SunstarTV Bureau: Today is the day of Gandhi Jayanti which celebrated annually on 2nd October all over the country and this year marks Mahatma Gandhi’s 152nd birth anniversary. Across the world on today’s day is celebrating as International Day of Non-Violence (ahimsa), as Gandhi led the nation to freedom through his non-violent civil disobedience movements.
On his birthday, let’s know 10 lesser known facts about Mahatma Gandhi:
- Mahatma Gandhi was nominated five times for the Nobel Peace Prize – 1937, 1938, 1939, 1947, and in 1948, a few days before he was assassinated, but was never bestowed with the honour.
- Poet Rabindranath Tagore gave the title of Mahatma to Gandhi ji. Tagore said that Gandhi would stop at the thresholds of huts and spoke to people in their own language. Tagore mentioned that Gandhi felt all Indians were his own flesh and blood hence he was given the name of ‘Mahatma’.
- Mahatma Gandhi’s relics are preserved in the Gandhi Memorial Museum, Madurai.
- Gandhi was a football aficionado and formed two football clubs during his stay in South Africa which were inspired by the writings of Henry Thoreau and Leo Tolstoy and was named – the Passive Resisters.
- Bapu made a diet plan for one of his political opponents, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, and suggested that Bose should eat leafy vegetables and avoid starch. This plan came as part of Gandhi’s love for experimenting with food and diets.
- Vallabhai Patel was playing bridge at a club in Ahmedabad when he first heard Gandhi’s speech and was instantly inspired by him. Patel left his law practice and devoted himself to the cause of Satyagraha. Such was Bapu’s personality that he left an immediate and lasting impression on people.
