30 January 1948 – 30 January 2012 “Faith gains in strength only when people are willing to lay down their lives for it….Faith is not like a delicate flower which would wither away….Robust faith in oneself and brave trust of the opponent, so-called or real, is the best safeguard….A living faith cannot be manufactured by the rule of [the] majority….What is faith if it is not translated into action?…Faith is not imparted like secular subjects. It is given through the language of the heart….Every living faith must have within itself the power of rejuvenation if it is to live. Just as the body cannot exist without blood, so the soul needs matchless and pure strength of faith….My effort should never be to undermine another’s faith but to make him a better follower of his own faith….Even as a tree has a single trunk but many branches and leaves, there is one religion– human religion–but any number of faiths” ~ Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
Born	2 October 1869 Porbandar, Kathiawar Agency,British India
Died	30 January 1948 (aged 78) New Delhi, Dominion of India
Cause of death	Assassination by shooting
Resting place	Rajghat, New Delhi, India 28.6415°N 77.2483°E
Nationality	Indian
Other names	Mahatma Gandhi, Bapu
Alma mater	University College London,[2]University of London
Known for	Prominent figure of Indian independence movement Propounding the philosophy ofSatyagraha and Ahimsa Advocating non-violence Pacifism
Religion	Hinduism
Spouse	Kasturba Gandhi
Children	Harilal Manilal Ramdas Devdas child who died in infancy
Parents	Putlibai Gandhi (Mother) Karamchand Gandhi (Father)
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Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (Gujarati: મોહનદાસ કરમચંદ ગાંધી; Hindi: मोहनदास करमचंद गांधी, pronounced: [moːˈɦənd̪aːs kəˈrəmtʃənd̪ ˈɡaːnd̪ʱi] ( listen). 2 October 1869– 30 January 1948) was the pre-eminent political and ideological leader of India during the Indian independence movement. Pioneering the use of non-violent resistance to tyranny through mass civil disobedience, a tool to fight for civil rights and freedom that he called satyagraha, he founded his doctrine of nonviolent protest to achieve political and social progress based upon ahimsa, or total nonviolence for which he is internationally renowned. Gandhi led India to its independence and inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. Gandhi is often referred to as Mahatma (or “Great Soul,” an honorific first applied to him by Rabindranath Tagore). In India, he is also called Bapu (or “Father”) and officially honoured as the Father of the Nation. His birthday, 2 October, is commemorated in India as Gandhi Jayanti, a national holiday, and worldwide as the International Day of Non-Violence.

Gandhi first employed non-violent civil disobedience as an expatriate lawyer in South Africa, in the resident Indian community’s struggle for civil rights. After his return to India in 1915, he set about organising peasants, farmers, and urban labourers in protesting excessive land-tax and discrimination. Assuming leadership of the Indian National Congress in 1921, Gandhi led nationwide campaigns for easing poverty, expanding women’s rights, building religious and ethnic amity, ending untouchability, increasing economic self-reliance, but above all for achieving Swaraj—the independence of India from foreign domination. Gandhi famously led Indians in protesting the British-imposed salt tax with the 400 km (250 mi) Dandi Salt March in 1930, and later in calling for the British to Quit India in 1942. He was imprisoned for many years, upon many occasions, in both South Africa and India. Gandhi strove to practice non-violence and truth in all situations, and advocated that others do the same. He lived modestly in a self-sufficient residential community and wore the traditional Indian dhoti and shawl, woven with yarn he had hand spun on a charkha. He ate simple vegetarian food, and also undertook long fasts as means of both self-purification and social protest.

Gandhi was assassinated on 30 January 1948, by Nathuram Godse, a Hindu nationalist who felt Gandhi was sympathetic to the Muslims. January 30, hence is observed as Martyrs’ Day in India.

Early life and background

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born on 2 October 1869  in Porbandar, a coastal town which was then part of the Bombay Presidency, British India. He was born in his ancestral home, now known as Kirti Mandir, Porbandar. His father, Karamchand Gandhi (1822–1885), who belonged to the Hindu Modh community, served as the diwan (a high official) of Porbander state, a small princely state in the Kathiawar Agency of British India. His grandfather was Uttamchand Gandhi, fondly called Utta Gandhi. His mother, Putlibai, who came from the Hindu Pranami Vaishnava community, was Karamchand’s fourth wife, the first three wives having apparently died in childbirth. Growing up with a devout mother and the Jain traditions of the region, the young Mohandas absorbed early the influences that would play an important role in his adult life; these included compassion for sentient beings, vegetarianism, fasting for self-purification, and mutual tolerance among individuals of different creeds.

The Indian classics, especially the stories of Shravana and Maharaja Harishchandra, had a great impact on Gandhi in his childhood. In his autobiography, he admits that it left an indelible impression on his mind. He writes: “It haunted me and I must have acted Harishchandra to myself times without number.” Gandhi’s early self-identification with Truth and Love as supreme values is traceable to these epic characters.

In May 1883, the 13-year-old Mohandas was married to 14-year-old Kasturbai Makhanji (her first name was usually shortened to “Kasturba”, and affectionately to “Ba”) in an arranged child marriage, according to the custom of the region. Recalling the day of their marriage, he once said, “As we didn’t know much about marriage, for us it meant only wearing new clothes, eating sweets and playing with relatives.” However, as was also the custom of the region, the adolescent bride was to spend much time at her parents’ house, and away from her husband. In 1885, when Gandhi was 15, the couple’s first child was born, but survived only a few days, and Gandhi’s father, Karamchand Gandhi, had died earlier that year. Mohandas and Kasturba had four more children, all sons: Harilal, born in 1888; Manilal, born in 1892; Ramdas, born in 1897; and Devdas, born in 1900. At his middle school in Porbandar and high school in Rajkot, Gandhi remained an average student. He passed the matriculation exam for Samaldas College at Bhavnagar, Gujarat, with some difficulty. While there, he was unhappy, in part because his family wanted him to become a barrister.

English barrister

In 1888, Gandhi travelled to London, England, to study law at University College London where he studied Indian law and jurisprudence and to train as abarrister at the Inner Temple. His time in the Imperial capital, was influenced by a vow he had made to his mother in the presence of the Jain monk Becharji, upon leaving India, to observe the Hindu precepts of abstinence from meat, alcohol, and promiscuity. Although Gandhi experimented with adopting “English” customs—taking dancing lessons for example—he could not stomach the bland vegetarian food offered by his landlady, and he was always hungry until he found one of London’s few vegetarian restaurants. Influenced by Henry Salt’s book, he joined the Vegetarian Society, was elected to its executive committee, and started a local Bayswater chapter. Some of the vegetarians he met were members of the Theosophical Society, which had been founded in 1875 to further universal brotherhood, and which was devoted to the study of Buddhist and Hindu literature. They encouraged Gandhi to join them in reading the Bhagavad Gita both in translation as well as in the original. Not having shown interest in religion before, he became interested in religious thought and began to read up on it.

Gandhi was called to the bar in June 1891 and then left London for India, where he learned that his mother had died while he was in London and that his family had kept the news from him. His attempts at establishing a law practice in Bombay failed because he was too shy to speak up in court. He returned to Rajkot to make a modest living drafting petitions for litigants, a business he was forced to close when he ran afoul of a British officer. In 1893 he eagerly accepted a year-long contract from Dada Abdulla & Co., an Indian firm, to a post in the Colony of Natal, South Africa, then part of the British Empire.

Civil rights movement in South Africa (1893–1914)

Gandhi spent 21 years in South Africa, where he developed his political views, his ethics, and his political leadership skills. The Indians in South Africa were led by wealthy Muslims, who employed Gandhi as a lawyer, and by impoverished Hindu indentured laborers with very limited rights. Gandhi considered them all to be Indians, taking a lifetime view that “Indianness” transcended religion and caste. He believed he could bridge historic differences, especially regarding religion, and that belief he brought back to India and tried to implement. The South African experience created handicaps that Gandhi did not realize—he was out of contact with the enormous complexities of religious and cultural life in India, and believed he understood India by getting to know and leading Indians in South Africa. Furthermore the officials he was dealing with were much more liberal than the British officials in India—General Smuts, for example, was a world class philosopher with a broad vision; he was an Africaaner willing to negotiate and compromise, not an Englishman defending the Raj against another Mutiny like 1857.

In South Africa, Gandhi faced the discrimination directed at all coloured people. He was thrown off a train at Pietermaritzburg after refusing to move from the first-class; he protested and was allowed on first class the next day. Travelling farther on by stagecoach, he was beaten by a driver for refusing to move to make room for a European passenger. He suffered other hardships on the journey as well, including being barred from several hotels. In another incident, the magistrate of a Durban court ordered Gandhi to remove his turban, which he refused to do. These events were a turning point in Gandhi’s life: they shaped his social activism and awakened him to social injustice. After witnessing racism, prejudice and injustice against Indians in South Africa, Gandhi began to question his place in society and his people’s standing in the British Empire.

Gandhi extended his original period of stay in South Africa to assist Indians in opposing a bill to deny them the right to vote. Though unable to halt the bill’s passage, his campaign was successful in drawing attention to the grievances of Indians in South Africa. He helped found the Natal Indian Congress in 1894, and through this organisation, he moulded the Indian community of South Africa into a unified political force. In January 1897, when Gandhi landed in Durban, a mob of white settlers attacked him and he escaped only through the efforts of the wife of the police superintendent. He, however, refused to press charges against any member of the mob, stating it was one of his principles not to seek redress for a personal wrong in a court of law.

In 1906, the Transvaal government promulgated a new Act compelling registration of the colony’s Indian population. At a mass protest meeting held in Johannesburg on 11 September that year, Gandhi adopted his still evolving methodology of satyagraha (devotion to the truth), or non-violent protest, for the first time. He urged Indians to defy the new law and to suffer the punishments for doing so. The community adopted this plan, and during the ensuing seven-year struggle, thousands of Indians were jailed, flogged, or shot for striking, refusing to register, for burning their registration cards or engaging in other forms of non-violent resistance. The government successfully repressed the Indian protesters, but the public outcry over the harsh treatment of peaceful Indian protesters by the South African government forced South African General Jan Christiaan Smuts to negotiate a compromise with Gandhi. Gandhi’s ideas took shape, and the concept of satyagraha matured during this struggle.

Reactions to blacks

After the black majority came to power in South Africa, Gandhi was proclaimed a national hero with numerous monuments. Gandhi focused his attention on Indians in South Africa, but historians have also examined his changing ideas on the proper role for blacks. White rule enforced strict segregation among all races and generated conflict between these communities). At first Gandhi shared racial notions prevalent in the 1890s. Bhana and Vahed argue that Gandhi’s experiences in jail sensitized him to the plight of blacks. “His negative views in the Johannesburg jail were reserved for hardened African prisoners rather than Africans generally.”

In 1906, the British declared war against the Zulu kingdom in Natal. Gandhi actively encouraged the British to recruit Indians. He argued that Indians should support the war efforts in order to legitimise their claims to full citizenship. The British accepted Gandhi’s offer to let a detachment of 20 Indians volunteer as a stretcher-bearer corps to treat wounded British soldiers. This corps was commanded by Gandhi and operated for less than two months. The experience taught him it was hopeless to directly challenge the overwhelming military power of the British army—he decided it could only be resisted in non-violent fashion by the pure of heart.

Struggle for Indian Independence (1915–45)

In 1915, Gandhi returned to India permanently. He brought a reputation as a leading Indian nationalist, theorist and organizer. He joined the Indian National Congressand was introduced to Indian issues, politics and the Indian people primarily by Gopal Krishna Gokhale. Gokhale was a key leader of the Congress Party best known for his restraint and moderation, and his insistence on working inside the system. Gandhi took Gokhale’s liberal approach based on British Whiggish traditions and transformed it to make it look wholly Indian.

Role in World War I

In April 1918, during the latter part of World War I, the Viceroy invited Gandhi to a War Conference in Delhi. Perhaps to show his support for the Empire and help his case for India’s independence, Gandhi agreed to actively recruit Indians for the war effort. In contrast to the Zulu War of 1906 and the outbreak of World War I in 1914, when he recruited volunteers for the Ambulance Corps, this time Gandhi attempted to recruit combatants. In a June 1918 leaflet entitled “Appeal for Enlistment”, Gandhi wrote “To bring about such a state of things we should have the ability to defend ourselves, that is, the ability to bear arms and to use them…If we want to learn the use of arms with the greatest possible despatch, it is our duty to enlist ourselves in the army.” He did, however, stipulate in a letter to the Viceroy’s private secretary that he “personally will not kill or injure anybody, friend or foe.” Gandhi’s war recruitment campaign brought into question his consistency on nonviolence as his friend Charlie Andrews confirms, “Personally I have never been able to reconcile this with his own conduct in other respects, and it is one of the points where I have found myself in painful disagreement.” Gandhi’s private secretary also had acknowledged that “The question of the consistency between his creed of ‘Ahimsa’ (non-violence) and his recruiting campaign was raised not only then but has been discussed ever since.”

Champaran and Kheda

Gandhi’s first major achievements came in 1918 with the Champaran and Kheda agitations of Bihar and Gujarat. The Champaran agitation pitted the local peasantry against their largely British landlords who were backed by the local administration. The peasantry was forced to grow Indigo, a cash crop whose demand had been declining over two decades, and were forced to sell their crops to the planters at a fixed price. Unhappy wIth this, the peasantry appealed to Gandhi at his ashram in Ahmedabad. Pursuing a strategy of non-violent protest, Gandhi took the administration by surprise and won concessions from the authorities.

In 1918, Kheda was hit by floods and famine and the peasantry was demanding relief from taxes. Using non-cooperation as a technique, Gandhi advocated the non-payment of taxes even under the threat of confiscation of land. Gandhi established an ashram there, organising scores of his veteran supporters and fresh volunteers from the region. He organised a detailed study and survey of the villages, accounting for the atrocities and terrible episodes of suffering, including the general state of degenerate living. Building on the confidence of villagers, he began leading the clean-up of villages, building of schools and hospitals and encouraging the village leadership to undo and condemn many social evils such as untouchability and alcoholism.

His most important impact came when he was arrested by police on the charge of creating unrest and was ordered to leave the province. Hundreds of thousands of people protested and rallied outside the jail, police stations and courts demanding his release, which the court reluctantly granted. Gandhi led organised protests and strikes against the landlords. With the guidance of the British government, these landlords agreed to suspend revenue hikes until the famine ended and to grant the poor farmers of the region increased compensation and control over farming. It was during this agitation that Gandhi was addressed by the people as Bapu (Father) and Mahatma (Great Soul). In Kheda, Sardar Patel represented the farmers in negotiations with the British, who suspended revenue collection and released all the prisoners. Gandhi’s popularity rose in India post this agitation.

Non-cooperation

Gandhi employed non-cooperation, non-violence and peaceful resistance as his “weapons” in the struggle against the British Raj. In Punjab, the Jallianwala Bagh massacre of civilians by British troops (also known as the Amritsar Massacre) caused deep trauma to the nation, leading to increased public anger and acts of violence. Gandhi criticised both the actions of the British Raj and the retaliatory violence of Indians. He authored the resolution offering condolences to British civilian victims and condemning the riots which, after initial opposition in the party, was accepted following Gandhi’s emotional speech advocating his principle that all violence was evil and could not be justified. After the massacre and subsequent violence, Gandhi began to focus on winning complete self-government and control of all Indian government institutions, maturing soon into Swaraj or complete individual, spiritual, political independence.

 

In December 1921, Gandhi was invested with executive authority on behalf of the Indian National Congress. Under his leadership, the Congress was reorganised with a new constitution, with the goal of Swaraj. Membership in the party was opened to anyone prepared to pay a token fee. A hierarchy of committees was set up to improve discipline, transforming the party from an elite organisation to one of mass national appeal. Gandhi expanded his non-violence platform to include the swadeshi policy—the boycott of foreign-made goods, especially British goods. Linked to this was his advocacy that khadi(homespun cloth) be worn by all Indians instead of British-made textiles. Gandhi exhorted Indian men and women, rich or poor, to spend time each day spinning khadi in support of the independence movement. Gandhi even invented a small, portable spinning wheel that could be folded into the size of a small typewriter. This was a strategy to inculcate discipline and dedication to weeding out the unwilling and ambitious and to include women in the movement at a time when many thought that such activities were not respectable activities for women. In addition to boycotting British products, Gandhi urged the people to boycott British educational institutions and law courts, to resign from government employment, and to forsake British titles and honours.

“Non-cooperation” enjoyed widespread appeal and success, increasing excitement and participation from all strata of Indian society. Yet, just as the movement reached its apex, it ended abruptly as a result of a violent clash in the town of Chauri Chaura, Uttar Pradesh, in February 1922. Fearing that the movement was about to take a turn towards violence, and convinced that this would be the undoing of all his work, Gandhi called off the campaign of mass civil disobedience. This was the third time that Gandhi had called off a major campaign. Gandhi was arrested on 10 March 1922, tried for sedition, and sentenced to six years’ imprisonment. He began his sentence on 18 March 1922. He was released in February 1924 for an appendicitis operation, having served only 2 years.

Without Gandhi’s unifying personality, the Indian National Congress began to splinter during his years in prison, splitting into two factions, one led by Chitta Ranjan Das and Motilal Nehru favouring party participation in the legislatures, and the other led by Chakravarti Rajagopalachari and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, opposing this move. Furthermore, cooperation among Hindus and Muslims, which had been strong at the height of the non-violence campaign, was breaking down. Gandhi attempted to bridge these differences through many means, including a three-week fast in the autumn of 1924, but with limited success.

Salt Satyagraha (Salt March)

Gandhi stayed out of active politics and, as such, the limelight for most of the 1920s. He focused instead on resolving the wedge between the Swaraj Party and the Indian National Congress, and expanding initiatives against untouchability, alcoholism, ignorance and poverty. He returned to the fore in 1928. In the preceding year, the British government had appointed a new constitutional reform commission under Sir John Simon, which did not include any Indian as its member. The result was a boycott of the commission by Indian political parties. Gandhi pushed through a resolution at the Calcutta Congress in December 1928 calling on the British government to grant India dominion status or face a new campaign of non-cooperation with complete independence for the country as its goal. Gandhi had not only moderated the views of younger men like Subhas Chandra Bose and Jawaharlal Nehru, who sought a demand for immediate independence, but also reduced his own call to a one year wait, instead of two. The British did not respond. On 31 December 1929, the flag of India was unfurled in Lahore. 26 January 1930 was celebrated as India’s Independence Day by the Indian National Congress meeting in Lahore. This day was commemorated by almost every other Indian organisation. Gandhi then launched a new satyagraha against the tax on salt in March 1930. This was highlighted by the famous Salt March to Dandi from 12 March to 6 April, where he marched 388 kilometres (241 mi) from Ahmedabad to Dandi, Gujarat to make salt himself. Thousands of Indians joined him on this march to the sea. This campaign was one of his most successful at upsetting British hold on India; Britain responded by imprisoning over 60,000 people.

Women

Salt as a household necessity was of special interest to women. Gandhi strongly favoured the emancipation of women, and he went so far as to say that “the women have come to look upon me as one of themselves.” He opposed purdah, child marriage, untouchability, and the extreme oppression of Hindu widows, up to and including sati. He especially recruited women to participate in the salt tax campaigns and the boycott of foreign products.  Sarma concludes that Gandhi’s success in enlisting women in his campaigns, including the salt tax campaign, anti-untouchability campaign and the peasant movement, gave many women a new self-confidence and dignity in the mainstream of Indian public life.

Gandhi as folk hero

Congress in the 1920s appealed to peasants by portraying Gandhi as a sort of Messiah, a strategy that succeeded in incorporating radical forces within the peasantry into the nonviolent resistance movement. In thousands of villages plays were performed that presented Gandhi as the reincarnation of earlier Indian nationalist leaders, or even as a demigod. The plays built support among illiterate peasants steeped in traditional Hindu culture. Similar messianic imagery appeared in popular songs and poems, and in Congress-sponsored religious pageants and celebrations. The result was Gandhi became not only a folk hero but the Congress was widely seen in the villages as his sacred instrument.

Negotiations

The government, represented by Lord Edward Irwin, decided to negotiate with Gandhi. The Gandhi–Irwin Pact was signed in March 1931. The British Government agreed to free all political prisoners, in return for the suspension of the civil disobedience movement. Also as a result of the pact, Gandhi was invited to attend the Round Table Conference in London as the sole representative of the Indian National Congress. The conference was a disappointment to Gandhi and the nationalists, because it focused on the Indian princes and Indian minorities rather than on a transfer of power. Furthermore, Lord Irwin’s successor, Lord Willingdon, began a new campaign of controlling and subduing the nationalist movement. Gandhi was again arrested, and the government tried to negate his influence by completely isolating him from his followers. But this tactic failed.

In 1932, through the campaigning of the Dalit leader B. R. Ambedkar, the government granted untouchables separate electorates under the new constitution. In protest, Gandhi embarked on a six-day fast in September 1932. The resulting public outcry successfully forced the government to adopt an equitable arrangement through negotiations mediated by Palwankar Baloo. This was the start of a new campaign by Gandhi to improve the lives of the untouchables, whom he named Harijans, the children of God.

On 8 May 1933, Gandhi began a 21-day fast of self-purification to help the Harijan movement. This new campaign was not universally embraced within the Dalit community, as prominent leader B. R. Ambedkar condemned Gandhi’s use of the term Harijans as saying that Dalits were socially immature, and that privileged caste Indians played a paternalistic role. Ambedkar and his allies also felt Gandhi was undermining Dalit political rights. Gandhi had also refused to support the untouchables in 1924–25 when they were campaigning for the right to pray in temples. Because of Gandhi’s actions, Ambedkar described him as “devious and untrustworthy”. Gandhi, although born into the Vaishya caste, insisted that he was able to speak on behalf of Dalits, despite the presence of Dalit activists such as Ambedkar.

In the summer of 1934, three attempts were made on Gandhi’s life.

When the Congress Party chose to contest elections and accept power under the Federation scheme, Gandhi resigned from party membership. He did not disagree with the party’s move, but felt that if he resigned, his popularity with Indians would cease to stifle the party’s membership, which actually varied, including communists, socialists, trade unionists, students, religious conservatives, and those with pro-business convictions, and that these various voices would get a chance to make themselves heard. Gandhi also wanted to avoid being a target for Raj propaganda by leading a party that had temporarily accepted political accommodation with the Raj.

Gandhi returned to active politics again in 1936, with the Nehru presidency and the Lucknow session of the Congress. Although Gandhi wanted a total focus on the task of winning independence and not speculation about India’s future, he did not restrain the Congress from adopting socialism as its goal. Gandhi had a clash with Subhas Chandra Bose, who had been elected president in 1938, and who had previously expressed a lack of faith in non-violence as a means of protest. Despite Gandhi’s opposition, Bose won a second term as Congress President, but left the Congress when the All-India leaders resigned en masse in protest of his abandonment of the principles introduced by Gandhi.

World War II and Quit India

Gandhi initially favoured offering “non-violent moral support” to the British effort when World War II broke out in 1939, but the Congressional leaders were offended by the unilateral inclusion of India in the war without consultation of the people’s representatives. All Congressmen resigned from office. After long deliberations, Gandhi declared that India could not be party to a war ostensibly being fought for democratic freedom while that freedom was denied to India itself. As the war progressed, Gandhi intensified his demand for independence, calling for the British to Quit India in a speech atGowalia Tank Maidan. This was Gandhi’s and the Congress Party’s most definitive revolt aimed at securing the British exit from India.

Gandhi was criticised by some Congress party members and other Indian political groups, both pro-British and anti-British. Some felt that not supporting Britain more in its struggle against Nazi Germany was unethical. Others felt that Gandhi’s refusal for India to participate in the war was insufficient and more direct opposition should be taken, while Britain fought against Nazism yet continued to contradict itself by refusing to grant India Independence. Quit India became the most forceful movement in the history of the struggle, with mass arrests and violence on an unprecedented scale. Thousands of freedom fighters were killed or injured by police gunfire, and hundreds of thousands were arrested. Gandhi and his supporters made it clear they would not support the war effort unless India were granted immediate independence. He even clarified that this time the movement would not be stopped if individual acts of violence were committed, saying that the “ordered anarchy” around him was “worse than real anarchy.” He called on all Congressmen and Indians to maintain discipline via ahimsa, and Karo Ya Maro (“Do or Die”) in the cause of ultimate freedom.

Gandhi and the entire Congress Working Committee were arrested in Bombay by the British on 9 August 1942. Gandhi was held for two years in the Aga Khan Palace in Pune. It was here that Gandhi suffered two terrible blows in his personal life. His 50-year old secretary Mahadev Desai died of a heart attack 6 days later and his wife Kasturba died after 18 months imprisonment on 22 February 1944; six weeks later Gandhi suffered a severe malaria attack. He was released before the end of the war on 6 May 1944 because of his failing health and necessary surgery; the Raj did not want him to die in prison and enrage the nation. He came out of detention to an altered political scene—the Muslim League for example, which a few years earlier had appeared marginal, “now occupied the centre of the political stage” and the topic of Jinnah’s campaign for Pakistan was a major talking point. Gandhi met Jinnah in September 1944 in Bombay but Jinnah rejected, on the grounds that it fell short of a fully independent Pakistan, his proposal of the right of Muslim provinces to opt out of substantial parts of the forthcoming political union.

Although the Quit India movement had moderate success in its objective, the ruthless suppression of the movement brought order to India by the end of 1943. At the end of the war, the British gave clear indications that power would be transferred to Indian hands. At this point Gandhi called off the struggle, and around 100,000 political prisoners were released, including the Congress’s leadership.

Partition of India

While the Indian National Congress and Gandhi called for the British to quit India, the Muslim League passed a resolution for them to divide and quit, in 1943. Gandhi is believed to have been opposed to the partition during independence and suggested an agreement which required the Congress and Muslim League to cooperate and attain independence under a provisional government, thereafter, the question of partition could be resolved by a plebiscite in the districts with a Muslim majority. When Jinnah called for Direct Action, on 16 August 1946, Gandhi was infuriated and visited the most riot prone areas to stop the massacres, personally. He made strong efforts to unite the Indian Hindus, Muslims and Christians and struggled for the emancipation of the “untouchables” in Hindu society.

On the 14 and 15 August 1947 the Indian Independence Act was invoked. In border areas people moved from one side to another and upwards of a half million were killed in riots.  But for his teachings, the efforts of his followers, and his own presence, there would have been much more bloodshed during the partition, according to prominent Norwegian historian, Jens Arup Seip.

Stanley Wolpert has argued, The “plan to carve up British India was never approved of or accepted by Gandhi…who realised too late that his closest comrades and disciples were more interested in power than principle, and that his own vision had long been clouded by the illusion that the struggle he led for India’s freedom was a nonviolent one.”

Assassination

On 30 January 1948, Gandhi was shot while he was walking to a platform from which he was to address a prayer meeting. The assassin, Nathuram Godse, was a Hindu nationalist with links to the extremist Hindu Mahasabha, who held Gandhi responsible for weakening India by insisting upon a payment to Pakistan. Godse and his co-conspirator Narayan Apte were later tried and convicted; they were executed on 15 November 1949. Gandhi’s memorial (orSamādhi) at Rāj Ghāt, New Delhi, bears the epigraph “Hē Ram”, (Devanagari: हे ! राम or, He Rām), which may be translated as “Oh God”. These are widely believed to be Gandhi’s last words after he was shot, though the veracity of this statement has been disputed. Jawaharlal Nehru addressed the nation through radio:

“Friends and comrades, the light has gone out of our lives, and there is darkness everywhere, and I do not quite know what to tell you or how to say it. Our beloved leader, Bapu as we called him, the father of the nation, is no more. Perhaps I am wrong to say that; nevertheless, we will not see him again, as we have seen him for these many years, we will not run to him for advice or seek solace from him, and that is a terrible blow, not only for me, but for millions and millions in this country.”—Jawaharlal Nehru’s address to Gandhi

Gandhi’s death was mourned nationwide. Over 2 million people joined the 5 mile long funeral procession that took over 5 hours to reach Raj Ghat from Birla house, were he was assassinated. Gandhi’s body was transported on a weapons carrier, whose chassis was dismantled overnight to allow a high-floor to be installed so that people could catch a glimpse of his body. The engine of the vehicle was not used, instead 4 drag-ropes manned by 50 people each pulled the vehicle. All Indian owned establishments in London remained closed in mourning as Indians from all over Britain converged atIndia House in London.

Khan argues that Gandhi’s death and funeral helped consolidate the authority of the new Indian state. With Nehru in charge, the government made sure everyone knew the guilty party was not a Muslim. Congress tightly controlled the epic public displays of grief over a two-week period—the funeral, mortuary rituals and distribution of the martyr’s ashes—as millions participated and hundreds of millions watched. The goal was to assert the power of the government and legitimize the Congress Party’s control. This move built upon the massive outpouring of Hindu expressions of grief. The government suppressed the RSS, the Muslim National Guards, and the Khaksars, with some 200,000 arrests. Gandhi’s death and funeral linked the distant state with the Indian people and made more understand the need to suppress religious parties during the transition to independence for the Indian people.

Ashes

Gandhi’s ashes were poured into urns which were sent across India for memorial services. Most were immersed at the Sangam at Allahabad on 12 February 1948, but some were secretly taken away. In 1997, Tushar Gandhi immersed the contents of one urn, found in a bank vault and reclaimed through the courts, at the Sangam at Allahabad. Some of Gandhi’s ashes were scattered at the source of the Nile River near Jinja, Uganda, and a memorial plaque marks the event. On 30 January 2008, the contents of another urn were immersed at Girgaum Chowpatty by the family after a Dubai-based businessman had sent it to a Mumbai museum. Another urn has ended up in a palace of the Aga Khan in Pune (where he had been imprisoned from 1942 to 1944) and another in theSelf-Realization Fellowship Lake Shrine in Los Angeles. The family is aware that these enshrined ashes could be misused for political purposes, but does not want to have them removed because it would entail breaking the shrines.

Mystery of Gandhi’s two watches

After the death of Gandhi, shot dead by hindu fanatic, Nathuram Godse, two museums were dedicated to his life at Birla House and another at Gandhi museum close to Rajghat. Both museums exhibit two different watches which stopped at his time of death, which Gandhi was said to be wearing, when he was killed. The watch exhibited at Birla House points to 17 minutes past five, while the watch displayed at Gandhi museum points to 12 minutes past five.

Principles, practices and beliefs

Gandhi’s ethical thinking was heavily influenced by a handful of books, which he repeatedly meditated upon. They included especially Plato’s Apology, (which he translated into his native Gujarati);William Salter’s Ethical Religion (1889); Henry David Thoreau’s On the Duty of Civil Disobedience (1847); Leo Tolstoy’s The Kingdom of God Is Within You (1893) (in which he first discovered the doctrine of non-violence and love); and John Ruskin’s Unto this Last (1862), which he also translated into Gujarati . Ruskin inspired his decision to live an austere life on a commune, at first on the Phoenix Farm in Natal and then on the Tolstoy Farm just outside Johannesburg, South Africa.

Gokhale argues that Gandhi took his philosophy of history from Hinduism and Jainism, supplemented by selected Christian traditions and ideas of Tolstoy and Ruskin. Hinduism provided central concepts of God’s role in history, of man as the battleground of forces of virtue and sin, and of the potential of love as an historical force. From Jainism, Gandhi took the idea of applying nonviolence to human situations and the theory that Absolute Reality can be comprehended only relatively in human affairs.

Spodek argues for the importance of the culture of Gujarat in shaping his methods. He finds that some of Gandhi’s most effective methods such as fasting, noncooperation and appeals to the justice and compassion of the rulers were learned as a youth in Gujarat. Later on, the financial, cultural, organizational and geographical support needed to bring his campaigns to a national audience were drawn from Ahmedabad and Gujarat, his Indian residence 1915–1930.

Tolstoy

In 1908 Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) wrote A Letter to a Hindu, which said that only by using love as a weapon through passive resistance could the Indian people overthrow colonial rule. In 1909, Gandhi wrote to Tolstoy seeking advice and permission to republish A Letter to a Hindu in Gujarati. Tolstoy responded and the two continued a correspondence until Tolstoy’s death in 1910. The letters concern practical and theological applications of non-violence. Gandhi saw himself a disciple of Tolstoy, for they agreed regarding opposition to state authority and colonialism; both hated violence and preached non-resistance. However, they differed sharply on political strategy. Gandhi called for political involvement; he was a nationalist and was prepared to use nonviolent force. He was also willing to compromise. It was at Tolstoy Farm where Gandhi and Hermann Kallenbach (1871–1945) systematically trained their disciples in the philosophy of nonviolence.

Truth and Satyagraha

Gandhi dedicated his life to the wider purpose of discovering truth, or Satya. He tried to achieve this by learning from his own mistakes and conducting experiments on himself. He called his autobiography The Story of My Experiments with Truth.

Watson argues that Gandhi based satyagraha on the Vedantic ideal of self-realization, and notes it also contains Jain and Buddhist notions of nonviolence, vegetarianism, the avoidance of killing, and ‘agape’ (universal love). Gandhi also borrowed Christian-Islamic ideas of equality, the brotherhood of man, and the concept of turning the other cheek.

Gandhi stated that the most important battle to fight was overcoming his own demons, fears, and insecurities. Gandhi summarised his beliefs first when he said “God is Truth”. He would later change this statement to “Truth is God”. Thus, Satya (Truth) in Gandhi’s philosophy is “God”.

The essence of Satyagraha (lit. ‘insistence/holding of truth’) is that it seeks to eliminate antagonisms without harming the antagonists themselves and seeks to transform or “purify” it to a higher level. A euphemism sometimes used for Satyagraha is that it is a “silent force” or a “soul force” (a term also used by Martin Luther King Jr. during his famous “I Have a Dream” speech). It arms the individual with moral power rather than physical power. Satyagraha is also termed a “universal force,” as it essentially “makes no distinction between kinsmen and strangers, young and old, man and woman, friend and foe.” Gandiji wrote: “There must be no impatience, no barbarity, no insolence, no undue pressure. If we want to cultivate a true spirit of democracy, we cannot afford to be intolerant. Intolerance betrays want of faith in one’s cause.” Civil disobedience and non-cooperation as practised under Satyagraha are based on the “law of suffering”, a doctrine that the endurance of suffering is a means to an end. This end usually implies a moral upliftment or progress of an individual or society. Therefore, non-cooperation in Satyagraha is in fact a means to secure the cooperation of the opponent consistently with truth and justice.

Nonviolence

Although Gandhi was not the originator of the principle of non-violence, he was the first to apply it in the political field on a large scale. The concept ofnonviolence (ahimsa) and nonresistance has a long history in Indian religious thought and has had many revivals in Hindu, Buddhist, Jain, Jewish and Christian contexts. Gandhi explains his philosophy and way of life in his autobiography The Story of My Experiments with Truth. Some of his remarks were widely quoted, such as “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.” ”There are many causes that I am prepared to die for but no causes that I am prepared to kill for.”

Gandhi’s views came under heavy criticism in Britain when it was under attack from Nazi Germany, and later when the Holocaust was revealed. He told the British people in 1940, “I would like you to lay down the arms you have as being useless for saving you or humanity. You will invite Herr Hitler and Signor Mussolini to take what they want of the countries you call your possessions… If these gentlemen choose to occupy your homes, you will vacate them. If they do not give you free passage out, you will allow yourselves, man, woman, and child, to be slaughtered, but you will refuse to owe allegiance to them.”

In a post-war interview in 1946, he said, “Hitler killed five million Jews. It is the greatest crime of our time. But the Jews should have offered themselves to the butcher’s knife. They should have thrown themselves into the sea from cliffs… It would have aroused the world and the people of Germany… As it is they succumbed anyway in their millions.”

However, Gandhi realised that this level of nonviolence required incredible faith and courage, which he believed everyone did not possess. He therefore advised that everyone need not keep to nonviolence, especially if it were used as a cover for cowardice, saying, “where there is only a choice between cowardice and violence, I would advise violence.”

Vegetarianism and fasting

Hay argues that Gandhi in London looked into numerous religious and intellectual currents. He especially appreciated how the theosophical movement encouraged a religious eclecticism and an antipathy to atheism. Hay says the vegetarian movement had the greatest impact for it was Gandhi’s point of entry into other reformist agendas of the time. The idea of vegetarianism is deeply ingrained in Hindu and Jain traditions in India, especially in his native Gujarat. Gandhi was close to the chairman of the London Vegetarian Society, Dr. Josiah Oldfield, and corresponded with Henry Stephens Salt, a vegetarian campaigner. Gandhi became a strict vegetarian. He wrote the book The Moral Basis of Vegetarianism and wrote for the London Vegetarian Society’s publication.

Gandhi used fasting as a political device, often threatening suicide unless demands were met. Gandhi noted in his autobiography that vegetarianism was the beginning of his deep commitment toBrahmacharya; without total control of the palate, his success in Bramacharya would likely falter. “You wish to know what the marks of a man are who wants to realize Truth which is God,” he wrote. “He must reduce himself to zero and have perfect control over all his senses-beginning with the palate or tongue.”

Congress publicized the fasts as a political action that generated widespread sympathy. In response the government tried to manipulate news coverage to minimize his challenge to the Raj. He fasted in 1932 to protest the voting scheme for separate political representation for Dalits; Gandhi did not want them segregated. The government stopped the London press from showing photographs of his emaciated body, because it would elicit sympathy. Gandhi’s 1943 hunger strike took place during a two-year prison term for the anticolonial Quit India movement. The government called on nutritional experts to demystify his action, and again no photos were allowed. However his final fast in 1948, after India was independent, was lauded by the British press and this time did include full-length photos.

Alter argues that Gandhi’s fixation on diet and celibacy were much deeper than exercises in self-discipline. Rather, his beliefs regarding health offered a critique of both the traditional Hindu system of ayurvedic medicine and Western concepts. This challenge was integral to his deeper challenge to tradition and modernity, as health and nonviolence became part of the same ethics.

Celibacy

A core Gandhian value that came in for much bantering and ribald criticism in the west was his celebacy and his experiments in “brahmacharya” or the elimination of all desire. In 1906 Gandhi, although married and a father, vowed to abstain from sexual relations. In the 1940s, in his mid-seventies, he brought his grandniece Manubehn to sleep naked in his bed as part of a spiritual experiment in which Gandhi could test himself as a “brahmachari.” Two other women also sometimes shared his bed. Gandhi discussed his experiment with friends and relations, and the experiment ceased in 1947.

Nai Talim, Basic Education

Nai Talim is a spiritual principle which states that knowledge and work are not separate. Gandhi promoted an educational curriculum with the same name based on this pedagogical principle.

It can be translated with the phrase ‘Basic Education for all’. However, the concept has several layers of meaning. It developed out of Gandhi’s experience with the English educational system and with colonialism in general. In that system, he saw that Indian children would be alienated and ‘career-based thinking’ would become dominant. In addition, it embodied a series of negative outcomes: the disdain for manual work, the development of a new elite class, and the increasing problems of industrialisation and urbanisation.

The three pillars of Gandhi’s pedagogy were its focus on the life-long character of education, its social character and its form as a holistic process. For Gandhi, education is ‘the moral development of the person’, a process that is by definition ‘life-long’.

Swaraj, Self-Rule

Rudolph argues that after a false start in trying to emulate the English in an attempt to overcome his timidity, Gandhi discovered the inner courage he was seeking by helping his countrymen in South Africa. The new courage consisted of observing the traditional Bengali way of “self-suffering” and, in finding his own courage, he was enabled also to point out the way of ’satyagraha’ and ‘ahimsa’ to the whole of India.

Gandhi was a self-described philosophical anarchist, and his vision of India meant an India without an underlying government. He once said that “the ideally nonviolent state would be an ordered anarchy.” While political systems are largely hierarchical, with each layer of authority from the individual to the central government have increasing levels of authority over the layer below, Gandhi believed that society should be the exact opposite, where nothing is done without the consent of anyone, down to the individual. His idea was that true self-rule in a country means that every person rules his or herself and that there is no state which enforces laws upon the people. This would be achieved over time with nonviolent conflict mediation, as power is divested from layers of hierarchical authorities, ultimately to the individual, which would come to embody the ethic of nonviolence. Rather than a system where rights are enforced by a higher authority, people are self-governed by mutual responsibilities. On returning from South Africa, when Gandhi received a letter asking for his participation in writing a world charter for human rights, he responded saying, “in my experience, it is far more important to have a charter for human duties.”A free India for him meant the existence of thousands of self-sufficient small communities (an idea possibly from Tolstoy) who rule themselves without hindering others. It did not mean merely transferring a British established administrative structure into Indian hands which he said was just making Hindustan into Englistan.He wanted to ultimately dissolve the Congress Party after independence and establish a system of direct democracy in India, having no faith in the British styled parliamentary system.^[114]

Literary works

Gandhi was a prolific writer. One of Gandhis earliest publications, Hind Swaraj published in Gujarati in 1909 is recognised as the intellectual blueprint of India’s freedom movement. The book was translated into english the next year, with a copyright legend that read “No Rights Reserved”. For decades he edited several newspapers including Harijan in Gujarati, in Hindi and in the English language; Indian Opinion while in South Africa and, Young India, in English, and Navajivan, a Gujarati monthly, on his return to India. Later, Navajivan was also published in Hindi. In addition, he wrote letters almost every day to individuals and newspapers.

Gandhi also wrote several books including his autobiography, An Autobiography of My Experiments with Truth ((Gujarātī “સત્યના પ્રયોગો અથવા આત્મકથા”)), of which he bought the entire first edition to make sure it was reprinted. His other autobiographies included: Satyagraha in South Africa about his struggle there, Hind Swaraj or Indian Home Rule, a political pamphlet, and a paraphrase in Gujarati of John Ruskin’s Unto This Last. This last essay can be considered his programme on economics. He also wrote extensively on vegetarianism, diet and health, religion, social reforms, etc. Gandhi usually wrote in Gujarati, though he also revised the Hindi and English translations of his books.

Gandhi’s complete works were published by the Indian government under the name The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi in the 1960s. The writings comprise about 50,000 pages published in about a hundred volumes. In 2000, a revised edition of the complete works sparked a controversy, as Gandhian followers argue that the government incorporated the changes for political purposes.^{[citation needed]}The Indian government later withdrew the revised edition.

Legacy and depictions in popular culture

The word Mahatma, while often mistaken for Gandhi’s given name in the West, is taken from the Sanskrit words maha (meaning Great) and atma (meaningSoul). Rabindranath Tagore is said to have accorded the title to Gandhi. In his autobiography, Gandhi nevertheless explains that he never valued the title, and was often pained by it.

Followers and international influence

Gandhi influenced important leaders and political movements. Leaders of the civil rights movement in the United States, including Martin Luther King and James Lawson, drew from the writings of Gandhi in the development of their own theories about non-violence. Anti-apartheid activist and former President of South Africa, Nelson Mandela, was inspired by Gandhi. Others include Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan,^[126] Steve Biko, Aung San Suu Kyi, and Benigno Aquino, Jr.(the Philippine opposition leader during the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos and father of current Philippine presidentBenigno Aquino III).

“Christ gave us the goals and Mahatma Gandhi the tactics.”—Martin Luther King Jr, 1955

In his early years, the former President of South Africa Nelson Mandela was a follower of the non-violent resistance philosophy of Gandhi. Bhana and Vahed commented on these events as “Gandhi inspired succeeding generations of South African activists seeking to end White rule. This legacy connects him to Nelson Mandela…in a sense Mandela completed what Gandhi started.”

Gandhi’s life and teachings inspired many who specifically referred to Gandhi as their mentor or who dedicated their lives to spreading Gandhi’s ideas. In Europe,Romain Rolland was the first to discuss Gandhi in his 1924 book Mahatma Gandhi, and Brazilian anarchist and feminist Maria Lacerda de Moura wrote about Gandhi in her work on pacifism. In 1931, notable European physicist Albert Einstein exchanged written letters with Gandhi, and called him “a role model for the generations to come” in a later writing about him. Lanza del Vasto went to India in 1936 intending to live with Gandhi; he later returned to Europe to spread Gandhi’s philosophy and founded the Community of the Ark in 1948 (modelled after Gandhi’s ashrams). Madeleine Slade (known as “Mirabehn”) was the daughter of a British admiral who spent much of her adult life in India as a devotee of Gandhi.

In addition, the British musician John Lennon referred to Gandhi when discussing his views on non-violence. At the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival in 2007, former U.S. Vice-President and environmentalist Al Gore spoke of Gandhi’s influence on him.^[133]

President of the United States Barack Obama in an address to a Joint Session of the Parliament of India said that:

“I am mindful that I might not be standing before you today, as President of the United States, had it not been for Gandhi and the message he shared with America and the world.”—Barack Obama in an address to a Joint Session of the Parliament of India, 2010

Obama at the Wakefield High School speech in Sept 2009, said that his biggest inspiration came from Mahatma Gandhi. His reply was in response to the question ‘Who was the one person, dead or live, that you would choose to dine with?’. He continued that “He’s somebody I find a lot of inspiration in. He inspired Dr. King with his message of nonviolence. He ended up doing so much and changed the world just by the power of his ethics.” The Mahatma Gandhi District in Houston, Texas, United States, an ethnic Indian enclave, is named after Gandhi. The district officially received its named on 16 January 2010 when the City of Houston held a naming ceremony.

Global holidays

On 15 June 2007, it was announced that the “United Nations General Assembly” has “unanimously adopted” a resolution declaring 2 October as “the International Day of Non-Violence.” First proposed by UNESCO in 1948, as the School Day of Non-violence and Peace (DENIP in Spanish), 30 January of every year is observed the School Day of Non-violence and Peace in schools of many countries In countries with a Southern Hemisphere school calendar, it can be observed on 30 March.^[139]

Awards

Time magazine named Gandhi the Man of the Year in 1930. Gandhi was also the runner-up to Albert Einstein as “Person of the Century“ at the end of 1999. Einstein said of Gandhi:

Mahatma Gandhi’s life achievement stands unique in political history. He has invented a completely new and humane means for the liberation war of an oppressed country, and practised it with greatest energy and devotion. The moral influence he had on the consciously thinking human being of the entire civilized world will probably be much more lasting than it seems in our time with its overestimation of brutal violent forces. Because lasting will only be the work of such statesmen who wake up and strengthen the moral power of their people through their example and educational works. We may all be happy and grateful that destiny gifted us with such an enlightened contemporary, a role model for the generations to come.

Time Magazine named The 14th Dalai Lama, Lech Wałęsa, Martin Luther King, Cesar Chavez, Aung San Suu Kyi, Benigno Aquino, Jr., Desmond Tutu, and Nelson Mandela as Children of Gandhi and his spiritual heirs to non-violence. The Government of India awards the annual Gandhi Peace Prize to distinguished social workers, world leaders and citizens. Nelson Mandela, the leader of South Africa’s struggle to eradicate racial discrimination and segregation, is a prominent non-Indian recipient. In 2011, Time magazine named Gandhi as one of the top 25 political icons of all time.

Gandhi never received the Nobel Peace Prize, although he was nominated five times between 1937 and 1948, including the first-ever nomination by the American Friends Service Committee, though he made the short list only twice, in 1937 and 1947. Decades later, the Nobel Committee publicly declared its regret for the omission, and admitted to deeply divided nationalistic opinion denying the award. Gandhi was nominated in 1948 but was assassinated before nominations closed. That year, the committee chose not to award the peace prize stating that “there was no suitable living candidate” and later research shows that the possibility of awarding the prize posthumously to Gandhi was discussed and that the reference to no suitable living candidate was to Gandhi. When the 14th Dalai Lama was awarded the Prize in 1989, the chairman of the committee said that this was “in part a tribute to the memory of Mahatma Gandhi.”

Film and literature

Mahatma Gandhi has been portrayed in film, literature, and in the theatre. Ben Kingsley portrayed Gandhi in the 1982 film Gandhi, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture. Gandhi is also a central theme in the 2006 Bollywood film Lage Raho Munna Bhai. The 2007 film, Gandhi, My Father explores the relationship between Gandhi and his son Harilal. The 1996 film, The Making of the Mahatma, documents Gandhi’s time in South Africa and his transformation from an inexperienced barrister to recognised political leader.

Several biographers have undertaken the task of describing Gandhi’s life. Among them are: D. G. Tendulkar with his Mahatma. Life of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi in eight volumes, and Pyarelal andSushila Nayyar with their Mahatma Gandhi in 10 volumes. There is also another documentary, titled Mahatma: Life of Gandhi, 1869–1948, which is 14 chapters and 6 hours long.

The April 2010 biography, Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle With India by Joseph Lelyveld contained controversial material speculating about Gandhi’s sexual life. Because of this material, the book was banned in the Indian state of Gujarat, his birthplace.

Lelyveld, however, stated that the press coverage “grossly distort[s]” the overall message of the book.

Current impact within India

India, with its rapid economic modernization and urbanization, has rejected Gandhi’s economics but accepted much of his politics and contuinues to revere his memory. Reporter Jim Yardley notes that, “modern India is hardly a Gandhian nation, if it ever was one. His vision of a village-dominated economy was shunted aside during his lifetime as rural romanticism, and his call for a national ethos of personal austerity and nonviolence has proved antithetical to the goals of an aspiring economic and military power.” By contrast he is “given full credit for India’s political identity as a tolerant, secular democracy.”

Gandhi’s birthday, 2 October, is a national holiday in India, Gandhi Jayanti. Gandhi’s image also appears on paper currency of all denominations issued by India, except for the one rupee note. Gandh’s date of passing away is commemorated as Martyrs’ Day in India.

There are two temples in India dedicated to Gandhi. One is located at Sambalpur in Orissa and the other at Nidaghatta village near Kadur in Chikmagalur district ofKarnataka.

The Gandhi Memorial in Kanyakumari resembles central Indian Hindu temples in formThe Tamukkam or Summer Palace in Madurai now houses the Mahatma Gandhi Museum.

• Mani Bhavan Gandhi Sangrahalaya Gandhi Museum & Library

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Oskar Schindler
Born	28 April 1908 Zwittau, Moravia, Austria-Hungary (present-day Svitavy,Czech Republic)
Died	9 October 1974 (aged 66) Hildesheim, West Germany
Resting place	Jerusalem, Israel 31.770164°N 35.230423°E
Occupation	Industrialist
Political party	National Socialist German Workers Party (Nazi)
Religion	Catholic
Spouse	Emilie Schindler
Parents	Hans Schindler Franziska Luser

Oskar Schindler (28 April 1908 – 9 October 1974) was an ethnic German industrialist born in Moravia. He is credited with saving over 1,100 Jewsduring the Holocaust by employing them in his enamelware and ammunitions factories, which were located in what is now Poland and the Czech Republic respectively. He is the subject of the novel Schindler’s Ark, and the film based on it, Schindler’s List.

Schindler was born on 28 April 1908 into a Sudeten German family in Zwittau, Moravia, Austria-Hungary. His parents, Hans Schindler and Franziska Luser, were divorced when he was 27. Oskar was always very close to his younger sister, Elfriede. Schindler was brought up within the Roman Catholic Church. Although he never formally renounced his religion, Oskar was never more than an indifferent Catholic. After school he worked as a commercial salesman.Early life and career

On 6 March 1928, Schindler married Emilie Pelzl (1907–2001), daughter of a wealthy Sudeten German farmer from Maletein. A pious Catholic, Emilie had received most of her education in a nearby monastery. During theGreat Depression, Oskar changed jobs several times. He also tried starting various businesses, but always went bankrupt. He joined the separatist Sudeten German Party in 1935. Though officially a citizen of Czechoslovakia, Schindler also became a spy for the Abwehr, then commanded by Admiral Wilhelm Canaris.  He was convicted of espionage and imprisoned by the Czechoslovakian government in July 1938, but after the Munich Agreement, he was released as a political prisoner. In 1939 Schindler joined the Nazi Party. One source contends that he also continued to work for Canaris and the Abwehr, paving the way for the Wehrmacht’s invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939.

World War II

The Holocaust

As an opportunistic businessman, Schindler was one of many who sought to profit from the German invasion of Poland in 1939. He gained ownership from a bankruptcy court of an idle enamelware factory in Kraków, named Pierwsza Małopolska Fabryka Naczyń Emaliowanych i Wyrobów Blaszanych “Rekord”,  which he renamed Deutsche Emaillewaren-Fabrik or DEF (location). With the help of his German-speaking Jewish accountant Itzhak Stern,  Schindler obtained around 1,000 Jewish forced labourers to work there.

Schindler soon adapted his lifestyle to his income. He became a well-respected guest at Nazi SS elite parties, having easy chats with high-ranking SS officers, often for his benefit. Initially Schindler may have been motivated by money, as Jewish labour cost less, but later he began shielding his workers without regard for cost. He would, for instance, claim that certain unskilled workers were essential to the factory.

While witnessing a 1943 raid on the Kraków Ghetto, where soldiers were used to round up the inhabitants for shipment to the concentration camp atPłaszów, Schindler was appalled by the murder of many of the Jews who had been working for him. He was a very persuasive individual, and after the raid, increasingly used all of his skills to protect his Schindlerjuden (“Schindler’s Jews”), as they came to be called. Schindler went out of his way to take care of the Jews who worked at DEF, often calling on his legendary charm and ingratiating manner to help his workers get out of difficult situations. Once, says author Eric Silver in The Book of the Just, “Two Gestapo men came to his office and demanded that he hand over a family of five who had bought forged Polish identity papers. ‘Three hours after they walked in,’ Schindler said, ‘two drunk Gestapo men reeled out of my office without their prisoners and without the incriminating documents they had demanded’”. The special status of his factory (“business essential to the war effort”) became the decisive factor for Schindler’s efforts to support his Jewish workers. Whenever “Schindler Jews” were threatened with deportation, he claimed exemptions for them. Wives, children, and even handicapped persons were shown to be necessary mechanics and metalworkers.

In the factory itself, Jewish workers were treated civilly, with none of the “shouting, abuse and random killing” that was going on in the Płaszów camp next-door. The Jews were able to pray in a minyan daily, and gathered at night to learn Chumash and exchange words of Torah and stories of Gedolim. At the close of Shabbat, the workers gathered for Shalosh Seudos and sang zemirot (Shabbat-table songs), said words of Torah, and told stories of tzaddikim.

Schindler was arrested three times on suspicion of black market activities and complicity in embezzlement, as well as breaking the Nuremberg Laws by kissing a Jewish girl. Amon Göth, the commandant of the Płaszów camp, and other SS guards used Jewish property (such as money, jewellery, and works of art) for themselves, although according to law, it belonged to the Reich. Schindler arranged the sale of such items on the black market. None of his arrests led to a trial, primarily because he bribed government officials to avoid further investigation.

As the Red Army drew nearer to Auschwitz concentration camp and the other easternmost concentration camps, the SS began evacuating the remaining prisoners westward. Amon Göth’s personal secretary, Mietek Pemper, alerted Schindler to the Nazis’ plans to close all factories not directly involved with the war effort, including Schindler’s enamelware facility. Pemper also persuaded and encouraged Schindler to switch production from enamelware to anti-tank grenades in an effort to save Schindler’s Jewish workers. Tipped off to the factory closure, Schindler persuaded the SS officials to allow him to move his 1,200 Jewish workers to Brünnlitz (Czech: Brněnec), in the German-speaking Sudetenland, thus sparing them from certain death in the gas chambers. Mietek Pemper further aided Schindler’s efforts by compiling and typing the list of 1,200 Jews—1,000 of Schindler’s workers and 200 other inmates—who were sent to Brünnlitz in October 1944.

In Brünnlitz, Schindler gained another former Jewish factory, which was scheduled to produce hand grenades and parts for V2 rockets. It is unclear how much armament was actually produced there; Schindler and some of the workers claimed in the immediate post-war years that there had been no production that would have been useful to the German war effort, and even that some or all of the output had been deliberately faulty product.

After the war

Schindler and his wife fled to Austria’s U.S. zone, escaping prosecution by dressing in prison clothes and carrying a letter testifying to their heroic actions. By the end of the war, Schindler had spent his entire fortune on bribes and black-market purchases of supplies for his workers. Virtually destitute, he moved briefly to Regensburg and later Munich, but did not prosper in postwar Germany. In fact, he was reduced to receiving assistance from Jewish organizations. Eventually, Schindler emigrated to Argentina in 1948, where he went bankrupt. He left his wife Emilie in 1957 and returned to Germany in 1958, where he had a series of unsuccessful business ventures. Schindler settled down in a small apartment at Am Hauptbahnhof Nr. 4 in Frankfurt am Main, West Germany and tried again – with help from a Jewish organization – to establish a cement factory. This, too, went bankrupt in 1961. His business partners cancelled their partnership. In 1968 he began receiving a small pension from the West German government.

In 1971, Schindler moved to live with friends at Goettingstrasse Nr. 30 in Hildesheim. Due to a heart complaint he was taken to the Saint Bernward Hospital in Hildesheim on 12 September 1974, where he died on 9 October 1974, at the age of 66. At the time of his death, he was surrounded by friends and family. He died penniless; the costs for his stay in the hospital were paid from social welfare of the city of Hildesheim.

Schindler wanted to be buried in Jerusalem, as he said, “My children are here”. After a Requiem Mass, Schindler was buried at the Catholic Franciscans’ cemetery on Mount Zion, the only member of the Nazi Party to be honoured in this way. A sign at the entrance to the cemetery directs visitors “To Oskar Schindler’s Grave”.

Schindler’s grave is located on the mountainside below Zion Gate and the Old City walls. Stones placed on top of the grave are a sign of gratitude from Jewish visitors, according to Jewish tradition, although Schindler himself was not Jewish. On his grave, the Hebrew inscription reads: “Righteous among the Nations“, an honorific used by the State of Israel to describe non-Jews who risked their lives during the Holocaust to save Jews from extermination by the Nazis. The German inscription reads: “The Unforgettable Lifesaver of 1200 Persecuted Jews”

No one knows what Schindler’s motives were. He was quoted as saying “I knew the people who worked for me… When you know people, you have to behave towards them like human beings.”

The writer Herbert Steinhouse, who interviewed Schindler in 1948 at the behest of some of the surviving Schindlerjuden(Schindler’s Jews), wrote:

“Oskar Schindler’s exceptional deeds stemmed from just that elementary sense of decency and humanity that our sophisticated age seldom sincerely believes in. A repentant opportunist saw the light and rebelled against the sadism and vile criminality all around him. The inference may be disappointingly simple, especially for all amateur psychoanalysts who would prefer the deeper and more mysterious motive that may, if it is true, still lie unprobed and unappreciated. But an hour with Oskar Schindler encourages belief in the simple answer.”

Legacy

Schindler’s List (Schindler’s Ark)

Schindler’s story, retold by Holocaust survivor Poldek Pfefferberg, was the basis for Thomas Keneally’s book Schindler’s Ark (the novel was published in America as Schindler’s List), which was adapted into the 1993 movie Schindler’s List by Steven Spielberg. In the film, he is played by Liam Neeson, who was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal. The film won sevenOscars, including the Academy Award for Best Picture. The prominence of Spielberg’s film introduced Schindler into popular culture. As the film is the sole source of most people’s knowledge of Schindler, he is generally perceived much as Spielberg’s film depicts him: as a man who was instinctively driven by profit-driven amorality, but who at some point made a silent but conscious decision that preserving the lives of his Jewish employees was imperative, even if requiring massive payments to induce Nazis to turn a blind eye.

Other film treatments have included a 1983 British television documentary produced by Thames Television, narrated by Sir Dirk Bogarde entitled, Schindler: The Documentary (released in the US in 1994 as Schindler: The Real Story), and a 1998 A&E Biography special, Oskar Schindler: The Man Behind the List.

Schindler’s suitcase

In late 1999 a suitcase belonging to Schindler was discovered, containing over 7,000 photographs and documents, including the list of Schindler’s Jewish workers. The document, on his enamelware factory’s letterhead, had been provided to the SS stating that the named workers were “essential” employees. Friends of Schindler found the suitcase in the attic of a house in Hildesheim, where he had been staying at the time of his death. The friends took the suitcase to Stuttgart, where its discovery was reported by a newspaper, the Stuttgarter Zeitung. The contents of the suitcase, including the list of the names of those he had saved and the text of his farewell speech before leaving his Jewish workers in 1945, are now at the Holocaust museum of Yad Vashem in Israel.

List of Schindlerjuden

In early April 2009, a second list was discovered at the State Library of New South Wales, Australia by workers combing through boxes of materials collected by author Thomas Keneally. The 13-page document, yellow and fragile, was filed between research notes and original newspaper clippings. This list, given to Keneally in 1980 by Leopold Pfefferberg, who was listed as worker number 173, differs slightly from the other list, but is nonetheless considered to be genuine and authentic. It is believed that several lists were made during the war as the protected population changed. This particular list, dated 18 April 1945, was given to Keneally by Pfefferberg when he was persuading Keneally to write Schindler’s story. In the last months of the war, German Nazi camps stepped up their extermination efforts. This list is believed to have saved the lives of 801 people from death in the gas chambers. It was this list, taken with the surrounding events of the time, that inspired Keneally to write his novel.

See also

• List of individuals and groups assisting Jews during the Holocaust
• Righteous among the Nations
• Yad Vashem Righteous among the Nations
• List of Righteous among the Nations by country

• Raoul Wallenberg
• Necdet Kent
• Abdol Hossein Sardari
• Chiune Sugihara
• John Rabe
• Leo Rosner
• Ángel Sanz Briz

References

• 
  The Schindler Story
• Biggest online gallery of images of Oskar Schindler’s Factory in Kraków
• Oskar Schindler’s Factory info and tours
• Oskar and Emilie Schindler – Righteous Among the Nations – Yad Vashem
• Oskar Schindler’s list at Auschwitz.dk
• Aerial Evidence for Schindler’s List
• Holocaust Rescuers Bibliography
• Schindler’s List (film) bibliography via UC Berkeley
• Pictures of Oskar Schindler’s suitcase
• Find-A-Grave profile for Oskar Schindler
• United States Holocaust Memorial Museum – Oskar Schindler
• Voices on Antisemitism Interview with Helen Jonas from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
• Interview with Mimi Reinhard, Schindler’s secretary

Taught By Professor David Christian, D. Phil., Oxford University,
Macquarie University

Big History

Big History is a field of historical study that examines history on a large scale across long time frames through a multi-disciplinary approach^[1] and gives a focus on the alteration and adaptations in the human experience.^[2] It arose as a distinct field in the late 1980s and is related to, but distinct from, world history,^[2] as the field examines history from the beginning of time to the present day. In some respects, the field is thus similar to the older universal history.

Big history looks at the past on all time scales, from the Big Bang to modernity, seeking out common themes and patterns. It uses a multi-disciplinary approach from the latest findings, such as biology, astronomy, geology, climatology, prehistory, archeology, anthropology, cosmology, natural history, and population and environmental studies. Big History arose from a desire to go beyond the specialized and self-contained fields that emerged in the 20th century and grasp history as a whole, looking for common themes across the entire time scale of history.^[3][4] Conventionally, the study of history is typically limited to the written word and the systematic narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; yet this only encompasses the past 5,000 years or so and leaves out the vast majority of history and all events in time, in relation to humanity.

Big history evolved from interdisciplinary studies in the mid-20th century, during the Cold War and Space Race. Some of the first efforts were Cosmic Evolution at Harvard University (USA) and Universal History in the Soviet Union. The first actual courses in what is today called big history were experimental ones taught in the late 1980s by John Mears at Southern Methodist University (Dallas, Texas) and by David Christian at Macquarie University (Australia) and San Diego State University (USA).^[5][6] Since then, other universities have offered similar courses. An important book in big history was published in 1996 by Fred Spier from the University of Amsterdam that was entitled The Structure of Big History: From the Big Bang until Today, which offers an ambitious defense of the project and constructs a unified account of history across all time scales. One notable text in big history is David Christian’s Maps of Time: An Introduction to Big History, which explores the trajectory of history from the first micro-seconds of the Big Bang, to the creation of the solar system, to the origins of life on earth, the evolution of humans, the agricultural revolution, modernity, and the 20th century. In his book and big history course available through The Teaching Company, Christian examines large-scale patterns and themes, and provides perspective of time scales. Fred Spier’s new text, Big History and the Future of Humanity, was published by Wiley-Blackwell in 2010. Currently in process is a text book on big history for McGraw Hill by David Christian, Cynthia Stokes Brown and Craig Benjamin. Cynthia Stokes Brown initiated big history at Dominican University of California and wrote Big History: From the Big Bang to the Present.^[7] The Dominican University program in big history is part of the university’s First Year Experience,^[8] and is directed by Mojgan Behmand. As of 2011, about 50 professors are offering as many courses in big history around the world. There is a movement underway to make big history the basic course for students in higher education throughout the world.

The International Big History Association (IBHA) was founded at the Coldigioco Geological Observatory in Coldigioco, Marche, Italy, on 20 August 2010. Its headquarters is located at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, Michigan (USA).

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

BILL GATES NOTES ON DR. DAVID CHRISTIAN:

http://www.thegatesnotes.com/TED/Speakers-Topics/David-Christian/David-Christian-TED2011

THE GATES NOTES:

http://www.thegatesnotes.com/

Watch David Christian’s TED2011 Talk

Gabriela Segura, M.D.
Sott.net

Original content © 2002-2011 by SOTT.net/Signs of the Times.

Foot-dragging in recognizing obvious problems and the resultant delays in preventing exposure and mitigating the effects lies at the door of nuclear power advocates more interested in preserving the status quo than in helping millions of innocent people who are suffering through no fault of their own. – Nesterenko, A. V., Nesterenko, V. B. and Yablokov, Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment.

 

We have had conflicting reports from mainstream news sources regarding the nuclear emergency in Fukushima, Japan. Some say that it is not nearly as bad as the Chernobyl catastrophe, others say that it will be much worse than Chernobyl. What are we to make of this? Who can we trust?

With the current state of affairs, I think it is reasonable enough to expect and prepare for the worst, hope for the best and take what comes. It is with this state of mind that I set out to review the available literature about accessible and alternative therapies in case of nuclear disasters as well as data about the Chernobyl catastrophe. What I found was shocking enough but know that there is also well-documented essential knowledge that can protect you and your loved ones.

This article includes an overview of the publication Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment which appeared in Annals of the New York Academy (2009). The authors – Alexey V. Nesterenko (Institute of Radiation Safety (BELRAD), Belarus) and Alexey V. Yablokov (Russian Academy of Sciences) along with Vassily B. Nesterenko – synthesized information from several thousand cited scientific papers and other materials, including successful and widely available natural therapies that worked. There are also other numerous studies about alternative effective treatments in case of radiation. It will give you a clear idea of what to expect and what you can do in case of a nuclear disaster in Japan.

This is a matter that concerns all of us as no country in the world is capable of providing complete protection from radiation for those living in affected areas and from eating locally grown foods that are contaminated with radiation.

A Lesson from History or What to Expect: The Chernobyl Catastrophe

We have to look only as far back to Chernobyl to understand why we are having so many conflicting reports and little information about what is happening in Japan.

In the last days of spring and the beginning of summer of 1986, radioactivity was released from the Chernobyl power plant and fell upon hundreds of millions of people. The resulting levels of radionuclides were hundreds of times higher than that from the Hiroshima atomic bomb.

The normal lives of tens of millions were destroyed. Today, more than 6 million people live on land with dangerous levels of contamination. More than 20 years after the catastrophe, due to the natural migration of radionuclides, the dangerous consequences in these areas have not decreased, but have actually increased and will continue to do so for many years to come.

Authorities typically provided the least possible financial means for detoxification therapies and disaster control while they denied the facts and documented data concerning dangerous levels of radiation among the population, in foods and the environment.

Sound familiar? This attitude has been the norm rather than the exception.

As a result of the catastrophe, 40% of Europe was contaminated with dangerous radioactivity. Asia and North America were also exposed to significant amounts of radioactive fallout. According to Yablokov et al., the claim by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR), and several other groups that the Chernobyl radioactive fallout added “only” 2% to the natural radioactive background ignores several facts:

“First, many territories continue to have dangerously high levels of radiation. Second, high levels of radiation were spread far and wide in the first weeks after the catastrophe. Third, there will be decades of chronic, low-level contamination after the catastrophe. Fourth, every increase in nuclear radiation has an effect on both somatic [body] and reproductive cells of all living things.”

 

Another important lesson from the Chernobyl experience is that experts and organizations tied to the nuclear industry have dismissed and ignored the consequences of the catastrophe. It was only after 8 or 9 years from the catastrophe that the medical authorities began to finally admit the universal increase in cataracts among the population. The same occurred with thyroid cancer, leukemia and organic central nervous system disorders.

In addition to that, it is known that the percentage of food products with radioactive contamination in excess of official permissible levels did not decrease for 14 years after the 1986 Chernobyl catastrophe. On the contrary, this percentage began to increase in 1996. In spite of official secrecy, the full picture of Chernobyl food contamination in countries as far away as the United States has finally begun to emerge:

“Many people suffer from continuing chronic low-dose radiation 23 years after the catastrophe, owing primarily to consumption of radioactively contaminated food. An important consideration is the fact that given an identical diet, a child’s radiation exposure is three- to fivefold higher than that of an adult. Since more than 90% of the radiation burden nowadays is due to Caesium-137, which has a half-life of about 30 years, contaminated areas will continue to be dangerously radioactive for roughly the next three centuries.

 

“When children have the same menu as adults, they get up to five times higher dose burdens from locally produced foodstuffs because of their lower weight and more active processes of metabolism. Children living in rural villages have a dose burden five to six times higher than city children of the same age.

“Daily exposure to small amounts of radionuclides (mostly Cs-137) is virtually unavoidable as they get into the body with food (up to 94%), with drinking water (up to 5%), and through the air (about 1%). Accumulation of radionuclides in the body is dangerous, primarily for children, and for those living in the contaminated territories where there are high levels of Cs-137 in local foodstuffs. The incorporation of radionuclides is now the primary cause of the deterioration of public health in the contaminated territories.

“Experience has shown that existing official radioactive monitoring systems are inadequate (not only in the countries of the Former Soviet Union). Generally, the systems cover territories selectively, do not measure each person, and often conceal important facts when releasing information. The common factor among all governments is to minimize spending for which they are not directly responsible, such as the Chernobyl meltdown, which occurred 23 years ago. Thus officials are not eager to obtain objective data of radioactive contamination of communities, individuals, or food.

“We have to take responsibility not only for our own health, but for the health of future generations of humans, plants, and animals, which can be harmed by mutations resulting from exposure to even the smallest amount of radioactive contamination. [Nesterenko, A. V., Nesterenko, V. B. and Yablokov]

All people living in territories heavily contaminated by Chernobyl fallout continue to be exposed to low doses of chronic radiation. Without special equipment to identify levels of environmental contamination, it is impossible to know what radionuclide levels are in our food and water or have been incorporated into our bodies.

The radioactive elements Caesium-137 (Cs-137), Strontium-90 (Sr-90), Plutonium (Pu), and Americium (Am) released in Chernobyl concentrate in the roots of plants and it is now known that they will continue to be mobilized for decades, even up to several hundreds of years into the future. Agricultural products have contained – and will continue to contain – radioactivity in all of the Northern Hemisphere countries contaminated by Chernobyl.

The level of radionuclide incorporation in our bodies varies according to each organ. In Chernobyl the most affected organs (from autopsies) were the thyroid gland, the adrenal glands, the pancreas, the thymus, the skeletal muscle, the spleen, the heart and the liver (in decreasing order).

The thyroid gland is the most affected since radioactive iodine (Iodine-131) binds to it, making supplemental non-radioactive iodine a key therapy in the case of nuclear radiation. The natural iodine will bind to the thyroid, blocking the radioactive iodine from binding to it. The affliction of the adrenals is worthy of attention, since there were many “new” diseases that emerged after the Chernobyl disaster whose symptoms resemble those of adrenal fatigue.

The total Chernobyl death toll for the period from 1987 to 2004 has reached nearly 417,000 in other parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa, and nearly 170,000 in North America, accounting for nearly 824,000 deaths worldwide. This number of Chernobyl victims will continue to increase for several generations.

A Note on Radiation

Radiation poisoning damages organ tissues by excessive exposure to ionizing radiation. Ionizing radiation consists of particles or electromagnetic waves that are energetic enough to detach electrons from atoms or molecules, thus ionizing them. Direct ionization from the effects of single particles or single photons produces free radicals, which are atoms or molecules containing unpaired electrons, and which tend to be especially chemically reactive due to their electronic structure.

This means that they become chemically unstable and highly reactive ions as free radicals are formed. These unstable metabolic by-products strive to stabilize by ’stealing’ a replacement electron from any neighboring molecule, leaving even more damaged molecules in their wake. This is how free radicals in our bodies are produced and cause inflammation, a process that is best known as oxidative stress, oxidative damage or lipid peroxidation. Oxidation can even cause debilitating changes to your DNA. This is why anti-oxidants are so important. Antioxidants help to counteract or neutralize the free radicals before they can damage our healthy cells by lending a hand (actually, an electron) when stabilization is needed. This is the reason why we are fond of so many antioxidants such as vitamin C, E, carotenoids, resveratrol, taurine, coenzyme Q10 and melatonin, to name but a few.

Medical Syndromes

Nuclear or ionizing radiation that penetrates the body can affect your body in a number of different ways, and the adverse health effects of extreme radiation exposure may not be apparent for many years.

Among the specific health disorders associated with Chernobyl radiation there was increased morbidity and prevalence of the following groups of diseases:

• Circulatory system (owing primarily to radioactive destruction of the endothelium, the internal lining of the blood vessels).

 

• Endocrine system (especially nonmalignant thyroid problems).
• Immune system (“Chernobyl AIDS,” increased incidence and seriousness of all illnesses).
• Respiratory system.
• Urogenital tract and reproductive disorders.
• Musculoskeletal system (including pathologic changes in the structure and composition of bones: osteopenia and osteoporosis).
• Central nervous system (changes in frontal, temporal, and occipitoparietal lobes of the brain, leading to diminished intelligence and behavioral and mental disorders).
• Eyes (cataracts, vitreous destruction, refraction anomalies, and conjunctive disorders).
• Digestive tract.
• Congenital malformations and anomalies (including previously rare multiple defects of limbs and head).
• Thyroid cancer (All forecasts concerning this cancer have been erroneous; Chernobyl-related thyroid cancers have rapid onset and aggressive development, striking both children and adults. After surgery the person becomes dependent on replacement hormone medication for life.)
• Leukemia (blood cancers) not only in children and liquidators, but in the general adult population of contaminated territories.
• Other malignant neoplasms.

[Nesterenko, A. V., Nesterenko, V. B. and Yablokov, Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment.]

Other health consequences of the Chernobyl catastrophe include:

• Changes in the body’s biological balance, leading to increased numbers of serious illnesses owing to intestinal toxicoses, bacterial infections, and sepsis.

 

• Intensified infectious and parasitic diseases (e.g., viral hepatitis and respiratory viruses).
• Increased incidence of health disorders in children born to radiated parents (both to liquidators and to individuals who left the contaminated territories), especially those radiated in utero. These disorders, involving practically all the body’s organs and systems, also include genetic changes.
• Catastrophic state of health of liquidators (especially liquidators who worked in 1986 – 1987).
• Premature aging in both adults and children.
• Increased incidence of multiple somatic and genetic mutations.

Chernobyl actually “enriched” the medical vocabulary with such terms as “cancer rejuvenescence,” as well as three new syndromes:

• “Vegetovascular dystonia” – dysfunctional regulation of the nervous system involving cardiovascular and other organs (also called autonomic nervous system dysfunction), with clinical signs that present against a background of stress.

 

• “Incorporated long-life radionuclides” – functional and structural disorders of the cardiovascular, nervous, endocrine, reproductive, and other systems owing to absorbed radionuclides.
• “Acute inhalation lesions of the upper respiratory tract” – a combination of a rhinitis, throat tickling, dry cough, difficulty breathing, and shortness of breath owing to the effect of inhaled radionuclides, including “hot particles.”

[Nesterenko, A. V., Nesterenko, V. B. and Yablokov, Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment.]

Several other new syndromes, reflecting increased incidence of some illnesses, appeared after Chernobyl. Among them:

• “Chronic fatigue syndrome” – excessive and unrelieved fatigue, fatigue without obvious cause, periodic depression, memory loss, diffuse muscular and joint pains, chills and fever, frequent mood changes, cervical lymph node sensitivity, weight loss; it is also often associated with immune system dysfunction and CNS disorders.

 

• “Lingering radiating illness syndrome” – a combination of excessive fatigue, dizziness, trembling, and back pain.
• “Early aging syndrome” – a divergence between physical and chronological age with illnesses characteristic of the elderly occurring at an early age.

Specific Chernobyl syndromes such as “radiation in utero“, “Chernobyl AIDS”, “Chernobyl heart”, “Chernobyl limbs,” and others await more detailed and definitive medical descriptions.

But deterioration of public health (especially of children) in the Chernobyl-contaminated territories 23 years after the catastrophe is not due to psychological stress or radiophobia, or from resettlement… it is mostly and primarily due to Chernobyl irradiation. Other than the first powerful shock in 1986 there is the continual chronic low-dose and low-dose-rate radionuclide exposure.

Psychological factors (“radiation phobia”) simply have no bearing on the pathologies described because morbidity continued to increase for some years after the catastrophe, whereas radiation concerns have decreased.

Infections on the Rise

There is evidence of increased incidence and severity of diseases characterized by intestinal toxicoses, gastroenteritis, bacterial sepsis, viral hepatitis, and respiratory viruses in areas contaminated by Chernobyl radionuclides (Batyan and Kozharskaya, 1993; Kapytonova and Kryvitskaya, 1994; Nesterenko et al., 1993; Busuet at al., 2002; and others). Genetic instability markedly increased in the contaminated territories and has resulted in increased sensitivity to viral and other types of infections (Vorobtsova et al., 1995).

 

Whether activation and dispersion of dangerous infections is due to mutational changes in the microorganisms (which render them more pathogenic), impaired immunological defenses in the populations, or a combination of both, has not yet been fully answered.

One gram of soil contains some 2,500,000,000 microorganisms (bacteria, microfungi, and protozoa). Up to 3 kg of the mass of an adult human body is made up of bacteria, viruses, and microfungi. In spite of the fact that these represent such important and fundamentally live ecosystems, there are only scarce data on the various microbiological consequences of the Chernobyl catastrophe. – Nesterenko, A. V., Nesterenko, V. B. and Yablokov

 

There was activation of retroviruses (Kavsan et al., 1992). Tuberculosis became more virulent in the more contaminated areas of Belarus (Chernetsky and Osynovsky, 1993; Belookaya, 1993; Borschevsky et al., 1996). From 1993 to 1997 the hepatitis viruses B, C, D, and G became noticeably activated in the heavily contaminated areas of Belarus (Zhavoronok et al., 1998a,b). Herpes viruses were activated in the heavily contaminated territories of Belarus 6 to 7 years after the catastrophe (Matveev, 1993; Matveev et al., 1995; Voropaev et al., 1996). Among soil bacteria that most actively accumulate Cs-137 are Agrobacterium sp., Enterobacter sp. and Klebsiella sp. Sharp reduction in the abundance of healthy gut bacteria (bifidus bacteria) and the prevalence of microbes of the class Escherichia; in particular, a sharp increase in E. coli has been noted in the intestines of evacuee children living in Ukraine.

All microorganisms (viruses, bacteria, fungi, and protozoa) and microbiological communities as a whole undergo rapid changes after any additional irradiation. The mechanism of such changes is well known: inclusion and increase in the frequency of mutations by natural selection and preservation of beneficial novel genes that for whatever reason appear more viable under the new conditions. This microevolutionary mechanism has been activated in all radioactively contaminated areas and leads to activation of old and the occurrence of new forms of viruses and bacteria. All but a few microorganisms that have been studied in Chernobyl-affected territories underwent rapid changes in heavily contaminated areas.

 

Our contemporary knowledge is too limited to understand even the main consequences of the inevitable radioactive-induced genetic changes among the myriad of viruses, bacteria, protozoa, and fungi that inhabit the intestines, lungs, blood, organs, and cells of human beings. The strong association between carcinogenesis and viruses (papilloma virus, hepatitis virus, Helicobacter pylori, Epstein – Barr virus, Kaposi’s sarcoma, and herpes virus) provides another reason why the cancer rate increased in areas contaminated by Chernobyl irradiation (for a review, see Sreelekha et al., 2003).

Not only cancer, but also many other illnesses are connected with viruses and bacteria. Radiologically induced pathologic changes in the microflora in humans can increase susceptibility to infections, inflammatory diseases of bacterial and viral origin (influenza, chronic intestinal diseases, pyelonephritis, cystitis, vaginitis, endocolitis, asthma, dermatitis, and ischemia), and various pathologies of pregnancy.

The long-term consequences for microbial biota may be worse than what we understand today.

- Nesterenko, A. V., Nesterenko, V. B. and Yablokov

A Note on Environmental Consequences

All the initial forecasts of rapid clearance or decay of the Chernobyl radionuclides from ecosystems were wrong, it is now known that they are taking much longer than predicted because they recirculate. The overall state of the contamination in water, air, and soil appears to fluctuate greatly and the dynamics of Sr-90, Cs-137, Pu, and Am contamination still present surprises to Chernobyl scientists.

“As a result of the accumulation of Cs-137, Sr-90, Pu, and Am in the root soil layer, radionuclides have continued to build in plants over recent years. Moving with water to the above-ground parts of plants, the radionuclides (which earlier had disappeared from the surface) concentrate in the edible components, resulting in increased levels of internal irradiation and dose rate in people, despite decreasing total amounts of radionuclides from natural disintegration over time.

 

“In 1986 the levels of irradiation in plants and animals in Western Europe, North America, the Arctic, and eastern Asia were sometimes hundreds and even thousands of times above acceptable norms. The initial pulse of high-level irradiation followed by exposure to chronic low-level radionuclides has resulted in morphological, physiological, and genetic disorders in all the living organisms in contaminated areas that have been studied – plants, mammals, birds, amphibians, fish, invertebrates, bacteria, and viruses.

“What happened to voles and frogs in the Chernobyl zone shows what can happen to humans in coming generations: increasing mutation rates, increasing morbidity and mortality, reduced life expectancy, decreased intensity of reproduction, and changes in male/female sex ratios.

[Nesterenko, A. V., Nesterenko, V. B. and Yablokov, Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment.]

Proven Effective Detox Protocols

The therapies described here are widely available as over-the-counter supplements in most countries.

Green stuff and other sea food

In Chernobyl, 5 grams of spirulina for 45 days was used successfully against radiation poisoning. Chlorella algae also has shown radio-protective effects. A study showed that spirulina reduced urine radioactivity levels by 50% after only 20 days and so the Institute of Radiation Safety in Belarus developed a special program to treat 100 children every 20 days with spirulina. Furthermore, the healing occurred during the continuous presence of radiation as well as the presence of radiation contaminated food and water sources. In particular, spirulina given to children with accumulated high doses of radionuclides reduced radioactive cesium. No side effects were registered. Only buy spirulina or chlorella from a certified heavy-metal free source.

Studies on sea vegetables with sodium alginate have shown that they selectively bound with radioactive strontium and eliminated it from the body. Sodium alginate is found in many seaweeds, especially kelp. Sodium alginate binds tightly to such substances as strontium, calcium, barium, cadmium and radium. Some seaweeds are contaminated with lead or arsenic so you only want to consume seaweed that is deep ocean harvested or has been tested to be free of metal toxicity (such as kelp from the west coast of South Africa).

Black and green tea have shown radioprotective effects when taken either before or after exposure to radiation. This anti-radiation effect was observed in several Japanese studies, and studies from China also suggest that the ingredients in tea are radioactive antagonists. Tea catechins are associated with antioxidant properties and can have radio-protective effects when taken both before and after irradiation.

Kelp also has organic iodine which will saturate the thyroid so radioactive iodine will not be absorbed. You can take 1 or 2 tsp or 5 to 10 tablets.

Pectin

Pectin is one of the most effective means of protecting against radiation when consumption of contaminated food becomes unavoidable. Pectin preparations, along with vitamins and minerals, have demonstrated a high efficiency in eliminating incorporated radionuclides. The recommended dose is 5 grams once or twice a day for one month, 4 times a year.

“In 1999 BELRAD together with “Hermes” Hmbh (Munich, Germany) developed a composition of apple pectin additives known as Vitapect® powder, made up of pectin (concentration 18 – 20%) supplemented with vitamins B1, B2, B6, B12, C, E, beta-carotene, folic acid; the trace elements K, Zn, Fe, and Ca; and flavoring. BELRAD has been producing this food additive, which has been approved by the Belarussian Ministry of Health, since 2000.

 

“The pectin additive Vitapect with clean nutrition appears to be 50% more effective in decreasing the levels of Cs-137 than clean nutrition alone (Nesterenko et al., 2004).

“A clinical study of 94 children, 7 to 17 years of age, divided into two groups according to their initial level of Cs-137 contamination determined by whole body counting (WBC) and given Vitapect orally for 16 days (5 g twice a day) revealed both a significant decrease in incorporated Cs-137 and marked improvement in their electrocardiograms.

“From 1996 to 2007 a total of more than 160,000 Belarussian children received pectin food additives during 18 to 25 days of treatment (5g twice a day). As a result, levels of Cs-137 in children’s organs decreased after each course of pectin additives by an average of 30 to 40%.

“Based on long-term experience, the BELRAD Institute recommends that all children living in radioactive contaminated territories receive a quadruple course of oral pectin food additives annually along with their conventional food ration. Eleven years of BELRAD’s activities in controlling levels of incorporated Cs-137 in more than 327,000 children has not caused alarm in the population or radiophobia and has led to the spread of knowledge concerning radiation protection and an increased sense of personal responsibility for one’s health.”

[Nesterenko, A. V., Nesterenko, V. B. and Yablokov, Chernobyl: Consequences of the Catastrophe for People and the Environment.]

Antioxidants and Sulfur Compounds

Sulfur has a long history of use as an antidote for acute exposure to radioactive material. Antioxidants have the capacity to reduce toxic effects of radiation in our bodies. Early research identified sulfur-containing antioxidants as among those with the most beneficial therapeutic effects.

Dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) is the classical sulfur compound and a powerful anti-oxidant, exactly what we need for detoxification and protection from radiation. A Japanese study showed that even low concentrations of DMSO had radio-protective effects through the facilitation of DNA double-strand break repair, providing protection against radiation damage at all cellular levels in the whole body. The information and experience on DMSO is so fascinating that it can be described only as miraculous. Due to its importance, we have dedicated an entire article to it. See DMSO: The Antidote for Radiation Poisoning.

The use of anti-oxidants such as alpha lipoic acid, Vitamin E, Vitamin C (ascorbic acid), vitamin B, selenium, N-acetylcysteine and other sulfur compounds becomes crucial. It is important to use several of them, as they work best as a team. In addition to that, individual anti-oxidants can act as pro-oxidants when they themselves are oxidized, therefore individual anti-oxidants could enhance the progression of post-irradiation damage to tissues and organs. Several studies have shown the importance of anti-oxidant supplementation to be an effective therapy against radiation hazards.

Alpha Lipoic Acid (ALA) is a crucial supplement. It is water and fat soluble and it is also capable of crossing the blood-brain barrier. This means that it is capable of reaching and preventing damage in our fatty tissues, our brains, and every single organ for that matter. ALA also repairs DNA. It is a good heavy metal chelator, it protects the heart and brain from cell death, stimulates the regeneration of liver tissue and is rapidly absorbed high up into the digestive tract. ALA recycles other antioxidants such as vitamin C, vitamin E, and glutathione which is an indispensable antioxidant for detoxification and is synthesized within the mitochondrion. Glutathione may not reliably be augmented by oral supplementation because it cannot always pass over the mitochondrial membrane, therefore it must be synthesized within the mitochondrion. ALA and its metabolite DHLA provoke the cell to produce significantly higher levels of glutathione (even by 70%). So if the glutathione levels in a cell are kept up to a satisfactory level by ALA, even if the cell is poisoned, the cell will have a better chance of recovering instead of dying. It is of critical importance in order to reduce or reverse radiation-induced oxidative damage after radiotherapy. The recommended dose of ALA is 100mg twice a day with meals, although others have used higher doses of between 300mg and 600mg. A study conducted on some of those who worked on the Chernobyl clean-up operation 10 years after the accident showed that 600 mg of lipoic acid for two months was able to normalize many, but not all, of their lab abnormalities.

The anti-oxidant N-acetyl cysteine (NAC), as a source of glutathione and sulfur, is an excellent supplement to take. Studies have suggested that it might prove efficient in saving individuals exposed to lethal and sub-lethal radiation doses with few or no side effects on individuals exposed to lower doses. It is also widely available. Around 500mg twice a day is a good dose, although some have used with great success around 5 grams of NAC (per day, in a hospital setting) in 7 day cycles in order to detoxify heavy metals.

Other important supplements include magnesium and vitamin C. For more information on the many forms of magnesium and dose recommendation, see here. Calcium and magnesium both help your body to pass off Strontium 90, but make sure to take enough magnesium in order to properly metabolize the levels of calcium.

For vitamin C (ascorbic acid), 1-4 grams as a daily maintenance is a good dose, but during detox or acute exposure, more will probably be required. Vitamin C cannot only protect against radiation but also repair damage from previous exposure. It will also be very handy in case of infections. You can try taking 4 grams of vitamin C 3 times per day. If you have diarrhea or abdominal bloating, cut out one dose. If there are no signs of intestinal “gurgles”, you can increase your dose throughout the day.

Consider taking also a good B complex which help to normalize the red and white blood cell count, since the destruction of white blood cells by radiation can last for extended periods of time.

Vitamin E 800-1000 IU per day and selenium 200 mcg per day are also important since radiation studies support evidence for the synergistic effects of vitamin E and Selenium in protecting from oxidative damage.

Zinc has been successfully used to chelate americium-241 from a nuclear accident victim. Natural zinc will also help the body eliminate several toxic heavy metals including cadmium, aluminum and lead. The recommended dose is 50 mg per day. You might want to supplement yourself with a good mineral complex in order to avoid deficiencies or imbalances brought on by increasing your zinc intake.

If there is a deficiency in potassium , radionuclides like cesium-137, cesium-134, potassium-40 and potassium-42, are absorbed through selective uptake. Too much potassium supplementation can be dangerous, so make sure to follow label instructions.

Melatonin, other than being our “sleeping hormone”, also has powerful antioxidant properties. Animals subjected to whole-body irradiation and given melatonin exhibited increased survival and the protection against radiation-induced oxidative damage was apparent throughout the body. More importantly, melatonin administered orally results in higher circulating levels and more rapidly increasing tissue concentrations. As soon as an exposure occurs, depending on the wind direction after radiation explosion, people living at a distance could protect themselves by oral administration of melatonin, which can be ingested repeatedly as required.

Curcumin is a naturally occurring compound contained in the spice turmeric. Curcumin has been found to have antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-tumor activity in a variety of animal models of human diseases including radiation-induced pulmonary diseases.

Breathing and meditation techniques

The proven and effective Éiriú Eolas program includes well-known stress control techniques that stimulate the vagus nerve, which then activates the parasympathetic system which is a powerful anti-inflammatory system. It also includes well known emotional releasing techniques. It can be applied to improve symptoms associated with breathing difficulties, autoimmune diseases and mood problems. It reduces oxidative stress with an improvement of the overall antioxidant status, and thus it has application in numerous diseases including, chronic radioactive exposure.

There is no question but that social and economic factors are dire for those sick from radiation. Sickness, deformed and impaired children, death of family and friends, loss of home and treasured possessions, loss of work, and dislocation are serious financial and mental stresses. – Alexey V. Yablokov, Vassily B. Nesterenko, and Alexey V. Nesterenko.

 

During the breathing exercises and the meditation portion of the program, levels of the anti-stress hormones GABA, melatonin, and serotonin are increased, and levels of the stress hormones cortisol and norepinephrine are decreased. Learn more about the many benefits of this program here. The program is available for free at eebreathe.com.

Diet

There are several simple cooking techniques that decrease radionuclides: boil foods several times and discard the water, wash food thoroughly, soak some foods and discard the water, avoid the peels of fruits and vegetables, salt and pickle some foods but throw away the pickling juice! Avoid eating strong broths, use butter, etc.

Remember that another way of boosting your body’s detox capabilities and overall anti-oxidant levels is through the foods we eat which then become key to survival in these stressful times. Being on a detox diet is crucial to regaining health in a toxic environment. Our extensive experience and research shows that those on a no grain/low carb (no gluten) and non dairy diet fare MUCH better.

Chronic ailments often involves an imbalanced immune/defense system in which food sensitivities are involved even if they are not the cause of the problem, leading in turn to chronic inflammation – which translates into disease. This is why it is important to undergo an elimination diet in order to balance the body’s immune system. Some of our immune cells take 6 months to regenerate, so it can take that much time in order to see results if you are very sick. But often you can see positive results in the first two weeks on an appropriate diet, even when you can’t afford any other detox therapies. You can find the diet and how to transition to it here.

Everyone is different and it is only by testing foods that we can discern our individual problematic foods. Having said that, no one should be eating cereals or dairy products or high processed foods because the human system is simply not constructed to digest them properly. What we eat is crucial in recovering our health and it is a great healing medicine when done correctly.

Garlic and onions, being sulfur containing foods, help bind and deactivate both the radioactive isotopes and toxic metals such as cadmium, lead and mercury. The sulfur will help the kidneys and liver detoxify the body.

The most direct way of decreasing radionuclide intake is to avoid foods that are potentially heavily contaminated and to consume foodstuffs with lower levels. However, this is not easy to do because the average level of radionuclide bio-accumulation differs in each region owing to differences in soils, agricultural techniques, etc.

The Chernobyl experience tells us that soaking in water, boiling, salting and pickling foods such as vegetables can decrease the amount of radionuclides in some foods several-fold. Milk always contains high levels of radiation; processed products that reduce contamination levels, such as butter and ghee butter, are safer.

Radionuclide concentrations in the visceral organs of animals are usually significantly higher than in muscle tissue. Among visceral organs the order of decreasing levels of Cs-137 is: lung > kidney > liver > fat.

The Chernobyl experience showed that in contaminated territories the same species of fish taken from rivers and streams have significantly lower radionuclide levels than those from lakes and ponds. Plant feeding fish had three to four times lower radionuclide levels than predatory species (catfish, pike, etc.). Fishes at lower levels of the ocean (crucian, tench, etc.) had several times more contamination than fish which live in the top water layers (small fry, chub, etc.).

It is very important to avoid radionuclides in food and if they are consumed to try to eliminate them from the body as quickly as possible. In a baby, the biological half-life of Cs-137 is 14 days; for a 5-year old it is 21 days; for a 10-year old, 49 days; for teenagers, about 90 days; and for a young male, about 100 days (Nesterenko, 1997).

 

From the Chernobyl experience, the order of decreasing levels of Cs-137 were: chicken > beef > lamb > pork. Meats from older animals have more radionuclides that meat from younger ones owing to accumulation over time. Bones of young animals have more Sr-90. Eggs: shell > egg-white > yolk.

Pork and fats were not only the safest, they also prove to be a very healthy option for detox and healing purposes. For more information, see ‘I have high cholesterol, and I don’t care‘.

The biological properties of Cs-137 are similar to those of stable potassium and Rubidium, and Sr-90 and Pu are similar to calcium. These properties determine where they concentrate in the body so the use of stable elements may help to decrease the absorption of radionuclides.

Foods rich in potassium include potatoes, beets, raisins, dried apricots, bananas, tea, nuts, lemons, and dried plums. Calcium rich foods include butter and ghee butter, eggs, horseradish, green onions, turnip, parsley, dill, and spinach. Green vegetables, apples, sunflower seeds, black chokeberries are rich in iron; and Rubidium is found in red grapes.

A diet to protect against radioactive contamination should include uncontaminated fruits and vegetables, especially those rich in pectin such as apples to promote the rapid elimination of radionuclides.

Sleeping in Total Darkness

Low melatonin production leaves you not only susceptible to radiation damage, but it also leaves you vulnerable to accelerated aging, depression, weight gain. People with lower levels of melatonin have lower immune/defense function, less antioxidant activity and accelerated cancer cell proliferation, and they also tend to have more unhealthy imbalances in gut bacteria. But sleeping in total darkness is a natural way of enhancing the secretion of melatonin during the night. The room where you sleep has to be completely dark to the point of not been able to see anything. If lights seeps underneath your door, put a towel along the base. Cover your electric clock radio with something. Even the smallest light can decrease melatonin secretion, even if you’re not able to see it with your own eyes.

Miscellaneous

Natural zeolites (i.e., those found in volcanogenic sedimentary rocks) is a mineral which possesses attractive properties that contribute directly to their use in the extraction of Cs and Sr from nuclear wastes and the mitigation of radioactive fallout, but also as a dietary supplement for heavy metal detoxification. It also has anti-bacterial properties and it stimulates the immune system. It was used during successfully during Chernobyl.

Organic Germanium (Ge-132) protects cells exposed to cesium-137 without affecting cellular growth or survival. 25 mg to 100 mg per day has been typically used. (My favorite colon cleanser has organic germanium on it).

Activated charcoal has the ability to absorb and neutralize radioactive substances and some toxic materials. Researchers report that 10 grams or 1 tablespoon of charcoal can absorb about 3 to 7 grams of materials.

There are excellent articles out there focusing on iodine, clays, magnesium therapies and sodium bicarbonate. For more information, see:

Treatments for Nuclear Contamination

Iodine Treatments for Radiation Exposure

Greenmedinfo.com – Radioprotective

All this information will help you to not only protect yourself from chronic radiation exposure, but it will also help you to regain your health by improving your mood and mental functions in these crucial and stressful times.

Sources

• Bill Bodri. How to help support the body’s healing after intense radioactive or radiation exposure. Top Shape Publishing, LLC. 2004.

 

• Brown SL, Kolozsvary A, Liu J, Jenrow KA, Ryu S, Kim JH. Antioxidant diet supplementation starting 24 hours after exposure reduces radiation lethality. Radiat Res. 2010 Apr;173(4):462-8.
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Original content © 2002-2011 by SOTT.net/Signs of the Times.  Fair Use Policy

1. ^ ^{a b} Lehrer, Jonah (May 18, 2009), “Don’t!: The secret of self-control“, The New Yorker, http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/05/18/090518fa_fact_lehrer?currentPage=1

Retrieved from “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Mischel“

Two days previously he had called me in an upbeat, excited mood. The voice message said, “I’ve got some really good news to share with you.”  He was writing a song about the environment, and he wanted me to help informally with the lyrics, as we had done several times before.  When I tried to return his call, however, the number was disconnected. (Terminally spooked by his treatment in the press, he changed his phone number often.)  So I never got to talk to him, and the music demo he sent me lies on my bedside table as a poignant symbol of an unfinished life.

 

When we first met, around 1988, I was struck by the combination of charisma and woundedness that surrounded Michael.  He would be swarmed by crowds at an airport, perform an exhausting show for three hours, and then sit backstage afterward, as we did one night in Bucharest, drinking bottled water, glancing over some Sufi poetry as I walked into the room, and wanting to meditate.

 

That person, whom I considered (at the risk of ridicule) very pure, still survived — he was reading the poems of Rabindranath Tagore when we talked the last time, two weeks ago.  Michael exemplified the paradox of many famous performers, being essentially shy, an introvert who would come to my house and spend most of the evening sitting by himself in a corner with his small children.  I never saw less than a loving father when they were together (and wonder now, as anyone close to him would, what will happen to them in the aftermath).

 

Michael’s reluctance to grow up was another part of the paradox. My children adored him, and in return he responded in a childlike way. He declared often, as former child stars do, that he was robbed of his childhood. Considering the monstrously exaggerated value our society places on celebrity, which was showered on Michael without stint, the public was callous to his very real personal pain. It became another tawdry piece of the tabloid Jacko, pictured as a weird changeling and as something far more sinister.

 

It’s not my place to comment on the troubles Michael fell heir to from the past and then amplified by his misguided choices in life.  He was surrounded by enablers, including a shameful plethora of M.D.s in Los Angeles and elsewhere who supplied him with prescription drugs. As many times as he would candidly confess that he had a problem, the conversation always ended with a deflection and denial.  As I write this paragraph, the reports of drug abuse are spreading across the cable news channels.  The instant I heard of his death this afternoon, I had a sinking feeling that prescription drugs would play a key part.

 

The closest we ever became, perhaps, was when Michael needed a book to sell primarily as a concert souvenir. It would contain pictures for his fans but there would also be a text consisting of short fables. I sat with him for hours while he dreamily wove Aesop-like tales about animals, mixed with words about music and his love of all things musical. This project became “Dancing the Dream” after I pulled the text together for him, acting strictly as a friend. It was this time together that convinced me of the modus vivendi Michael had devised for himself: to counter the tidal wave of stress that accompanies mega-stardom, he built a private retreat in a fantasy world where pink clouds veiled inner anguish and Peter Pan was a hero, not a pathology.

 

This compromise with reality gradually became unsustainable.  He went to strange lengths to preserve it. Unbounded privilege became another toxic force in his undoing.  What began as idiosyncrasy, shyness, and vulnerability was ravaged by obsessions over health, paranoia over security, and an isolation that grew more and more unhealthy.  When Michael passed me the music for that last song, the one sitting by my bedside waiting for the right words, the procedure for getting the CD to me rivaled a CIA covert operation in its secrecy. 

 

My memory of Michael Jackson will be as complex and confused as anyone’s.  His closest friends will close ranks and try to do everything in their power to insure that the good lives after him. Will we be successful in rescuing him after so many years of media distortion?  No one can say. I only wanted to put some details on the record in his behalf.  My son Gotham traveled with Michael as a roadie on his “Dangerous” tour when he was seventeen. Will it matter that Michael behaved with discipline and impeccable manners around my son? (It sends a shiver to recall something he told Gotham: “I don’t want to go out like Marlon Brando. I want to go out like Elvis.” Both icons were obsessions of this icon.) 

 

His children’s nanny and surrogate mother, Grace Rwaramba , is like another daughter to me. I introduced her to Michael when she was eighteen, a beautiful, heartwarming  girl from Rwanda who is now grown up. She kept an eye on him for me and would call me whenever he was down or running too close to the edge. How heartbreaking for Grace that no one’s protective instincts and genuine love could avert this tragic day. An hour ago she was sobbing on the telephone from London. As a result, I couldn’t help but write this brief remembrance in sadness. But when the shock subsides and a thousand public voices recount Michael’s brilliant, joyous, embattled, enigmatic, bizarre trajectory, I hope the word “joyous” is the one that will rise from the ashes and shine as he once did.

Writing Songs With My Friend, Mike

by Gotham Chopra When I was in my second year of college living on campus (at Columbia in NYC) with 4 suite mates, every time the phone rang, there was a race to answer it. Everyone wanted to be the guy to hear the “hello” on the other side just in case it was my friend Michael Jackson calling. Most of those days, Michael was holed up on top of the Four Seasons, roughly 60 blocks away from where I lived on the upper Westside of Manhattan just near Harlem.

I’d happily drift downtown, gain clearance from security downstairs who knew I was allowed free access to Michael’s suite, take the elevator all the way up and start ordering room service and watch movies on Mike’s tab. Eventually, Michael and I would get down to work. He was working on a new album and asked me to help him write lyrics for songs. It was an informal relationship – I’d wander downtown with a backpack full of dictionaries, and thesauri, and rhyming books. Michael would hum songs and talk about what he wanted to say with the song and we’d try and marry our skillsets and come up with something.

We came up with great stuff. Michael swore me to secrecy those days. I happily complied. After we were done with those sessions – they’d usually go until about 2 AM or so – Michael would wander into the bathroom and come out with a sack he’d pulled out from under the toilet. In it, he kept several thousands of dollars. He’d ask me how much I wanted. I just sort of shrugged and he’d hand me a couple of thousand dollars. Soon, I’d be packing my dictionaries and thesauri and rhyming books in my backpack, calling my friends and telling them to meet me downtown. Within an hour, we’d be at Flashdancers “making it rain.” Michael was always envious when I told him about my adventures with my friends.

More than a few times, he’d get dressed up – dawning some sort of quasi-disguise – preparing to go with me, only to back down at the last minute or be held back by his security who would shake their heads and plainly say no to his misguided ambitions. Instead, he’d pour himself a tall glass of orange juice and settle in for the night to watch an old movie on TV, telling me to spend a few extra bucks for him. I happily complied. My friendship with Michael was very special to me, and I like to think it was the same for him.

Over the last few years, it always felt awkward to explain the origins of our friendship – that I met him initially when I was fifteen-years-old and that we instantly hit it off. I’d spend days at his Neverland Ranch, my sister, cousins, or other friends joining us in fantastical stretches filled with candy, arcade rides, late night movies and the absolute best chocolate chip cookies of all times. Likewise he’d visit our house in Massachusetts (he was very close to my father as well) where he’d sleep in the guest room. My mom got a great kick out of the fact that every morning Michael stayed, he’d try to make the bed (very badly) and offer to cook breakfast (very badly).

Then when I was about 17, Michael invited me on the road with him – he was heading out to Europe on the biggest rock concert at the time (Dangerous tour) and wanted company. I begged and pleaded with my parents to let me go and they eventually said yes. Not a bad way to spend your summer vacation between junior and senior year of Highschool. Over the years, as Michael faced his scandals, I often reflected on my own experiences with him as a teenager. People would ask me if I had endured anything strange or awkward with him. I’d answer truthfully that in all of my years with him, in every single moment, Michael was nothing but dignified and appropriate, never once doing anything that would be deemed scandalous with me. It was really that simple. Check that.

Back to those college days. One night he did call me in a panic. He had just gotten married to Lisa Marie Presley and needed advice – sex advice. He was incredibly nervous and said that he wanted to make sure that Lisa was impressed with his “moves.” He asked me if I had any advice. I answered with one word: “foreplay.” “Really?” He answered. “Girls really like that?” Over the last few years, Michael’s and my relationship evolved and matured greatly too.

We both became fathers and that was the centerpiece of our most recent conversations the last few months. Returning the favor from my days as his “lyrical advisor,” he’s the one who monikered my half-Indian, half-Chinese son “The Chindian” which little Krishu Chen Xing Hua Chopra will now forever go by. We’d talk about how great it would be for our kids to grow up together, become as good friends as us, and set the world on fire. Michael admired the fact that I was able to find a wife, keep a wife, and gain her trust. I’d joke it was all about the foreplay!

When his daughter Paris befell an accident a few years ago, he called my wife Candice (a physician) pleading for us to come to his house to check her out. We did – Paris had fallen from a tree and cut herself deeply beneath the eye. Michael was devastated and confessed to me that he felt like the world’s worst father. I calmed him as Candice helped Paris get up from the bed where she lay so we could take her to the Emergency room to get some simple stitches.

When I advised Michael of the plan, he pulled me into the bathroom, pulled a sack filled with thousands of dollars from beneath the toilet and asked me how much I needed for the Emergency room. I shook my head: “this one’s on me.”

RIP in peace my friend. 

Gotham Chopra  

Also read Deepak Chopra’s A Tribute to My Friend, Michael Jackson and Mallika Chopra’s Reflections on Growing Up with Michael Jackson  

Reflections on Growing up with Michael Jackson

by Mallika Chopra It is with a sad heart today that I write this blog.  My brother, Gotham, and my father, Deepak, have both written beautiful articles remembering our friend, Michael Jackson.  I debated writing something or not, and in the end decided to write for my own healing process. My brother and I had a magical childhood, and much of this was because of Michael.  For us, Michael let us visit Neverland like it was our own – from movies to playing video games to bumper car rides to playing with the chimps to eating amazing chocolate chip cookies, we were able to take our cousins and friends to this magical place and just have pure fun. 

Eating meals with Michael in those days – almost 20 years ago now – was always an experience.  He would start humming a tune and then excuse himself.  When he came back, he would giggle with delight, explaining how music just came to him and he had to record it to save what came, he always said, came from some place else.  Every moment we were with Michael, I would be utterly comfortable and utterly in awe at the same time. My relationship with Michael was very different from that of my father and brothers. 

Michael and I shared an absolute love for children, and his heart cried about the pain children around the world faced.  One day, while chatting with him about his upcoming Super Bowl performance, Michael was brainstorming how he could use the worldwide exposure for a greater cause, and the Heal The World Foundation was born.  My first job, after graduating from college, was to launch the foundation with a small team.  I was so proud of the work we did in that short time, only to find that our good intentions came to a halt when Michael was accused the first time of child molestation.   Over night, understandably so, non-profits backed away from our efforts and we quietly closed shop. 

My family always maintained our belief that Michael was innocent in both cases – for those that were close to Michael, all would admit he was quirky and had bad judgment at times.  But to think Michael could abuse a child was unfathomable in my mind. Over the last decade, my relationship with Michael continued to be focused on kids, but now our own.  (We remained connected through my best friend, Grace, who served as their nanny for many years.) It was amazing for me to witness in those early years how enamored Michael was with his children. 

He changed their diapers through the night, sang and played with them, rocked them to sleep, bathed them and had to change his own outfits when they threw up on him – the same routine that all parents know and love. In the few times we spoke, he would always reflect on the miracle of being a parent.  He also protected them in a way that reflected his own lost childhood, and his paranoia about being taken advantage of.  Paris, Prince and Blanket are three beautiful children. 

With Michael gone, I truly pray that they will find some peace and be spared the heart wrenching pain that their father faced time and time again in his life. I write this blog in London after having a very surreal encounter with the kind of people that Michael was always paranoid about.  I will spare the details, but in those few hours, where I felt my kids were in a vulnerable situation, I had just the tiniest insight into why Michael became so paranoid in his life. 

So sad that such a trusting soul had to become so distrustful.  Because truly he was a loving, trusting soul. Here in London, like in much of the world, every television channel paid tribute to Michael Jackson.  As I watched some clips with my two young daughters (7 and 5), I found I had so much to explain to them.  Why did he have white skin (he had a skin disease)?  Why did he look so different from when he was a kid? (A fascinating discussion about plastic surgery followed).  Why did he look so weird? Why did he hide all the time? What’s going to happen to Prince, Paris and Blanket?  I patiently answered their questions, focusing on being a mom that needs to help her children understand a confusing world.  

The reality is that Michael’s life and story brings up painful questions about how we see the world, see ourselves and treat others.     And, as we were watching, the Heal the World video came on.  And finally after holding back all morning, my tears streamed down freely, as my two daughters held me.  Hearing that song, in which Micheal sang about healing the world… Michael truly had a gift to heal – his music and his sweet soul touched billions – and for that, I hope he will be remembered.  

RIP MJ

by Dr. Mani

The King of Rock is no more.

Michael Jackson, icon of the world of pop, child singing sensation, world-famous rock super-star, is dead. At fifty. I’m devastated. Michael Jackson was my all-time favorite pop singer.

Like many million others, I spent hundreds of hours as a young man swaying to his crooning, and letting the music and lyrics merge with my own ambitious and unreal dreams to form a rosy vision of what might be. Today’s news was a splash of cold water dashed against them.

Michael Jackson was a gifted singer, savvy entertainer, and astute brand manager. I’ve read his biography. His career started early. As a five-year old, he was a star, fighting off an intrusive press and his adoring fans.

For his musical genius, he paid a heavy price – it cost him a normal childhood. And the consequences of this manifested as some bizarre PR stunts… though the magic still lingered on.

That magic ended today. If you hadn’t first heard Michael Jackson’s singing as a teen or young adult, you probably don’t understand what exactly many of us are mourning. It’s not just the loss of a super-talented singer.

Not just the demise of a pop icon. Not just the passing of a record-breaking entertainer. It is more.

We’re mourning the loss of a symbol of our youth – of innocence, of romantic possibility, of purposeful change. RIP MJ.

COMMENTS:

joelbomane June 26th, 2009 @11:17 am  

 

My 3 Michael Jackson Secrets

by Dr. Mani

  Michael Jackson, ‘King of Pop’, died on Thursday. He was my all-time favorite pop singer. Here are my 3 secrets about Michael Jackson.

1. MJ is the ONLY celebrity I have EVER sent fan-mail to! I wrote him a long letter when I was 18, and hunted high and low to find an address to mail it. Never did get a reply

2. I cried when I heard the news of Michael Jackson’s death. Because it made me sad to lose such a visible symbol of my younger days – and all that his memory and songs stood for. (Did you?)

3. I still have a letter addressed to Mike in my briefcase. It is about my work with CHD kids. I thought he might help. Don’t know why I didn’t post it sooner. Wish I had. Do you have any Michael Jackson secrets to share? UPDATE:

Bloodsuckers and The World of Michael Jackson

by Mallika Chopra

In the aftermath of Michael Jackson’s death, I found myself in a surreal situation that gave me a glimpse into the dark side of bloodsuckers, media and celebrity.   In those few hours, I saw a side of humanity that saddens me – where people try to take advantage of vulnerability, confusion, and grief for their own advantage.  I realized that much of media has so much more to gain when they report salacious gossip, even in the aftermath of a tragic death like Michael’s. 

I also realized that all of us, myself included, who participate in the engagement of that media feed so-called journalists to do anything to get their information.  In the end, personalities like Michael are portrayed as freaks and dysfunctional, people who love them are taken advantage of, and those seedy, washed out journalists profit. I share my experience because it involves Grace Rwaramba, who served as the nanny to Michael’s three kids. 

Grace is more than my best friend – I refer to her as my sister, and she thinks of my parents as her own (she actually calls my father papa). In the last day in the aftermath of Michaels death, recent quotes have surfaced about her life with Michael, as well as speculation about her role in potential custody battles for the three children.  Grace has read this article before I published it.

Michael had a pattern of letting those close to him in and out of his life, and Grace was no exception.  Lisa Marie Presley’s reflection on her emotional relationship with Michael expressed beautifully the power Michael had with those he loved.  Over the years, Grace faced a similar cycle of wanting to save him and being hurt by him. 

It was an endless cycle that seemed similar to those faced by friends and families of other addicts.  Michael had a knack of surrounding himself with enablers, and avoiding people who wanted to help him like his family, real friends who cared deeply about him, Grace and my father, Deepak Chopra. Daphne Barak, a so-called journalist who claims to be a friend of the Jackson family and who got to know Grace through them, has been cultivating a friendship with Grace over several years. 

Unfortunately, the story with Daphne and Grace seems to be one that echoes the vultures that took advantage of Michael throughout his life. Daphne reached out to Grace a few weeks ago, when she knew she was in a vulnerable place, having recently been let go by Michael yet again (this was a regular pattern).  In the 17 years that Grace has worked with Michael, she has never spoken to the press.  She loves Michael and his children at her core. 

Grace genuinely believed Daphne was her friend who was trying to help her. Daphne had offered to help Grace launch a foundation she was creating to monitor non profit work in Africa. (Grace was originally from Rwanda.) She told Grace that they should record her speaking about the work.  However, every time they began to record, her questions would center on Michael.  Grace would say she was uncomfortable speaking about him.   

On the morning of June 26^th, after finding out that Grace was also in London, I rushed to her hotel.  She was staying in a suite with Daphne.  Daphne told tell me she had invited Grace to stay with her in Switzerland as her guest, and how she had helped Grace with the immediate aftermath of shock hearing about Michael’s death.  She said that she had spent several thousand dollars to buy a business class ticket for Grace to fly to LA.  She boasted about how close she was to the Jackson family, world leaders, etc. 

I witnessed Daphne act as a friend while trying to bait information from Grace on her conversations with Jackson family members and friends about his death.  She warned Grace that the family was going to try to set her up for Michaels downfall, and that it was critical that Grace speak with a lawyer before leaving. 

As a friend, she had organized a “lawyer” to get Grace’s story before she left for the airport. In essence, Daphne was setting up a scenario to garner more information from Grace before she left for LA.  I discovered that one of her friends who happened to be there had made a documentary on Princess Diana.  When we tried to leave, Daphne screamed at Grace – in front of my young children who began to cry — that she was an ingrate. She had spent thousands of dollars hosting her, she was her guest, and she wanted to spend the time to say goodbye.   (Daphne obviously could not believe her luck that she had baited Grace as a sympathetic friend for stories before he died, and had Grace with her on that sad day.) 

Ultimately, Daphne, having obviously drunk a bit much, threatened to release the recordings she had made of their private conversations.  Grace was petrified.  I held her by the shoulders, looked in her eyes, and said lets just go.  So what, let her put it out there.  She is a washed up journalist trying to mine a tragic situation.  Michael was gone now, and the future is the wellbeing of the children.  Grace agreed. Ultimately, I had to get the hotel manager involved to escort Grace out of the hotel. 

I also bought Grace’s ticket home myself, discovering that Daphne had misled us about the time and the price.  It was a 650 Pound economy ticket, not several thousand dollars. Twenty four hours later, I found that Daphne indeed had written an article full of quotes by Grace for a tabloid magazine.   (A quick search of her other work not surprisingly shows she did a recent feature on Amy Winehouse.)  Grace’s quotes are now being picked up by other tabloids and will find their way into more magazines and articles.  (People Magazine is also featuring some today, including the inaccurate claim the Grace pumped Michael’s stomach several times.  

For the record, Grace never pumped Michael’s stomach.  She has no idea how she would even do such a thing.) Which quotes are true, which are in context, (many are not) to me frankly doesn’t matter. I will not be surprised if Daphne releases audios or videos soon.  Grace feels used, insecure and shaken that she could have been so naïve, particularly having witnessed so many vultures in Michael’s world over the years.  She made a mistake.   The sad truth is that when you are a celebrity, or a close friend or family of one, in a world of tabloids, you must be impeccable in what you say and to whom. 

Michael probably faced the epitome of vultures, bloodsuckers and hanger-ons displayed in his endless cycle of managers, enabling doctors, and new business partners.  How could anyone blame him for becoming so paranoid in his life? In the article, Daphne tries to portray a rift between Katherine Jackson and Grace.  This is not true.  I would like to go on record, with Grace’s permission, to say that Grace firmly hopes that the Jackson family gets custody of Prince, Paris and Michael. 

It would be detrimental to the children to be separated, and they should be with Michael’s family.  They should know their grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins, and they should learn about who he was as a person, not just as an icon.  She has no interest in custody, and just wants the children to be happy and secure.  She will be there for them whenever they need or want her.

As for the appetite for the salacious details of Michael’s life, my hope is that we let him go in peace.  We already know he led a tortured life.  He also led a great one in which he loved, and was loved, by many.  Let his family heal, and let his fans celebrate his music and his giving heart.

UPDATE:

High on Fame: Michael Jackson and Enabling Doctors 

by Dr. Deepak Chopra

Statement by Grace Rwaramba Regarding Michael Jackson

Posted Tue, 06/30/2009 – 13:38 June 30th, 2009

“Michael Jackson was an exceptional Human Being. He was gifted, deeply compassionate and brought joy to the lives of so many. He loved his family dearly, and above all, his beautiful children.

In addition to being my employer over the past 17 years and entrusting the care of his beloved children to me, he was my dear friend. While our friendship had challenges, as do all friendships, he was loyal to the end. I cherish and honor his memory.

I am shocked, hurt and deeply saddened by recent statements the press has attributed to me, in particular, the outrageous and patently false claim that I “routinely pumped his stomach after he had ingested a dangerous combination of drugs”. I don’t even know how to pump a stomach!! In addition, I have never spoken to the Times Online, the original source of the story that has now been picked up worldwide. The statements attributed to me confirm the worst in human tendencies to sensationalize tragedy and smear reputations for profit.

I convey my heartfelt and deepest condolences to Prince, Paris, Blanket and the entire Jackson family. The pain and sorrow I feel over the loss of Michael pales in comparison to what has been taken from them forever.”

- Grace Rwaramba

CNN

Anderson Cooper anchors Anderson Cooper 360°

Grace Rwaramba’s statement

Grace Rwaramba

Deepakchopra.com

————————————————————————————————————

On behalf of all your AUC friends…

Tracy, Michell, Lou, Theresa, Nicole, Ruth, A’Lisa, Cindy, John, Sheila, Jenene, Brad, Elmer, Tracey, Raffy, Vic, Cindy, Laurie, David, Erin, Robert, Cathy, Arline, Lon…and many others

…here is the French translation of your loving statement :

to a sweet, kind and loving soul, to you Grace:)

Love and Hugs

————————————————————————————————————

La déclaration suivante a été faite par Grace Rwaramba au sujet de Michael Jackson :

Le 30 juin 2009

“Michael Jackson était un Être Humain exceptionnel. Il était brillant, d’une grande
compassion et apportait de la joie dans la vie de nombreuses personnes. Il aimait
profondément sa famille, et par dessus tout, ses magnifiques enfants.

En plus d’avoir été mon employeur au cours de ces 17 dernières années en me confiant
la garde de ses enfants bien-aimés, il était pour moi un ami très cher. Bien que
notre amitié ait eu des hauts et des bas, comme dans toutes les amitiés, il
est resté loyal jusqu’à la fin. Je chéris et honore sa mémoire.

Je suis choquée, blessée et profondément attristée par les récentes déclarations que
la Presse m’a attribué, particulièrement la déclaration scandaleuse et clairement
fausse que je “lui faisais régulièrement des lavages d’estomac après qu’il ait ingéré
une combinaison dangereuse de médicaments”. Je ne sais même pas comment on fait un lavage d’estomac!! De plus, je n’ai jamais parlé au Times Online, la source originale
de l’histoire qui a maintenant été reprise dans le monde entier. Les déclarations qui
me sont attribuées confirment ce qu’il y a de pire chez l’être humain à vouloir faire
un reportage à sensation sur une tragédie et à salir une réputation pour le profit.

Je transmets du plus profond de mon coeur mes plus sincères condoléances à Prince,
Paris, et Blanket ainsi qu’à la famille Jackson toute entière. La douleur et le
chagrin avec la perte de Michael sont peu en comparaison de ce qui leur a été enlevé à
tout jamais.”

- Grace Rwaramba

————————————————————————————————————

Empathy is Not a Business Plan:

http://www.joelbomane.com

—————————————–

Michael Jackson and Kim Jong Il
Posted Sun, 07/05/2009 – 19:03 Tags: Global
News, Euna Lee, Laura Ling, Michael Jackson 5 Comments

The last time I spoke to my friend Michael Jackson was about a month ago, 3
weeks before his shocking death. He had called me late one night to ask
about another of my close friends who he had read about in the news. Laura
Ling, a former colleague and friend, was detained originally by North Korean
border guards along with her colleague Euna Lee on March 17th. Since then,
they have been imprisoned, had very little contact with their families or
western officials, and endured a secretive trial at which they were
sentenced to twelve years hard labor. At this present moment, it is unclear
where Laura and Euna are – whether they remain in a government guesthouse
where they were originally held, in a hospital (due to medical problems for
both of them), or moved to the infamous North Korean labor camps that many
do not survive.

Michael had read some of the details regarding Laura and Euna’s predicament.
As was often the case with him and global events he read about – from famine
in Africa to victims of natural disasters in far off countries, to orphans
created by wars – he felt a deep sense of empathy for Laura and Euna. When I
shared with him that Euna had a four-year-old daughter, he was even more
anguished.

He asked me whether I had had any contact with Laura. I told him I had
written her a few letters and had been assured they were getting through.
Outside of that, her own family had only heard from her twice – brief
monitored phonecalls – in the over three months they had been imprisoned.
When I told him that, Michael paused.

“Do you think,” he said hesitantly, “that the leader of North Korea could be
a fan of mine?”

I didn’t really know how to respond. Not much is known about the reclusive
Kim Jong Il or “Dear leader” as he is called in the Democratic People’s
Republic of Korea. Over the years it’s been alleged he has a thing for
Hollywood, certain NBA stars, Elvis, and specific liqueurs. Still, I’d never
heard about any connection between Michael Jackson and Kim Jong Il.

Michael said he had seen some pictures on the internet of the Dear Leader.
“You’know, he wears jackets like mine.”

I couldn’t help but laugh a little. It’s true. Michael always had a
fascination with military-like jackets, the types with markers and badges on
the collars and shoulders. If you search it online, you will indeed find a
lot of images of Michael and Kim Jong Il, similarly bedecked in analogous
outfits.

“I don’t really know,” I answered Michael. “But I can try and find out.”

“Please,” Michael responded without hesitantly, “because maybe if he was a
fan, I could help get those girls home.”

I explained to Michael that there were larger geo-politics involved, nuclear
programs, a new administration trying to assert its foreign policy strategy
(Obama), and another one in NK possibly going through some sort of
transference of power.

“Yeah,” Michael said wistfully, “but if someone wants to do something good,
they just can. They don’t really need to worry about all that other stuff.”

And that was really the end of that conversation. I kept my promise and
tried to see if I might find a connection between MJ and KJI, but sadly I
wasn’t able to. Before I was able to get back to Michael, the news regarding
his tragic passing broke. The tributes and commemoratives began in earnest
and have not stopped.

Then the irony occurred to me, the far out bizarre seemingly impossible
possibility: there is really only one person in the world today that could
make a truly meaningful tribute to Michael Jackson. If indeed Kim Jong Il
ever was a fan of Michael Jackson, ever gasped at Michael’s moonwalk, smiled
at Thriller, hummed along to the Jackson Five or any of Michael’s countess
hits, his pardoning of Laura Ling and Euna Lee and sending them home to
their families would be a profound act of compassion, a true tribute to a
man whose death has left the entire world in mourning. What a better way to
re-invent himself and his own conflicted image than for Kim Jong Il to send
a message of hope, forgiveness, and empathy as a commemoration of possibly
the greatest icon of our times. It’s an act that would be historic, covered
by every news organizations in the world, and be immortalized in the annals
of time.

Alas, maybe I’m naïve to have such dramatic hopes for my friend and her
colleague, to think that leaders of nations may be influenced by the dying
wishes of great artists. Or…maybe not. To me, Michael’s memory will always
be as a great friend and mentor. To many around the world, it will be as an
iconic and brilliant musical artist. Wouldn’t it be staggering if one Kim
Jong Il were to honor him – post-death – as a truly great humanitarian?

- Gotham Chopra

SPECIAL THANKS TO MALLIKA CHOPRA for providing
all these chrystal clear, insightful, and loving news
about MJ and Grace.

http://www.intent.com/mallikachopra/profile

Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American recording artist, entertainer, philanthropist and businessman.

The seventh child of the Jackson family, he made his debut onto the professional music scene at the age of 11 as a member of The Jackson 5 in 1969, then began a solo career in 1971 while still a member of the group. Referred to as the “King of Pop“^[2] in subsequent years, his 1982 album Thriller remains the world’s best-selling record of all time^[3] and four of his other solo studio albums are among the world’s best-selling records: Off the Wall (1979), Bad (1987), Dangerous (1991) and HIStory (1995).