India Welcome Subdued : Pope’s Call for Peace a Tribute to Mahatma

Pope John Paul II arrived in India on Saturday to the most subdued reception of any of his foreign travels and, in a series of low-key speeches, issued an eloquent call for peace in the name of Mohandas K. Gandhi.

Speaking in the idyllic garden of Raj Ghat, the cremation site and memorial to the late Indian champion of nonviolence, the pontiff said, “The peace and justice of which contemporary society has such great need will only be achieved along the path which was at the core of his teaching.

“The existence of immense arsenals of weapons of mass destruction causes a grave and justified uneasiness in our minds,” John Paul said after praying silently for five minutes at the Gandhi memorial.

The Roman Catholic pontiff recalled the Hindu leader’s belief that “the law of love governs the world. . . . Truth triumphs over untruth. . . . Love conquers hate,” and praised Mahatma Gandhi as a “hero of humanity.”

Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls, expressing surprise at the depth of John Paul’s praise for the Hindu nationalist and social reformer, said, “I haven’t heard the Pope say such things in relation to anyone living or dead.”

Militant Hindus Protest

Ironically, the only public demonstration against the Pope’s arrival in New Delhi was staged by the same fundamentalist Hindu organization, Mahasabha, that claimed credit for assassinating Gandhi, in January, 1948.

Police said they detained about 70 would-be demonstrators outside the Mahasabha offices, then picked up another 50 after members of the group burned an effigy of the Pope and brandished banners declaring “Sinner Pope” and “Pope Go to Hell.”

Among the demonstrators, the police said, was Gopal Godse, brother of N.V. Godse who was Gandhi’s assassin.

The pontiff was seen by relatively few Indians on the first day of his 29th papal trip abroad, partly because the Indian government chose to take a low-key approach to his arrival, and partly because New Delhi is mainly a Hindu, Muslim and Sikh city, with only about 50,000 Christians. Most of India’s Catholics live in the south of the country.

Motorcade Sped By

Many of the Catholic and Protestant children who lined roadsides from Palam Airport, where the Pope was formally received as a head of state, missed seeing him when his motorcade was rushed by at breakneck speed.

Shortly after his arrival, John Paul met Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and his wife, Sonia, for a brief discussion of nuclear disarmament, according to a government spokesman, and also chatted with President Zail Singh about spirituality.

At a papal Mass for about 25,000 people at Indira Gandhi Stadium, the Pope again referred to Indian spirituality, but the audience reaction to his homily was lackluster.

At the Gandhi memorial, John Paul planted a mango tree at the end of a row planted by other world figures who have visited the shrine. Two trees away from the new papal sapling was a more mature mango planted almost a year ago by the Communist military ruler of the Pope’s native country, Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski of Poland.