 January 30th marked the death anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, one of the iconic leaders of India's freedom struggle against the British. Throughout his life, Gandhi was an advocate of peaceful coexistence between people of various religions. He was killed in 1948 by a Hindu fundamentalist who felt he was too soft on Muslims. Today, India's Hindu fundamentalist government has implemented a citizenship bill and started an enumeration process that affects minorities and the poor. This is an assault on Gandhi's idea of India. In this episode of Around the World in 8 Minutes, we look at the protests against these acts of the Indian government. On January 30th this year, thousands gathered across the country to protest the government's move and to stand in support of a united India where everyone is treated alike. The agitation was based on a call given by the Jan Ekta Jan Adhikar Andolan, a coalition of organizations which strives for unity and the rights of the people. Many of the protesters were detained, but what was unmistakable was the defiant spirit of the protesters. Here is some footage from the protests. On Gandhi's martyrdom day, we had planned to have a human chain for peace, communal harmony and to express our opposition to the CAA. The Delhi police and the administration have refused permission and we strongly condemn the action they have taken in arresting hundreds of people who wanted to be part of this human chain. But we are going to hold our observance here today till the time, 5 p.m., 17 minutes, the time exactly when Gandhi ji was shot dead. We hope to observe that and disperse peacefully, but today our program has been prohibited and disrupted by the police. It's 30th of January when Mahatma Gandhi was shot dead by a Hinduttu fanatic and I think it is so important to really observe this day for the simple reason that something that was considered to be fringe elements has become the mainstream now. And the tragedy is that the national government actually not only advocates but is quite openly supporting those elements and we have just heard one of the ministers from the central government asking that you should shoot those who are anti-India. Actually for them anti-India means anything that is anti-Hinduttu or not Hinduttu but anything that is anti-Hinduttu or is anti-India for that meta-Muslims, Christians, all the sections of minorities, actually that is not the way how Gandhi developed nationalism in India. You know the basic ethos of nationalism was brotherhood and secularism and it is actually this basic thread and fabric of our constitution that got created that is being torn apart. So I think it is something very, very important for all of us to realize now that for various reasons the government has failed. Now we have a government that has hell bent on just tearing it apart and which means we are heading for a real holocaust and that is why we have assembled here and different sections of the people are there and since I work in the cities as far as the CA and RC is concerned you will be astonished to know that almost 40 to 45 percent of the urban India lives in slums and of that not just slums but of the urban population 30 percent have no documents what will happen to them so you can just realize them. I mean it is just to polarize the nation on issues of communism which are not real issues and because as we all are aware the country is heading for a real disaster as far as the economy is concerned we have the highest rate of unemployment, largest number of unemployed youth in the country the economy is going into doldrums. So this is one of the way to sidetrack these issues. The unfortunate part is from the fringe they have come to the mainstream. Many of us had tried to gather all over Delhi and especially in and around Rajghat to remember the day that Gandhi was killed and to gather in his memory and spend some time remembering him and the values he stood for and also the values that we need to be afraid of the ones that killed him took his life and today we notice that the Delhi police and the paramilitary forces are here in large numbers they didn't allow us to gather they arrested a whole lot of people a whole lot of student activists and others have been arrested and the Delhi police which was so active to prevent us from gathering here to remember Gandhi they watched very coolly in the Jamiya University as a man came in and emulated Gandhi's killer Godsi he fired on Jamiya students who were trying to march and reach Rajghat he told them you're asking for freedom I hear I'll give you freedom I'll shoot you dead and you can see in the background that as he's firing his gun as he's aiming his gun there's a whole pause of Delhi police people standing with their arms crossed one of them is leaning his chin on his stick and they clearly think nothing is wrong why is this the case because today you have Godses followers in power the police when they listen to this language when they see this kind of actions they think oh here are our people it must be one of our MPs it must be one of our MLAs it may be one of our ministers we did not dare act against them because he's speaking the language that the ministers are speaking we now move to Belgium where on January 28th that is Tuesday tens of thousands of workers marched in Brussels as part of a national strike in defense of social security the march was called by the Socialist trade union general confideration of Belgian Labour the protesters demanded better pay and health coverage from the government the union said that between 2016 and 2018 alone due to the government's pro-business policies the employer contributions to social security were reduced from 32.4 percent to 25 percent the union is asking for a statutory pension at the age of 65 which is equal to 75 percent of the average wage and a minimum pension of 1,500 euros which is around 1,651 US dollars they also sought an automatic rise in pensions with the rise in prices the workers party of Belgium that has also been actively campaigning in the country for a minimum pension of 1,500 euros join the protesters and express the solidarity the workers party has also called for a massive march of anger on March 1st in Brussels protesting against the corporate elite politicians nexus and the failure of the current coalition government in Belgium to adopt a worker-friendly industrial policy and finally this January 27th marked the 167th birth anniversary of Cuba's national hero and revolutionary poet Jose Marti on that night like it happens every year a massive torch march was carried out in the capital Havana commemorating the papayate and the martyr hundreds in thousands of young people marched on the staircase of the University of Havana to the National Monument Marti's Forge the place where the freedom fighter served a forced labor sentence in 1869 for advocating independence at the age of only 17 the first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba Raul Castro and the president of the Republic Miguel Diaz Canal read the annual march the first March with torches paying tribute to the national hero was held on the midnight of January 27th 1953 and was lent by commander Fidel Castro Jose Julian Marti Perez was born on January 28th 1853 in Havana he was a writer journalist professor revolutionary philosopher and political theorist he played a key role in the formation of the Cuban Revolutionary Party in 1892 and in organizing the Cuban War of Independence against Spain in 1895 that's all we have for this episode of around the world in eight minutes to follow these stories and many more visit our website peoples dispatch.org and follow us on Facebook Twitter and Instagram thanks for watching