Why India supported Nelson Mandela
Answers
Explanation:
Nelson Mandela’s umbilical bond with India & Mahatma Gandhi
Where we come from does not matter. What matters is where we reach by means of our virtues. It is particularly true about Nelson Mandela, a mighty voice of protest against oppression, a Gandhian at heart, a born leader for the deprived, a spirit of rebellion against racism and a fighter against the apartheid government. Nelson Mandelas life is full of so many events that summing it up in an article would be a futile effort. He is often called the Gandhi of South Africa because of his human values, inspired by Mahatma Gandhi. He shared a strong apolitical bond with India and Gandhi though neither his life nor his existence was rooted in the soil of India. Indian Eagle makes a small effort to explore his relations with India and the Mahatma.
Gandhian philosophy was one of the driving forces behind Nelson Mandelas lifelong anti-apartheid movement. He admired Mahatma Gandhi as his role model. He was a diehard follower of Gandhis principles Truth and Nonviolence. He was honored with the Bharat Ratna soon after his release from imprisonment in the year 1990. He was the first non-Indian to have been conferred with Indias highest civilian honor.
We would like to illustrate Nelson Mandelas ardent devotion for Mahatma Gandhi by summing up one of his quotes about the latter. At the inaugural ceremony of Gandhi Memorial in South Africa in 1993, he had said that the Mahatma is an inseparable part of the African history of movement against the racist in South Africa where he left an indelible influence of his unflinching determination in defiance of the wrong, in support of the right and in pursuit of justice for the non-white, through his philosophy of truth and nonviolence.
After as many as 27 years of imprisonment for his protest the apartheid government of South Africa, Nelson Mandela maintained a healthy relation with India and Indian leaders. He is a mighty inspirational and admirable figure like the noble sons of Mother India to Indians of the 21st century. His political and apolitical pursuits to secure peace and justice for the black Africans were greatly influenced by Gandhi’s teachings, which brought him the International Gandhi Peace Prize in the year 2001.
Nelson Mandela considered his visit to India as a pilgrimage. India was a land of ideals and values to this greatest anti-apartheid icon. During his travel in India, he visited where Gandhi had worked on his self-help ideas and shaped up his nonviolence principle after his return from South Africa to India, in Ahmedabad. In one of his speeches, Mandela said that he could never achieve the height of humanity, the greatness of truth and the value of simplicity that the Mahatma had set through practical examples in his life.
Mandela received huge support from India for his non-apartheid movement and the African National Congress (ANC). It is evident from a statement by the then would-be Jawaharlal Nehru in 1946 that India would not cooperate with South India till the apartheid policy was abolished. He kept the promise by supporting the African National Congress in its demand for the abolishment of the apartheid policy at the international forums including United Nations