Akbar says to gain freedom from British rule Gandhi relied on indigenous ideas

Union Minister M J Akbar today said that to gain freedom from British rule, Mahatma Gandhi relied on ideas which were completely indigenous. The minister was delivering a talk on India's foreign policy at Mapusa near here.

Union Minister M J Akbar today said that to gain freedom from British rule, Mahatma Gandhi relied on ideas which were completely indigenous. The minister was delivering a talk on India's foreign policy at Mapusa near here.

"Mahatma Gandhi not only challenged the empire but began using another force which was unknown in the history, that was the force of Indian masses," the minister said.

"He used the instrument of non-violence, which was powerful than the violence. That was such a powerful weapon that when it was said the Sun is not going to set on British Empire, the Empire did not last for more than 35 years (after Gandhi became the leader of the freedom movement)," Akbar said.

"Before Mahatma, nobody had actually formulated the answer to the question of how to defeat the British empire. "And Mahatma found the answer, not in a foreign idea or not in an international idea, he found the answer in ideas that were absolutely born in Indian minds and that were formulated in Indian minds," he said.

"Once India became free the whole European colonization collapsed in another few years. By 1971, when the Gulf States got independence, the European colonization was over," he said.

"European colonization was born in India and died in India," he said. (This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)