India pays tribute to Gandhi

AS much of the world marked September 11 by remembering the 2001 attacks on the United States, India celebrated it as a day of peace — the 100th anniversary of the birth of Mohandas Gandhi’s philosophy of peaceful resistance.

Art exhibitions, charity events and tributes were staged to mark the 100th anniversary of the day Gandhi, then a lawyer working in South Africa, joined fellow Indians to protest a proposed law that would force Indians to carry identity documents and be fingerprinted.

On September 11, 1906, Gandhi called on his compatriots to use nonviolent means to disobey the law, and thousands of Indians were jailed, including Gandhi, for refusing to cooperate and burning their identity booklets. The government eventually relented and compromised with Gandhi.