This year’s 30th January marks the 75th death anniversary of the Father of the Nation- MK Gandhi. Also, a movie named “Gandhi-Godse: Ek Yudh” was recently released highlighting the different aspects related to the assassination of Gandhi.

About Mahatma Gandhi

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, is regarded as the Father of the Nation. Gandhi was born on 2nd October,1869 in Gujarat and studied law at the Inner Temple, London.
Gandhi was a social reformist and leader of the Indian Independence Movement who introduced the idea of non-violent resistance called Satyagraha.
After organizing a civil disobedience movement for Indians living in South Africa, he returned to India in 1915. In India, he set out on a train journey to different parts of the country trying to understand the problems of farmers, peasants and urban laborers and organizing protests for them.
He assumed the leadership of the Indian National Congress in 1921 and rose to become its most prominent leader and iconic figure in Indian politics.
Gandhi also wrote extensively for various newspapers and his symbol of self-reliance – the spinning wheel – became a popular symbol of the Indian Independence Movement.
Gandhi played a key role in pacifying people and averting the Hindu-Muslim riots as tensions rose before and during the partition of the country. He was shot dead by Nathuram Godse on January 31, 1948.

What happened after Gandhi’s Assassination?

Mahatma Gandhi was walking towards the prayer mandap at Birla House in Delhi when 35-year-old Nathuram Godse came before him and pulled out a pistol from his pocket. He fired three shots from point-blank range that hit Gandhi in the chest, stomach, and groin. Within 15 minutes, the Father of the Nation was dead.
Godse was apprehended by military personnel who were at the spot, and his pistol was snatched away. The assassin was beaten by the crowd before police took him into custody. Subsequently, he was lodged at a police station on Tughlaq Road, where an FIR was registered. The trial began in May 1948 at a special court set up in Delhi’s Red Fort.
The judgment was pronounced on February 10, 1949. Judge Atma Charan convicted Godse, Apte, and five others of the crime. Both Godse and Apte were sentenced to death. Savarkar was acquitted.
The hanging of Godse and Apte became inevitable after the Governor-General of India rejected their mercy petitions. Godse’s mercy petition was filed by his parents, not him. Both men were hanged on November 15, 1949, in Ambala jail.

Ideas of Mahatma Gandhi

Concept of Non-Violence:

Gandhi adopted the word ‘non-violence’ which means refraining from the use of physical force capable of causing injury or death to the opponent. Even though Gandhi admits that he could not succeed in defining ahimsa fully the meaning of this word developed further in the hands of Gandhi. Ahimsa means and includes non-violence in thoughts, words and deeds toward all sentient beings.

Concept of Satyagraha:

The term satyagraha is derived from a compound word in Sanskrit, Satya and agraha. Satya means that which is in accordance with sat or being, that is, truth. Agraha means holding fast, adherence or insistence. Thus, the compound word satyagraha means clinging to truth, holding fast to truth, insistence on truth or firm adherence to truth. In the socio-political field satyagraha was a kind of resistant movement against unjust laws. He adopted the term satyagraha which would give almost the same meaning of ‘Passive Resistance.’

Concept of Nai Talim:

The phrase Nai Talim is a combination of two words- Nai Means ‘New’ and Talim – an Urdu word-means ‘Education’. In 1937, Gandhiji introduced the concept of Nai Talim in India. It aimed to transform the Indian education system which was based on colonial education at that time. It is an approach to the total personality development of the body, mind and spirit of the students

Concept of Trusteeship:

Trusteeship is a socio-economic philosophy developed by Mahatma Gandhi as a part of his nonviolent revolution. It is a concept where a person voluntarily gives up or renounces his right to the money earned by him and dedicates it to the welfare of the poor section of society.

Pillars of Gandhi’s philosophy

The main pillars of Gandhi’s philosophy were non-violence, tolerance of others, respect for all religions, and simple life.

Compassion:

Gandhi believes that the true core of a person is the part that is not selfish and which works for others. He is saying that the essence of what we are (the thing that we have to find) is caring for others.

Truth:

Gandhi, in short, was a leader looking for a spiritual cause. He found it, of course, in his non-violence and, ultimately, in independence for India. Truth, Satya, was the central axis of the Gandhian system of thought and practice. For Gandhi, everything turned on Truth – satyagraha, swaraj, ahimsa, ashram, brahmacharya, yajna, charkha, khadi, and finally, moksha itself. Gandhi’s life and ideas are arranged around the axial principle of Truth.

Secular:

Gandhi made great use of the Bible in his prayers, teachings, writings and Ashram liturgies. He was often accused of being a crypto-Christian. Gandhi considered interculturalism as a call for simultaneous awareness of commonalities, acceptance of differences, and recognition of shared values.

Honesty:

Gandhi had a blend of sincerity and efficiency bringing forth the most positive strength. Gandhi accomplished any given task with honesty and diligence. Once a decision was made he gave his all to it. He used to follow up till the end of the task. He used to be positive even under all difficult circumstances and had an optimistic view of life and never lost hope. He maintained impeccable integrity in individual life and public conduct

Dignity:

He looked at life holistically and worked with utmost concentration. He treated all work as a God-given gift and all jobs were of equal importance. He had a keen desire to restore the dignity of all human beings. Advanced on the path of morality, spirituality and ethical progress by being firm on Truth

Some famous quotes from Gandhiji

· “I understand democracy as something that gives the weak the same chance as the strong.”

· “A man is but the product of his thoughts. What he thinks, he becomes.”

· “If instead of insisting on rights, everyone does his duty, there will immediately be the rule of order established among mankind”

Global impact of Gandhi

Historians say Gandhi proved that one man has the power to take on an empire, using both ethics and intelligence. Other peaceful resisters such as Martin Luther King Jr. during the 1960s civil rights movement and Tibet’s Dalai Lama have emulated his methods in years since, shaking up the dynamic of world politics in the process.
Martin Luther King Jr. is said to have been heavily influenced by Gandhi’s philosophy of non-violence, believing it to be the only logical approach to the problem of race relations in America.
Gandhi-King Initiative: The initiative is an exchange program between India and the U.S. to study the work and legacies of Gandhiji and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. It will establish annual scholar and student exchange programs for Indians and Americans to study the leaders’ legacies and visit historic sites in India and the U.S. The visits will be relevant to India’s freedom struggle and the U.S.’s civil rights movement.
Impacted the world leaders: He firmly believed that the spirit of genuine reciprocity and solidarity is not just a moral requirement, but also a geopolitical necessity. The Gandhian technique of mobilizing people has been successfully employed by many oppressed societies around the world under the leadership of people like Martin Luther King in the United States, Nelson Mandela in South Africa, Aung San Suu Kyi of Myanmar which is an eloquent testimony to the continuing relevance of Mahatma Gandhi.

But then, why he is criticized also?

In South Africa, academics Ashwin Desai and Goolam Vahed, in their book The South African Gandhi: Stretcher-Bearer Of Empire, have questioned Gandhi’s role in upholding the British empire and fighting only for the rights of Indians, and not of others, there.
His statue in Johannesburg was once smeared with white paint (symbolically implying that Gandhi was an apologist of the country’s Whites). South African cities have debated whether or not to have more commemorations. A university in Ghana has removed a Gandhi statue because of his allegedly “racist” views on ethnic Africans.
Jawaharlal Nehru was a believer in the non-violent satyagraha politics that Mahatma Gandhi espoused during the freedom struggle. But on the finer points of politics, Nehru differed vastly from Mahatma Gandhi. Mahatma Gandhi believed in dharma-based politics while Nehru’s ideas of politics were deeply entrenched in democratic socialist principles. Mahatma Gandhi looked for continuity in India’s socio-political fabric by doing away with certain “impurities” that had crept in. Nehru advocated a reform towards modernity.
Nehru did not approve of Gandhi’s economic ideals that called for the only limited adoption of modern technological progress. Nehru, on the other hand, rejected these ideas and favored big factories based on the latest technologies.
BR Ambedkar also criticized Gandhi. Gandhi believed that the caste system was the basis of Indian society, particularly the majority Hindu community. Mahatma Gandhi opposed caste discrimination but he did not reject the social structure that bred bias against people based on their birth.
Ambedkar, on the other hand, held the caste system as the root of all the social evils that Indian society faced. He also rejected Mahatma Gandhi’s idea of making the village a unit of administration. Ambedkar favored a wholesome change in the village structure as he believed that the village was the breeding ground for caste discrimination and communalism.

But his ideas and principles are still relevant today, like

Ahimsa:

Mahatma Gandhi’s principle of non-violence is very relevant as the world faces terrorism and other forms of violence. In present times, the ideal of non-violence needs to guide the approach of individuals and nations, and world organizations, like violence, initiate a vicious circle of repression and injustice.

Satyagraha:

Gandhiji called the general method of nonviolent action ‘Satyagraha’. It is the expression of the purest spiritual power against all injustice, oppression, and exploitation. Satyagraha was thought of as the moral alternative to war.
Anna Hazare’s anti-corruption protest for Lokpal, and the farmer’s protests against the Farm Laws have also resorted to non-violence satyagraha to meet their demands.

Swadeshi:

Indigenous peoples focus on political and economic action inside and outside their communities. It is the interdependence of community and self-reliance. Gandhi’s thought of swadeshi is still prevalent in our society, by taking steps towards making India self-reliant.
During the Covid times, when India was witnessing a severe economic crisis, Prime Minister Narendra Modi called ‘Atma Nirbhar Bharat‘, the second version of Swadeshi. This swadeshi form aims to make the country self-reliant. In order to free the country from the shackles of hunger, unemployment, and poverty, swadeshi is the best path to unshackle these.

Secularism:

Gandhiji was tolerant of all religions. Today, the world needs more and more religious and intelligently tolerant people in societies where violence is perpetrated in the name of religion. In society, tolerance helps to neutralize religion, caste, ethnicity, region, etc. in the world, based on day-to-day ethnic-Centered prejudices.

Communal Harmony:

Gandhi always made an effort for Hindu-Muslim unity. At the present time, this ideology is equally significant. If Hindus and Muslims are united, the country can reach the heights of becoming a world power. A person should always respect others’ faith. Cases of mob lynching are also violating the Gandhian ideology of communal harmony, so steps should be taken in this direction.

Decentralization:

The Gandhian idea of decentralization was implemented in democracies through the 73rd and 74th amendments, which empowered local self-governments at the grassroots level. Indian Government, for instance, has implemented local self-government by adopting the Panchayati Raj and Municipality system in rural and urban areas, respectively, and providing them with some subjects under the state list. This ideology of Gandhi is still relevant and plays a vital role in India’s grass root development.

Cleanliness:

Gandhi paid great attention to purity, or cleanliness and was a staunch advocate of ‘Swachhata’. He used to say, “Cleanliness hi Seva.” India’s most significant cleanliness initiative, the recently implemented Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, fulfills Bapu’s dream of making India clean.

Sustainable Environment:

Gandhi always spoke of the minimization of wants and advocated a nature-friendly idea. Gandhi believed that “there is enough on earth for human needs but not enough for human greed.” These lines from Mahatma Gandhi show how human behavior destroys nature, and there is a need for a sustainable lifestyle in our times.
The world revolves around global warming, climate change, and resource depletion, and all environmental covenants and sustainable development efforts must implement Gandhi’s philosophy.

Women Emancipation:

Gandhi played a vital role in bringing women out of their domestic work and involved them in public life. He was against the patriarchal form of society. With glass ceilings still far from being shattered in the public sphere, the Gandhian thought of women’s emancipation remains relevant.

Conclusion

Albert Einstein explained Gandhiji’s importance in the following quote, “Generations to come, it may well be, will scarce believe that such a man as this one ever in flesh and blood walked upon this Earth.” The quote is sufficient to summarize the personality of Mahatma Gandhi.
Gandhi’s thought was an inspiration for society. Ultimately, all ideas and thoughts of the Mahatma were reached by him via lifelong experimentation with truths, which makes Gandhian thoughts more significant in the present era.
In order to become a superpower during the ‘Amrit Kaal’, India should pay homage to Gandhian ideology and walk in the assigned path.

Senior Puisne judge

Two names for appointment as judges of the Supreme Court, the Collegium headed by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud said in a statement on 31 January 2023 that the collegium had taken into “consideration the seniority of Chief Justices and senior puisne Judges…”

What does puisne mean, and who are puisne judges?

The word puisne has French origins, which means “later born” or younger. It is pronounced /’pjuːni/, like “puny”, the English word that means small or undersized.
Puisne is almost always used in the context of judges, and essentially denotes seniority of rank.
The term puisne judge is used in common law countries to refer to judges who are ranked lower in seniority, i.e., any judge other than the Chief Justice of that court.
Common law is the body of law that is created by judges through their written opinions, rather than through statutes or constitutions (statutory law).
Common law, which is used interchangeably with ‘case law’, is based on judicial precedent.
The United Kingdom (UK) and the Commonwealth countries, including India, are common law countries.

Is a “puisne judge” in India the same as in the UK?

In the UK, puisne judges are judges other than those holding distinct titles. The Supreme Court of Judicature Act, 1877 defined a “puisne judge” as any judge of the High Court besides the Lord Chancellor, the Lord Chief Justice of England, and the Master of the Rolls.
In India, all judges have the same judicial powers. As the seniormost judge of a court, the Chief Justice has an additional administrative role.
In India, there is a reference to a puisne judge only while considering the order of seniority for appointments, elevations to High Courts, etc., but it does not have a bearing on the exercise of a judge’s judicial power.

Measures tribal welfare in Budget 2023

In Union Budget 2023, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced some targeted schemes for tribal welfare, ranging from better education to clean drinking water to sanitation. Here is a look at the various announcements.

Facilities for Eklavya Schools

In the next three years, the Centre will recruit 38,800 teachers and support staff for the 740 Eklavya Model Residential Schools, serving 3.5 lakh tribal students.
Eklavya Model Residential Schools (EMRS) were set up in 1997-98 to impart quality education to ST children in remote areas.
Each school has a capacity of 480 students, catering to students from Class VI to XII.
In addition, wherever the density of ST population “is higher in identified Sub-Districts (90% or more), it is proposed to set up Eklavya Model Day Boarding School (EMDBS) on an experimental basis for providing additional scope for ST Students seeking to avail school education without residential facility.

Eliminating Sickle Cell Anaemia

A Mission to eliminate Sickle Cell Anaemia by 2047 will be launched. It will entail awareness creation, universal screening of 7 crore people in the age group of 0-40 years in affected tribal areas, and counselling through collaborative efforts of central ministries and state governments.
Sickle Cell Anaemia is a genetic condition that causes Red Blood Cells to deform and break down.
Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) is widespread among the tribal population in India where about 1 in 86 births among STs have SCD.

Focus on PVTGs

To improve socio-economic conditions of the particularly vulnerable tribal groups (PVTGs), Pradhan Mantri PVTG Development Mission will be launched.
This will saturate PVTG families and habitations with basic facilities such as safe housing, clean drinking water and sanitation, improved access to education, health and nutrition, road and telecom connectivity, and sustainable livelihood opportunities.”
An amount of Rs 15,000 crore will be made available to implement the Mission in the next three years under the Development Action Plan for the Scheduled Tribes.

Perseverance completes ‘sample depot’

NASA announced on 1 February 2023 that its Perseverance Rover, nicknamed Percy, has completed the first “sample depot on another world” by dropping the tenth and final sample tube. The tube will be part of a depot that will be considered for the return to Earth as part of the Mars Sample Return Campaign. The Perseverance Rover completed the sample depot less than six weeks since it began by dropping the first sample on 21 December 2022.

What is the Perseverance Mars Rover?

NASA’s Perseverance is a Mars rover that is about 3 metres long, 2.7 metres wide, and 2.2 metres tall.
It is about the size of a car, but weighs only about 1,025 kilograms with all instruments on board.
Since it has to operate independently on the surface of a plant that is millions of kilometres away, it has parts that are analogous – similar to those found in animals that help them adapt and survive.
For example, its body is a strong structure that protects its “vulnerable insides” and its computers are the brain that processes all the data.
Its eyes and ears are formed by cameras and other instruments that give it information about its environment. Its “legs” are the wheels that allow it to move around.
Perseverance on an Atlas V-541 rocket from Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on 30 July 2020.
It landed on the surface of Mars on 18 February 2021 along with the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter.

What is NASA’s Perseverance rover looking for?

To put it simply, Perseverance is looking for signs of life on the red planet. Previous missions run by the American space agency have discovered evidence that Mars once had running water before it turned into a frozen desert.
Mars had warmer surface environments that could have supported microbial life in its earlier history.
Perseverance aims to take the next logical step and find out one of the most important questions in the field of astrobiology—whether there are signs of past microbial life on Mars.
In fact, even the location where it landed, the Jezero Crater, has a high potential for hosting biosignatures of past microbial life.
The crater is a 45-kilometre-wide basin located in the northern hemisphere of Mars.
According to NASA, a river flowed into a body of water there around 3.5 billion years ago.
The space agency believes that the ancient river delta could have collected and preserved organic molecules and other signs of microbial life.

How will Perseverance samples be returned?

The Perseverance rover already has on board a host of scientific instruments that will help researchers study the red planet in greater detail than ever before.
This includes the SHERLOC (Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals) instrument that can detect organic matter and minerals, and PIXL (Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry), which can map the chemical composition of rocks and sediments.
A Sample Retrieval Lander that would launch to the red planet in 2023, carrying a NASA-led Mars rocket and a pair of small Mars helicopters, kind of like Ingenuity.

Deer reservoir of old coronavirus variants

A new study suggests the alpha and gamma variants of the coronavirus continued to circulate and evolve in white-tailed deer, even after they stopped spreading widely among people.

More about the news:

The findings, which are based on samples collected through December 2021, provide more evidence that deer could be a reservoir of the virus and a potential source of future variants, which could spill back into human populations.

The link between deer and coronavirus:

Previous studies of deer have suggested humans have repeatedly introduced the coronavirus into white-tailed deer populations in the United States and Canada and that deer can spread the virus to one another.
Scientists are not sure how people are passing the virus to deer, but they have speculated that it might happen when people feed deer or deer encounter human trash or waste.
The scale of the risk that infected deer pose to humans remains unclear.
Scientists have documented one case that most likely resulted from deer-to-human transmission in Ontario, and they note that hunters and others who have regular contact with the animals could potentially catch the virus from them.

How was the study conducted?

About 5,500 tissue samples collected from deer killed by hunters in New York State from September through December in 2020 and 2021.
During the 2020 season, just 0.6% of the samples tested positive for the virus, a figure that rose to 21% during the 2021 season.
Genetic sequencing revealed that three variants of concern — alpha, gamma and delta — were all present in deer during the 2021 season.
The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that deer hunters take a variety of basic precautions to reduce the risk of infection, including wearing masks while handling game and washing hands thoroughly afterward.

CITES Reveals Red Sanders Smuggling

There is a clear discrepancy in the reporting of the trade in the endangered species by the exporting and importing countries, says wildlife trade monitoring organization TRAFFIC. The CITES trade database has recorded 28 incidents of Red Sanders confiscation, seizure, and specimen from the wild being exported from India, a fact sheet prepared by TRAFFIC, a global wildlife trade monitoring organization has revealed. CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) is an international agreement between governments, whose aim is to ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants, does not threaten the survival of the species.

Illegal Trade

“These consignments were exported to China (53.5%), Hong Kong (25.0%), Singapore (17.8%) and the United States of America (3.5%) from 2016 to 2020”.
Red Sanders Pterocarpussantalinus, or red sandalwood, is an endemic tree species with distribution restricted to the Eastern Ghats of India.
The species found in Andhra Pradesh and growing up to a height of 10 to 15metres, is reported to be one of India’s most exploited tree species, and is under severe pressure from illegal logging and harvesting.
Under the foreign trade policy of India, the import of Red Sanders is prohibited, while export is restricted.
“India reported an export of more than 19,049 tonnes of logs. In comparison, the importing countries reported about 4,610 tonnes of logs, 127 tonnes of sawn wood, 20 tonnes of transformed wood and 980 kg of wood products, clearly indicating a discrepancy in reporting of Red Sander trade.”
Recently released communiqué titled “RED SANDERS: Factsheet on India’s Red Sanders in illegal wildlife trade”, China remains the largest importer with more than 13,618 tonnes of the products, followed byHong Kong (5,215 tonnes) and Singapore (216 tonnes).

Red Sanders (Rules and Prohibition)

“Red Sanders is under severe pressure from illegal logging and harvesting. Its heartwood is in demand in both domestic and international markets and is used to make furniture and handicrafts, while the red dye obtained from the wood is used as a colouring agent in textiles and medicines.
Rampant illegal logging has been reported across its range of State,” by TRAFFIC’s India office.
Listed under Schedule IV of The Wildlife Protection Act and Endangered as per IUCN Red List, Red Sanders is a very slow-growing tree species that attains maturity in natural forests after 25-40 years.
It also highlighted the conservation efforts of the species and pointed out that in 2016 the Andhra Pradesh Forest Act, was amended via A.P. Act No.15 of 2016, to give special status of protection to Red Sanders. Red Sanders offences were made cognisable and non-bailable, and the punishments related to it were enhanced.
The publication called declaring the Red Sanders harbouring forests within the species’ geographical range as ‘High Conservation Areas’, to provide an adequate legal framework for protecting the species and its habitat.

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