Mahatma Gandhi India Indian Coin Display Gift Set

1969 saw the centenary of the birth of Mahatma Gandhi, 1869 to 1969. This set contains three coins, namely: the India One Rupee coin depicting Rajiv Gandhi (son of Indira Gandhi), the India fifty paise coin depicting Indira Gandhi (daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru) and the India normal issue two paise coin.  Plus an original unused 1969 British postage stamp commemorating the Centenary and showing the portrait of Mahatma Gandhi.

All of the coins are in uncirculated (UNC) condition and the stamp is in unused, mint condition as issued.

This item is new/mint and is housed in a display protection case but can be removed for framing if so desired.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (October 2, 1869 – January 30, 1948) was a major political and spiritual leader of India and the Indian independence movement. In India, he is recognized as the Father of the Nation. October 2nd, his birthday, is commemorated each year as Gandhi Jayanti, and is a national holiday. He was the pioneer of Satyagraha — the resistance of tyranny through mass civil disobedience, firmly founded upon ahimsa or total non-violence — which led India to independence and inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. Gandhi is commonly known in India and across the world as Mahatma Gandhi (Sanskrit: mahātmā — "Great Soul") and as Bapu (in Gujarati, Father).

As a British-educated lawyer, Gandhi first employed his ideas of peaceful civil disobedience in the Indian community's struggle for civil rights in South Africa. Upon his return to India, he organized poor farmers and labourers to protest against oppressive taxation and widespread discrimination. Assuming leadership of the Indian National Congress, Gandhi led nationwide campaigns for the alleviation of poverty, for the liberation of women, for brotherhood amongst differing religions and ethnicities, for an end to untouchability and caste discrimination, and for the economic self-sufficiency of the nation, but above all for Swaraj — the independence of India from foreign domination. Gandhi famously led Indians in the disobedience of the salt tax on the 400 kilometre (248 miles) Dandi Salt March in 1930, and in an open call for the British to Quit India in 1942. He was imprisoned for many years on numerous occasions in both South Africa and India.

Throughout his life, Gandhi remained committed to non-violence and truth even in the most extreme situations. A student of Hindu philosophy, he lived simply, organizing an ashram that was self-sufficient in its needs. Making his own clothes — the traditional Indian dhoti and shawl woven with a charkha, he lived on a simple vegetarian diet. He used rigorous fasts, for long periods, for both self-purification and protest. Gandhi's life and teachings inspired Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Steve Biko and Aung San Suu Kyi and through them the American civil rights movement and the freedom struggles in South Africa and Myanmar respectively.