Mahatma Gandhi’s funeral procession took place on January 31st. The Mahatma had specified before he died, that he did not want his body preserved, but instead, wanted a traditional cremation.
Gandhi’s body was placed upon a flower bedecked military weapons carrier, which was pulled, using ropes, by two hundred men from the Indian Army, Navy and Air Force. The vehicles had their engines switched off. It took four and a half hours for the procession to cover eight kilometres, beginning at the Birla House and proceeding to the banks of the Yamuna River.
Ramdas, the third son of Gandhiji, lit the funeral pyre. People shouted the slogan ‘Mahatma Gandhi Ki Jai’. The next day, the second service was held by his friends and relatives by collecting the ashes in a Khadi bag and then, the bag was placed in a copper urn. Ashes of Gandhiji were carried through the streets of Allahabad in procession.
After thirteen days of mourning, Gandhiji’s ashes were sprinkled in seven sacred rivers of India.
On his death, Nehru remarked, “the light has gone out of our lives and there is darkness everywhere…” Gandhiji’s monument at Raj Ghat attracts visitors from around the world, as well as noted personalities who wish to pay their respects to the father of the nation.
