On Martyrs’ Day, writer Nayantara Sahgal recalled the day Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated, and noted how times have changed today. She said, “We don’t need to be a nationalist because we have been a nation for 70 years.”
She was speaking at the ‘India Unites Convention on Non Violence and Harmony’, a non-political, citizen-led campaign held at Sophia College to commemorate the 71st anniversary of Gandhiji’s martyrdom. The objective of the meeting was to appeal to the nation to resist and confront the growing culture of violence.
Ms. Sahgal said, “I was in the room with my cousin Indira when Gandhiji died. I was introduced to Gandhiji by my family and he created a nation which brought the mass and class together.” She said Gandhiji knew that the majority in India were not Hindu but poor.
She said that Gandhiji at the time of the Partition said ‘ Ishwar Allah tero naam sab ko sanmati de bhagwan’, but Hindutva today is “distorting our history, science and art”. Ms. Sahgal remembered journalist Gauri Lankesh, writer M.M. Kalburgi and others who were killed for speaking truth to power”. She said, “Let’s not forget those who were tortured and lynched.”
Retired Justice of the Supreme Court Jasti Chelameswar said, “Gandhiji’s India was different. The administration of law and maintenance of law and order is an aspect of securing harmony. It is the political will of the government of the day that makes all the difference.”
Admiral L. Ramdas, former Chief of Naval Staff, spoke on ‘military, democracy and communal harmony’. He said on the day Gandhiji died, he was 14 years old and remembered how Jawarharlal Nehru took to the radio and kept repeating ‘Muslims have not killed Bapu’. Mr. Ramdas said, “Gandhiji was a truthful warrior and had inner strength.”
Poet and lyricist Javed Akhtar said, “The person who killed Gandhiji did not want to kill him. He wanted to kill a hope, a dream. An ideology killed Gandhiji, not a man. Na Gandhi ki zindagi khatam hui na unki goliyan khatam hui [Neither has Gandhi’s life ended, nor have their bullets been exhausted].”
