The commemoration exhibition of Mahatma Gandhi's 150th anniversary and his friendship with Russian writer Leo Tolstoy at the State Duma, Russia's lower chamber of parliament, is a manifestation of the multiple levels on which Russia and India build their relations, Indian Ambassador to Russia Shri D. Bala Venkatesh Varma told reporters on Wednesday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 02nd October, 2019) The commemoration exhibition of Mahatma Gandhi's 150th anniversary and his friendship with Russian writer Leo Tolstoy at the State Duma, Russia's lower chamber of parliament, is a manifestation of the multiple levels on which Russia and India build their relations, Indian Ambassador to Russia Shri D. Bala Venkatesh Varma told reporters on Wednesday.On Wednesday, the Indian Embassy in collaboration with the Duma Committee for International Affairs opened an exhibit dedicated to the 150th anniversary of Gandhi and his friendship with Tolstoy. The exhibit featured correspondence and books which give a glimpse onto how these two individuals influenced each other's philosophy and views on such matters as love, truth and kindness.
"We were very happy, it is a great honor that all the political leaders of all the political fractions in the State Duma were represented today. It is symbolic that India-Russia relations are not only at the level of the state, but also between parliaments and also between thinkers. So we are indeed see this is as a very special event," Varma said at the Duma, where the exhibit was held.
The Indian ambassador added that it was a well-known fact that Tolstoy's "message of humanism" had a great impact on Gandhi and what he did for India. Gandhi propagated for the nonviolent independence movement of India from the British colonial rule.
Earlier in September, the Gandhi-Tolstoy exhibition was inaugurated in Tolstoy estate Yasnaya Polyana. The intellectual comradery between the Russian writer and India's "father of nation" was also praised by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his speech at Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok on September 5.
