PM Modi at Sabarmati riverfront in Ahmedabad. (Express Photo: Javed Raja)
Gandhi Jayanti 2019 Live Updates: Â Rural India and its villages have declared themselves ‘open defecation free’, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on the occasion of Mahatma Gandhi’s 150th birth anniversary Wednesday.
People were mobilised for ‘satyagarah’ on Mahatma Gandhi’s call, today they did the same for swachhagrah, he said in Ahmedabad. Modi arrived in the city to visit the Sabarmati Ashram. He visited Rajghat Tuesday morning to pay tribute to the Father of the Nation at his memorial. President Ram Nath Kovind, Vice President Venkaiah Naidu were also present there.
The Congress marked the day by undertaking padyatras — walking to the tunes of “Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram…” across the country. The ‘Gandhi Sandesh Yatra’ began from the Delhi Congress office Rajiv Bhavan at Deendayal Upadhyay Marg headed to Rajghat, about three kilometres away, with enthusiastic party workers waving flags and chanting the slogan ‘Mahatma Gandhi Amar Rahein’.
Numerous events were organised by various government departments, ministries and voluntary organisations to celebrate life and legacy of Gandhi, who besides leading the freedom struggle also inspired millions of people across the globe, including leaders such as Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr and the Dalai Lama. School, colleges and institutes across the country are organising special events today and through the week to commemorate the 150th birth anniversary of the Mahatma.
Gandhi Jayanti 2019 Live Updates: Nearly 900 students will share their views on Gandhi's teachings of non-violence at the ashram.
PM Modi in Gujarat: Sanitation, conservation of environment and animals, all these things were dear to Gandhi ji. Plastic is a major threat to all of them. So, we have to achieve the goal to eradicate 'single-use plastic' from the country by the year 2022.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Ahmedabad: Today whole world is appreciating and awarding us. Providing toilets to more than 60 crore people in 60 months, building more than 11 crore toilets, the whole world is amazed by this.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi at 'Swachh Bharat Diwas' programme in Ahmedabad: Today rural India and its villages have declared themselves 'open defecation free'.
PM's message in visitor's book at Sabarmati Ashram: "I am satisfied that on the occasion of Gandhi At 150, we're witnessing the fulfillment of his dream of 'Swachh Bharat'. I feel lucky that on this occasion when India has successfully stopped open defecation I'm here at the ashram."
Prime Minister Narendra Modi released a commemorative Rs 150 coin, on the occasion of Mahatma Gandhi's 150th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad
Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived for the 'Swachh Bharat Diwas' programme at Sabarmati Riverfront in Ahmedabad. Chief Minister Vijay Rupani also present.
After visiting the Sabarmati Ashram, Prime Minister Modi visited the Sabarmati Riverfront.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi reached Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad on Wednesday evening and paid tribute to Mahatma Gandhi. Gujarat CM Vijay Rupani was also present at the ashram.
We saw a glimpse of the respect India has at the world stage during the Howdy, Modi programme in Houston. At that programme, Republicans and Democrats spoke. Their coming was very special: PM Modi in Ahmedabad
Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Ahmedabad on occasion of Mahatma Gandhi's 150th birth anniversary. "Take any problem the world faces, the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi offer solutions to those challenges."
PM Modi in Ahmedabad: "India’s stature is rising at the world stage. Respect for India is increasing all over. One can experience the change. The world can see that India is at the forefront of several positive changes taking place at the world stage."
Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Ahmedabad. He will visit the Sabarmati Ashram today, on the occasion of Mahatma Gandhi's 150th birth anniversary
Addressing Congress workers on Mahatma Gandhi's 150th birth anniversary, party leader Digvijaya Singh said, "The ideology that killed Mahatma Gandhi is telling its workers to do padyatra in every panchayat for a month. I would like to ask them what will they do there and how will they project Gandhi ji? Will you put across Gandhi's side or Godse's side?"
Campaigns against single-use plastic and peace marches on Wednesday marked the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi in parts of Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh.
Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh and his Haryana counterpart Manohar Lal Khattar paid tributes to Mahatma Gandhi and called upon people to follow the path shown by Mahatma Gandhi.
"Humble tributes to Mahatma Gandhi on his 150th Birth Anniversary. May his commitment to truth, non-violence & compassion for all continue to guide us. Let us all come together & renew our commitment to Gandhiji's pledge to wipe every tear from every eye," Amarinder said in his tweet.
Khattar, who took part in a swachhta campaign in Badshahpur, Gurgaon, said, "We should all take a pledge to follow footsteps of Mahatma Gandhi."
Inter faith prayer meetings were organised today in different cities of South Africa on Mahatma Gandhi's 150th birth anniversary.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres pays tribute to Mahatma Gandhi: "Mahatma Gandhi pioneered successive non-violent movements that changed history. 150 years since his birth, Gandhi’s philosophy is at the core of our work at the UN. May his courage & conviction continue to inspire us on Wednesday’s International Day of Non-Violence & every day."
A statue of Mahatma Gandhi was unveiled today within the premises of Embassy of India in Kathmandu by Ambassador Manjeev Singh Puri.
At the Varkala ashram, Gandhi struck a historic conversation with Sree Narayana Guru, the Ezhava-born social reformer who grew to become one of Kerala’s most influential intellectual minds. Historian Ramachandra Guha writes in his book ‘Gandhi: The Years that Changed the World’ that Gandhi had come away greatly impressed with Guru’s ideas, even though they had different theological positions.
The efforts of Gandhi, Periyar and thousands of others resulted in the Travancore administration climbing down from their earlier rigid positions and opening three of the four temple roads to people of the lower castes in 1925. But it was not until the Temple Entry Act in November, 1936, over a decade after the Vaikom agitation, that the doors of the temple and all the others in Travancore were thrown open to people of all castes by the state’s ruling family.
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Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on Wednesday unveiled a bronze bust of Mahatma Gandhi at his official residence 'Temple Trees' here as he paid floral tribute to the Indian leader on his 150th birth anniversary.
The bronze bust sculpted by the Padma Bhushan awardee Ram Vanji Suatr was unveiled at the Temple Trees in the presence of Indian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka Taranjit Singh Sandhu.
Prime Minister Wickremesinghe unveiled a Gandhi bust on the occasion of Mahatma Gandhi's 150th birth anniversary at Temple Tree, the Indian embassy said.
Sri Lanka also issued two commemorative stamps on the occasion. President Maithripala Sirisena also paid floral tributes to Gandhi.
"To pay tribute to Mahatma Gandhi on his 150th birth anniversary, a special programme was held at the Presidential Secretariat in Colombo," a statement issued by the Indian mission said.
The Congress needs to take the "Gandhian approach" of public service and get 5,000 workers in every district dedicated to the cause of helping people to get its mojo back, technocrat-turned-politician Sam Pitroda said on Wednesday.
He said all Congress leaders must spend six months studying the father of the nation on his 150th birth anniversary to be ideologically equipped.
Pitroda, a long-time adviser of the Gandhi family and head of the Indian Overseas Congress, said the country is facing a "major conflict" for the idea of India.
The Congress needs to keep talking about this ideological battle and take its message to the people, the 77-year-old told PTI over phone from Chicago.
BJP president Amit Shah kicked-off a four-month-long exercise on Wednesday in an ambitious bid by the saffron party to claim the legacy of Mahatma Gandhi with its leaders across the country undertaking foot marches and addressing public events to mark his 150th birth anniversary.
The Congress, which has seen over the years a gradual appropriation of some of its stalwarts by the BJP, launched a counter-drive with its president Sonia Gandhi taking a swipe at the Modi government, saying the Mahatma would have been pained by what has happened in India over the last few years.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar at the "Gandhi Vichar Samagam" event at Gyan Bhawan in Patna.
The special 36-hour session of the UP legislature to mark Mahatma Gandhi's birth anniversary got underway on Wednesday, with Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath flaying the opposition's decision to boycott proceedings as not only an "insult" to the Father of the Nation but also a "contempt" of the House.
The simultaneous sessions of the state assembly and legislative council begun at 11 am and will continue till Thursday night without a break.
"I am astonished that the opposition, which had in an all-party meeting agreed to discuss issues concerning the poor, has boycotted proceedings. The opposition's decision to stay away from constructive discussion to form a concrete policy for development is not only an insult to Mahatma Gandhi but also a contempt of the House," he said addressing the state assembly.
Commemorating the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday led a ‘padayatra’ to Mahatma Gandhi’s memorial Rajghat. The ‘Gandhi Sandesh Yatra’ began from Delhi Congress office Rajiv Bhavan at Deendayal Upadhyay Marg and headed to Rajghat, about three kilometers away.
This month MahatmaGandhi’s story will be told in a range of tribal languages from the Northeast — in Adi, Apatani, Miju-Mishmi, Nocte and Nishi spoken in Arunachal Pradesh, and Bodo from Assam. Read more
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)chief Mohan Bhagwat said that Mahatma Gandhi firmly stood for social equality and harmony and translated his vision into action. "Gandhiji, who believed in the Swa-based reorganisation of Bharat, firmly stood for social equality and harmony and translated his vision into action, had set an example for all through his life. We must perceive, understand and manifest it in our life.-Mohanji Bhagwat," RSS tweeted.
Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday led a 'padyatra' here with a large number of party workers following him to Mahatma Gandhi's memorial Rajghat. The 'Gandhi Sandesh Yatra' on Mahatma Gandhi's 150th birth anniversary began from the Delhi Congress office Rajiv Bhavan at Deendayal Upadhyay Marg and headed to Rajghat, about three kilometres away, with enthusiastic party workers waving flags and chanting the slogan 'Mahatma Gandhi Amar Rahein'. Many youth sported Gandhi's trademark spectacles and dhoti and walked with sticks in the march. A tableau of Gandhi's Sabarmati Ashram and his iconic wooden spinning wheel was also part of the march. The march will conclude with an oath to be administered to workers and leaders by party president Sonia Gandhi at Rajghat.
Today is the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. October 2 also marks 76 years since Vijay Bhatt’s Ram Rajya was released to packed houses all over India. A milestone in my grandfather’s career also goes down in history as the only Hindi film to have been seen by Mahatma Gandhi in his lifetime. Vijay Bhatt first met with Gandhiji in the late 1930s on a trip to Valsad with his friends. When Gandhiji learned that he was a filmmaker, he asked, “Why don’t you make a film on Narsi Mehta?” Narsi Mehta was a poet saint of Gujarat. His bhajan “Vaishnav jan to tene re kahiye je…” was Gandhiji’s favourite. Read More
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and other dignitaries pay floral tributes to Mahatma Gandhi on the occasion of his 150th birth anniversary at the Parliament in New Delhi on Wednesday. Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Gulam Nabi Azad also present. (Express photos by Neeraj Priyadarshi)
It’s the 150th birth anniversary of The Mahatma and celebrations are being held across the country and the world. See pictures here
PM Modi and Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri pay homage to to Mahatma Gandhi on 150th birth anniversary at the Rajghat, New Delhi. (Express photo: Tashi Tobgyal)
Former PM Manmohan Singh pays homage to Mahatma Gandhi. (Express photo: Tashi Tobgyal)
Peace march on the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatama Gandhi in Ludhiana. (Express photo : Gurmeet Singh)
Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi pays homage to Mahatma Gandhi at Rajghat. (Express photo: Tashi Tobgyal)
The Sabarmati riverfront was lit up with decorative lighting on the eve of Mahatma Gandhi's 150th birth anniversary which is being celebrated today. (Express photo: Javed Raja)
BJP President Amit Shah during 'Gandhi Sankalp Yatra' in Delhi: Gandhi ji's satyagraha movement brought the British to their knees. He showed the path of truth and non-violence to the world.
On the occasion of 150th Gandhi Jayanti, several events are taking place across the country. While Union Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju flagged off 'Fit India Plog run,'- a trash-collecting activity while jogging, at Indira Gandhi stadium where Wrestler Bajrang Punia was also present, 'Swacchhata Abhiyaan (cleanliness drive),' was conducted at Ramghat in Wazirabad under the 'Namami Gange Project,' today. Also, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari launched a special sales campaign of Khadi and Village Industries Commission & launched cow dung soaps and bamboo bottles yesterday, on the eve of #GandhiJayanti.
Air India pays tribute to Mahatma Gandhi by painting his portrait on the tail of an Airbus A320 aircraft at Indira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh administered a cleanliness oath to people at an event organised in Delhi Cantonment on Gandhi Jayanti, today.
Congress leader P Chidambaram tweeted: "I have asked my family to tweet on my behalf the following on October 2, 2019: Today is the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. My salutations and homage to the Great Soul. The evolution and history of homo sapiens until the end of the 19th century was largely a story of enslavement. Might was right and ‘King can do no wrong’. The seeds of democracy flowered only in the 20th century bringing the hope of liberty and equality to hundreds of countries and millions of people. The 21st century has eroded that hope. Democracy is being hollowed out in country after country - Venezuela, Russia, Myanmar, Turkey, Hungary and now even in the United States. Which way will India go? Freedom is a never ending struggle. Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty."
In the 150th year of Gandhi’s birth, as Mahatma the icon gets pressed into service once again, the burden of legacy sits lightly on Bhattacharjee’s frail shoulders. To her, he is simply Bapu. “When I was in college, nobody made a big deal of my Gandhi connection. Later, when I wondered why, I realised I was only a product of those times. The entire country was involved in the freedom movement and all those girls came from one political flow or the other. It’s not as if I was something special,” says Bhattacharjee, who later married Jyoti Prasad Bhattacharjee, whom she met during her years in Santiniketan. Read More
Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi took to Twitter to pay tributes to Mahatma Gandhi. "On his 150th Jayanti, my tributes to Mahatma Gandhi Ji, the “Father of the Nation”, who through his words & deeds, showed us that love for all living beings & non violence is the only way to defeat oppression, bigotry & hatred, " he tweeted.
“Dear Gandhiji, I (would) like to apologise to you…we have failed you. Violence is all I see when I open my eyes… My soul cries for my brothers and sisters of Kashmir who have suffered ever since the formation of free India… ” reads a letter written to Mahatma Gandhi by a student of the Maharaja Sayajirao University (MSU), Baroda, as part of a contest hosted by the MSU to mark Gandhi’s 150th birth anniversary. Titled “Dear Gandhi” and held at the faculty of arts on September 4, the contest saw 100-odd students pour their hearts out to Bapu in inland letters written by hand. Read More
Being Gandhi is an urgent book, not because the anniversary of 150 years of Gandhi is coming up. But because, more than ever, we need Gandhi today. We need his thoughts, his activism, his principles. Most of all, we need his courage to stand up for what he believed. Stand up in the face of criticism and worse. We need Gandhi today because we need to relearn that courage of conviction. Read More
No leader has had such a posthumous presence in cartoons as Gandhiji. He routinely appears on his birth and death anniversary as a periodic audit of our day-to-day politics. In between, when things go terribly wrong, the cartoonist brings him in as a benchmark for what is right. This is especially so when events that threaten social values are taking place: the demolition of the Babri Masjid, any breakdown of democracy such as during the Emergency, during riots, and, lately, whenever the sedition law is used. Gandhiji called Section 124-A “the prince among the political sections of the Indian Penal Code”. The act remains as current as its most distinguished victim, sentenced under the law in 1922. Read More
The accolades that Mahatma Gandhi received in death have few parallels in modern history. King George VI in London said that mankind had suffered an irreparable loss. Albert Deutsch, a columnist from New York, said there was still hope for a world that “had reacted as reverently as it did to the death of Gandhi.” Read More
What can one say about a man who had such strong yet complex views on most things in life? How does one select a few examples of good communication from someone who wrote prolifically and whose every word was judiciously chosen and had the ability to convey his thoughts perfectly? Bapu’s strength as a communicator was that although he used words frugally, he was so precise that he was almost never misunderstood or misquoted. Read More
Though Martin Luther King Jr has long been recognised as the public face of the American civil rights movement, and, in modern times, has been linked to Gandhi and Nelson Mandela to constitute something like a triumvirate of “prophets of non-violence”, this genealogy is not without problems. In South Africa, Mandela, among the founders of the Umkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing of the African National Congress (ANC), had a highly ambivalent relationship with Gandhi and the larger question of non-violence. Read More
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit the Sabarmati Ashram on Wednesday, on the occasion of the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, and later declare the country open defecation-free, a BJP leader said. Several events will be organised in the city and other parts of Gujarat on Wednesday as part of the sesquicentennial year of Gandhi's birth anniversary.
One of the earliest, fuzziest memories I have of Mahatma Gandhi in the movies is not a frame but a song. “De di humein azaadi bina khadag bina dhaal, Sabarmati ke sant tune kar diya kamaal”. The film, Jagriti (1963) was way before my time, and I don’t quite recall where and when I saw it. But I remember shedding copious tears because the singer was a sad little schoolboy. Gandhi’s statute, garlanded around the bust, was right up front, and it was clear to my sobbing young self that he was the central power in the room: the boy and his fellow students, were singing both about him and to him. Read More
Vaishnava jana toh, taine kahiye/ Peed parayi jaane re/ Par dukkhe upkaar kare tohe, mann abhiman na aane re
It is not very often that a piece of poetry is synonymous with someone who neither wrote it nor crooned it, but lived it instead. Vaishnava jana toh, known to be Mahatma Gandhi’s favourite hymn, was written by bhakti poet Narsinh Mehta in the 15th century. Penned in archaic Gujarati, it has its moorings in the late-night raga Khamaj, and was put to tune by musician Vishnu Digambar Paluskar. Read More
Prime Minister Narendra Modi pays tribute to Mahatma Gandhi at Raj Ghat. He also paid tribute to former prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri.
Five years ago, Prime Minister Modi wielded a broom on October 2 in Delhi’s Valmiki Basti to realise Mahatma Gandhi’s dream of a clean India by 2019, when the country was to celebrate the 150th birth anniversary of the Father of the Nation. This week we went back to Valmiki Basti, the place where Mahatma Gandhi stayed from April 1, 1946, to June 10, 1947, to see what has changed in the five years since. Read More
The line of progress might not be straight in Catalonia, but it is certainly shaping a great spirit of dignity among Catalonians and a sense of respect for Catalonia among those who never believed in the Gandhian moment of Catalonia, writes Ramin Jahanbegloo. Read the full piece here
The Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi is remembered for his unequivocal contribution to India’s freedom struggle. Born as Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi in Gujarat’s Porbandar on October 2, 1869, he as an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist, and political ethicist became synonymous with non-violent resistance or Ahimsa and Satyagrah which led to India’s independence from British Rule. Fondly called Bapu, Gandhi came to inspire movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. Read More
Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid tributes to Mahatma Gandhi on Wednesday. "Tributes to beloved Bapu! On #Gandhi150, we express gratitude to Mahatma Gandhi for his everlasting contribution to humanity. We pledge to continue working hard to realise his dreams and create a better planet," he tweeted.
Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi and BJP Working president JP Nadda pay tributes to Mahatma Gandhi at Raj Ghat. (ANI photos)
As far as Gandhians are concerned, there are far too many. For some, it is a façade more than faith. For others, it is a tactic. Not just today, even when Gandhi was alive, there were several types of Gandhians. Jawaharlal Nehru, one of the leading lights of Gandhism, was hardly a believer in it. Eminent journalist Frank Moraes wrote that one day he wanted to meet Nehru. “Come and see me during Gandhiji’s prayer meeting. I’m never there!”, Nehru told Moraes. For Nehru, Gandhism was just a political compulsion and tactic, writes Ram Madhav. Read the full piece here
We do not need Gandhiji today. We killed him then, and kill his ideas, his imagination, year after year. Gandhiji gave us enough to think and act upon during his lifetime. I was aware of his life and thinking when I started to work at the Textile Labour Association (TLA) founded by Anasuyaben with Gandhiji in Ahmedabad. Industrial relations were redefined in terms of not capital against labour, but capital and labour for rebuilding a prosperous India. Alas, the industrialist, labour leaders, and the nation have left these ideas behind, writes Ela R. Bhatt. Read the full opinion here
The fields and bylanes of villages and urban settlements that gave birth to the Champaran satyagraha echo with the name of the Mahatma, but along with reverence for the man who shaped India's freedom is also callous neglect of his legacy. In a letter to his British disciple Madeleine Slade, who came to be known as Mirabehn, Mahatma Gandhi famously called Champaran the place that introduced him to India. The 1917 Champaran satyagraha, in which Gandhi spotlighted the plight of indigo farmers, is sometimes known as India's first civil disobedience movement. But today, as the country celebrates the 150th birth anniversary of the man who inspired generations with his policy of 'ahimsa' and his principles on life, governmental and public neglect and rampant urbanisation have eclipsed history in more than one place.
In recognition of the significant influence that the Dandi March or Salt Satyagraha had on the independence movement, the government had established the ashram as a national monument. The act of non-violence, launched on March 12, 1930, from the ashram against the British Raj's salt laws galvanised millions of Indians against the British Raj. The 384-km march ended after 24 days at the salt pans of Navsari district. Historians describe the event as the one that shook the foundations of the British in India. Eighty-nine years later, the ashram, where numerous campaigns and non-violent agitations were planned, preserves several writings of Gandhi. Gandhi's way of life and his ideologies, and the serenity at the ashram attracts thousands from across the world, including researchers and academicians, said staff members.
It was one of the nerve centres of India's Independence movement and in 1930, Mahatma Gandhi led the Dandi March from here, showing the world that non-violence was the most powerful weapon of protest. Today, the Sabarmati ashram works to preserve Gandhi's heritage, legacy and ideology, and has turned into a hub for researchers to study his life, which has inspired several movements and leaders across the world.
On the banks of the Sabarmati river in Gujarat, the ashram was established after Gandhi's return from South Africa in 1917 and it used to be one of his many residences when he was not in prison or travelling. It was from this place that calls for home rule and later, self rule and independence were made.
The government of Monaco on Tuesday announced the release of postage stamps on Mahatma Gandhi ahead of his 150th birth anniversary on October 2. At least 40,000 Gandhi stamps will be on sale from October 2 at the Office des Timbres and the Musee des Timbres et des Monnaies — the post offices and philatelic counters of the country. Each stamp is priced at 2.10 euros. Read More
Good morning! Welcome to our LIVE blog. India is celebrating the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi today. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad on the occasion. Follow to get the latest updates here!