London, September 28: Mahatma Gandhi's images and examples of the use of his ideas in several countries outside India, including in conflict zones such as the West Bank, have been collected in a unique book to be released in London October 2, his 138th birth anniversary.

The book, edited and compiled by Vijay Rana, a former BBC journalist of Indian origin and the editor of NRIfm.com, is a collection of images of Gandhi's statues, murals, graffiti, wall paintings, posters and puppets shot in several places outside India.

The book will be released at the Indian high commission, India House.

Every photograph in the book is accompanied by Gandhi's words on issues such as non-violence, peace, religious harmony, social equity, rural development, economic liberation of the poor and women's and animal rights.

The book demonstrates how Gandhi is worshipped around the world and also presents the entire spectrum of Gandhian thought. The photographs in the book show that Gandhi's images and ideas have been inspiring people not just in India but around the world.

In many anti-war protests in the US, Gandhi's portraits, puppets and placards are now prominently displayed. Two photographs show the peaceful civil resistance of the villagers of Bel'in in the West Bank.

Carrying photographs of Gandhi and Mandela, they took out peaceful protests every Friday and finally won a rare victory, when the Israeli Supreme Court ordered the government to re-route an electric barrier - a small victory of Gandhian methods of non-violence in the violence-ridden West Bank.

The book includes a photograph of the Black Valley, Ireland, where a simple monument of black stone is inscribed with Gandhi's words: "How men can feel themselves honoured by the humiliation of their fellow beings". Erected in 1994, it is a monument to the memory of millions who died of hunger in the Great Irish Famine, 1845-49.

Another photograph relates to the victims of Hurricane Mitch in Nicaragua when they began reconstructing their destroyed village. They sought inspiration from Gandhi by painting a huge mural of him on the very first wall they erected.

In a crime-ridden part of Granada, Spain, an unknown graffiti artist drew a smiling portrait of Mahatma Gandhi on a village wall as if asking people to shun violence.

According to Rana, it took more than three years, thousands of e-mails and hundreds of phone calls to collect the remarkable photographs from around the world. Many photographers who agreed to be included in the book are amateurs.

Indo Asian News Service (IANS)