Today marks the 74th death anniversary of the father of our nation – Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi aka ‘Bapu’. And to remember and pay homage to the Gandhian ideologies, ANHAD (Act Now for Harmony and Democracy) – an Indian socio-cultural organization established in March 2003, organised an online event “Reimagining India – Gandhi Ke Kadmo Par”.
It was a zoom event scheduled on January 30, 4:00 – 7:00 pm. Many dignitaries including Ratna Pathak Shah, Dr Mallika Sarabhai, Naseeruddin Shah, RJ Sayema, Apoorva Anand, Ashok Vajpayi, Syeda Hameed, Gauhar Raza, Mridula Mukherjee, T M Krishna, Richa Chaddha and Shubha Mudgal participated.
The event was commenced by the moderator Raza Haider. He threw some light on Gandhian ideologies like vegetarianism, the swadeshi movement, fighting against the British and against discrimination based on colour. “Gandhi had a different view on building in India, which was poverty alleviation, religious pluralism, non-violence, and independence.”, he said.
While Mridula Mukherjee and Apoorva Anand put emphasis on Gandhi’s strong will to keep people united. “He wanted a whole India and not the one broken by religion.”
Sayema paid her tribute by humming to one of his Bhajans – “Vaishnav Jan To..”. Gauhar Raza, on the other hand, said that he had witnessed Gandhi every time he has met the needy. Gandhi’s hope for a better India lies in that last “Hey Ram” he narrated, says Raza and went on to recite a beautiful poem, “Jhini Chaadar.”
Dr Mallika Sarabhai expressed her homage beautifully by a video of a poem by Maya Angelou “Still I Rise”. She used a few lines from the poem to depict the Gandhian thought:
“You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air I’ll rise.”
Many other artists performed and shared visuals of their tribute to Mahatma Gandhi. T M Krishna shared a video of him singing Vaishnav Jan Toh while Ratna Pathak had given visuals of her reciting a poem. Richa Chaddha expressed her covet to want the Gandhian Community to rise and reinterpret Gandhi in India.
