Johannesburg - The legacy of Mahatma Gandhi’s message of non-violence and passive resistance still echoes in South Africa and globally as the world celebrates his 150th birthday this week.
The Indian lawyer and anti-colonial nationalist’s birthday was celebrated at Satyagraha House in Orchards, Johannesburg, where he lived from 1908 to 1909, on Wednesday. In an intimate session about the iconic man, his great-granddaughter Kirti Menon, 60, spoke about how it felt like to be part of his legacy.
Menon is the granddaughter of Manilal who is Gandhi’s second son. Menon is also an activist, writer and senior director at the University of Johannesburg.
“It’s a legacy which is sometimes quite intimidating because you have to live up to someone that is revered internationally but it is also something that we are proud of,” she said.
During the celebration, Menon said she was proud of her great-grandfather’s legacy because it brought change and peace to the world.
“The message of non-violence and passive resistance are the messages that have echoed from my childhood and the tales we grew up listening to,” she said.
Narotam Govind Patel, known by many as NG Patel, conducted the keynote address, in which he highlighted the comparison between Gandhi and South African icon Nelson Mandela.
Patel is an attorney who practised at Chancellor House in Johannesburg CBD with Mandela and Oliver Tambo.
Patel told the delegates, who included relatives of Thami Naidoo, a collaborator of Gandhi’s from 1906 to 1913, that Mandela and Gandhi shared similarities including their multiple arrests during their fight against discrimination. They were both also lawyers.
He noted that “none of us are exactly happy with what is happening right now in South Africa or India”. However, Patel added that this was not Gandhi or Mandela’s fault.
“Most people would agree that the two of them represented the best in the last 100 years that we know,” he said.
Satyagraha House was built in 1907 and designed by Gandhi’s friend, Hermann Kallenbach. It was at this house where Gandhi, who fought discrimination against Indians in South Africa, developed the principle of satyagraha, a form of passive resistance.
“We are celebrating the 150th date of Mohandas Gandhi’s birth to remind ourselves that much can be achieved with Satyagraha - truth and non-violence and love,” said Fabrice Dabouineau, CEO of The Satyagraha House, and director of the agency Voyageurs du Monde Africa, the owner company of the property.