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An Ode To A Saint Of Peace

An Ode to a Saint of Non-Violence – Mahatma Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

He came from a non-descript Indian place
A village which would not have a place
In Her Majesty’s palace’ grace
What could this man for India raise?

When the Indian nation reeled
Under a foreign yoke
This frail man with iron will
Preached a master stroke

He visualized violence was no funnel
To get to the end of the tunnel
That the spring of freedom would gurgle
For the Indian freedom struggle

It is not arms and blood
Or revenge, violence or death
That will get India freedom
From the British kingdom

They can take away our right
They can make their sticks bite
They can take us to gaol
But they cannot take away our soul!

Protests with no violence
Will shake their conscience
It is the only way
For the British to loose its sway

Despite British scorn
And ire of critics
He made every Indian “re-born”
And friends of skeptics

Respect for all and love for mankind
He preached & practiced
He made every Indian aware
And the British beware

When the British enacted suppressive laws
This soul bonded us with his non-violent straw
His simplicity and truthfulness held all in awe
He gave us belief, pride and strength not to thaw

In 1930 Gandhi gave a key freedom call
Civil disobedience was the mantra for all
Salt Tax was the symbol of oppression
That every Indian was to defy and make it fall

Men & women all were one
With Gandhi, they feared none
When Gandhi gave his peaceful protest call
They all rallied behind it like a wall

In Gandhi’s belief the nation rallied
Made the British rulers harried
The struggle for the British to leave continued
The voice of India was not to be subdued

The Salt law was broken
It was a challenge in token
The average Indian now believed
That the British could be shaken

The British police rained bullets and blows
Gandhi remained defiant with his followers in tow
Line replaced line as protestors were brought down
Under the bullets and blows of the Crown

A trickle became a torrent
The British blows served no deterrent
Pan India the rallies and crowds swelled
The peaceful voice of freedom could not be quelled

British goods were boycotted
In public rallies, they were burnt
Swadeshi! Swadeshi! rent the air
While the British sirens blared

Civil dis-obedience and satyagraha – grounded
The British were perplexed and confounded
The entire nation rallied to his non-violent call
The world took notice of it all

Came World War II
The Allies were stretched
While the war was won
British revenue coffers were wrecked

The Indian “Golden Hen”
Became a revenue drain
While Gandhi did not give in
His non-violent freedom refrain

Quit India! Quit India!
Unrelenting was Gandhi’s call
While the clamor gathered
The British “will” shattered

The Britsh knew not - how to handle it all
A frail looking man, had challenged them all
Years of supremacy of the British domain
Had cracked up under this non-violent virus strain.

The British empire gave in
To Gandhi’s non-violence spin
India was to become free
Without any violence or fee.

It is to this frail looking man
That the world gives credit
The strong belief in non-violence
He continues to inspire without any edit

To Indian, he is Bapu – The Father of the Nation
To the world he is an apostle of non-violence
And while the world looks on in silence
On still continuing theatres of violence

I pray that conflicting parties learn
No peace comes from the power of the gun
In how Bapu got us freedom – they should learn
Violence - they should shun

poem by Arvind Chandak
Added by Poetry Lover
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