It was over five decades back in 1972 that hundreds of dacoits, or baagis as they are called locally, voluntarily surrendered in Chambal valley of central India as part of a wider and inspirational social initiative for significant, beneficial, and durable social change achieved by non-violence.
In the early morning of 6 April 1930, on the quiet shores of the Arabian Sea at Dandi in Gujarat, Mahatma Gandhi bent down, picked up a handful of salt, and quietly defied the law of the British Empire.
On March 12, 1930, Mahatma Gandhi stepped out of Sabarmati Ashram with a small group of followers and a simple but radical plan: to challenge British authority over something as basic as salt.
He emphasized that both Mahatma Gandhi and Sree Narayana Guru lacked physical or financial strength but possessed immense, lasting power due to their spiritual strength and commitment to truth.
On 17 February, the world lost one of its most resonant voices for equality - Reverend Je sse L . Jackson, Sr., who passed away at the age of 84.
I congratulate Speaker Shri Ram Niwas Goel for coming up with such a heartfelt commemoration to the Jallianwala Bagh.
The day is being celebrated across the country as Gandhi Jayanti.
Paying tribute to Bapu, President Kovind asked people to take a pledge to strive for making India the country of his dreams.
In his autobiography, Gandhiji talked of his visit to Calcutta as it then was in 1896, and the contrasting receptions he got from editors of the different newspapers he met to talk about his work in South Africa. One editor thought he was a wandering Jew while another after keeping him waiting for an hour told him, “You had better go. I am not disposed to listen to you.” Gandhiji writes: “…I met the Anglo-Indian editors also. The Statesman and The Englishman realised the importance of the (South African) question. I gave them long interviews and they published them in full.” We publish these interviews here, among the first of Gandhiji published in India.
Surprisingly, it is easy to believe in the miracles of sainthood, but very hard to believe in those of flesh and blood; the prodigies of leadership who transform the world and the way we see and move and act in the world. Yet, as Gandhi himself taught, these are not miracles at all. He summed up the philosophy of his own epic life in five words: ‘My life is my message‘
