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Before the ashes were scattered, Gandhi's descendants sang his favourite hymns as a police band played. Along with Gandhi's family, Indian Home Minister Shivraj Patil attended the ceremony. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
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MUMBAI - ASHES of India's freedom icon Mahatma Gandhi were scattered on Wednesday off the coast of financial capital Mumbai in a ceremony marking the 60th anniversary of his assassination by a Hindu fanatic.
An urn containing some of the ashes was opened and the ashes mixed with water and poured into the Arabian Sea by his great-granddaughter Nilamben Parikh in accordance with Hindu rites.
'This is a day for deep thought. This day will help us think how to move forward,' the 75-year-old told reporters.
Mohanchand Karamdas Gandhi - called Mahatma or 'Great Soul' - spearheaded a non-violent campaign against the British Raj which finally saw India gain its independence in 1947. He is still regarded as the nation?s moral conscience.
Parikhh, along with 10 other family members - descendants of Gandhi's four sons - boarded a motor boat and travelled about a kilometre out to sea and scattered the ashes.
Last year, the urn containing the ashes was sent by an Indian businessman Bharat Narayan to Mumbai's Mani Bhavan museum where Gandhi had lived while visiting the city and was the focal point of his political activities.
The businessman's deceased parents had preserved the ashes since Gandhi was shot dead on Jan 30, 1948 at a prayer meeting in New Delhi by a Hindu fanatic angered by the freedom leader's policy of goodwill towards Muslims.
Before the ashes were scattered, Gandhi's descendants sang his favourite hymns as a police band played. Along with Gandhi's family, Indian Home Minister Shivraj Patil attended the ceremony.
'This is an emotional time for the family and I hope there are no more ashes found,' said Tushar Gandhi, great grandson of the freedom champion.
Ms Parikh is descended from Gandhi's eldest son, Harilal, who had a troubled history with his famous parent and was not at his funeral, breaking with Hindu tradition under which the eldest son lights the father's funeral pyre.
Her participation in the ceremony was a gesture of reconciliation, family members were quoted by Indian media as saying.
Hindus cremate their dead and the ashes are supposed to be scattered in rivers or the sea after 13 days. Following Gandhi's cremation the ashes, packed in a number of containers, were sent to towns and villages across India for memorial services.
In 1997, another urn was found in a bank locker in Bhubhaneshwar in 1997 and the ashes were later immersed. -- AFP
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