Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
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| Mohanchand Karamchand Gandhi |
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi pronunciation (pronounced: [2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), commonly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was the preeminent leader of Indian nationalism in British-ruled India. Employing non-violent civil disobedience, Gandhi
led India to independence and inspired movements for
non-violence, civil rights and freedom across the world.
The son of a
senior government official, Gandhi was born and raised in a Hindu Bania community in coastal Gujarat, and trained in
law in London. Gandhi became famous by fighting for the civil rights of Muslim
and Hindu Indians in South Africa, using new techniques of non-violent civil
disobedience that he developed. Returning to India in 1915, he set about
organising peasants to protest excessive land-taxes. A lifelong opponent of
"communalism"
(i.e. basing politics on religion) he reached out widely to all religious groups.
He became a leader of Muslims protesting the declining status of the Caliphate. Assuming leadership of the Indian National
Congress in 1921, Gandhi led nationwide
campaigns for easing poverty, expanding women's rights, building religious and
ethnic amity, ending untouchability,
increasing economic self-reliance, and above all for achievingSwaraj—the
independence of India from British domination.
Gandhi led Indians
in protesting the national salt tax with the 400 km (250 mi) Dandi Salt March in 1930, and later in demanding the British to
immediately Quit India in 1942, during World War II. He was imprisoned for that and
for numerous other political offenses over the years. Gandhi sought to practice
non-violence and truth in all situations, and advocated that others do the
same. He saw the villages as the core of the true India and promoted
self-sufficiency; he did not support the industrialization programs of his
disciple Jawaharlal Nehru. He lived modestly in a self-sufficient residential community and wore the traditional Indian dhoti and shawl, woven with yarn he had hand spun on a charkha. His chief political enemy in Britain was Winston Churchill, who ridiculed him as a "half-naked fakir." He was a dedicated vegetarian, and undertook long fasts as means of both self-purification and political
mobilization.
In his
last year, unhappy at the partition of
India, Gandhi worked to stop the carnage between Muslims and Hindus
and Sikhs that raged in the border area between India and Pakistan. He was
assassinated on 30 January 1948 by a Hindu nationalist who thought Gandhi was
too sympathetic to India's Muslims. 30 January is observed as Martyrs' Day in India. The honorific Mahatma ("Great Soul") was applied to him by
1914. In India he was also called Bapu ("Father").
He is known in India as the Father of the
Nation; his
birthday, 2 October, is commemorated there as Gandhi Jayanti, anational holiday, and world-wide as the International
Day of Non-Violence. Gandhi's philosophy was not theoretical but one
of pragmatism, that is, practicing his principles in real time. Asked to give a
message to the people, he would respond, "My life is my message."
