“I am deeply moved to share these thoughts on the great Mahatma, Mohandas Gandhi with you, on this the commemoration of his 150th Birthday. I express my heartfelt gratitude to High Commissioner, His Excellency Sevala Naik and Mrs Naik for this honour,” expressed Jean Lowrie- Chin.
My Jamaican-Indian father, Sydney Gopaulsingh, a Hindu, died when I was four years old and our mother encouraged us to leaf through a scrapbook that he had kept. There in pride of place was a newspaper clipping of the great Mahatma Gandhi with a report on his extended fast, in his nationwide leadership of a resistance against British colonialism. (My surname was changed to Lowrie when my widowed mother later married Joscelyn Lowrie.)
And so, at that impressionable age, the influence of this man
of courage took root, challenging us to a brave and altruistic way of life. I am pleased that my sister Frances is with us today, a dedicated volunteer who lives this path of courage and giving. With her is her husband William Beard, an African American who recalls the day his parents marched in Washington DC with the Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr who had declared that Gandhi inspired his campaign of peaceful resistance for Civil Rights.
My husband, Hubert is proud that he shares the same birth month with the Mahatma and I believe my family will agree that he is indeed a man of peace and justice. The symbol for Libra is the scale of Justice – How appropriate!
I shared the request from His Excellency Naik with family members and friends of Indian Ancestry, so they could give me their reflections on the Great Soul, the Mahatma. Here are their reflections:
From my cousin Rachael Mair Boxill: “Perhaps his most significant one for me is his respect for all religions, in particular Christianity.
The quote that has stayed with me is, “”For me different religions are beautiful flowers from the same garden or branches of the same majestic tree.” In a time when the media (in particular social media) seems to foster unnecessary criticism of various belief systems, his genuine respect for all is refreshing and empowering.
Rachael continues, “I am especially captivated with the impact that the Beatitudes had on him and his promotion of non-violence. In a region struggling to maintain peace these words, that had such a profound impact on him, should also be our mantra. Of significance too, is the simplicity of his lifestyle which we should definitely imitate.”My cousin Dawn Williams Bobo, whose son, Brandon has been grieving the loss of his schoolmates in the shooting at the Stoneman-Douglas High School in Florida wrote: “In this age, when there is so much hurt and anger being unleashed, not only on the political and global front but also in our daily interactions with other fellow citizens, I am constantly reminded of his quote, ‘the weak can never forgive, forgiveness is the attribute of the strong’.”
Andrea Jaghai Williams wrote: “I think the following quote is so true. ‘It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver’.” She notes that our mental, physical, spiritual and social well-being determines our happiness and harmony with the universe.
My cousin Winnie Gopaulsingh Mair says: “What I remember is that my father had a photograph of Gandhi hanging in the shop at Savanna-la-mar. Later I learned he was an activist in India promoting peace and nonviolence. I enjoyed his quotes.”
My sister Sandra said with feeling: “I love and revere this Great Soul.”
My friend Valerie Juggan-Brown notes: “My favorite Gandhi quote is: “Be the change you want to see”
And then I received this stunning email from my Brother Sydney ‘Tony’ Gopaulsingh Lowrie: “This is a very significant moment for Jamaicans of Indian descent. See if you can find Marcus Garvey’s address to the UNIA on the day of Mahatma Gandhi’s arrest by the British colonial government.”
Your Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, here I was priding myself on knowing so much about Jamaica’s first National Hero, Marcus Mosiah Garvey, and I did not know this! Much respect to Tony!
I was able to retrieve the Speech from the Duke University collection prepared by Jamaica’s own Professor Robert Hill and I am honoured to share excerpts of this brilliant address made by Marcus Garvey to the UNIA in New York, on March 12, 1922.
He begins his wide-ranging speech with this:
“News has come to us that India’s great leader, Mahatma Gandhi, has been arrested for advocating the cause of 380,000,000 Indians – the cause of freedom of his country. He has been arrested by an alien government that seeks to disrupt, to destroy the freedom of 380 millions of people. You are well acquainted with the work of Gandhi. For twenty-five years Gandhi has been agitating the cause of his countrymen. Within the last three years he became very active. He organized a movement that has swept the entire country of India – a movement that has united the different castes of India that have been apart for centuries. The British people are now feeling the pressure of Gandhi’s propaganda. It is customary for them to suppress the cause of liberty. It is customary for them to execute and imprison the leaders of the cause of liberty everywhere. Therefore, Gandhi’s arrest is nothing unexpected to those of us who understand what leadership means. Leadership means sacrifice; leadership means martyrdom. Hundreds of thousands of men as leaders have died in the past for the freedom of their country – the emancipation of their respective peoples – and we will expect nothing else from Gandhi but that self-sacrifice and martyrdom that will ultimately free his country and his countrymen.”
Our learned Marcus Garvey compares Gandhi to the Irish freedom fighter, Terence MacSwiney:
“Gandhi, as you know, is one of the noblest characters of the day. Like MacSwiney, I believe he will pave the way ultimately for India’s freedom. MacSwiney’s death a couple of years ago paved the way for an Irish Free State, and I believe that the sacrifice – the imprisonment of Mahatma Gandhi – will ultimately pave the way for a free and independent India. I am in deep sympathy with Gandhi and with the new movement in India. As Provisional President of Africa I pledge the support of all Negroes of the world who support the principles of this organization to the cause of India’s freedom.”
To thunderous applause, he lauded the West India Regiment for refusing the British call to take up arms against the Indians:
“And I am pleased at a bit of news that had come to me just within the last twelve hours. It came from the island of Jamaica – where, as is the custom of the people I have mentioned, they called upon the West Indian regiments to go out to India – the black soldiers who have always fought for them in their wars of conquest – to fight the Indians, and they refused to go.”
“This is the effect of the propaganda of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and the Bill of Rights of the first convention of 1920, when we declared that no Negro shall take up arms against other men and especially against men of his race and those with whom he is in sympathy, without first knowing what he is about to fight for. The Negroes of the world have no cause against India. The Negroes of the world, on the contrary, are in sympathy with India and there are 400,000,000 Negroes who are prepared to stand behind 380,000,000 Indians to see that they get their freedom.”
Here is the cable, on behalf of the African Diaspora, that Garvey sent to the King George V and the British Premier: Four hundred million Negroes are in sympathy with Mahatma Gandhi, whom you have arrested. We are for the freedom of India and the complete liberation of the African colonies, including the Nigerias, Sierra Leone, Gold Coast and Southwest and East Africa. We wish your nation all that is good, but not at the expense of the liberties of the darker and weaker peoples of the earth. Rome, Greece, Spain, Germany fell because of imperialistic designs and aggression. May you profit by their experience by acting now to avert the bloody conflict that threatens all humanity. Let us have PEACE by being just, is the prayer of four hundred million Negroes.”
Marcus Garvey made it clear that the arrest of Mahatma Gandhi was not a setback for his campaign. He declared:
“There are many people who believe that the cause of the Indians is lost because of the arrest of Mahatma Gandhi. They do not understand the psychology of great movements. They do not well appreciate the valuable records of history; records that attest the struggles, the sacrifices made by leaders for the rights and liberties of their people. Those of you who are students of history know that all reform movements – I mean reform movements that are worthwhile – have had to pay – as far as the leaders are concerned – have had to pay the price of the liberty of the people in whose interest and for whose freedom they were begun.”
In this National Heritage Week, we Jamaicans of Indian ancestry stand proud in our memory of the triumph of Mahatma Gandhi, and the solidarity of our own Marcus Garvey in his historic campaign.
Thank you, Your Excellency, for this opportunity to share the pride and joy we Jamaicans of Indian ancestry feel in the monumental victory of Mahatma Gandhi, one that has inspired the activism of great leaders and will continue to do so forever.
On this, the 150th Anniversary of this extraordinary leader, we give thanks that God blessed the world with this enduring example of the strength of peace and love.
Thank you, and may God bless you all!
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Address by Jean Lowrie-Chin CD JP
Jamaica Highlights 