Some of the final ashes of Mohandas Gandhi, the apostle of non-violence who helped found modern India, will be scattered in the Arabian Sea following intervention by his descendants to prevent a museum from displaying them.
A small steel urn holding the ashes was sent to a Gandhi museum in the Indian port city of Mumbai last year by a businessman whose father had preserved the remains.
The political and spiritual leader, given the title Mahatma but whose full name was Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, was shot dead by a Hindu hardliner in 1948 while walking to a prayer meeting in New Delhi.
Gandhi's family appealed to the museum to forgo its planned memorial focusing on non-violence and instead scatter his ashes at sea off Mumbai's coast on Jan. 30, the anniversary of his death.
Dhirubhai Mehta, vice president of the Mani Bhavan Gandhi Sangralaya, said that the museum had thought of displaying the ashes but it would "respect the family's wishes". It was "the right thing to do", he said.
Hindus cremate those who have died and generally scatter the ashes in rivers or the sea after 13 days.
All of Gandhi's ashes were meant to have been immersed in the River Ganges in February 1948 but many of the urns were secreted away by followers determined to glorify him in death.
As he was killed before the age of television in India, Gandhi's ashes were sent to towns and villages across the country for memorial services. Some simply never returned.
"When Baapu died, Lord Montbatten [India's last viceroy] had also suggested embalming Gandhi so he could lie in state, but the family was against it," said great grandson Tushar Gandhi. "I am very happy that the museum has accepted the family's wishes."
He said that the urn was the property of a Dubai-based businessman whose family had known the Indian leader but who had given it to the Mumbai museum with the understanding the ashes could not leave India.
There were at least two other urns with Gandhi ashes on display. One was in the palace of the Aga Khan, leader of the Ismaili sect of Islam, in the southern Indian city of Pune, the other in a Hindu ashram in California.
Both he said were now "enshrined" and should be left alone.
"Taking these out would require breaking the shrines which the family does not want. I hope there are no more out there. The family is aware that the ashes could be misused by politically motivated people and damage the Mahatma's name," Gandhi said.
TURNAROUND: The Liberal Party had trailed the Conservatives by a wide margin, but that was before Trump threatened to make Canada the US’ 51st state Canada’s ruling Liberals, who a few weeks ago looked certain to lose an election this year, are mounting a major comeback amid the threat of US tariffs and are tied with their rival Conservatives, according to three new polls. An Ipsos survey released late on Tuesday showed that the left-leaning Liberals have 38 percent public support and the official opposition center-right Conservatives have 36 percent. The Liberals have overturned a 26-point deficit in six weeks, and run advertisements comparing the Conservative leader to Trump. The Conservative strategy had long been to attack unpopular Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, but last month he
OPTIMISTIC: A Philippine Air Force spokeswoman said the military believed the crew were safe and were hopeful that they and the jet would be recovered A Philippine Air Force FA-50 jet and its two-person crew are missing after flying in support of ground forces fighting communist rebels in the southern Mindanao region, a military official said yesterday. Philippine Air Force spokeswoman Colonel Consuelo Castillo said the jet was flying “over land” on the way to its target area when it went missing during a “tactical night operation in support of our ground troops.” While she declined to provide mission specifics, Philippine Army spokesman Colonel Louie Dema-ala confirmed that the missing FA-50 was part of a squadron sent “to provide air support” to troops fighting communist rebels in
PROBE: Last week, Romanian prosecutors launched a criminal investigation against presidential candidate Calin Georgescu accusing him of supporting fascist groups Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Romania’s capital on Saturday in the latest anti-government demonstration by far-right groups after a top court canceled a presidential election in the EU country last year. Protesters converged in front of the government building in Bucharest, waving Romania’s tricolor flags and chanting slogans such as “down with the government” and “thieves.” Many expressed support for Calin Georgescu, who emerged as the frontrunner in December’s canceled election, and demanded they be resumed from the second round. George Simion, the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), which organized the protest,
ECONOMIC DISTORTION? The US commerce secretary’s remarks echoed Elon Musk’s arguments that spending by the government does not create value for the economy US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Sunday said that government spending could be separated from GDP reports, in response to questions about whether the spending cuts pushed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency could possibly cause an economic downturn. “You know that governments historically have messed with GDP,” Lutnick said on Fox News Channel’s Sunday Morning Futures. “They count government spending as part of GDP. So I’m going to separate those two and make it transparent.” Doing so could potentially complicate or distort a fundamental measure of the US economy’s health. Government spending is traditionally included in the GDP because
RSS