Martyrs’ Day – 30th January – Join in observing two minutes silence at 1100 hrs
Martyrs’ Day – 30th January
Join in observing two minutes silence at 1100 hrs on that day to remember martyrs
Brig. K.G.Behl (Retd.)
President, All India Consumers Council, Uttarakhand
30TH January is the day when Mahatma Gandhi was killed by an assassin with pistol shots fired from point blank range, when he was coming to attend his prayer meeting in the evening at Birla House. He had entered the house and was proceeding towards the prayer place when the assassin came forward to greet him with folded hands in which he was holding a hidden pistol from which he fired three rounds killing Gandhiji then and there. Gandhiji uttered ‘Hare Ram’ before he succumbed to the shots and fell down dead. The whole country was plunged into grief on this heinous crime as the apostle of peace who lead the country to fight a non violent and peaceful war and achieve Independence was snatched away from the people before he could enjoy the fruits of that hard earned Independence. When he was again on 5 days fast, at Noakhali to bring Hindu – Muslim unity, all the leaders ran to persuade him and on their assurance that there will be no more riots, he agreed to come to Delhi probably only to die in a violent way against his preaching of peace.
The assassination of Mahatma Gandhi shocked not only India but the entire world. This shock wave stirred the Nation and Mahatma Gandhi was named the ‘Father of the Nation’ to honour that noble soul. The Government of India decided to observe 30th January, every year as Martyrs Day on 30th January, to not only remember Mahatma Gandhi but all the Martyrs who laid their lives for the sake of the country to achieve Freedom. On this day two minutes silence is observed by all Indians all over the country at 1100hrs, when sirens are sounded and every thing stands still. Floral tributes are paid at the Samadhi of Mahatma Gandhi, which is a prominent land mark now and where functions are arranged to commemorate the day in a befitting manner and all foreign dignitaries go to pay their respects and regards. First few years it had its due impact and people paid their tributes with warmth and gratitude but slowly much of the importance is not being paid as it should be. Even the11 O Clock two minutes silence is not being observed by many on the excuse that they did not remember and no one reminded them. Earlier days the importance of the day was high lighted by various agencies including the Government in advance and the media and all observed that with due sanctity. This much of publicity need to be revived if people have become that forgetful that they can forget paying tributes to those who laid their lives to get them the freedom which they are enjoying now. Then God save our Independence. We are supposed to strengthen it and make its roots healthier and deeper so that it may have a sound growth which may face the onslaughts of all types of weather and stand erect. Everyone must observe two minutes silence on 30th January at 1100 hrs.
Gandhi ji, in tradition with old Saints renounced worldly pleasures and became a Mahatma when in 1921 when he resolved to wear only a loin cloth to propagate home spun cotton and to signify his identification with the poor people. Thousands joined him in his mass civil disobedience and courted arrests. Mahatma Gandhi lived an austere life, devoted to truth, non violence, abolition of untouchability, and to achieve Hindu Muslim unity besides propagating other finer qualities of life. Actually all our leaders, who fought for Independence of the country, lived a simple life and gave all their resources and belongings to the cause of the country. But after attaining Independence this spirit is missing and we have started living in worldly pleasures and have started amassing wealth by fair or foul means, without thinking of the Nation and other poor and needy people.
According to Mahatma Gandhi ‘simplicity is the essence of life’ and once you taste it no other taste, how so ever good it may taste to your tongue, appeals to your mind. Simplicity brings out truth and truth is God. If truth is there in our thinking, speech and action nothing can go wrong. But we are scared to say truth or even call a spade a spade because of the fear that some one may not report that I have said that and it may bring some harm. But the fact is that Truth never brings harm and always does good and that is what Mahatma Gandhi preached. His resolve to wear only lion cloth was not only to bring simplicity but to identify himself with the masses who lived like that and bring out truth. We must think of the Nation and take masses along even in our development. If the standard of the masses is not raised the standard of the country cannot go up. We must pay full attention to the development of our masses, who are generally poor. They survive with simplicity and Truth. One can win them over with Love which Mahatma Gandhi spread by going and living with them, eating with them and listening to their grievances. He fought the war of Independence with their support. We have to go to the grass root level if we really want to see India prosper.
Another thing which was very dear to Mahatma Gandhi was Ahimsa which again we are forgetting. More and more violence can be seen around. The pictures and media in their efforts to show the true incidents bring to light the ways and means how those were committed and youngsters miss no chances to emulate those in practice, resulting in spread of further violence. Same is the case with Sex and more and more cases of rape etc are the result of showing more sex in pictures and media in the name of bringing reality in the scenes. Even in regional language songs or so called tribal or rural songs so much of skinny dressed sexy girls are shown that those remain only rural in tunes but actually worst than western. This culture is being shown to our villagers and it is simply damaging and Government must take immediate action to stop it.
Gandhiji wanted to remove untouchability and succeeded to a great extent. Slowly, it was dying its own death and people had started accepting this principle. Instead of helping those people, economically and otherwise, to come up to the general level, some people took advantage of the reservation policy and instead of allowing the benefits to trickle down to persons for whom those were meant, kept it to limited few. This caused lot of resentment but instead of solving this problem reservation on caste and creed took a serious turn and more rift was created than bringing the whole society together. The idea of Gandhiji was to remove all differences and help down trodden people to come to the same level as others.
But instead we are trying to create more rift by allowing more and more reservations to different class of people. Our criteria of help should be bring up those who are backward or poor and not the castes where there are already some rich people who in the name of poor in that caste eat away all the benefits and do not allow those to reach those for whom those are meant. All those who are already well of or are better than the average person should not be given those benefits and their representatives should also be from the same category and not those who have crossed that limit. The Mondal commission did more harm than good and created rift than patch up. All these points which are needed to upgrade our society are required to be pondered over on such occasions. After so many years we must think de-novo the whole concept of reservation or rather remove all reservation and help only those who actually need it, in order to bring them at par with others as Gandhiji advocated.
This day we must remember all our Martyrs who laid down their life for the country and try to emulate them and do some thing good for the country to remove poverty and illiteracy. Each one of us can contribute in one’s own way and if all do, little even, it can add up to bring a major change in our society which we can mould as desired by our Martyrs.
