Gandhi’s Legacy

The legacy of Mahatma Gandhi is being challenged in modern India (also, in Africa, where he lived when he was younger) by Hindu Nationalists and lower castes such as Dalits, but for the most part he is still much revered in the world’s second-most populous country (at this time, about 1.34 billion). I took this picture at the Gandhi Smriti, a place of pilgrimage for many. Here, in this garden, where the little gazebo is, Gandhi was assassinated. I was touched by the mother who wanted to take a picture of her young son at that spot, as if she hoped that he would grow up to espouse the non-violent philosophy of the founder of an independent India.