I am drafting a speech as President of the India League I will deliver for Wednesday at Gandhiji’s statue in Tavistock Square where he would sit when training as a Barrister. It is fashionable for armchair warriors to speak how they would have done things differently. Remember, he did not want a divided India. By that age, he was too weak to resist all the forces who wanted power.
Today we are not just celebrating a birth! Today, we are summoning a spirit. A spirit that stirred the very soul of a nation, spirit that still echoes in every corner of this world! Today, we honour Mahatma Gandhi, the man who walked barefoot against an empire, armed not with guns or swords, but with the truth and his unbreakable will!
Think of this: a frail man with nothing but a cloth wrapped around him stood before the might of the British Empire—and won! But it wasn't a victory just for him. No, it was a victory for justice, for freedom, for humanity itself! And that spirit, that fire, that unrelenting belief that the world can be better, that the oppressed can be free—that is what we must reignite today!
Let me ask you: have we forgotten his lessons? Have we forgotten that power is not just in the hands of the strong, but in the hearts of the brave? The brave who refuse to stay silent in the face of injustice, the brave who stand up when they see wrong, who do not bend, who do not break, no matter the cost! That is the legacy of Mahatma Gandhi!
But here we are, in a world still plagued by division, by hatred, by greed! Where the powerful fuel the fires of fear to keep the rest of us down! But we, WE must remember the lesson that Gandhi taught us—that the most powerful force on this Earth is NOT violence, it is NOT hate! It is the power of the people standing together in TRUTH!
He faced down armies, empires, tyranny, and oppression—and he did it with peace! Do you understand what kind of strength that takes? To fight not with fists but with compassion. To march not with an army but with love. And that strength, that unimaginable strength, was not just Gandhi's. It is OURS. It is yours. It is mine. It is the inheritance of every human being who dares to believe that a better world is possible!
And so today, on this sacred day, I say to you: will you stand for truth? Will you stand for justice? Will you fight for the world Gandhi dreamed of? A world where freedom is not the privilege of the powerful, but the birthright of EVERY human being! Where the colour of your skin, the size of your bank account, your religion, your background—none of it matters, because we are ONE people, bound by the same truth!
Will you? Will you? Or will we fall silent, let hatred win, let division pull us apart? NO! I say NO! Not today, not EVER!
Today, we remember Gandhi not as a relic of the past, but as a call to arms for the future. A call to stand up! To speak out! To march forward with the same courage, the same determination, the same undying belief that the fight for justice is NEVER over until the last chain is broken!
We are his legacy! We are his soldiers in the fight for peace! And together, with truth as our weapon and love as our shield, we will create the world that Gandhi dreamed of.
So I ask you, each of you—will you answer that call? Will you take up that fight? Will you be the change that this world so desperately needs?
Because if you will—if you truly will—then together we will honour not just Gandhi’s memory, but his mission. Together, we will build the world of peace, justice, and freedom that he gave his life for.
Jai Hind! Jai Mahatma Gandhi!
