Gandhi Jayanti is an event celebrated in India to mark the birth anniversary of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. It is celebrated yearly on 2nd October and it is one of the National holidays of India, observed in all of its states and union territories. Despite the holiday, Indian schools exceptions to it. Most of the schools in India remain open for the celebration.
If you are Indian you will surely know how we celebrate Gandhi Jayanti. But I think I should explain it to our foreign audience. In Schools, 2nd October is served as Half – Day with no study, students gather in assembly ground where the celebration begins. Students deliver speeches, recite poems, dances, and patriotic songs also join the party. After all these things senior members of school authorities conclude the assembly by reminding all the principles of Mahatma Gandhi. Not only in Schools, in each part of the country Gandhi Jayanti is treated as a festival. Each Year Prime Minister of India addresses the nation on this day. Every citizen of the country celebrates Gandhi Jayanti by adopting one resolution of their wish, for the betterment of society and environment, as we do in New year’s time.
If I start writing about Bapu, I can’t cover it up all. Bapu has done so many remarkable things that all can’t just fit within one blog. So here we start with a brief bio of him. Ya, you all are thinking what’s need of it, but according to me “it is always better to know some more facts than you actually think you know”. So let’s get started.
Brief Bio
Mahatma Gandhi was born on 2nd October 1869 into an Indian Gujarati Modh Baniya family in Porbandar. Bapu’s father’s name was Karamchand Gandhi who previously been a clerk in the state administration and later proved a capable chief minister. His mother’s name was Putlibai who was from a Pranama Vaishnava Hindu family. Bapu was the youngest one among his four siblings.
In May 1883, the 13-year-old Mohandas was married to 14-year-old Kasturbai Makhanji Kapadia in an arranged marriage, according to the customs of the region at that time. In November 1887, the 18-year-old Gandhi graduated from high school in Ahmedabad, and further, on 4th September, he sailed from Bombay to London. He attended University College, London which is a constituent college of the University of London.
In April 1893, Gandhi aged 23, set sail for South Africa. He spent 21 years in South Africa, where he developed his political views, ethics, and politics. That period of his life you can say most challenging one for him but he stepped up against it. The moment he landed in South Africa, he began to face discrimination. So many things happened to him as one with the train incident, where he was thrown out of the train as he was not white. But he chose to kill all these discriminations and fight for the rights of all. After years of protest and work, Gandhi and Nelson Mandela succeeded in gaining Independence for South Africa. In 1914 Bapu decided to come back home.
From 1914 till the time of his death, he devoted his life only to Mother India. From Champaran, he began his war against British rule. Hundreds of hot and cold movements helped India to gain Independence. 15th August 1947 was the day when he reaped the fruits of his hard work. At 5:17 pm on 30 January 1948, Gandhi was with his grandnieces in the garden of Birla house, on his way to address a prayer meeting, when Nathuram Godse fired three bullets from a pistol into his chest. And this all ends for him like this.
More for Bapu
Here we will discuss what made Bapu “Mahatma”. His work for his nation is priceless but apart from these, he was also a great soul and a man following principles. I love to share two incidents about him.
One day a man approaches Bapu complaining about his son as his son eats so much amount of sweets. He requested Bapu to guide his son. Bapu assured him that he will call his son soon. Two weeks passed but Bapu didn’t call him. Father thought Bapu might have forgotten about it, so he decided to remind him. He reached Bapu again and asked him about that so. In reply to it, Bapu said before guiding his son Bapu first has to change himself, as he also eats sweet in the large amount. Irrespective of his position Bapu decided here to change himself, which is one of the traits of a great soul. From this incident, we can confirm he believed in the theory which states that “If you are pointing a finger towards someone please remember that other three fingers are pointing at you only”.
In the second incident, Bapu left in the middle of a very important meeting to just apply medicine on his goat’s foot. One asks why he left in the middle of such an important discussion. He answered sweetly “because it turned 4 pm which is time for him to do that particular task in his schedule”. A schedule is necessary for a well-disciplined life.
What we can do for him?
Mahatma Gandhi had some dreams like to see Green India, Clean India, better treatment for animals, equality in society, and many more. We can change ourselves and can make his dreams ours. So on this Gandhi Jayanti take an oath to become a better human being. We have to do nothing, we just have to change ourselves.
Please don’t forget to share and comment down below, how you are trying to be a good citizen of world?
He is a STUDENT who is trying to find solutions to the complex problems of the world. Doing pretty well as a blogger and loving it.
