When: Annually, October 2.
The day when the world should say “No” to violence takes place on October 2 every year. That is the day we know as the International Day of Non-Violence). This day was declared by the United Nations (UN), as it was the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi.
Souce: Wikimedia Commons.
Who was Mahatma Ghandi?
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was his official name and he saw the light of day on October 2, 1869. He was born in the Indian town of Probandar and grew up in the city of Gujarat. He studied Law at the The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple in London. After completing his studies, he went to work in India, before moving to South Africa. There, he became involved in the first peaceful civil rights campaign in 1915. In 1915, he returned to India, where he became involved in improving the position of the country’s poorest people.
Source: Wikimedia Commons.
Salt March
In 1921, he was appointed leader of the Indian National Congress (INC). Thereafter, protests against British rule of India began to gain momentum. For instance, the INC protested against a proposed tax on salt through a 400-kilometre Salt March in 1930, in which 78 people participated. Along the route, thousands of people sometimes stood to watch. At various points, Ghandi addressed these people. At the peak, as many as 100,000 people gathered to listen to what Gandhi had to say. A letter addressed to Lord Irwin, the Viceroy of India, which he wrote earlier on the subject was ignored.
The march lasted from March 12 to April 5, and at the end, participants demonstratively started extracting salt themselves. After that, the first salt extracted was sold for a sum of 1,600 rupees. From then on calls for a free and independent India grew stronger. From 1942, Ghandi began to speak out more emphatically. This would eventually happen. India would gain independence, on August 15, 1947. Only it did not come about in the way Gandhi envisaged. It led to the creation of two states: India and Pakistan, to accommodate the wishes of Muslims in the northwest and east of the then British colony.
British Commonwealth
India’s head of state formally remained King George VI but without the title Emperor of India. From then on, the country became part of the British Commonwealth.
Because Gandhi opposed partition, it was not he who became India’s first president. That became Jawaharlal Nehru (November 14, 1889 – May 27, 1964). Ghandi did not even attend the ceremony that led to the country’s formal independence. He had earlier rejected the country’s partition and, as a sign of mourning, he stayed in Kolkata (then Calcutta). He rejected violence between Hindus and Muslims. He had always been committed to a non-violent revolution of power. That had always been his aspiration. This is precisely why his death on January 30, 1948 made such an impression. Someone who had dedicated his life to a non-violent struggle against oppression became the victim of an assassination attempt. He was assassinated by Nathuram Godse (May 19, 1910 – November 15, 1949), a Hindu extremist.
Godse was convinced that Gandhi stood in the way of a strong Hindu community in India and that he had paved the way for an independent Pakistan. For the assassination attempt, Godse received the death penalty.
Ghandi’s death created a stir both in India and abroad. In Delhi, an estimated one million people came to bid farewell to the great soul (Mahatma) a day later.
Views on the colonial regime
What exactly about Ghandi’s alleged racism? He allegedly expressed inferior and even racist views of the country’s original inhabitants during his stay in South Africa.
Although sometimes claimed otherwise about the period in South Africa, Ghandi did speak out against the regime by the colonial regime. In the 1910 newspaper Indian Opinion, he expressed negative views on the domination of what he considered to be the country’s original inhabitants.
This is at odds with his views earlier in his life. Then he believed in what might be considered theory consistent with the European view of the world at the time. The Europeans were the most important of all. Then came the Indians and somewhere at the very bottom the original inhabitants of South Africa. This was all before Ghandi himself became a victim of those same Europeans. You can read more about that in this 2022 article from Wired.
About this day
Although this day can be linked to Mahatma Gandhi, this day is not just about him. This day is about non-violence and what needs to be done to stop violence. To this end, the UN adopted Resolution 61/271 through the General Assembly on June 15, 2007. One might ask why this only happened then. Violence is of all times. The UN was founded much earlier, on October 24, 1945.
It is more often like this on special days. They arise when deemed necessary and sometimes they last longer. Much longer. It has been the same to this day. A day to spread the message of non-violence and create awareness.
Shirin Ebadi
The idea for the day came from Shirin Ebadi (June 21, 1947). In 2003, the Norwegian Nobel Prize Committee decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize to this Iranian lawyer. Her idea was to make October 2, a day to reflect on the need for non-violence. She presented that idea back in 2004. Then it took three years for the UN to agree to it. Thanks in part to interference from Sonia Ghandi (December 9, 1946), the widow of Rajiv Ghandi (August 20, 1944 – May 21, 1991). Rajiv Ghandi was the son of Indira Ghandi (born Indira Nehru, November 19, 1917 – October 31, 1984). Both Indira and Rajiv were assassinated during their premiership. They were mother and son. Incidentally, they were not related to Mahatma Gandhi. The man Indira was married to, Feroze Ghandi (from whom Indira would later live separately), only bore the same surname.
Sonia Ghandi is not originally Indian herself; she acquired Indian citizenship through her marriage to Rajiv Ghandi. The two married in 1968. Her birth name is Edvige Antonia Albina Maino. She has been active in Indian politics since 1991. The same goes for her son, Rahul Gandhi (born June 19, 1970). Currently, Sonia Gandhi is the leader of the INC.
Without violence, without war
So there is a strong connection with India on this day. Still, this does not imply that it is then only about India. The events so many years ago in India can be an inspiration. To show how it can also be done, without violence. Without war. That is what this day is about.
More information
More information on the day can be found via the special UN website on the subject.
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