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The Spirit of Freedom

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73rd Independence Day, Independence Day, 15th August , India Independence Day, Mahatma Gandhi
Image Courtesy: Zee News

India is a secular country and after getting our independence on August 15, 1947, we have the right to express our views and nobody can stop us from giving valuable suggestions. Newspapers play a positive role in bringing the views of the readers by including them in Letters to the editor column. It gives an opportunity for the reader to give his frank opinion.

“India is my country and all the Indians are my brothers and sisters” goes a long way.  The Government is by the people of the people and for the people and we get the freedom of speech and open your mind in public. The pen is mightier than the sword is true. National Integration is the hallmark of the Indian sub-continent.

India is a linguistic country and we have many newspapers in different languages to express your views. The hype, hoopla, and hysteria about sensitive issues figure out in newspapers and the people are given an open page, thanks to the media. For example, the spate of suicides of the farmers is being figured out prominently.  Secondly, the atrocities committed against women are given pride of place. However, such types of news should not be used for increasing the sales of the publication. We in India get a boost to call shots when it is really required.

We need not get feared for exposing the right things and try to provide solutions in the right way. In cities, the platform height is abnormal and hence. By sending suggestions, the Corporation provides slopes at certain places and provided steps to climb and use the platforms. Road repairs at focal points are also taken on a war footing if you provide clippings of the damages caused to the roads during the monsoon season. The increase of slums at posh localities is also a matter of great concern and taken up before the situation goes out of hand. Gandhi Ji brought freedom for India and it is up to preserve our independence in the best way possible.

Mahatma Gandhi’s spirit for freedom struggle came from the cricketing field. Mahatma Gandhi, when requested for an autograph “played with a straight bat”, quite forgetting that he was engaged in a mighty and bloodless revolution with the British and thereby became a member of an official in England Team. How he was chosen could not probably have been explained even by the MCC selectors.

Cricket might not have affected Gandhi, but Gandhi certainly affected cricket. The political movements he led and the social changes he sought to bring about had their consequences on how the game was played in the sub-continent. Mahatma’s classmates at Alfred High School, Rajkot. This man, Ratilal Ghelabhai Mehta, remembered Gandhi as “a dashing cricketer” who “evinced a keen interest in the game as a school student. He was, it seems, good both at batting and bowling and had an uncanny understanding of the game’s uncertainties as well.

Requested for his autograph Gandhi Ji turned over the pages and put his signature as the 17th player of the MCC team led by Douglas Jardine in 1933-34.  The autograph book is one of the treasured possessions of the Marlybourne Cricket Club (MCC) at Lord’s. Not only Gandhi Ji signed the autograph book but also played for the team comprising of Indians of British origin. Mahatma Gandhi played for a team of British origin against a team of Indian origin at London and scored 21 runs with three boundaries. He took one wicket also. He was wearing a pant and shirt while playing.

Gandhi Ji was not only a cricket enthusiast but he also wielded the willow. R.G. Mehta, a boyhood friend, and schoolmate wrote” It is not commonly known that Gandhi Ji was a dashing cricketer and evinced keen interest in the game.  Once we were watching a cricket match together. In those days there were ding-dong battles between Rajkot city vs Rajkot Sardar (camp area). At a crucial moment, as if by intuition, Gandhi Ji said that a particular player would be out and hey presto the batsman was really out. There is no doubt that the freedom spirit of Gandhi Ji came from the cricketing field.


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