Indian Railways to showcase tableau themed ‘Mohan se Mahatma’ on Republic Day
When the nation is celebrating its 70th Republic day on Sunday, 26th January 2019, Indian Railways is all set to showcase their tableau with the theme “Mohan se Mahatma”. The tableau illustrates an evolutionary journey of Mahatma Gandhi and Indian Railways.
Indian Railways Tableau depicts the “transformation of Mohan Das Karam Chand Gandhi to Mahatma Gandhi”. The incident in 1893, when the young Mohan Das was thrown out of a “European only” compartment at Pietermaritzburg railway station in South Africa, acted as a catalyst for him to practice ‘Satyagrah’. He later emerged as ‘Mahatma’ for this nation.
The front portion of tableau shows a steam engine on whose top is perched a bust of Mahatma Gandhi which is similar to the bust installed in June 2018 at the Pietermaritzburg railway station of South Africa. The first coach of middle portion shows the young Mohan Das being thrown out from the compartment in South Africa, the second coach of the middle portion depicts Gandhiji with his wife, Kasturba Gandhi, meeting people at railway station as Gandhiji travelled in third class compartment across the length and breadth of India by train after his return to India from South Africa in 1915.
In the rear portion of the tableau, Mahatma Gandhi is shown collecting donations for the ‘Harijan Fund’ during his train journey to Bengal, Assam and South India, carried out between November 1945 to January 1946.
The side panel showcases, how Indian Railways has spearheaded Mahatma Gandhi’s vision of ‘SWADESHI’ as shown in Indian Railways journey starting from the era of steam engines, to indigenously made and State-of-the-art ‘Train-18’, an engineless train made under ‘Make in India’ project of Government of India.