Gandhi’s ashes scattered in Arabian Sea

Ashes of India’s freedom icon Mahatma Gandhi were scattered on Wednesday off the coast of financial capital Mumbai in a ceremony marking the 60th anniversary of his assassination by a Hindu fanatic.

An urn containing some of the ashes was opened and the ashes mixed with water and poured into the Arabian Sea by his great-granddaughter Nilamben Parikh in accordance with Hindu rites. “This is a day for deep thought. This day will help us think how to move forward,” Parikh, 75, told reporters.

Mohanchand Karamdas Gandhi — called Mahatma or “Great Soul” — spearheaded a non-violent campaign against the British Raj which finally saw India gain its independence in 1947. He is still regarded as the nation’s moral conscience.

Parikhh, along with 10 other family members, descendants of Gandhi’s four sons, boarded a motor boat and travelled about a kilometer (nearly a mile) out to sea and scattered the ashes.

Last year, the urn containing the ashes was sent by an Indian businessman Bharat Narayan to Mumbai’s Mani Bhavan museum where Gandhi had lived while visiting the city and was the focal point of his political activities.

Mumbai, Wednesday, AFP