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.”

Bapu – Father of the Nation

A young girl’s from Lucknow had invoked the RTI act to know as to who conferred the title of “The Father of the Nation" on Mahatma Gandhi and when.

Newspaper Report

I don’t think the title had to be bestowed on Gandhi; the people of that time called him Bapu, and he accepted that with all his humility and signed innumerable letters as Bapu.

I can think of two instances from history that may add some light:



On October 2, 1944 Mahatma Gandhi turned 75. He had shifted to Sevagram after his release from Yeravda Prison in April 1944 in the aftermath of his 'Quit India' movement. His 75th birthday was celebrated all over the world. Netaji Subash Chandra Bose, Commander-in-Chief of Azad Hind, performed a flag hoisting ceremony in Rangoon, Burma ( Yangon, Myanmar) and broadcasted a message through the Azad Hind Radio " Father of our nation! In this holy war for India's liberation, we ask for your blessings". This is the first recorded and known instance when Mahatma Gandhi was addressed as the "Father of the Nation".



On the night of 30 January 1948, the day Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru in a broadcast to the Nation and to the world referred to him as being commonly called as the 'Father of the nation."

Excerpts "Friends and Comrades, the light has gone out of our lives and there is darkness everywhere. I do not know what to tell you and how to say it. Our beloved leader, Bapu as we call him, the Father of the Nation, is no more. Perhaps I am wrong to say that. Nevertheless, we will not see him again as we have seen him for these many years. We will not run to him for advice and seek solace from him, and that is a terrible blow, not to me only but to millions and millions of this country."

Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru's broadcast