Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, to me, is central to the freedom of the life I now share, and for the many, many millions of people across the globe in our times. His political journey for truth, justice and liberty for mankind remains the singular expression of his life, and uplifts us each time it rains and when we falter in upholding our public values.

An exceptional leader, perhaps the finest political strategist in our century, Gandhi reminded us of the strength and power of moral philosophy as the anchor for building authentic political movements. Along with Tagore and Nehru, he showed how philosophy, strategy and the practice of politics are connected in mapping the pathway for just political struggles. It was a unique synthesis that led one time Prime Minister of India, Dr Manmohan Singh to say in “the Galaxy of Great Leaders” that “Few nations have seen such, within the span of a singular lifetime… leaders and intellectuals such as Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Rabindranath Tagore, among others, illuminated our national discourse. Together, that generation of National Leaders left behind a very important value: the idea of pluralism, the idea of inclusiveness, and the idea of unity in diversity”.