Prayer for the Day

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Prayer for the Day: 12/01/2022

12/01/2022

BBC Radio 4 - Prayer for the Day, 12/01/2022

Radio 4's daily prayer and reflection. Producer: Seamus Boyd

SCRIPT

Good morning. 

Today we remember Mahatma Gandhi who on this day in 1948 began his final fast. In the years between 1913 and 1948 he had engaged in many fasts or hunger strikes some lasting for a few days and some for up to three weeks. 

For Gandhi, fasting was a deeply religious experience which he believed was prayer that cleansed body, mind and soul, which strengthened his inner life. From that inner life Gandhi then drew strength for his commitment to peace and to change by non-violent means.

After the 1947 decision to partition India along religious lines, millions of people were displaced and as they oved across the sub-continent there was truly horrendous violence; estimates of those killed range from half a million to two million. On January 12th 1948 Gandhi announced his final fast to begin the following day with a focus on bringing warring religious communities into harmony. Over the days of his fast Delhi began to settle which for the almost 80-year-old meant he could break his fast when, on January 18th, Hindu, Muslim and Sikh leaders signed a pledge that they would live together peaceably. But Gandhi was himself killed by an extreme Hindu Nationalist at the end of the month.

Today I pray for leaders across society to grasp the moral character that will drive them to make decisions that will positively impact the lives of ordinary people, strengthen peace and harmony and ensure the kind of community that serves the good of all. Amen.

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