City celebrations will mark 150th birthday of Gandhi
CELEBRATIONS for the 150th anniversary of the birth of Mahatma Gandhi are to be held at Cardiff City Hall this week. The event, which will take place on Wednesday will include performances of traditional Indian music and dancing, as well as expert speakers on Gandhi’s life and legacy.
Raj Aggarwal, the Honorary Consul for India in Wales, organised the event, and said it is set to be “magical” and among one of the biggest celebrations of Gandhi’s life in the world.
“This is a major celebration for a man that the whole world recognises as a great leader and wise soul. Mahatma Gandhi not only left a legacy of freedom to India but also a message of non-violence, religious pluralism and tolerance of all peoples, races and creeds,” added Mr Aggarwal.
Mr Aggarwal is a leading Welsh pharmacist and entrepreneur who was appointed as the first Indian honorary consul in Wales in 2012, a role which aims at helping to create links between Welsh and Indian business, education establishments and cultural organisations.
City Hall will be lit up in the colours of the Indian flag with projections around the building, and there are already banners placed over the area to celebrate the landmark anniversary.
Guests will be met with a drinks reception at 6pm and music led by members of the Ty Krishna temple in Cardiff Bay. There will also be a special performance by 35 children from the Cathedral School in Llandaff, who have been going to school early to practice both the Indian and Welsh national anthems. Gandhi’s birthday is commemorated in India as a national holiday Gandhi Jayanti and worldwide as the International Day of Nonviolence, and there will be joyous celebrations in Cardiff on this milestone birthday.
A memorial guest lecture will also be given at the event by Shaunaka Risha Das, the Director of the Oxford Centre for Hindu studies, and there will be a response by James Hegarty, Professor of Sanskrit and Indian Religions at Cardiff University.
There will also be a speech from Eluned Morgan AM, and Jane Hutt AM. The event is celebrating the birth of Mohandas K Gandhi on October 2, 1869, in present day Gujurat, India, he was later given the name Mahatma “venerable” and he led India to independence through a non-violent civil rights movement.