"if you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen
the side of the oppressor." - Desmond Tutu.

Susan Ruzic joins campaign against racism on Gandhi’s death anniversary Featured

 

 

#HandsAgainstRacism got a major boost when a retired teacher and long-time peace activist joined the campaign on Thursday, January 30.

Susan Ruzic, who had initiated a peace project aimed at discouraging kids from playing with toys of violence, went to Spice Radio on the occasion of the death anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.

Launched by the Burnaby-based radio station in January 2015 on the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr., #HandsAgainstRacism encourages participants to dip their hands in colour and leave a handprint on a white sheet with a message against bigotry. 

With Gandhi in mind, Ruzic wrote alongside her handprint, “Peace Begins With Me” adding a peace sign. 

Gandhi was a towering leader of the passive resistance movement against British occupation of India and a global peace icon. He was assassinated by Hindu extremist Nathuram Godse on January 30, 1948.  Although Gandhi was a devout Hindu, he was opposed to Hindu theocracy. He had vehemently denounced the religious partition of India between Hindus and Muslims in 1947 and stood against sectarian violence directed at Muslims by Hindu fundamentalists.

Godse and his associates wanted to establish a Hindu state and saw Gandhi as threat to their objective, because of which he was shot to death.

Likewise, Martin Luther King Jr. was also murdered by a white supremacist. Much like Gandhi, he was also an advocate of peace and was despised by chauvinists.   Ironically, both India and the United States are currently governed by forces that were responsible for the killings of these two men. Many of the leaders of the ruling Hindu nationalist Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) in India glorify Godse. He belonged to the Hindu supremacist organization Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) of which BJP is a political wing. Notably, RSS was banned for sometime following the death of Gandhi.

Ruzic told Spice Radio that the legacy of the two men has become even more relevant today due to rise in hate and violence all over the world.

 

Rate this item
(0 votes)
Super User

Gurpreet Singh

Cofounder and Director of Radical Desi

https://twitter.com/desi_radical?lang=en

Leave a comment

Make sure you enter all the required information, indicated by an asterisk (*). HTML code is not allowed.