Johnson turns into first UK PM to go to Sabarmati Ashram, calls Gandhi extraordinary man

By PTI

AHMEDABAD: Visiting British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Thursday termed Mahatma Gandhi an “extraordinary man” who mobilised the ideas of fact and non-violence to alter the world for higher.

Johnson grew to become the primary prime minister of the UK to go to the Sabarmati Ashram right here, the place from the place Gandhi led India’s battle for freedom from the British colonial rule for greater than a decade.

In reality, the Tory politician can also be the primary British prime minister to go to Gujarat publish 1947.

“It is an immense privilege to come to the ashram of this extraordinary man, and to understand how he mobilised such simple principles of truth and non-violence to change the world for better,” Johnson wrote within the guests’ e-book on the Gandhi ashram.

“It is an immense privilege to return to the Ashram of this extraordinary man, and to grasp how he mobilised such easy ideas of fact and non-violence to alter the world for the higher”: UK PM Boris Johnson’s message at Gandhi Ashram, Ahmedabad pic.twitter.com/z9Gj6FrB52

— ANI (@ANI) April 21, 2022

While the British PM was effusive in his reward for the Mahatma, through the freedom battle such reward for Gandhi from Britain’s ruling class was uncommon.

Winston Churchill famously referred to as Gandhi a “half- naked fakir” because the latter opposed sending Indian troopers to battle for Britain within the Second World War and launched the Quit India motion in 1942. The Mahatma’s name to make use of the charkha (spinning wheel) and boycott international items together with fabric hit the textile trade in Manchester.

Charkha grew to become a really potent image of the anti-colonial battle. During his go to, prime minister Johnson tried his hand on the charkha at Hriday Kunj, the hut the place Gandhi lived. A reproduction of charkha was additionally introduced to him.

The Sabarmati Ashram Preservation and Memorial Trust additionally gifted two books to him. One of the books was “Guide to London”, an unpublished e-book which consists of Gandhi’s solutions on easy methods to reside in London.

The different e-book was “The Spirit’s Pilgrimage”, autobiography of Mirabehn or Madeleine Slade, Gandhi’s British-born follower. Johnson is scheduled to fulfill Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi on Friday.