‘Be the change you want to see in the world’

This quote comes from Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, commonly known around the world as Mahatma Gandhi or in India as Bapu. Gandhi was the political and spiritual leader of India during the Indian Independence movement, and since his birthday (a national holiday) falls on the 2nd October - shortly after my arrival here in India - I thought it only right to pay my respects. The following day I headed out with Melissa, a fellow volunteer, and together we travelled by auto rickshaw to Old Delhi and to the final resting place of Gandhi.

Raj Ghat was our destination, the site is a memorial to Gandhi and marks the spot of his cremation on 31st January 1984. Upon entering the gates we found it to be very peaceful and well maintained; a lovely refuge from the hustle and bustle of the busy road nearby. The spot where he was cremated is marked with a black marble platform written upon which is the epitaph Hai Ram, which translates to ‘O God’, believed to be his last words. At one end of the platform there is a stand upon which an eternal flame burns and this area is surrounded by a low wall. Visitors are permitted up to the wall but not past it and during our time there we saw some people going forward with offerings and using the location to offer up prayer. Directly surrounding this are well manicured lawns which is then surrounded by a higher wall which it is possible to walk around.

Within the outer walls you are not allowed to wear any shoes so we removed ours and left them with an attendant, hoping that they would still be there when we got back. It was very calming to walk around the lawns and there was beautiful music playing in the background to further set the scene. In various places on the outer walls are inscriptions in dozens of different languages many with scripts completely unknown to me of which I could only guess their meaning. Directly surrounding the platform the floor is set with black marble which we found to be extremely hot in the heat of the day, so in areas where there we no mats laid you could only stand for moment before returning to the cooling grass. After our time in the inner courtyard we decided to walk around the outer wall to see the view from above. With the site being a Ghat - which normally take the form of steps leading down to a river - we had hoped to be able to see the Yamuna River from our view point but it was much further away than anticipated.

After finding our footwear once more we headed a little way down the road to the National Gandhi Museum which houses some of Gandhi’s photographs and writings and has the added blessing of being free to enter. Within the grounds there is also a replica of the house where he used to live including his room complete with a mat on the floor for a bed, a spinning wheel and a small low table - he lived, and encouraged others to live, a very simple life. The museum contained loads of information and visuals all about his life and sculptures in the grounds depicting historic stories such as the salt march which took place in 1930.

As we were leaving an auto driver tried to con us by saying that he would take us home, but once we’d set off saying that we should go via all of these different places - acting like a tour guide to get more money. We opted out of that option and wandered down the street to find a different driver. Since then I have vowed not to get an auto from directly outside a site which is popular for tourists as those are the ones most likely to try to scam you!

We had hoped to finish off our Gandhi day by watching the film ‘Gandhi’ staring Ben Kingsley made in 1982, but unfortunately we couldn’t find a copy in any local rental shops. Eventually we will get to watch the film and perhaps we can combine it will a trip to Gandhi Smriti which is the house where he lived out his last days and was assassinated by a Hindu extremist for protecting the Muslims.

---

---