Date:01/09/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/09/01/stories/2006090124810300.htm

New Delhi

President sends a painting for `Satyagraha'

Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI: President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam has sent one of the paintings from Rashtrapati Bhavan's rich collection to a fortnight-long Indo-South African art show that begins at Travancore Art Gallery here on Friday to mark the centenary of the first "Satyagraha".

Titled "Satyagraha -- Indian and South African Artists' Tribute to the Spirit of 9-11-1906", the exhibition will be a special homage by experienced as well as contemporary artists from the two continents where Mahatma Gandhi lived and worked.

According to Afrikhadi India, the organiser of the show, President Kalam felt that the painting "went along with the theme" of the exhibition. Dr. Kalam will also inaugurate the show.

"We are honoured to know that the First Citizen of the country has chosen to send a painting from Rashtrapati Bhavan's collection. The exhibition is an appropriate way to commemorate the Satyagraha. Through the group exhibition of specially created commemorative works in New Delhi and Durban, where Gandhi first practiced the Satyagraha, we are remembering the great spirit of the previous Century at a time when the world is threatened by violence and terrorism," said Tushar Gandhi, Chairman of the Organising Committee of the show and the great grandson of the Mahatma.

The passive resistance by Indians in South Africa against the racist policies of the British regime was started on September 11, 1906. There, under the guidance of Mahatma Gandhi, the National Indian Congress launched a strategy for agitation. Later, this agitation was called Satyagraha and the Indian Independence movement was synonymous with this method of non-violent resistance against atrocities of all kinds.

Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and Minister of State for External Affairs Anand Sharma along with a host of dignitaries from India and South Africa will participate in the inaugural ceremony.