Today is the 140th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhiji. It’s our duty to know about him and his principle. Most of our youngster’s only know October 2nd is a national Holiday. This post is to reveal some little known facts about the man who is behind it.
Mahatma Gandhi was nominated for the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1937, 1938, 1939, 1947. But he was assassinated before he received it so in order to honor him Noble Prize was not awarded to anyone.
Mahatma Gandhi will speak English with Irish accent because one of his teachers is an Irishmen.
We all know Gandhiji with loin cloth but he used to wear silk hat and spat when he was in London during his college days he used to carry a cane with him.
Gandhiji earned $15000 in a year when he was in South Africa. This is still a dream for many.
He also experimented with diets to see how cheaply he can live and also can remain healthy. His principle food stuffs are fruits, goat oil and olive oil.
Gandhiji has huge admirers in America one of them to be mentioned is Henry Ford. He sent him an autographed charkha (spinning wheel) through a journalist.
80 countries issued 250 stamps on our Mahatma.
Gandhiji was the big inspiration for 5 people who got noble prize for peace they were. Martin Luther King Jr. (USA), Dalai Lama (Tibet), Aung San Suu Kyi (Myanmar), Nelson Mandela (S. Africa) and Adolfo Perez Esquivel (Argentina) have acknowledged the fact that they were influenced by the philosophy of Gandhi. Yet, Mahatma Gandhi; the man who inspired these Nobel Peace Prize winners, never got a Noble Prize!
The great Scientist Albert Einstein once said about Gandhi :
“Generations to come will scarcely believe that such a one as this (Gandhi) walked the earth in flesh and blood.”
He also once said,
” I believe that Gandhi’s views were the most enlightened of all the political men in our time. We should strive to do things in his spirit: not to use violence in fighting for our cause, but by non-participation in anything you believe is evil.”
The more I read about Gandhi, the more I become humble to the greatness of this man who was seeking nothing for himself but was willing to die in order that others may live.
Also leaders of the civil rights movement in the United States, Martin Luther King and James Lawson, drew from the writings of Gandhi in the development of their own theories about non-violence. Anti-apartheid activist and former President of South Africa, Nelson Mandela, was inspired by Gandhi. Albert Einstein once called Gandhi "a role model for the generations to come" in a letter writing about him. British musician John Lennon referred to Gandhi as an influence on his music. Former US Vice-President and environmentalist Al Gore also acknowledges Gandhi's influence on him.
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