 Former
British Labour Party leader, Michael Foot, opens an exhibition of
Mahatma Gandhi’s images from around the world
The former leader of the
British Labour Party and the President of India League Michael
Foot inaugurated an exhibition of Mahatma Gandhi’s photographs
from around the world at India House in London. Later on the
occasion of the first UN International Day of Non-Violence, the
Acting Indian High Commissioner Asoke Mukherjee launched a
beautiful photographic book ‘Mahatma Gandhi: Images and Ideas
for Non-Violence’
Edited by the London based
Indian broadcast journalist and the editor of NRIfm.com,
Vijay Rana, the book presents a remarkable collection of the
images of Mahatma Gandhi’s statues, murals, graffiti, wall
paintings, posters and puppets. It also presents the entire
spectrum of Gandhian thought.
Selected photographs from
the book were presented in this exhibition. Foot, a lifelong
admirer of Gandhi, described the collection as ‘inspiring and
overwhelming’. More than a hundred guests, including
visiting dignitaries, Indian League and UK’s Gandhi Foundation
members attended the functions.
Many of these images have a
remarkable story to tell. When the victims of Hurricane Mitch in
Nicaragua began to reconstruct their destroyed village, they
sought inspiration from Mahatma Gandhi by painting a huge mural of
him on the very first wall they erected. In a crime-ridden part of
Granada, Spain, an unknown graffiti artist drew a smiling portrait
of Mahatma Gandhi on a village wall as if asking people to shun
violence. Similarly, in almost all the anti-war protest in
the US Gandhi’s puppets, posters and placards occupy a prominent
place. That’s how the image of Gandhi is being used in various
parts of the world.
While introducing his book
Vijay Rana reminded the audience of Nehru’s historic speech
after Gandhi’s assassination on 30 January 1948, in which Nehru
predicted that the light that illuminated India in the form of
Mahatma Gandhi would continue to ‘give solace to
innumerable hearts’. “This is what exactly is happening in the
world today. Gandhi’s images and ideas are inspiring millions of
peace campaigners all over the world.”
It took more than three
years, thousands of emails and hundreds of phone calls to collect
these remarkable photographs from around the world. These
photographers, many of them armatures, had a genuine reverence for
Gandhi and were kind enough to permit the use of their remarkable
images. By recording the presence of Gandhi in almost all parts of
the world, they have helped to spread the message of Gandhi, so
vividly spelled out in this book – a world without violence and
a society where justice prevailed, where poor had dignity and
where different faiths flourished in mutual respect.
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