January 30 marks the 63rd anniversary of the assassination of Mohandas Gandhi, a Hindu himself, by a Hindu extremist in 1948. At the conclusion of a month when we recall the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. — who was deeply influenced by Gandhi and visited India in 1959 — let us also honor Mahatma Gandhi.
Gandhi and King are two of President Barack Obama’s heroes. When he received the Nobel Peace Prize in December 2009, President Obama remarked, “As someone who stands here as a direct consequence of Dr. King’s life work, I am living testimony to the moral force of non-violence. I know there’s nothing weak — nothing passive — nothing naïve — in the creed and lives of Gandhi and King.”
Last November, when the President traveled to India, he saw a Gandhi museum in Mumbai as well as the Rajghat memorial (where Gandhi’s body was cremated) in New Delhi.
In December 2009, my wife and I visited another Gandhi museum in New Delhi: the Gandhi Smriti (remembrance) at the site of his assassination.
J. Brown Photos
There, visitors can walk from the room where he spent his final months, along the path of his final steps.
Signs on that path show Gandhi’s own words, including this call for a universal nationalism:
“My patriotism is not exclusive, it is calculated not only not to hurt any other nation but to benefit all in the true sense of the word. India’s freedom as conceived by me can never be [a] menace to the world.”
The museum has a serenity and a solemnity akin to a place of worship. Where a horrific murder occurred, a sanctuary now prevails amid India’s capital city.
The site of Gandhi’s murder, following his approach from the path at left.
India is typically in the American consciousness for global economic reasons, or regarding national security in relation to China and Pakistan, or because of the many contributions of the growing Indian American population. We should also remember the power of Gandhi’s example — how he helped bring about a nation’s independence and inspired other leaders and citizens of the world to dream.
Gandhi’s vision of peace too often remains unrealized, in his own country and beyond. But that vision’s moral appeal endures as an ideal to inform the everyday strivings of people and of nations.
Josiah H. Brown lives in New Haven with his wife — a citizen of India — and their children.