The 20 marchers arrived in New Delhi on October 12 to honour several meetings in various provinces of India. After a long march to New Delhi, where the base team was received by Tara Gandhi Bhattacharji, Ghandi’s grand-daughter, the group split up to go to Bombay, Amritsar, Chennai and Trichur (in the province of Kerala).

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Pressenza, New Delhi, 2009-10-14

It was amidst a suffocating heat wave in the middle of thick traffic in New Delhi that the group of marchers renewed its commitment to promoting peace and non-violence by covering 8km on foot. After a meet with the national press, the base team was received by Tara Gandhi Bhattacharji, Ghandi’s grand-daughter. She said: “I am only the biological grand-daughter of a great man, and that doesn’t grant me any of his qualities. I do what I can humbly to promote justice in our country, in the spirit of my grandfather. We have to teach human to free themselves from their fears and not to terrorise others.” She then personally presented each member of the base team with a gift of a hand-woven cotton scarf.

The base team then split up into four groups, each one with a programme of meetings and events.

After eight hours on the train, one group arrived at the frontier with Pakistan, at Wagah/Atari, where frontier tension is one of the highest in the world. It was hoped to meet representatives of the World March on the other side of the frontier and thereby create a symbolic point of peace between the two nations. The event couldn’t take place because of the absence of the main officer, but an alternative emerged out of nowhere thanks to the presence in the group of Ghandi look-alike Dr. Sharad P. Nayampally, dressed just like the national hero, who provoked a large, enthusiastic crowd around the banner and representatives of the World March. The members of the base team meanwhile met with the press officer for the Sikh community, Subedar Dalbir Singh, with whom they pressed home the need to put an end to war. After having visited the golden temple, the Harmandir Sahib at Amritsar, the Sikhs’ most sacred building, the group took a night bus the same day to go and meet their travelling companions in Korea.

Photo gallery: www.flickr.com/photos/25359510@N02

(Translation provided by Nick Woods)

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