Canopy at India Gate

Photo Credit : Naveen Sharma

Arab Spring - Front Page Cairo Egypt 1930

Winner of the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize and Yemeni human rights activist Tawakkol Karman has been affectionately called 'Mother of the Arab Spring'. In this interview she speaks to Dhiraj Singh for Lok Sabha TV, Indian Parliament's TV Channel, about her great admiration for Mahatma Gandhi and the relevance of his non-violent struggle against tyranny and dictatorship

GANDHI'S

1. CHANGE

“You must be the change you want to see in the world.”

“As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world – that is the myth of the atomic age – as in being able to remake ourselves.”

2. CONTROL

“Nobody can hurt me without my permission.”

3. FORGIVENESS

“The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.”

“An eye for eye only ends up making the whole world blind.”

4. ACTION

“An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching.”

5. THE PRESENT MOMENT

“I do not want to foresee the future. I am concerned with taking care of the present. God has given me no control over the moment following.”

6. EVERYONE IS HUMAN

“I claim to be a simple individual liable to err like any other fellow mortal. I own, however, that I have humility enough to confess my errors and to retrace my steps.”

“It is unwise to be too sure of one’s own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err.”

7. PERSIST

“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”

8. GOODNESS

“I look only to the good qualities of men. Not being faultless myself, I won’t presume to probe into the faults of others.”

“I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles; but today it means getting along with people.”

9. TRUTH

“Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.”

“Always aim at complete harmony of thought and word and deed. Always aim at purifying your thoughts and everything will be well.”

10. DEVELOPMENT

“Constant development is the law of life, and a man who always tries to maintain his dogmas in order to appear consistent drives himself into a false position.”