Gandhi Jayanti, Interesting Facts About Mahatma Gandhi Life: Today on 2nd October the whole country is celebrating Gandhi Jayanti. This is Bapu’s 155th birth anniversary. The United Nations has declared this day as the International Day of Non-Violence in honor of Mahatma Gandhi, the priest of truth and non-violence. In such a situation, the whole world also celebrates this day as International Day of Non-Violence. Gandhiji forced the British government to kneel on the basis of Satyagraha without taking up arms. It is true that Gandhiji became active in India’s freedom struggle from 1915. And the war of independence was going on many decades before that. But Gandhiji’s entry gave tremendous impetus to the Indian independence movement. Born on 2 October 1869 in Porbandar, Gujarat, Mahatma Gandhi’s non-violent policies, moral foundations and amazing leadership abilities brought more people to the freedom movement. He stressed on treating all religions equally, respecting all languages, giving equal status to men and women and bridging the age-old gap between Dalits and non-Dalits.
Read here interesting facts related to Gandhiji’s life:
1. Why did Gandhiji have differences with Subhash Chandra Bose?
There were differences of opinion on some issues between Mahatma Gandhi and Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, although both respected each other. Actually, the objective of Bapu and Netaji was same but their ideologies were different. Gandhi was a strong believer in non-violence and Satyagraha, whereas for Bose, Gandhi’s strategy based on non-violence was not enough to achieve India’s independence. For Bose, only violent resistance and vigorous revolution could oust foreign imperialist rule from India. Apart from this, Netaji was angry with Gandhiji and Congress for not being able to save Bhagat Singh.
Then in 1939, Netaji became the Congress President by defeating Pattabhi Sitaramaiya, a candidate supported by Gandhiji. Gandhiji had opposed this. On this the rift between Gandhi and Bose increased. After about one and a half months, Netaji resigned from Congress.
Naming two brigades of the Azad Hind Fauj after Gandhi and Nehru was Netaji’s tribute to the sacrifices of these leaders during the attempted invasion of India.
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2- In school, Gandhiji was a good student in English, while he was an average student in Mathematics and weak in Geography. His handwriting was very beautiful.
3. Poet Rabindranath Tagore had given the title of Mahatma to Gandhiji.
4- Subhash Chandra Bose addressed Mahatma Gandhi as ‘Father of the Nation’ for the first time. On June 4, 1944, while broadcasting a message from Singapore Radio, ‘Father of the Nation’ Mahatma Gandhi had said.
5- World famous personalities like great scientist Albert Einstein, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, writer Leo Tolstoy, Aung San Suu Kyi were greatly influenced by the thoughts of Gandhiji. Einstein had said that people would not believe that such a person had ever come to this earth. Whereas Mandela learned a lot from Gandhiji and after being released from jail, like Bapu, he raised his voice against apartheid in a non-violent manner. For this reason he is called Gandhi of Africa.
6- Gandhiji did not like having his photo taken at all.
7- He used to keep his false teeth tied in his dhoti. Used to wear them only while eating food.
8- He was nominated for the Nobel Prize 5 times. He was murdered in 1948 before he could receive the award.
9- Mahatma Gandhi was greatly influenced by seeing Shravan Kumar’s story and Harishchandra’s play.
10- He loved the name of Ram so much that even at the last moment of his death, his last word was Ram.
11- In the year 1930, he was awarded the title of Man of the Year by America’s Time magazine.
12- To help the earthquake victims in Bhagalpur in 1934, he charged Rs 5 each for his autograph.
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13- Are you aware that when India got independence on 15 August 1947, Mahatma Gandhi was not in the celebration. Then he was in Noakhali, Bengal, thousands of kilometers away from Delhi, where he was fasting to stop the communal violence between Hindus and Muslims. Gandhiji left Delhi two weeks before the fixed date of independence. He spent four days in Kashmir and then left for Kolkata by train, where the year-long riots had not ended.
14- Gandhiji celebrated 15 August 1947 by fasting for 24 hours. At that time the country had got independence but along with it the country was also divided. For the last few months, there were continuous riots in the country between Hindus and Muslims. Gandhiji was very saddened by this turbulent environment.
15. Great Britain, the country against which he fought for India’s independence, issued a postage stamp in his honor 21 years after his death.
16. Gandhiji was a big fan of football. When he lived in South Africa, he founded two football clubs in Pretoria and Johannesburg. Apart from this, Gandhiji established Tolstoy Farm, a small colony of 1100 acres, 21 miles away from Johannesburg, South Africa, for his associates in the struggle of Satyagraha.
17. Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday and the country’s second Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri’s birthday fall on the same day. Shastri ji, who gave the slogan of Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan, was born in 1904.
18. Gandhiji got married at the age of just 13. In 1882, he was married to 14 year old Kasturba.
19. He gave the name of Harijan to the Dalits and backward people who were suffering from untouchability.
20. In 1982, Gandhi, a film based on the life of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, won the Academy Award for Best Motion Picture.