai, have unanimously decided to invite me to be one of the Trustees in the Gandhi Smarak Nidhi, a great honour which I have humbly and with humility accepted. I am sharing some of the images of the event, which I attended today at the Mani Bhavan. 

On this occasion, I am tempted to share a link to the blog, which I had written on 2nd October 2020 to commemorate the culmination of the sesquicentennial birth anniversary of the Mahatma on a subject entitled “Gandhi and Science”. 

https://khened.blogspot.com/2020/10/commemoration-and-culmination-of-150th.html