INDIA - Prospects in Central Europe
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Dr. Claudia Preckel Premium Member Group moderatorThe company name is only visible to registered members.Gandhi's ashes scattered at sea..
Ashes of Indian independence leader Mahatma Gandhi have been scattered off the coast of Mumbai to mark the 60th anniversary of his assassination.
An urn containing the ashes was opened and they were mixed with water from the Arabian Sea by his great-granddaughter Nilamben Parikh.
The ceremony was in accordance with Hindu rites.
Gandhi - called Mahatma or "Great Soul" - spearheaded a non-violent campaign against the British Raj.
'His campaign culminated in India getting its independence in 1947.
"It is a day of thought and reflection for me and for all of us who can now look to carry his thoughts forward," Ms Parikh, 75, said.
I feel on this occasion the whole nation will come together."
She and 10 other family members - descendants of Gandhi's four sons - boarded a boat and scattered the ashes about 1km (0.6 miles) out to sea.
Ms Parikh is descended from Gandhi's eldest son, Harilal, who had a turbulent relationship with his father and was not at his funeral, contravening Hindu tradition by which the eldest son lights the father's funeral pyre.
Her participation in the ceremony has been described by family members as a gesture of reconciliation.
After Gandhi's cremation, his ashes were distributed in 20 different containers to towns and villages across India for memorial services.
Some were kept and worshipped by wealthy industrialist families who supported Gandhi during his lifetime.
Moral conscience
In 1997, one such urn was found in a bank locker in the state of Orissa. They were later immersed in keeping with the family's wishes.
The BBC's Prachi Pinglay, who attended the Mumbai ceremony, says that many of those present at Chowpatty beach were in their seventies.
Indian Home Minister Shivraj Patel and Maharashtra Governor SM Krishna represented national and state governments.
The ashes were taken to sea after police formed a guard of honour.
Gandhi was assassinated by a Hindu fanatic in 1948. Today he is widely revered as the nation's moral conscience.
His principles of truth and non-violence have been widely followed and worshipped.
However, some Hindus question his philosophy of non-violence.
Wednesday's ceremony was deeply moving for 72-year-old lawyer Trivedi, who stood at the barricade in Mumbai and watched his wife Usha Trivedi go with the boat to immerse the ashes.
He watched the media scuffle with police as they jostled to get on other boats to cover the ceremony with a certain amount of sadness.
"Isn't it an irony that when ashes of a man who practiced peace and non-violence are being immersed, there is so much commotion and chaos?" he asked.
As the ashes dropped deep into the sea, another follower with childhood memories of Gandhi, 72-year-old Dr Vora, was overcome with emotion.
"Hope he is reborn," she said
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7217111.stm
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A video of the ceremony can be seen here:http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/01/080130-ghand...
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German:
Genau 60 Jahre ist es her, dass Mahatma Gandhi ermordet wurde. Jetzt haben die Angehörigen des Freiheitskämpfers dessen Asche vor der Küste Bombays verstreut. Ursprünglich sollte die Urne mit den Überresten Gandhis in einem Museum ausgestellt werden.
Bombay - Gandhis Urenkelin Nilamben Parikh mischte einen Teil der Asche gemäß hinduistischem Ritus mit Wasser und schüttete die Urne über dem Arabischen Meer aus, wie sie heute sagte. Dafür war die 75-Jährige gemeinsam mit zehn Familienmitgliedern in einem Boot rund einen Kilometer aufs Meer hinausgefahren. An der Zeremonie, bei der eine Polizeikapelle Ghandis Lieblingsstücke spielte, nahm auch die indische Innenministerin Shivraj Patil teil.
"Das ist ein Tag für tiefe Gedanken. Dieser Tag wird uns dabei helfen, zu erkennen, wie wir voranschreiten", betonte Parikh. Gandhis Familie hatte gestern mitgeteilt, sie habe sich dagegen entschieden, die Urne mit der Asche des Begründers des gewaltfreien Widerstandes in einem staatlichen Museum zur Schau zu stellen.
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, genannt Mahatma (Große Seele), hatte in den vierziger Jahren eine gewaltlose Kampagne gegen die britische Kolonialherrschaft angeführt, die schließlich zur Unabhängigkeit Indiens 1947 führte. Am 30. Januar 1948 wurde Gandhi beim Gebet in Neu Delhi erschossen.
Nach seiner Einäscherung war seine Asche in verschiedenen Urnen in diverse Landesteile geschickt worden, wo Trauerfeiern für ihn abgehalten wurden. Ein Freund der Familie hatte einen Teil der Asche aufbewahrt - dessen Sohn ließ sie im vergangenen Jahr den Nachkommen Gandhis zukommen. Ursprünglich sollte sie im Mani-Bhavan-Museum ausgestellt werden.http://www.spiegel.de
CP
- 31 Jan 2008, 4:50 pm
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Michael Rajiv Shah Premium Member Group moderatorThe company name is only visible to registered members.Re^2: Gandhi's ashes scattered at sea..
Dear Mr. B. …
... nice to have you here.
It's a pity that inspite of his doctrines about Non-Violence and his philosophy, he was never given the Nobel Peace Prize. There was recently some discussion on this on the local television. I don't know exactly but some say that he was nominated and some one else got the peace prize. And there was talk that the Peace prize was not given due to some technicalities.
Yes you are very right. I never thought about that. Is there any way to change it …?
What inspires me the most was his simple life style and compassion for the underprivileged.
My biggest inspiration for my personal life too is how he managed to control his individual aggressions and turn them into POWER for LOVE for ALL.
;-)
MiSha
- 01 Feb 2008, 10:17 am
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Sabine LantermannThe company name is only visible to registered members.Re^4: Gandhi's ashes scattered at sea..
Could you figure out the year the opportunity at that time was missed?
Up to now, I thougt he was holding the Nobel Prize for Peace!
Saar-Biene
- 07 Feb 2008, 10:40 pm
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Dr. Claudia Preckel Premium Member Group moderatorThe company name is only visible to registered members.
Re^5: Gandhi's ashes scattered at sea..
Hello @all,
please see this very interesting article on this subject:
Mahatma Gandhi, the Missing Laureate:
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/articles/gandhi/ind...
CP
- 08 Feb 2008, 12:11 am
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Bernd BachmeierThe company name is only visible to registered members.Re^6: Gandhi's ashes scattered at sea..
Guten Morgen Frau Preckel,
vielen Dank für diesen informativen Artikel über Mahatma Gandhi.
Viele Grüße
Bernd Bachmeier
- 08 Feb 2008, 10:03 am
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Ashant Chalasani Premium Member Group moderatorThe company name is only visible to registered members.Re^7: Gandhi's ashes scattered at sea..
Hello all,
Picking this up a little late...
I don't want to sound extreme here, but I think not awarding the Nobel Prize to Mahatma Gandhi has been more a loss to the value of the Prize itself, than vice-versa. This is tacitly demonstrated when 6-7 decades after the man's death, people today question why the prize wasn't awarded to him.
Ashant
- 24 Jun 2008, 5:12 pm
