School students in Beijing on Monday paid a special tribute to the memory of Mahatma Gandhi, as they read his teachings in a ceremony held at Beijing’s only Gandhi statue.
In China, Mahatma Gandhi is perhaps the best known Indian historical figure, and school teachers at Beijing’s Fangcaodi School said they hoped their students would learn from his teachings.
At a ceremony in Beijing’s Chaoyang Park, where eminent Chinese artist Yuan Xikun installed a sculpture in 2005, students read out several well-known teachings of the Mahatma, while the Indian Embassy’s music teachers sang bhajans.
In a garden outside Chaoyang Park’s Jintai Art Museum, Yuan also installed statues of other well-known historical figures whose legacies have resonated in China, including Chinese philosopher Confucius, scientist Charles Darwin and the writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
“Gandhi belongs to India, but also to the world”, the museum’s director Chen Ruohua told India Today. “For students in China and elsewhere, his message of tolerance, peace and non-violence is something they should learn and remember today.”
China also has a Centre for Gandhian and Indian Studies, in Shanghai’s elite Fudan University, which last week held a seminar to discuss the relevance of Gandhi’s teachings.
Professor Liu Zhen told the seminar there was “a need to keep referring to Gandhian thought as a means to seek solutions for today’s problems.”
India today
