Section 1 Findings
Congress finds the following:
Few people have had as significant and as positive an impact on the world and freedom than Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.
Gandhi led the Indian people to independence from British rule in August 1947 through non-violent means, staging massive peaceful demonstrations against poverty while supporting women’s rights and religious tolerance.
Gandhi’s legacy has inspired hundreds of millions of people around the world to pursue non-violence as a means to achieve freedom and equality, including Martin Luther King, Jr.’s movement to end racial injustice in the United States and Nelson Mandela’s fight to end apartheid in South Africa.
For his efforts, Gandhi was given the title of Mahatma, or “Great Soul” and was often called Bapu in India, which means “father”.
Over 2,000,000 people attended Gandhi’s funeral and his memory and teachings persist still today.
October 2, Gandhi’s birthday, was declared as International Day of Non-Violence by the United Nations to, “disseminate the message of non-violence, including through education and public awareness” and reaffirm “the universal relevance of the principle of non-violence” and desire “to secure a culture of peace, tolerance, and understanding through non-violence”.
Ensuring that people around the globe know about, understand, and adopt Gandhi’s principles of ahimsa (non-violence), satyagraha (appeal to, insistence on, or reliance on the Truth) and swaraj (self-rule) are more important than ever.