Rallies mark 100 years of Mahatma Gandhi's return to India from South Africa

MUMBAI: Various events, including a rally from the spot he alighted in Mumbai, marked 100 years of Mahatma Gandhi's arrival in India from South Africa.

After more than 21 years of staying in South Africa, Gandhi had reached Mumbai on January 9, 1915 and a small launch carrying some of Mumbai's prominent citizens, had set off from the newly built Gateway of India to greet SS Arabia, a mail boat, which had ferried Gandhi.

Gandhi had returned to India with his wife Kasturba. He had been in London the previous year to treat a severe bout of pleurisy, a lung inflammation. His doctors advised him to return to India to escape the English winter. This time, India became his permanent home.

To mark this momentous occasion, Mumbai Sarvodaya Mandal, a Gandhian Charitable Trust, organised a rally today from Gateway of India to Mumbai University convocation hall in South Mumbai.

The procession had college students and people dressed up as Gandhiji and Kasturba, who were welcomed by freedom fighter G G Parikh.

A video recording showing Gandhiji was screened on the occasion.

The Congress party held a padayatra from Gateway of India to the Gandhi statue near Mantralaya. Senior party laders Mohan Prakash, Digvijay Singh, Prithviraj Chavan and Narayan Rane participated in the march.