From Kanyakumari to Kashmir, it’s Gandhi all the way

A seven-member team from Gandhi Parikrama for Global Peace visited the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) as part of their tour from Kanyakumari to Kashimir and back to Kanyakumari, advocating Gandhian principles and global peace.

The members met mayor SK Nataraj and others, promoting peace and harmony.

National convenor P Maruthi said the 108-day tour began on October 17, 2010 from Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu and they reached Jammu & Kashmir on December 8. The group will return to Kanyakumari on January 30. “We are promoting communal harmony, identifying persons, particularly the youth and students, interested in Gandhian activities and are creating awareness about compulsory education,” he said.

The team also includes 65-year-old Mohammad Haneef Gandhi from Ahmedabad. A retired textile artist, he has been actively involved in propagating Gandhian principles for the past 40 years. Explaining why he had such an unusual name, he said, the grain merchants were referred to as Gandhi in Gujarat. Since his ancestors were grain merchants, he got the surname Gandhi. “When I was 22, I read the autobiography of Gandhi and was much influenced. Then on, I started advocating his principles to the youth. After my retirement, I have been visiting Sahapur Seva Samaj Hospital and other hospitals near my house to serve the poor. I also conduct yoga classes for the youth,” he said.

Gandhian Mohammad eats only one meal a day in the evenings. “I get a pension of `2,029 and I meet my expenses with that money,” he said. Mohammad Gandhi conducted a hunger strike for 58 days at Aravind Textile Company opposing the Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS). “Young colleagues of mine were made to take up VRS forcefully. The matter was discussed in the assembly and the company management came to a compromise. The workers benefited from the Satyagraha,” he said.

The other members in the team are Bala Srinivasan, an advocate and K Rajendra Babu, a retired officer, both from Tamil Nadu; K Nagaraju from Andhra Pradesh; A Karunakaran, a Gandhian activist and A Raja Sekar, a farmer, from Chennai. bk_lakshmikantha@dnaindia.net