150 Years since the Birth of Mahatma Gandhi
Date of Issue : 28 February 2019
Serbia Post will issue a commemorative stamp on 28th February to mark 150 years since the birth of Mahatma Gandhi.
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (2 October 1869 – 30
January 1948) was the leader of the Indian independence movement. With his
unusual, yet powerful political instruments of Satyagraha and non-violent protest, Mahatma Gandhi inspired
political leaders and human rights and freedom movements all over the
world.
Mahatma Gandhi was born in a wealthy Hindu family
in Porbandar (Gujarat). Even in his childhood he was acquainted with the
learning about tolerance, non-hurting other people and vegetarianism. He
studied law at the University in Bombay and later in London. With his family,
wife and children, he spent 20 years in South Africa as an employee at a branch
of an Indian company, fighting against discrimination of the Indians in Africa.
As a founder of philosophy named Satyagraha – a resistance through mass,
non-violent civil disobedience, he became one of the greatest political and
spiritual leaders of his time.
His main goal was the fight for the independence
of India which was a British colony at the time. He strived to reduce poverty,
liberate women and eradicate discrimination, with the ultimate goal of India
becoming an independent country. His efforts paid off when Great Britain
finally declared Indian independence on 15 August 1947. Opponents of Indian
independence murdered him on 30 January 1948.
The
fight of Mahatma Gandhi for freedom and peace inspired human rights movements
all around the world, and the United Nations established 2 October, Gandhi’s
birthday, as the International Day of Non-Violence which, through education and
raising of public conscience, helps spreading the message of non-violence and
the wish to secure the culture of peace, tolerance and understanding.
Motif
on the stamp: a portrait of Gandhi with symbolic display of the lotus flower in
the background.
Motif
on the vignette: charkha – a wheel
for weaving cotton, a symbol of the passive resistance in India.
Artistic
realization: MA Boban Savić, academic painter.
PE Post of Serbia
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