Mahatma Gandhi birth anniversary to be celebrated in Egypt

CAIRO: To celebrate the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, the Embassy of India in Egypt will organise three events next week, India's Ambassador here has said.

The events, to be held in cooperation with Port Said Governorate, Suez Canal Authority, will gather eminent intellectuals and friends of India during three days from October 25 to 27 in the Maulana Azad Centre for Indian Culture (MACIC) in Cairo and Port Said.

"This is a major event to commemorate Mahatma Gandhi's birth anniversary. The relevance of Gandhi is eternal and his example is inspirational at a time when we face challenges and violence, the principles of Gandhi ask us to pause and ponder on the need for humanity to strive for peace," said Ambassador Sanjay Bhattacharyya.

To showcase what inspired the Mahatma to fight for the cause of people and led him to evolve his methods of "Non-Violence" and "Civil Disobedience", the Embassy of India's MACIC film club will be screening the movie "The Making of the Mahatma" by renowned director Shyam Benegal on October 25.

The movie shows the life of a young Gandhi which he has spent in south Africa and how he helped the natives to fight for their rights.

On October 26, a photography exhibition and a seminar titled of "Reliving the history: when Ghandi and Egypt met on a boat" will be held in el-Nadi el-Bahari, Port Said.

The seminar, which will be moderated by Bhattacharyya, will focus on Gandhi's visit to Egypt, his interactions with Egyptian intellectuals, the developments that have taken since then and influence of Gandhian philosophy on India and Egypt.

The seminar comes soon after the recent state visit of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to India.

The last event of the celebration of Gandhi's birth anniversary will be a roundtable entitled "Gandhi @ Tahrir", which will be held on October 27.