DURBAN - As Mahatma Gandhi’s 150th birth anniversary celebrations continue this year, his granddaughter, Ela Gandhi, said her grandfather’s approach to resolving conflict was needed in the country’s current violent times.
Speaking from her Durban home, Ela said: “With corruption and selfishness on the rise in South Africa, people need to start learning his teachings of non-violence.
“South Africans need to move from ‘I’ to ‘we’ and from ‘mine’ to ‘ours’.”
This week marks 71 years since Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated by Nathuram Godse, a Hindu nationalist, on January 30, 1948.
Gandhi’s link to South Africa began some decades after the first Indians arrived in the country in 1860 as indentured labourers.
When Gandhi, a lawyer, was asked to come to South Africa for a case, he experienced racism first-hand when, in 1893, he was thrown out of a whites-only train carriage on to the freezing ground at Pietermaritzburg railway station.
The incident led to Gandhi founding the Satyagraha movement. It was his commitment to Satyagraha which brought India its freedom in 1947.
Ela said that while Gandhi had led the movement, people should not forget the contribution his wife, Kasturba, made to the Struggle.
“Like many wives, she was neglected. It is also important to pay attention to the work she did and celebrate her life and her contribution,” Ela said.
She said that Kasturba taught the movement about gender equality and organised marches for women who defied the laws.
“While the women in Bloemfontein were not arrested, Kasturba and her group were arrested and jailed in Pietermaritzburg.
“As a vegetarian, she requested vegetarian meals in prison, but since it was not respected, she went on a fast.
“That was when Gandhi learnt the importance of fasting to register your protest.
“She was very courageous and brave, and stood her ground. With the present rise of woman and child abuse, it is even more important to look at Kasturba’s and Gandhi’s teachings and principles,” Ela said.
Last year, India and South Africa commemorated Nelson Mandela’s 100th birthday and the 150th- anniversary celebrations of Mahatma Gandhi through Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Cyril Ramaphosa releasing stamps on the two peace icons in the course of their bilateral meeting on the margins of the BRICS Summit.
The Gandhi 150 celebrations started in India on October 2 and will continue until October 2, 2020.
President Cyril Ramaphosa was in India on Friday and Saturday as chief guest for India’s 70th Republic Day Parade.
Ela said that Gandhi played an important role in linking the two countries.
“Gandhi said that India cannot be free until South Africa is free. He made India use its position in the world to help South Africa.
“India was also the first country to give recognition to the ANC,” she said.
She said Ramaphosa’s visit to India to celebrate Independence Day consolidated the relationship between the two countries.