'Gandhi found answers which were born in Indian minds'

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 leader of freedom movement)," Akbar said.

"Before Mahatma, nobody had actually formulated the answer to the question 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 colonisation collapsed in another few years. By 1971, when Gulf States got independence, the European colonisation was over," he said.

"European colonisation was born in India and died in India," he said.