Mahatma Gandhi
Name:
Mohandas Karamchand GandhiBorn:
2 October 1869Place:
Porbandar, Kathiawar Agency,(Gujrat) British IndiaDied:
30 January 1948 (aged 78)Place:
New Delhi, Union of IndiaCause of death
AssassinationNationality
IndianOther names
Mahatma Gandhi, BapuAlma mater
University College London, University of LondonReligion
HinduismSpouse(s)
Kasturba GandhiChildren
Harilal
Manilal
Ramdas
DevdasParents
Putlibai Gandhi (Mother)
Karamchand Gandhi (Father)Early Life:Belonged:
Hindu Modh communityInfluences:
The stories of Shravana and Maharaja HarishchandraMarriage:
May 1883,13-year old Mohandas was married to 14-year old Kasturbai Makhanji(Arrange Marriage)
Education:On 4 September 1888, less than a month shy of his 19th birthday, Gandhi traveled to London, England, to study law at University College London and to train as a barrister.
Civil rights movement in South Africa (1893–1914):In South Africa, Gandhi faced discrimination directed at Indians. He was thrown off a train at Pietermaritzburg after refusing to move from the first class to a third class coach while holding a valid first class ticket.
He suffered other hardships on the journey as well, including being barred from several hotels.Gandhi extended his original period of stay in South Africa to assist Indians in opposing a bill to deny them the right to vote. Though unable to halt the bill's passage, his campaign was successful in drawing attention to the grievances of Indians in South Africa. He helped found the Natal Indian Congress in 1894,and through this organization, he molded the Indian community of South Africa into a homogeneous political force.
In 1906, the Transvaal government promulgated a new Act compelling registration of the colony's Indian population. At a mass protest meeting held in Johannesburg on 11 September that year, Gandhi adopted his still evolving methodology of
"satyagraha" (devotion to the truth), or non-violent protest, for the first time, calling on his fellow Indians to defy the new law and suffer the punishments for doing so, rather than resist through violent means.Indian protesters finally forced South African General Jan Christiaan Smuts to negotiate a compromise with Gandhi.Gandhi's ideas took shape and the concept of satyagraha matured during this struggle.
Struggle for Indian Independence (1915–1945)In 1915, Gandhi returned from South Africa to live in India.
Gandhi believed that the industrial development and educational development that the Europeans had brought with them were required to alleviate many of India's problems. Gopal Krishna Gokhale, a veteran Congressman and Indian leader, became Gandhi's mentor. Gandhi's ideas and strategies of non-violent civil disobedience initially appeared impractical to some Indians and Congressmen. In Gandhi's own words,
"civil disobedience is civil breach of unmoral statutory enactments." It had to be carried out non-violently by withdrawing cooperation with the corrupt state. Gandhi's ability to inspire millions of common people became clear when he used satyagraha during the anti-Rowlatt Act protests in Punjab.
Gandhi’s vision would soon bring millions of regular Indians into the movement, transforming it from an elitist struggle to a national one.
The positive impact of reform was seriously undermined in 1919 by the Rowlatt Act.In protest, a nationwide cessation of work (hartal) was called, marking the beginning of widespread, although not nationwide, popular discontent.13 April 1919, in the
Jallianwala Bagh(Amritstar),5,000 men, women and children gathered to protest.
The British military commander, Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer, blocked the main entrance, and ordered his soldiers to fire into an unarmed and unsuspecting crowd killing 379 people (as according to an official British commission; Indian estimates ranged as high as 1,499).
Non-CooperationGandhi employed non-cooperation, non-violence and peaceful resistance as his "weapons" in the struggle against British. In Punjab, the Jallianwala Bagh massacre of civilians by British troops (also known as the Amritsar Massacre) caused deep trauma to the nation, leading to increased public anger and acts of violence. Gandhi criticized both the actions of the British Raj and the retaliatory violence of Indians. He authored the resolution offering condolences to British civilian victims and condemning the riots which, after initial opposition in the party, was accepted following Gandhi's emotional speech advocating his principle that all violence was evil and could not be justified.But it was after the massacre and subsequent violence that Gandhi's mind focused upon obtaining complete
self-government and control of all Indian government institutions,maturing soon into Swaraj or complete individual, spiritual, political independence.
Also Gandhi expanded his non-violence platform to include the swadeshi policy —
the boycott of foreign-made goods, especially British goods. Linked to this was his advocacy that
khadi (homespun cloth) be worn by all Indians instead of British-made textiles.
Salt Satyagraha (Salt March)
Gandhi stayed out of active politics and, as such, the limelight for most of the 1920s. He focused instead on resolving the wedge between the Swaraj Party and the Indian National Congress, and expanding initiatives against untouchability, alcoholism, ignorance and poverty.
Gandhi launched a new satyagraha against the tax on salt in March 1930. This was highlighted by the famous Salt March to Dandi from 12 March to 6 April, where he marched 388 kilometres (241 miles) from Ahmedabad to Dandi, Gujarat to make salt himself. Thousands of Indians joined him on this march to the sea. This campaign was one of his most successful at upsetting British hold on India; Britain responded by imprisoning over 60,000 people.
World War II and Quit IndiaWorld War II broke out in 1939 when Nazi Germany invaded Poland.After long deliberations, Gandhi declared that India could not be party to a war ostensibly being fought for democratic freedom, while that freedom was denied to India itself. As the war progressed, Gandhi intensified his demand for independence, drafting a resolution calling for the British to Quit India. This was Gandhi's and the Congress Party's most definitive revolt aimed at securing the British exit from India.
Quit India became the most forceful movement in the history of the struggle, with mass arrests and violence on an unprecedented scale.Thousands of freedom fighters were killed or injured by police gunfire, and hundreds of thousands were arrested. Gandhi and his supporters made it clear they would not support the war effort unless India were granted immediate independence. He even clarified that this time the movement would not be stopped if individual acts of violence were committed, saying that the "ordered anarchy" around him was "worse than real anarchy." He called on all Congressmen and Indians to maintain discipline via ahimsa, and Karo Ya Maro ("Do or Die") in the cause of ultimate freedom.
Freedom and partition of IndiaGandhi advised the Congress to reject the proposals the British Cabinet Mission offered in 1946, as he was deeply suspicious of the grouping proposed for Muslim-majority states—Gandhi viewed this as a precursor to partition. However, this became one of the few times the Congress broke from Gandhi's advice (though not his leadership), as Nehru and Patel knew that if the Congress did not approve the plan, the control of government would pass to the Muslim League. Between 1946 and 1948, over 5,000 people were killed in violence. Gandhi was vehemently opposed to any plan that partitioned India into two separate countries. But an overwhelming
majority of Muslims living in India, alongside Hindus and Sikhs, favoured partition.
Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the leader of the Muslim League, commanded widespread support in West Punjab, Sindh, North-West Frontier Province and East Bengal. The partition plan was approved by the Congress leadership as the only way to prevent a wide-scale Hindu-Muslim civil war.
Gandhi dislike the partition idea but Gandhi's closest colleagues had accepted partition as the best way out, and Sardar Patel endeavoured to convince Gandhi that it was the only way to avoid civil war. A devastated Gandhi gave his assent.
AssassinationOn 30 January 1948, Gandhi was shot while having his nightly public walk on the grounds of the Birla Bhavan (Birla House) in New Delhi. The assassin, Nathuram Godse, was a Hindu nationalist with links to the extremist Hindu Mahasabha, who held Gandhi responsible for weakening India by insisting upon a payment to Pakistan.Godse and his co-conspirator Narayan Apte were later tried and convicted; they were executed on 15 November 1949.
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