india

Updated: Jan 30, 2019 14:50 IST

Martyrs day is marked every January 30 on the death anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, the father of the nation.

Mahatma Gandhi - who was assassinated on January 30, 1948 - led the country’s freedom struggle with his non-violence movement. Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated by Nathuram Godse on January 30 and the day is today known as Martyrs day.

In his first ‘Mann ki Baat’ of 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi called on everyone to observe 2-minutes silence to pay a tribute to the martyrs of India on the death anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi on January 30.

Earlier in the day President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister paid their tribute to the father of the nation on his 71st death anniversary.

“On Martyrs’ Day, we gratefully remember Mahatma Gandhi and the countless freedom fighters who sacrificed their all for our Independence,” President Ram Nath Kovind tweeted on Martyrs Day.

“...Remembering Bapu on his Punya Tithi. We reiterate our commitment to follow the path shown by him and abide by the values he stood for,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted.

Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu too paid floral tributes at Gandhi’s memorial at Rajghat in New Delhi. Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also paid homage to the Father of the Nation at Rajghat on the occasion of Martyrs Day.

Mahatma Gandhi’s favorite bhajan “Raghupati Raghava Raja Ram” was also played at Rajghat.

In Gujarat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated a host of projects and will inaugurated the National Salt Satyagraha Memorial in Dandi on the occasion of Martyrs Day.

During the freedom struggle, Mahatma Gandhi used innovative methods to unite the public and get rid of the British Raj. Foremost among his methods was that of non-violence.

Non-violence was Mahatma Gandhi’s way of fighting the British Raj. He believed that responding with violence to British atrocities would be counter productive. Instead, he united the masses to fight the British without any weapons but with a series of rebellions such as the non-cooperation movement.

In his book ‘Experiments with Truth’, Mahatma Gandhi wrote, “Ahimsa (non-violence) is the basis of the search for truth. I am realizing that this search is vain, unless it is founded on ahimsa as the basis.”

Such was Mahatma Gandhi’s belief in non-violence that he believed that deliverance for people lay only in truth and non-violence. In a letter to Daniel Oliver Mahatma Gandhi wrote that he had no message to give “except this that there is no deliverance for any people on this earth or for all the people of this earth except through truth and nonviolence in every walk of life without any exceptions.”