Celebrate Gandhi Jayanti
This week millions of people in India will celebrate the life and legacy of Mahatma Gandhi. Thursday, October 2, 2008 is Gandhi Jayanti, a national holiday in India marking what would be the 139th birthday of Gandhi, known in India as the "Father of the Nation." Jayanti is a Hindi word meaning "victorious."
The United Nations also named October 2 as International Day of Non-Violence in honor of Gandhi's lifelong commitment to peaceful protest.
Though never elected to any political office, Gandhi became known as a symbol of independent India and was the spiritual leader of millions. He spent much of his life advocating nonviolent protest to social injustice and to the independence of India from the British empire. He was assassinated just five months after India was declared a free nation.
Gandhi often talked about the need for religious tolerance. When asked if he was a Hindu, he is quoted as saying, "Yes I am, I am also a Muslim, a Christian, a Buddhist, and a Jew." During the last days of his life he fasted to protest the violence that broke out between Hindus and Muslims in newly independent India.
Gandhi also spoke out against the ancient Hindu caste system, which divides India's people into thousands of groups. He angered many high-caste Hindus by using the term "Children of God" to refer to Untouchables, who are considered sub-human and literally outside the caste system (thus the term "outcast"). Gandhi spent more than a dozen years in an ashram, or commune, where he lived out his principles of equality for all.
Check out these web resources to learn more about Gandhi
- Read a brief history of the life and death of Gandhi.
- Watch video clips about Gandhi's famous 1930 Salt March to protest the British salt tax.
- Hear an audio clip of Gandhi giving a speech in London in 1931.
- Read about influences in Gandhi's life that led to his commitment to peaceful civil disobedience.
- Take an interactive quiz about Gandhi.
- See a trailer for the 1982 Richard Attenborough film Gandhi
(recommended for older viewers). - Read the front-page New York Times article about Gandhi's assassination on January 30, 1948 by a Hindu radical.
Suggested Gandhi activities
- Create a large map of India using recycled materials. For example, use parts of egg cartons to mark mountains and colored string might be used to indicate major rivers, like the Ganges, while buttons could show the location of major cities. Use salt to mark the ending point of Gandhi's 240-mile Salt March, on the western coast of Gujarat. Place a small piece of plain cloth in Gujarat to represent Gandhi's practice of spinning thread for his own clothes. Make a small flag of India to mark New Delhi, the capital of newly created India and the place of Gandhi's death.
- Perform a play about the life of Gandhi. You may find it easiest to focus on one time in his life, such as his childhood or early years as a leader in the non-violence movement.
- Pretend you are a TV or radio newscaster. If you could interview Gandhi today, what would you ask him? What might he say about modern India?
- Create a timeline of the life of Gandhi.
- Imagine a conversation between Gandhi and another famous pacifist, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. What might they talk about? What advice might they give us about changing our world for the better?
- Choose a quote from Gandhi to write about. Do you agree or disagree with what he said? How does what Gandhi said compare to what the Bible tells us?
