Gandhi - finally put to rest?
On the 62nd death anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, some of his cremated remains are to be scattered at sea off South Africa's coast.
Gandhi's grand-daughter, Ela Gandhi, revealed that a family friend had kept the Mahatma's ashes for decades. They were handed over to the family last year. It is difficult to estimate how many people received a portion of Gandhi's ashes after he was cremated in 1948.
After Gandhi was assassinated 62 years ago, his ashes were distributed among family, friends and followers. Ashes are usually dispersed over a body of water shortly after cremation. Most of the Mahatma's ashes probably have been scattered in a river or at sea shortly afterwards, according to Hindu rites.
These ashes will be scattered at sea exactly 62 years after his death. In 2008, some of Gandhi's ashes, kept for years by an estranged son, were donated to a museum in Mumbai which arranged a ceremony to scatter them in the Arabian sea.
Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated by a right wing fanatic on 30 January 1948.
Gandhi stood for simplicity, frugality, intellectual honesty, and empowering the rural poor.
In an India fast adopting rampant consumerism and ostentation, where the rising middle class is keen to prostrate before the omnipresent dollar, this 'final scattering ofwhatver little is left of Gandhiji is rather poetic.
From Bihar to Bangalore, and from Kashmir to Kolkatta, Gandhi is just a fading memory. It's a very different world today, youngsters tell me.
Don't you agree?
[Top picture of Ela Gandhi courtesy BBC, the restaurant at the bottom selling 'Mahatma Gandhi' Ji's Tandoori Chicken' is in Paris. ]
Gandhi's grand-daughter, Ela Gandhi, revealed that a family friend had kept the Mahatma's ashes for decades. They were handed over to the family last year. It is difficult to estimate how many people received a portion of Gandhi's ashes after he was cremated in 1948.
After Gandhi was assassinated 62 years ago, his ashes were distributed among family, friends and followers. Ashes are usually dispersed over a body of water shortly after cremation. Most of the Mahatma's ashes probably have been scattered in a river or at sea shortly afterwards, according to Hindu rites.
These ashes will be scattered at sea exactly 62 years after his death. In 2008, some of Gandhi's ashes, kept for years by an estranged son, were donated to a museum in Mumbai which arranged a ceremony to scatter them in the Arabian sea.
Gandhi stood for simplicity, frugality, intellectual honesty, and empowering the rural poor.
In an India fast adopting rampant consumerism and ostentation, where the rising middle class is keen to prostrate before the omnipresent dollar, this 'final scattering ofwhatver little is left of Gandhiji is rather poetic.
Don't you agree?
[Top picture of Ela Gandhi courtesy BBC, the restaurant at the bottom selling 'Mahatma Gandhi' Ji's Tandoori Chicken' is in Paris. ]
Comments
Valentine's Day is around the corner - see gandhi being slaughtered all over agan, as goondas smash up things and the 'non-violent, secular' folks will just stand and do nothing!
Jai Hind! Jai Ahimsa!