India has established a committee to commemorate next year’s 150th anniversary of the birth of the “father of the nation”, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. Led by prime minister Narendra Modi, the members include politicians across party lines as well as some foreign representatives, among them the Nobel laureates Desmond Tutu and Al Gore.
Hailing Gandhi as “India’s greatest gift to humankind”, whose “name finds resonance across the continents”, the committee plans a year-long programme of celebration, commencing on his birthday, October 2, and ending on the same day in 2019.
Mr Modi’s bid to appropriate Gandhi is paradoxical. The prime minister spent most of his formative years in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, a hardline Hindu organisation which reviled Gandhi for allegedly being too soft on Muslims.