Like every year, this year as well, the Indian High Commission and India League will be celebrating the annual Gandhi Jayanti at the Tavistock Square, London on Wednesday 2 October. The event, that is open to public, will be attended by HE Mrs Ruchi Ghanashyam, High Commissioner of India to UK, Mayor of Camden, local Councillors, Asian MPs and Peers, community leaders and organisational heads. The High Commissioner and CB Patel, Chairman of India League will address the gathered audience along with the Mayor of Camden.
This year being the 150th birth anniversary of Gandhi, there will be a number of events across the UK.
On 2nd, Lord Meghnad Desai and the Gandhi Statue Memorial Trust have organised a Commemoration Ceremony at the Gandhi statue in Parliament square at 9am. National Association of Patidar Samaj is organising a Gandhi walk from Tavistock square to Parliament square to pay floral tributes to the Gandhi statues. The High Commission of India has organised a special event to celebrate values and teachings of the Mahatma on Sunday 29 September.
Ahead of that, Gandhi Foundation and Brahma Kumaris (UK) are bringing together leading academics and campaigners to debate and discuss the enduring relevance of his life and message. Their conference, entitled Gandhian Voice in our World Today will be held on Friday 27 September at the Brahma Kumaris (UK) National Co-ordinating Office in Willesden Green, London, from 10.00am-4.30pm. Speakers and panel discussants will include the Gandhi Foundation's President and leading Gandhi academic, Prof Lord Bhikhu Parekh, Sister Jayanti Kirpalani, European Director of the Brahma Kumaris, Bruce Kent, Vice President of the Campaign For Nuclear Disarmament, and Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, UN Rapporteur on Indigenous People.
Confluence Foundation India along with the High Commission of India to mark this milestone birth anniversary of Bapu has organised a Bharat Conclave, promoting Indian craft and culture from 26th-28th September.
A new statue of Mahatma Gandhi will be inaugurated in the British city of Manchester later this year as a symbol of peace. The 9-foot-high bronze sculpture by Indian artist Ram V. Sutar will be installed outside Manchester Cathedral. The Mahatma Gandhi Statue Project, is an initiative of Shrimad Rajchandra Mission Dharampur (SRMD), a worldwide spiritual movement headquartered in India, epitomising the city’s resilience in the aftermath of the suicide bombing at an Ariana Grande at Manchester Arena in May 2017, an Islamic State (ISIS) claimed attack which claimed 23 lives.
The charitable organisation is being backed in its project by Manchester Cathedral, Manchester City Council and the High Commission of India and the costs are to be covered by the Indian-origin Kamani family in memory of their late scion Bhanji Khanji Kamani.
Mahatma Gandhi, known as the Father of the Nation for India, was born on 2nd October 1869 in Porbandar and was the pre-eminent leader of the Indian independence movement in British-ruled India. His birthday is considered world wide as the International day of Non Violence.
The statue at the Tavistock Square in London was the first Gandhi statue in the UK. Besides these many other community organisations will be organising independent events to mark the Mahatma's birthday.
