2nd October - Gandhi's Birthday

I was not aware that 2nd October is the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi until I received an email from my daughter:-

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Today is Gandhi's birthday. He was born in 1869. I thought of going to the Peace Park in Tavistock Square (just 5 minutes walk from where I stay) and take a photograph of his statue to commemorate the day. As it turns out, the Indian community has something going on there.

Statue at Tavistock Square, Bloomsbury, London

There were many well dressed Indian men and women (in saris) and they were reciting prayers and giving speeches, with some official from the mayor's office. So, I stood there, the Chinese girl (not very well dressed in orange T-shirt, sneakers and a white skirt), in a sea of Indians, listening to speeches and prayer songs. But, it was a very short thing and at the end of it, I got some free Indian food courtesy of Priya's Tandoori. Not bad, yah?

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2nd October, is commemorated in India as Gandhi Jayanti, a national holiday, and worldwide as the International Day of Non-Violence.

Courtesy of Wikipedia

Mahatma Gandhi was the spiritual leader of India during the Indian independence movement. He pioneered the passive movement or non-violence movement. This concept helped India to gain independence, and inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world.

Personally, I feel that Gandhi and his passive movement can go down in history is mainly because he was dealing with the British. If India at that time was under the Russian or the Japanese, I don't think the passive movement would have worked and Gandhi could have just disappeared at the very early stage of his movement before he gained his widespread following and today, nobody would know that there was such a person called Mahatma Gandhi and there is such a thing called passive movement. From this aspect, I have my respect for the British.