As a rule I never post twice in a day. My output, as it is, is not mighty prolific! So if I happen to have two good ideas on the same day, I save one for later or if I do write it down, I schedule the post for another day. But today is different – today is the birthday of M. K. Gandhi – the Mahatma – Bapu. And apart from the previous post, which was scheduled(!), this one is in remembrance.

First up – Google pays tribute to the Apostle of Peace through this Google Doodle which appears on the Google India and Google UK pages.

Next, Obama, on the way to Copenhagen, issued a special message of commemoration for the occasion.

“On behalf of the American people, I want to express appreciation for the life and lessons of Mahatma Gandhi on the anniversary of his birth. This is an important moment to reflect on his message of non-violence, which continues to inspire people and political movements across the globe.”

Obama’s admiration for Gandhi is well-known. During the run-up to last year’s Presidential Election, it was revealed that he had a portrait of the Mahatma at his Senate Office. Also recently, when he was asked by a 9th grader at the Wakefield High School, Arlington, Virginia, about who he would chose if he could have dinner with anyone, dead or alive, his answer was,

I think that it might be Gandhi, who is a real hero of mine. Now, it would probably be a really small meal because — (laughter) — he didn’t eat a lot. But he’s somebody who I find a lot of inspiration in. He inspired Dr. King, so if it hadn’t been for the non-violent movement in India, you might not have seen the same non-violent movement for civil rights here in the United States. He inspired César Chávez, and he — and what was interesting was that he ended up doing so much and changing the world just by the power of his ethics, by his ability to change how people saw each other and saw themselves — and help people who thought they had no power realize that they had power, and then help people who had a lot of power realize that if all they’re doing is oppressing people, then that’s not a really good exercise of power.

In today’s message he speaks about America’s debt to the Mahatma (“Americans owe an enormous measure of gratitude to the Mahatma.”), especially for the inspiration for the non-violent Civil Rights Movement led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Dr. King had this to say on All India Radio on March 9, 1959 during his month-long visit to India, which affected him “in a profound way, deepening his understanding of non-violent resistance and his commitment to America’s struggle for civil rights” (Wikipedia),

May I also say that, since being in India, I am more convinced than ever before that the method of non-violent resistance is the most potent weapon available to oppressed people in their struggle for justice and human dignity. In a real sense, Mahatma Gandhi embodied in his life certain universal principles that are inherent in the moral structure of the universe, and these principles are as inescapable as the law of gravitation.

To continue with the tributes, here are some of my favourite remarks and observations on Gandhi made by other global figures.

To start off, here is Einstein‘s observations on Gandhi. I love the last bit – “a man who has confronted the brutality of Europe with the dignity of the simple human being, and thus at all times risen superior“.

“A leader of his people, unsupported by any outward authority; a politician whose success rests not upon craft nor mastery of technical devices, but simply on the convincing power of his personality; a victorious fighter who has always scorned the use of force; a man of wisdom and humility, armed with resolve and inflexible consistency, who has devoted all his strength to the uplifting of his people and the betterment of their lot; a man who has confronted the brutality of Europe with the dignity of the simple human being, and thus at all times risen superior.”

Romain Rolland, the French author, was acutely aware how Gandhi, a non-Christian lived the ideals of Christ more than any Christian ever.

“Gandhi is not only for India a hero of national history, whose legendary memory will be enshrined in the millennial epoch. Gandhi has renewed, for all the peoples of the West, the message of their Christ, forgotten or betrayed.”

Dr. King recognized this as well.

“Gandhi was probably the first person in history to lift the love ethic of Jesus above mere interaction between individuals to a powerful and effective social force on a large scale.”

Lord Richard Attenborough, the director of Gandhi, quotes the Mahatma himself in order to explain the essence of the Mahatma’s message of non-violence.

“When asked what attribute he most admired in human nature, Mahatma Gandhi replied, simply and immediately, ‘Courage’. ‘Nonviolence’, he said, ‘is not to be used ever as the shield of the coward. It is the weapon of the brave.”

And finally Edward R. Murrow, an American radio newsman, reporting from the Mahatma’s funeral, sums up his life thus,

The object of this massive tribute died as he had always lived – a private man without wealth, without property, without official title or office. Mahatma Gandhi was not the commander of great armies nor a ruler of vast lands. He could not boast any scientific achievement or artistic gift. Yet men, governments and dignitaries from all over the world have joined hands today to pay homage to this little brown man in the loincloth who led his country to freedom. In the words of General George C. Marshall, the American Secretary of State, “Mahatma Gandhi had become the spokesman for the conscience of all mankind. He was a man who made humility and simple truth more powerful than empires.” And Albert Einstein added, “Generations to come, it may be, will scarce believe that such one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth.”

The last words, where he quotes Einstein, are well-known. Einstein had got it right, it seems, about how difficult it will be for people in the future to believe that there was such a man in our midst, and it did not take too many generations either.

And to end tonight I present an article that the famous novelist George Orwell wrote for Partisan Review in January, 1949. In his own words, Orwell was no fan of Gandhi. He says quite frankly, “I have never been able to feel much liking for Gandhi”. But in an unbiased, rational analysis of the man even he admits, ”His character was an extraordinarily mixed one, but there was almost nothing in it that you can put your finger on and call bad, and I believe that even Gandhi’s worst enemies would admit that he was an interesting and unusual man who enriched the world simply by being alive.”

“One may feel, as I do, a sort of aesthetic distaste for Gandhi, one may reject the claims of sainthood made on his behalf (he never made any such claim himself, by the way), one may also reject sainthood as an ideal and therefore feel that Gandhi’s basic aims were anti-human and reactionary: but regarded simply as a politician, and compared with the other leading political figures of our time, how clean a smell he has managed to leave behind!”