India Celebrates Centenary Of Gandhi's Satyagraha Movement

[struggle4progress]

04:22 PM, January 29th 2007
by Playfuls Team

ndia launched celebrations Monday to mark the centenary of Mahatma Gandhi's Satyagraha movement of non-violent resistance, with an international conference of leaders, academics and Gandhian thinkers.

Gandhi, leader of India's movement for independence from British rule, launched the Satyagraha movement in South Africa in September 1906 ...

Former president of Zambia Kenneth Kaunda urged the US and Britain to stop the war in Iraq. "I appeal to President Bush and Prime Minister Blair to stop this war," he said ...

"But the commitment to comprehensive universal nuclear disarmament remains our profound conviction which we intend to carry forward," <The leader of India's ruling Congress party, Sonia Gandhi> said ...

http://www.playfuls.com/news_10_11203-India-Celebrates-Centenary-Of-Gandhis-Satyagraha-Movement.html

[struggle4progress]

1. Mandela calls for Gandhi's non-violence approach

By Nita Bhalla

NEW DELHI, Jan 29 (Reuters) - Anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela joined top leaders, nobel laureates and elder statesmen on Monday calling on the world to reinvent Indian freedom fighter Mahatma Gandhi's non-violent approach to solving conflicts. Mandela, who spent 28 years in prison for fighting white rule before leading South Africa to multi-racial democracy as the country's first black president in 1994, said Gandhi's non-violent approach which won India freedom from British colonial rule 60 years ago was an inspiration.

"His philosophy contributed in no small measure to bringing about a peaceful transformation in South Africa and in healing the destructive human divisions that had been spawned by the abhorrent practice of apartheid," said Mandela.

The 88-year-old statesman was addressing a conference, through a satellite link from South Africa, to mark the centenary of Gandhi's "satyagraha" or non-violent movement which began in Johannesburg on Sept 11, 1906, where Gandhi was practising law. Gandhi lived in South Africa from 1893 to 1914, where he was an active and high profile political activist.

Referring to him as "the sacred warrior", Mandela said the Mahatma combined ethics and morality with a steely resolve that refused to compromise with the oppressor, the British Empire. "In a world driven by violence and strife, Gandhi's message of peace and non-violence holds the key to human survival in the 21st century, said Mandela ...

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/DEL342197.htm

[struggle4progress]

2. Yunus slates 'financial apartheid' against poor

Pallab Bhattacharya, New Delhi

Nobel Laureate and Grameen Bank founder Prof Muhammad Yunus has criticised the existing international financial institutions for shutting out the world's poor from receiving their credit.

While delivering the keynote address at the international conference to commemorate the centenary of Mahatma Gandhi's 'Satyagraha' form of political movement here yesterday, Prof Yunus also advocated the concept of social business to address socio-economic problems.

"Two-third of the world's population do not have access to the financial services of these institutions. This is a form of financial apartheid," he said.

Prof Yunus said the significance of his getting the Nobel Prize for Peace was the relation between peace and poverty. "Poverty is a threat to peace," he said adding "it is impossible for us to think of peace when 60 percent of the world's population lives in poverty." ...

http://www.thedailystar.net/2007/01/30/d7013001044.htm

[dysfunctional press]

3. i saw the philip glass opera "satyagraha"...

and just let me say that an opera, performed in hindi, about two weeks in the life of gandhi in south africa is NOT as exciting as it might sound...:sarcasm:

my favourite part of the evening was the drive into the city- my girlfriend at the time (the one whose idea it was) was running late by the time she got to my place, and was afraid we would miss the opening curtain and not be seated until intermission...so i told her that i would get us there in time, but she would have to sit back, shut up, and let me DRIVE...we were there in plenty of time, and i got to go really fast in the car, without hearing anybody bitch about it.