Mohandas Gandhi - Facts & Summary - HISTORY.com Google Early Life Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born on October 2, 1869, at Porbandar, in the present-day Indian state of Gujarat. His father was the dewan (chief minister) of Porbandar; his deeply religious mother was a devoted practitioner of Vaishnavism (worship of the Hindu god Vishnu), influenced by Jainism, an ascetic religion governed by tenets of self-discipline and nonviolence. At the age of 19, Mohandas left home to study law in London at the Inner Temple, one of the city’s four law colleges. Upon returning to India in mid-1891, he set up a law practice in Bombay, but met with little success. He soon accepted a position with an Indian firm that sent him to its office in South Africa. Along with his wife, Kasturbai, and their children, Gandhi remained in South Africa for nearly 20 years. Did You Know? In the famous Salt March of April-May 1930, thousands of Indians followed Gandhi from Ahmadabad to the Arabian Sea.

The march resulted in the arrest of nearly 60,000 people, including Gandhi himself. Gandhi was appalled by the discrimination he experienced as an Indian immigrant in South Africa. When a European magistrate in Durban asked him to take off his turban, he refused and left the courtroom. On a train voyage to Pretoria, he was thrown out of a first-class railway compartment and beaten up by a white stagecoach driver after refusing to give up his seat for a European passenger. That train journey served as a turning point for Gandhi, and he soon began developing and teaching the concept of satyagraha (“truth and firmness”), or passive resistance, as a way of non-cooperation with authorities. The Birth of Passive Resistance In 1906, after the Transvaal government passed an ordinance regarding the registration of its Indian population, Gandhi led a campaign of civil disobedience that would last for the next eight years. During its final phase in 1913, hundreds of Indians living in South Africa, including women, went to jail, and thousands of striking Indian miners were imprisoned, flogged and even shot.

Finally, under pressure from the British and Indian governments, the government of South Africa accepted a compromise negotiated by Gandhi and General Jan Christian Smuts, which included important concessions such as the recognition of Indian marriages and the abolition of the existing poll tax for Indians. In July 1914, Gandhi left South Africa to return to India. He supported the British war effort in World War I but remained critical of colonial authorities for measures he felt were unjust. In 1919, Gandhi launched an organized campaign of passive resistance in response to Parliament’s passage of the Rowlatt Acts, which gave colonial authorities emergency powers to suppress subversive activities. He backed off after violence broke out–including the massacre by British-led soldiers of some 400 Indians attending a meeting at Amritsar–but only temporarily, and by 1920 he was the most visible figure in the movement for Indian independence. Leader of a Movement As part of his nonviolent non-cooperation campaign for home rule, Gandhi stressed the importance of economic independence for India. He particularly advocated the manufacture of khaddar, or homespun cloth, in order to replace imported textiles from Britain.

Gandhi’s eloquence and embrace of an ascetic lifestyle based on prayer, fasting and meditation earned him the reverence of his followers, who called him Mahatma (Sanskrit for “the great-souled one”). Invested with all the authority of the Indian National Congress (INC or Congress Party), Gandhi turned the independence movement into a massive organization, leading boycotts of British manufacturers and institutions representing British influence in India, including legislatures and schools. After sporadic violence broke out, Gandhi announced the end of the resistance movement, to the dismay of his followers. British authorities arrested Gandhi in March 1922 and tried him for sedition; he was sentenced to six years in prison but was released in 1924 after undergoing an operation for appendicitis. He refrained from active participation in politics for the next several years, but in 1930 launched a new civil disobedience campaign against the colonial government’s tax on salt, which greatly affected Indian’s poorest citizens. A Divided Movement In 1931, after British authorities made some concessions, Gandhi again called off the resistance movement and agreed to represent the Congress Party at the Round Table Conference in London.

Meanwhile, some of his party colleagues–particularly Mohammed Ali Jinnah, a leading voice for India’s Muslim minority–grew frustrated with Gandhi’s methods, and what they saw as a lack of concrete gains. Arrested upon his return by a newly aggressive colonial government, Gandhi began a series of hunger strikes in protest of the treatment of India’s so-called “untouchables” (the poorer classes), whom he renamed Harijans, or “children of God.” The fasting caused an uproar among his followers and resulted in swift reforms by the Hindu community and the government. In 1934, Gandhi announced his retirement from politics in, as well as his resignation from the Congress Party, in order to concentrate his efforts on working within rural communities. Drawn back into the political fray by the outbreak of World War II , Gandhi again took control of the INC, demanding a British withdrawal from India in return for Indian cooperation with the war effort. Instead, British forces imprisoned the entire Congress leadership, bringing Anglo-Indian relations to a new low point.

Partition and Death of Gandhi After the Labor Party took power in Britain in 1947, negotiations over Indian home rule began between the British, the Congress Party and the Muslim League (now led by Jinnah). Later that year, Britain granted India its independence but split the country into two dominions: India and Pakistan. Gandhi strongly opposed Partition, but he agreed to it in hopes that after independence Hindus and Muslims could achieve peace internally. Amid the massive riots that followed Partition, Gandhi urged Hindus and Muslims to live peacefully together, and undertook a hunger strike until riots in Calcutta ceased. In January 1948, Gandhi carried out yet another fast, this time to bring about peace in the city of Delhi. On January 30, 12 days after that fast ended, Gandhi was on his way to an evening prayer meeting in Delhi when he was shot to death by Nathuram Godse, a Hindu fanatic enraged by Mahatma’s efforts to negotiate with Jinnah and other Muslims. The next day, roughly 1 million people followed the procession as Gandhi’s body was carried in state through the streets of the city and cremated on the banks of the holy Jumna River.

Tags How Gandhi Changed the World How Gandhi Changed the World By Heather Whipps | September 8, 2008 05:30am ET MORE Each Monday, this column turns a page in history to explore the discoveries, events and people that continue to affect the history being made today. He wasn't the first, nor would he be the last, but the wiry, bespectacled man from Gujarat is certainly the most famous of the world's peaceful political dissidents. Mohandas Gandhi — also affectionately known as Mahatma — led India's independence movement in the 1930s and 40s by speaking softly without carrying much of a big stick, facing down the British colonialists with stirring speeches and non-violent protest. For his troubles, he's often named among the 20th century's most important figures and remains revered in India as a father of the nation. More than anything else, historians say, Gandhi proved that one man has the power to take on an empire, using both ethics and intelligence. Other peaceful resisters such as Martin Luther King Jr.

during the 1960s civil rights movement and Tibet's Dalai Lama have emulated his methods in years since, shaking up the dynamic of world politics in the process. Urges Britain to quit India It is hard to imagine the thin, robed Gandhi working in the rough and tumble world of law, but Gandhi did get his start in politics as a lawyer in South Africa, where he supported the local Indian community's struggle for civil rights. Returning to India in 1915, he carried over his desire to improve the station of the lower classes. Gandhi quickly became a leader within the Indian National Congress, a growing political party supporting independence, and traveled widely with the party to learn about the local struggles of various Indian communities. It was during those travels that his legend grew among the Indian people, historians say. Finding extreme poverty and famine in his own Gujarat province, Gandhi led an initiative to clean up the area, install new schools and build hospitals. He was ultimately arrested by British-appointed landlords for causing unrest, but talked his way out of jail and negotiated better conditions for the Indian farmers. When news about this sneaky feat spread through India, he earned the nickname "Bapu" — or Father.

Indeed, Gandhi was known as much for his wit and intelligence as for his piety. When he was arrested several more times over the years for his actions during the movement, Gandhi calmly fasted in prison, believing that his death would embarrass the British enough to spur independence, which had become the focus of his politics by 1920. Gandhi's non-cooperation movement, kicked off in the early 1920s, called for Indians to boycott British goods and traditions and become self-reliant. His most famous protest came in 1930, when Gandhi led thousands of Indians on a 250-mile march to a coastal town to produce salt, on which the British had a monopoly. Inspires civil rights India finally gained full independence in 1947 when Gandhi was 78. Although some historians argue that independence was inevitable with Britain's economic collapse after World War II, most agree that it would not have happened without the foundation of dissent he built among several hundred million Indians throughout the 1920s and 30s. Ironically, the ultimate proponent of non-violence was killed by assassination in 1948 while walking to his evening prayer meeting.

Today, Indians, anti-war protestors and authors, for the many interesting quotes he provided, celebrate Gandhi as a preeminent figure. Not 20 years after his death, Gandhi also had a direct impact on the history of the United States. Martin Luther King Jr. is said to be have been heavily influenced by Gandhi's philosophy of non-violence, believing it to be the only logical approach to the problem of race relations in America. Partition & Independence | The Story of India - Photo Gallery | PBS The Story of India Click for detailed map Anand Bhavan is the ancestral home of the Nehru family, in Allahabad. At midnight on August 14/15th, 1947, India and Pakistan became independent states. With Jawaharlal Nehru as prime minister of the new democracy in India, the Indian National Congress —the country's strongest advocate for self-rule—became the dominant political party. Pakistan's emergence as an independent nation realized the ambitions of the Muslim League led by Mohammad Ali Jinnah .

Along with the pressure exerted by Mahatma Gandhi , Nehru and Jinnah, and public outrage at events like the Amritsar Massacre , independence for India and Pakistan came as the result of developments in the region during World War II. After Britain declared itself and India at war with Germany, without consulting Indian legislatures, the Indian National Congress leaders demanded independence in return for wartime cooperation. Britain, desperate for India's support, agreed to negotiate after the war, stipulating that no regions would be forced to join the independent state. In 1946, after negotiations between Britain, the Indian National Congress, and the Muslim League failed, a plan was adopted for partition of the subcontinent into the separate nations of India and Pakistan, which at the time also included what is now Bangladesh. Partition led to mass migrations of Muslims to Pakistan and Hindus and Sikhs to India, and violence in both countries that resulted in more than a half million deaths. For decades, territorial and religious disputes would characterize the relationship between the two countries. Indeed, in 2009, Indian and Pakistani troops still face each other across a ceasefire line in Kashmir, now divided between the two countries.

Anand Bhavan Library in Anand Bhavan Anand Bhavan (House of Joy) in Allahabad , in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, was the ancestral home of India's first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru , and was the site of much political activity in the years leading up to India's independence. When Nehru was ten, his father, Motilal Nehru, a lawyer and leader of the Indian National Congress , acquired the lavish 42–room house. Nehru learned to swim in the house's indoor swimming pool and enjoyed its expansive garden. In 1917, Indira Gandhi, Nehru's daughter and Prime Minister of India from 1966–1971 and 1980–1984, was born in the house. In 1930, Motilal Nehru renamed the house Swaraj Bhavan (Independence House) and donated the property to the Indian National Congress, which used it as a hospital and headquarters for the All-Indian Congress Committee.

The family moved into a smaller but still ornate two-story house nearby, also named Anand Bhavan, which was donated to the government in 1970 by Indira Gandhi. As centers of political activity, Anand Bhavan and Swaraj Bhavan were often searched by the British, and the latter was occupied in 1942 by the British government. Today, both houses are part of a museum complex with exhibits detailing events related to India's independence and to the prominent members of the Nehru family, as well the room in which Mahatma Gandhi frequently stayed. Jawaharlal Nehru Jawaharlal Nehru Jawaharlal Nehru (Panditji or Pandit Nehru), India's first prime minister, was a committed social reformer, skilled orator and Mahatma Gandhi's political heir. Born into a wealthy family and educated at Trinity College, Cambridge (England), Nehru succeeded his father, Motilal Nehru, as leader of the Indian National Congress in 1929.

Imprisoned nine times by the British for his nationalist campaigns during the 1930s and 1940s, Nehru wrote his first book, The Discovery of India, a history of India, during a prison term. Nehru served as prime minister from 1947 to 1964, and the first two decades of India's independence might be called the Age of Nehru. Social reforms during this period included land redistribution, removal of barriers to inter-caste marriage, and women gaining the right to sue for divorce. To advance his economic ideals, Nehru formed and headed a National Planning Commission that developed three five-year economic plans focused on state-directed rural development, agriculture, and industry. In foreign policy, Nehru advocated nonalignment, taking the side of neither capitalism nor communism in the Cold War. Noninterference and peaceful co-existence were his goals with countries in the region, including China. However, that stance was untenable after China invaded Tibet in 1959, after which India gave the Dalai Lama asylum. Although still controversial, Nehru's legacy is one of faith in democracy, constitutional authority, and secularism.

His daughter, Indira Gandhi, served as prime minister of India from 1966 to 1984. Democracy India Gate India is the world's largest democracy, with a diverse population—at least 22 different language groups are represented—of over one billion people. Federalism is integral to India's government, and the capital in New Delhi shares power with 28 states and 7 territories. The country's system of parliamentary democracy includes a parliament with two houses, Lok Sabha (House of the People) and Rajya Sabha (Council of States). Members of the Lok Sabha are directly elected by the people, while those in the Rajya Sabha are elected mostly by state and territorial legislatures. The majority party in the lower house elects a prime minister while the president is elected by members of both houses. Although the Indian National Congress has been the dominant political party, in power since India's independence in 1947, approximately 200 political parties exist in the country. India's constitution, developed between 1947 and 1950, incorporates ideas from Western democracies, including universal suffrage, freedom of the press, and freedom of speech.

The constitution also guarantees citizens freedom from caste discrimination, although caste continues to strongly influence an individual's social status. Nehru conceived of India as a secular democracy in which the state does not participate in or promote religious activities. To support that principle, Nehru chose a lion from the age of Ashoka as the national symbol, evoking the religious tolerance that proliferated under that emperor's rule. Indian National Congress Members of the first Indian National Congress, 1885 Founded in 1885, the Indian National Congress political party was central to India's independence movement and has been the dominant ruling party since 1947. Over 70 self-appointed delegates from across India participated in the Congress's first meeting in December 1885. By 1887, the Congress included 600 members, a number that grew to 2,000 in 1889; delegates were Hindu, Muslim, Parsi, and Jain and belonged to the middle or upper classes. In its first decades, the Congress agitated for increased Indian representation in the civil service and government, jobs held at the time mostly by British citizens.

Under Mahatma Gandhi in the 1920s and 1930s, the Congress Party made purna swaraj (complete independence) and a representative form of government its primary objectives. To that end, the Congress supported satyagraha , civil disobedience campaigns, against British taxes. After Britain unilaterally declared Britain and India at war with Germany in World War II, the Congress passed a "Quit India" resolution in 1942 that demanded the British government give all political power to the Indian people in return for India's cooperation in the war effort. Instrumental in negotiations for independence, the Congress became independent India's first ruling party. By 1947, the Congress was a diverse party, including members of various castes and linguistic and religious groups. Jawaharlal Nehru , the country's first Prime Minister, led the Congress from 1946 until his death in 1964. He championed state-led economic reforms and a foreign policy of nonalignment while in office.

In 1966, Nehru's daughter, Indira Gandhi, assumed the party's mantle until she was defeated in 1977, bringing to a close 30 years of Congress rule. Over the following decades, the party would be in and out of power; Indira Gandhi would again lead the party (1980-1984) as would her son, Rajiv Gandhi (1984-1989). In the election of 2004, at which nearly 400 million people voted, Congress was returned to power. Muslim League Mohammad Ali Jinnah, president of the Muslim League The Muslim League was a political organization formed in December 1906 to defend the rights of Muslims in India during British colonial rule . The League helped establish the independent nation of Pakistan. In 1916, the League entered into an agreement, the Lucknow Pact, with the Indian National Congress that called for greater Indian self-government, with separate Hindu and Muslim electorates. After 1920, the relationship between the two organizations grew more contentious as their interests and methods to achieve self-rule diverged.

(The League did not support Congress leader Gandhi's calls for non-violent resistance against the British.) The League's political activity gained momentum in the 1930s under the leadership of Mohammad Ali Jinnah , who became its president in 1934, and after the introduction of the Government of India Act of 1935, which allowed for the election of Indian representatives to provincial assemblies. The League won few seats in the elections of 1937; most went to the Congress, which retained the support of India's Muslims. However, the Congress's governance in the provinces came to be viewed as too preferential to Hindus and led many Muslims to switch allegiance to the League. Jinnah increasingly lost faith in the Congress's ability to represent Muslim interests, and in 1940, the League adopted a resolution calling for the establishment of an independent Muslim nation, Pakistan, comprised of the northwestern and northeastern areas of India. During the years that Britain fought in World War II, membership in the League increased, thanks to Jinnah's advocacy, as did Muslim support for an independent Muslim state.

(At the same time, the Congress's leaders were jailed for engaging in civil disobedience campaigns.) In the 1946 provincial elections, the League won the vast majority of the Muslim vote, and subsequently reached an agreement with the British and the Congress to partition the subcontinent into the separate nations of India and Pakistan upon independence . On August 14, 1947, Pakistan was established and Jinnah became its first governor general, with Liaquat Ali Khan as the nation's first prime minister. Mohammad Ali Jinnah Mohammad Ali Jinnah Mohammad Ali Jinnah was Pakistan's first governor-general following the partition of Britain's South Asian colony into India and Pakistan in 1947. In 1896, Jinnah joined the Indian National Congress but by 1913 he had left the Congress and joined India's Muslim League , the leading organization for Muslims. Jinnah became popular for winning both Indian National Congress and League support for the Lucknow Pact, a proposal that called for Britain to give India dominion status at the end of World War I.

Disillusioned with politics, disunity in the Muslim League, and the Congress under Mahatma Gandhi , Jinnah left political life in 1931. He returned to the League in 1934 and became its head in 1937. A charismatic and eloquent politician, Jinnah was elected the League's permanent president and given the title Qaid-e-Azam, or "great leader," by his followers. In subsequent years, Jinnah would increasingly lose faith in the Congress's ability to represent Muslim interests and distanced himself from the idea of a united Hindu-Muslim independent state of India. In 1940, the League adopted a Muslim homeland resolution calling for the establishment of Pakistan (an acronym for the proposed territories in the provinces of Punjab, Afghania, Kashmir, Sind, and Baluchistan). In 1946, the British, the League, and Congress came to an agreement that divided the territory united under British rule into India and Pakistan. The partition led to a mass migration of Muslims to Pakistan and Hindus and Sikhs to India, which was accompanied by unprecedented communal violence that led to the deaths of between 500,000 and 1 million people.

It was also the source of the territorial disputes that characterized the relationship between the two countries for decades. Jinnah was a proponent of parliamentary democracy and was against the idea of Pakistan as a theocracy. Considered the father of the nation, Jinnah led the independent nation of Pakistan for just over a year before dying in 1948. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi Mohandas Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869-1948), known as Mahatma ("Great Soul"), was the great political leader and social reformer who founded India's nonviolent movement against British colonial rule. Born the son of a state minister in Gujarat in 1869, Gandhi moved to South Africa after studying law in London. While practicing law in South Africa, between 1893 and 1914, he became a social reformer and mobilized diverse South African communities to protest British laws, such as the poll tax, that discriminated against Indians.

While in Africa, he developed the practice of satyagraha , or nonviolent protest, based on the ethical ideal of ahimsa ("no-harm" or non-violence) a precept deeply rooted in the three faiths that originated in India— Hinduism , Buddhism , and Jainism . In 1909, he wrote his landmark work, Hind Swaraj, or Freedom of India, that discussed nonviolent non-cooperation as a means to end British colonial rule. After returning to India in 1915, Gandhi organized satyagrahas against poverty and unfair taxes, championing boycotts and peaceful strikes. In the 1920s, Gandhi reorganized the Indian National Congress and wrote its constitution that prioritized Congressional representation for rural India and created a permanent committee to agitate for independence. He also adopted a simpler way of life, eschewing European clothes for the traditional Indian dhoti and shawl, which he spun on a charkha; adhering to a strictly vegetarian diet; and undertaking fasts that he also employed in social protest. From 1920 to 1948, Gandhi organized a series of campaigns that successfully mobilized Indians across the country against British rule.

A non-cooperation movement in the early 1920s that urged citizens to boycott civic services and withhold tax revenues led to thousands of arrests and a government ban on public meetings. In 1930, he led a satyagraha against the British salt tax, marching 240 miles from his Sabarmati ashram to Dandi beach, in Gujarat. After picking up a lump of sea salt on the beach, Gandhi was arrested for breaking the law and 60,000 to 90,000 others would be arrested over the next few months. Before Gandhi could organize a "Quit India" campaign against British rule in 1942, he was arrested and detained in jail for the duration of World War II. On January 30, 1948, Gandhi was assassinated in Delhi by a radical Hindu nationalist, Naturam Godse. India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru famously said after Gandhi's assassination: "The light has gone out of our lives." His methods of nonviolence would influence civil rights movements around the world and figures including Martin Luther King, Jr. and Nelson Mandela.

Gandhi leads civil disobedience - Mar 12, 1930 - HISTORY.com Gandhi leads civil disobedience Publisher A+E Networks On March 12, 1930, Indian independence leader Mohandas Gandhi begins a defiant march to the sea in protest of the British monopoly on salt, his boldest act of civil disobedience yet against British rule in India. Britain’s Salt Acts prohibited Indians from collecting or selling salt, a staple in the Indian diet. Citizens were forced to buy the vital mineral from the British, who, in addition to exercising a monopoly over the manufacture and sale of salt, also exerted a heavy salt tax. Although India’s poor suffered most under the tax, Indians required salt. Defying the Salt Acts, Gandhi reasoned, would be an ingeniously simple way for many Indians to break a British law nonviolently. He declared resistance to British salt policies to be the unifying theme for his new campaign of satyagraha, or mass civil disobedience. On March 12, Gandhi set out from Sabarmati with 78 followers on a 241-mile march to the coastal town of Dandi on the Arabian Sea.

There, Gandhi and his supporters were to defy British policy by making salt from seawater. All along the way, Gandhi addressed large crowds, and with each passing day an increasing number of people joined the salt satyagraha. By the time they reached Dandi on April 5, Gandhi was at the head of a crowd of tens of thousands. Gandhi spoke and led prayers and early the next morning walked down to the sea to make salt. He had planned to work the salt flats on the beach, encrusted with crystallized sea salt at every high tide, but the police had forestalled him by crushing the salt deposits into the mud. Nevertheless, Gandhi reached down and picked up a small lump of natural salt out of the mud–and British law had been defied. At Dandi, thousands more followed his lead, and in the coastal cities of Bombay and Karachi, Indian nationalists led crowds of citizens in making salt. Civil disobedience broke out all across India, soon involving millions of Indians, and British authorities arrested more than 60,000 people. Gandhi himself was arrested on May 5, but the satyagraha continued without him.

On May 21, the poet Sarojini Naidu led 2,500 marchers on the Dharasana Salt Works, some 150 miles north of Bombay. Several hundred British-led Indian policemen met them and viciously beat the peaceful demonstrators. The incident, recorded by American journalist Webb Miller, prompted an international outcry against British policy in India. In January 1931, Gandhi was released from prison. He later met with Lord Irwin, the viceroy of India, and agreed to call off the satyagraha in exchange for an equal negotiating role at a London conference on India’s future. In August, Gandhi traveled to the conference as the sole representative of the nationalist Indian National Congress. The meeting was a disappointment, but British leaders had acknowledged him as a force they could not suppress or ignore. India’s independence was finally granted in August 1947. Gandhi was assassinated by a Hindu extremist less than six months later. Related Videos Mohandas Gandhi | Biography Share By Kallie Szczepanski His image is one of the most recognizable in history: the thin, bald, frail-looking man wearing round glasses and a simple white wrap.

This is Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, also known as the Mahatma ("Great Soul"). His inspirational message of non-violent protest helped to lead India to independence from the British Raj . Gandhi lived a life of simplicity and moral clarity, and his example has inspired protestors and campaigners for human rights and democracy the world over. Gandhi's Early Life: Gandhi's parents were Karmachand Gandhi, the dewan (governor) of the western Indian region of Porbandar, and his fourth wife Putlibai. Mohandas was born in 1869, the youngest of Putlibai's children. Gandhi's father was a competent administrator, adept at mediating between British officials and local subjects. His mother was an extremely devout adherent of Vaishnavism, the worship of Vishnu , and devoted herself to fasting and prayer. She taught Mohandas values such as tolerance and ahimsa, or noninjury to living beings. continue reading below our video Profile of Mohandas Gandhi Mohandas was an indifferent student, and even smoked and ate meat during his rebellious adolescence.

Marriage and University: In 1883, the Gandhis arranged a marriage between 13-year-old Mohandas and a 14-year-old girl named Kasturba Makhanji. The young couple's first child died in 1885, but they had four surviving sons by 1900. Mohandas finished middle and high school after the wedding. He wanted to be a doctor, but his parents pushed him into the law. They wanted him to follow in his father's footsteps. Also, their religion forbade vivisection, which is part of medical training. Young Gandhi barely passed the entrance exam for the University of Bombay, and enrolled at Samaldas College in Gujarat, but he was not happy there. Studies in London: In September of 1888, Gandhi moved to England, and began to train as a barrister at University College London. For the first time in his life, the young man applied himself to his studies, working hard on his English and Latin language skills. He also developed a new interest in religion, reading widely on different world faiths. Gandhi joined the London Vegetarian Society, where he found a like-minded peer group of idealists and humanitarians.

These contacts helped to shape Gandhi's views on life and politics. He returned to India in 1891 after earning his degree, but could not make a living there as a barrister. Gandhi Goes to South Africa: Disappointed by the lack of opportunity in India, Gandhi accepted an offer for a year-long contract with an Indian law firm in Natal, South Africa in 1893. There, the 24-year-old lawyer experienced first-hand terrible racial discrimination. He was kicked off a train for trying to ride in the first-class carriage (for which he had a ticket), was beaten up for refusing to give his seat on a stagecoach to a European, and had to go to court where he was ordered to remove his turban. Gandhi refused, and thus began a lifetime of resistance work and protest. After his one-year contract ended, he planned to return to India. Gandhi the Organizer: Just as Gandhi was about to leave South Africa, a bill came up in the Natal Legislature to deny Indians the right to vote. He decided to stay and fight against the legislation; despite his petitions, however, it passed.

Nonetheless, Gandhi's opposition campaign drew public attention to the Indians' plight in British South Africa. He founded the Natal Indian Congress in 1894, and served as Secretary. Gandhi's organization and petitions to the South African government attracted attention in London and India. When he returned to South Africa from a trip to India in 1897, a white lynch mob attacked him. He later refused to press charges. Boer War and the Registration Act: Gandhi urged Indians to support the British government at the outbreak of the Boer War in 1899, and organized an ambulance corps of 1,100 Indian volunteers. He hoped that this proof of loyalty would result in better treatment of Indian South Africans. Although the British won the war, and established peace among white South Africans, still treatment of Indians worsened. Gandhi and his followers were beaten and jailed for opposing the 1906 Registration Act, under which Indian citizens had to register and carry ID cards at all times. In 1914, 21 years after he arrived on a one-year contract, Gandhi left South Africa. Return to India: Gandhi returned to India battle-hardened and vividly aware of British injustices.

For the first three years, though, he stayed outside of the political center in India. He even recruited Indian soldiers for the British Army once more, this time to fight in World War I. In 1919, however, he announced a non-violent opposition protest (satyagraha) against the British Raj's anti-sedition Rowlatt Act. Under Rowlatt, the colonial Indian government could arrest suspects without a warrant and jail them without a trial. The Act also curtailed press freedom. Strikes and protests spread across India, growing throughout the spring. Gandhi allied with a younger, politically savvy pro-independence advocate named Jawaharlal Nehru , who went on to become India's first Prime Minister. The leader of the Muslim League, Muhammad Ali Jinnah , opposed their tactics and sought a negotiated independence instead. The Amritsar Massacre and Salt March: On April 13, 1919, British troops under Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer opened fire on an unarmed crowd in the courtyard of Jallianwala Bagh.

Between 379 (the British count) and 1,499 (the Indian count) of the 5,000 men, women and children present died in the melee. The Jallianwala Bagh or Amritsar Massacre turned the Indian independence movement into a national cause, and brought Gandhi to national attention. His independence work culminated in the 1930 Salt March , when he led his followers to the sea to illegally make salt, a protest against British salt taxes. Some independence protestors also turned to violence. World War II and the "Quit India" Movement: When World War II broke out in 1939, Britain turned to its colonies, including India, for soldiers. Gandhi was conflicted; he felt very concerned about the rise of fascism around the world, but he also had become a committed pacifist. No doubt, he remembered the lessons of the Boer War and World War I - loyalty to the colonial government during war did not result in better treatment afterwards. In March of 1942, British cabinet minister Sir Stafford Cripps offered the Indians a form of autonomy within the British Empire in exchange for military support.

The Cripps offer included a plan to separate the Hindu and Muslim sections of India, which Gandhi found unacceptable. The Indian National Congress party rejected the plan. That summer, Gandhi issued a call for Britain to "Quit India" immediately. The colonial government reacted by arresting all of the Congress leadership, including Gandhi and his wife Kasturba. As anti-colonial protests grew, the Raj government arrested and jailed hundreds of thousands of Indians. Tragically, Kasturba died in February 1944 after 18 months in prison. Gandhi became gravely ill with malaria, so the British released him from prison. The political repercussions would have been explosive, if he had also died while imprisoned. Indian Independence and Partition In 1944, Britain pledged to grant independence to India once the war was over. Gandhi called for the Congress to reject the proposal once more, since it set forth a division of India among Hindu , Muslim, and Sikh states. The Hindu states would become one nation, while the Muslim and Sikh states would be another.

When sectarian violence rocked India's cities in 1946, leaving more than 5,000 dead, Congress party members convinced Gandhi that the only options were partition or civil war. He reluctantly agreed, and then went on a hunger strike that single-handedly stopped the violence in Delhi and Calcutta. On August 14, 1947, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan was founded. The Republic of India declared its independence the following day. Gandhi's Assassination On January 30, 1948, Mohandas Gandhi was shot dead by a young Hindu radical named Nathuram Godse. The assassin blamed Gandhi for weakening India by insisting on paying reparations to Pakistan. Despite Gandhi's rejection of violence and revenge during his lifetime, Godse and an accomplice were both executed in 1949 for the murder. Manas: History and Politics, Indira Gandhi Mrs. Indira Gandhi, Prime Minister of India, 1966-77 and 1980-84. She was assassinated in 1984.

Indira Gandhi (1917-1984) was the only child of Kamla and Jawaharlal Nehru. She spent part of her childhood in Allahabad, where the Nehrus had their family residence, and part in Switzerland, where her mother Kamla convalesced from her periodic illnesses. She received her college education at Somerville College, Oxford. A famous photograph from her childhood shows her sitting by the bedside of Mahatma Gandhi, as he recovered from one of his fasts; and though she was not actively involved in the freedom struggle, she came to know the entire Indian political leadership. After India's attainment of independence, and the ascendancy of Jawaharlal Nehru, now a widower, to the office of the Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi managed the official residence of her father, and accompanied him on his numerous foreign trips. She had been married in 1942 to Feroze Gandhi, who rose to some eminence as a parliamentarian and politician of integrity but found himself disliked by his more famous father-in-law, but Feroze died in 1960 before he could consolidate his own political forces.

In 1964, the year of her father's death, Indira Gandhi was for the first time elected to Parliament, and she was Minister of Information and Broadcasting in the government of Lal Bahadur Shastri, who died unexpectedly of a heart attack less than two years after assuming office. The numerous contenders for the position of the Prime Ministership, unable to agree among themselves, picked Indira Gandhi as a compromise candidate, and each thought that she would be easily manipulable. But Indira Gandhi showed extraordinary political skills and tenacity and elbowed the Congress dons -- Kamaraj, Morarji Desai, and others -- out of power. She held the office of the Prime Minister from 1966 to 1977. She was riding the crest of popularity after India's triumph in the war of 1971 against Pakistan, and the explosion of a nuclear device in 1974 helped to enhance her reputation among middle-class Indians as a tough and shrewd political leader. However, by 1973, Delhi and north India were rocked by demonstrations angry at high inflation, the poor state of the economy, rampant corruption, and the poor standards of living.

In June 1975, the High Court of Allahabad found her guilty of using illegal practices during the last election campaign, and ordered her to vacate her seat. There were demands for her resignation. Mrs. Gandhi's response was to declare a state of emergency, under which her political foes were imprisoned, constitutional rights abrogated, and the press placed under strict censorship. Meanwhile, the younger of her two sons, Sanjay Gandhi, started to run the country as though it were his personal fiefdom, and earned the fierce hatred of many whom his policies had victimized. He ordered the removal of slum dwellings, and in an attempt to curb India's growing population, initiated a highly resented program of forced sterilization. In early 1977, confident that she had debilitated her opposition, Mrs. Gandhi called for fresh elections, and found herself trounced by a newly formed coalition of several political parties. Her Congress party lost badly at the polls. Many declared that she was a spent force; but, three years later, she was to return as Prime Minister of India. The same year, however, her son Sanjay was killed in an airplane crash.

In the second, post-Emergency, period of her Prime Ministership, Indira Gandhi was preoccupied by efforts to resolve the political problems in the state of Punjab. In her attempt to crush the secessionist movement of Sikh militants, led by Jarnail Singh Bindranwale, she ordered an assault upon the holiest Sikh shrine in Amritsar, called the "Golden Temple". It is here that Bindranwale and his armed supporters had holed up, and it is from the Golden Temple that they waged their campaign of terrorism not merely against the Government, but against moderate Sikhs and Hindus. "Operation Bluestar", waged in June 1984, led to the death of Bindranwale, and the Golden Temple was stripped clean of Sikh terrorists; however, the Golden Temple was damaged, and Mrs. Gandhi earned the undying hatred of Sikhs who bitterly resented the desacralization of their sacred space. In November of the same year, Mrs. Gandhi was assassinated, at her residence, by two of her own Sikh bodyguards, who claimed to be avenging the insult heaped upon the Sikh nation. Mrs.

Gandhi acquired a formidable international reputation as a "statesman", and there is no doubt that she was extraordinarily skilled in politics. She was prone, like many other politicians, to thrive on slogans, and one -- Garibi Hatao, "Remove Poverty" -- became the rallying cry for one of her election campaigns. She had an authoritarian streak, and though a cultured woman, rarely tolerated dissent; and she did, in many respects, irreparable harm to Indian democracy. Apart from her infamous imposition of the internal emergency, the use of the army to resolve internal disputes greatly increased in her time; and she encouraged a culture of sycophancy and nepotism. At her death, her older son, Rajiv Gandhi, was sworn in as head of the Congress party and Prime Minister. Kamat's Potpourri: Mahatma Gandhi - A Biography First Online: August 15, 1997 Page Last Updated: November 01, 2016 First See: Introduction to learn Who was Gandhi ?

Early Years Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869-1948), also known as Mahatma Gandhi, was born in Porbandar in the present day state of Gujarat in India on October 2, 1869. He was raised in a very conservative family that had affiliations with the ruling family of Kathiawad. He was educated in law at University College, London. In 1891, after having been admitted to the British bar, Gandhi returned to India and attempted to establish a law practice in Bombay, without much success. Two years later an Indian firm with interests in South Africa retained him as legal adviser in its office in Durban. Arriving in Durban, Gandhi found himself treated as a member of an inferior race. He was appalled at the widespread denial of civil liberties and political rights to Indian immigrants to South Africa. He threw himself into the struggle for elementary rights for Indians. See Also: Parentage and Childhood from Gandhi's autobiography Resistance to Injustice Gandhi remained in South Africa for twenty years, suffering imprisonment many times.

In 1896, after being attacked and humiliated by white South Africans, Gandhi began to teach a policy of passive resistance to, and non-cooperation with, the South African authorities. Part of the inspiration for this policy came from the Russian writer Leo Tolstoy , whose influence on Gandhi was profound. Gandhi also acknowledged his debt to the teachings of Christ and to the 19th-century American writer Henry David Thoreau, especially to Thoreau's famous essay "Civil Disobedience." Gandhi considered the terms passive resistance and civil disobedience inadequate for his purposes, however, and coined another term, Satyagraha (from Sanskrit, "truth and firmness"). During the Boer War, Gandhi organized an ambulance corps for the British army and commanded a Red Cross unit. After the war he returned to his campaign for Indian rights. In 1910, he founded Tolstoy Farm, near Durban, a cooperative colony for Indians. In 1914 the government of the Union of South Africa made important concessions to Gandhi's demands, including recognition of Indian marriages and abolition of the poll tax for them. His work in South Africa complete, he returned to India.

Campaign for Home Rule Gandhi became a leader in a complex struggle, the Indian campaign for home rule . Following World War I, in which he played an active part in recruiting campaigns, Gandhi, again advocating Satyagraha, launched his movement of non-violent resistance to Great Britain. When, in 1919, Parliament passed the Rowlatt Acts, giving the Indian colonial authorities emergency powers to deal with so-called revolutionary activities, Satyagraha spread throughout India, gaining millions of followers. A demonstration against the Rowlatt Acts resulted in a massacre of Indians at Amritsar by British soldiers; in 1920, when the British government failed to make amends, Gandhi proclaimed an organized campaign of non-cooperation. Indians in public office resigned, government agencies such as courts of law were boycotted, and Indian children were withdrawn from government schools. Throughout India, streets were blocked by squatting Indians who refused to rise even when beaten by police. Gandhi was arrested, but the British were soon forced to release him. Economic independence for India, involving the complete boycott of British goods, was made a corollary of Gandhi's Swaraj (from Sanskrit, "self-governing") movement.

The economic aspects of the movement were significant, for the exploitation of Indian villagers by British industrialists had resulted in extreme poverty in the country and the virtual destruction of Indian home industries. As a remedy for such poverty, Gandhi advocated revival of cottage industries; he began to use a spinning wheel as a token of the return to the simple village life he preached, and of the renewal of native Indian industries. Gandhi became the international symbol of a free India. He lived a spiritual and ascetic life of prayer, fasting, and meditation. His union with his wife became, as he himself stated, that of a brother and sister. Refusing earthly possessions, he wore the loincloth and shawl of the lowliest Indian and subsisted on vegetables, fruit juices, and goat's milk. Indians revered him as a saint and began to call him Mahatma (great-souled), a title reserved for the greatest sages. Gandhi's advocacy of nonviolence, known as ahimsa (non-violence), was the expression of a way of life implicit in the Hindu religion. By the Indian practice of nonviolence, Gandhi held, Great Britain too would eventually consider violence useless and would leave India.

The Mahatma's political and spiritual hold on India was so great that the British authorities dared not interfere with him. In 1921 the Indian National Congress , the group that spearheaded the movement for nationhood, gave Gandhi complete executive authority, with the right of naming his own successor. The Indian population, however, could not fully comprehend the unworldly ahimsa. A series of armed revolts against the British broke out, culminating in such violence that Gandhi confessed the failure of the civil-disobedience campaign he had called, and ended it. The British government again seized and imprisoned him in 1922. After his release from prison in 1924, Gandhi withdrew from active politics and devoted himself to propagating communal unity. Unavoidably, however, he was again drawn into the vortex of the struggle for independence. In 1930 the Mahatma proclaimed a new campaign of civil disobedience, calling upon the Indian population to refuse to pay taxes, particularly the tax on salt. The campaign was a march to the sea, in which thousands of Indians followed Gandhi from Ahmedabad to the Arabian Sea , where they made salt by evaporating sea water.

Once more the Indian leader was arrested, but he was released in 1931, halting the campaign after the British made concessions to his demands. In the same year Gandhi represented the Indian National Congress at a conference in London. V.N. O'key/Kamat's Potpourri Photograph by V.N. O'key, circa 1945 Gandhi takes on Domestic Problems In 1932, Gandhi began new civil-disobedience campaigns against the British. Arrested twice, the Mahatma fasted for long periods several times; these fasts were effective measures against the British, because revolution might well have broken out in India if he had died. In September 1932, while in jail, Gandhi undertook a "fast unto death" to improve the status of the Hindu Untouchables. The British, by permitting the Untouchables to be considered as a separate part of the Indian electorate, were, according to Gandhi, countenancing an injustice. Although he was himself a member of an upper caste, Gandhi was the great leader of the movement in India dedicated to eradicating the unjust social and economic aspects of the caste system.

In 1934 Gandhi formally resigned from politics, being replaced as leader of the Congress party by Jawaharlal Nehru . Gandhi traveled through India, teaching ahimsa and demanding eradication of "untouchability." The esteem in which he was held was the measure of his political power. So great was this power that the limited home rule granted by the British in 1935 could not be implemented until Gandhi approved it. A few years later, in 1939, he again returned to active political life because of the pending federation of Indian principalities with the rest of India. His first act was a fast, designed to force the ruler of the state of Rajkot to modify his autocratic rule. Public unrest caused by the fast was so great that the colonial government intervened; the demands were granted. The Mahatma again became the most important political figure in India. © K. L. Kamat Mahatma Gandhi Biography - Early Days, Childhood, Freedom Struggle, Facts and Information Mahatma Gandhi Biography Mahatma Gandhi Biography Biography of Mahatma Gandhi History remembers Mahatma Gandhi as a great political and spiritual leader of India.

Renowned for his non-violent campaigns of civil disobedience, people all across the world were impressed by his charisma, courage and the ability to influence people's conscience. Albert Einstein's comment on Gandhi: "I believe that Gandhi's views were the most enlightened of all the political men in our time. We should strive to do things in his spirit: not to use violence in fighting for our cause, but by non-participation in anything you believe is evil." The emergence of Gandhi played a pivotal role in the history of Indian Nationalism. The development of Indian Nationalism occurred in three separate phases. It was the third phase of Indian Nationalism that witnessed the rise of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, as the man who took the country by storm with his novel political ideologies centered on the cardinal principles of ahimsa and satyagraha. Armed with these ideological tools Gandhi shouldered critical responsibilities in the momentous events that finally led India to the path of freedom. The emergence of Gandhi, on the Indian political scenario was not the mere instance of another emerging new leader, but it was the rise of a whole new philosophy that permeated into every sphere of the Indian psyche.

Early Days Mohan Das Karam Chand Gandhi, better known as Mahatma Gandhi was born on 2 October 1869 in Porbandar in Gujarat into the middle class Vaishya family. He was the son of Karamchand and Putlibai. He studied at the elementary school in Porbandar till the age of seven and later at Rajkot. He was married to Kasturba at the age of thirteen while still in high school. He matriculated from Samladas College in Bhavnager, Gujarat and went to England in 1888 to study law. Though his mother opposed this trip, but the opposition was overcome by Gandhi's strict vow of not touching women, wine and meat in the foreign land. He passed his examination in 1891 and on 12 June 1891 sailed back to India. Initiation into Public Movements He remained in India for almost two years and in 1893 he went to South Africa to fight a lawsuit on behalf of Dada Abdullah & Company. It was the place, which changed the course of Gandhi's life and the history of India.

While traveling in a first class rail compartment, Gandhi was thrown out by railway officials just because a white man objected to his presence in the first class compartment. This and some other such incidents made Gandhi feel that being quiet will not do any good. He stood up for the cause of all the Indians residing there who were suffering humiliation daily. After fighting for the cause of the Indian people in South Africa, he returned to India in 1915. But he was not the same man who left India. He was much transformed - now he had nothing but one resolve - to serve the masses of his country. He was in the battlefield to fight for the independence of his own country, but his ways were totally different. More... Gandhi's Struggle for India's Independence After returning to India permanently, he began his struggle for Independence after joining the Indian National Congress. He got acquainted with the issues in India, politics and the problems faced by the Indian people. Soon, he became a prominent leader of the Congress. To attain Independence for the country, Gandhi initiated several movements which helped him achieve his goals. Non-Cooperation Movement Gandhi launched his weapons of "non-cooperation", "non-violence" and "peace" during his struggle against the British raj.

The movement emerged as an outcry over the Jallianwala Bagh massacre at Amritsar. Gandhi induced the British government to grant Swaraj or self government under this movement. The movement was strengthened by his support to the Muslim campaign against Turkey's dismemberment post World War I. More... Civil Disobedience Movement The Civil Disobedience Movement brought a milestone in the history of struggle for Indian Independence. It was formed with an ideology to defy the rules and laws of the British government. It was launched in the year 1930 and the main factor after its formation was the Simon Commission which included only the British members. It also resulted in the imprisonment of Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru. The movement at times is also considered for being non resistance. More... Dandi March Dandi March, another important event in the struggle for India's Independence began on 12 March 1930. The Dandi Salt March triggered the Civil Disobedience Movement and proved to be a direct challenge to the British government. The March began from Sabarmati Ashram to the Dandi village, Navsari town.

Mahatma Gandhi produced salt in Dandi without paying taxes to the British government. He was supported by millions of Indians in his campaign. More... Quit India Movement Gandhi launched the Quit India Movement in August 1942. The movement demanded immediate end to the British rule. The Congress party initiated the mass struggle on the lines of non-violence. Gandhi gave a slogan 'Do or Die' during this campaign and every Indian started dreaming of a free India after this movement. More... Weapons during Freedom Struggle Mahatma Gandhi did not believe in violence. 'Satyagraha' and 'Ahimsa' were his weapons to fight against the British raj. His first Satyagraha was in Champaran, Bihar in 1917 for the cause of peasants of Champaran. Satyagraha The overall process of non-violent actions was known as Satyagraha by Mahatma Gandhi. For him, Satyagraha was an outgrowth of nonviolence. He used this term for the first time during his struggles in South Africa. He used it as a major tool in his struggle against British to gain Independence for India.

The first Satyagraha campaign was launched in Champaran in 1917 for the cause of the peasants. This first campaign was followed by this economic boycotts and fasts as the tools of Satyagraha. More... Non-Violence Non-violence is the principle of Gandhi's spirituality and his political philosophy. He used non violence as a tool against the British rule during his struggle for Independence. He believed that violence is a weapon which could not resolve problems but on the other hand increase the problem itself. Non-violence was preached in different religions; Jains, Budhhists and Christanity. Gandhi believed in truth, humanity and world peace and practicing non-violence was his biggest ideologies. He not only followed the path of non-violence, but also managed to gain Independence for the country. More... Gandhi's Secularism Mahatma Gandhi desired that India will become a country where Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and Christians will be treated alike. He had a vision to create a secular state where the religious beliefs, values and discourse are respected and practiced in all spheres of life. He lay emphasizes on non-violence, prayers and celibacy. It was his belief that salvation was the ultimate goal of life.

The secular theories of Mahatma Gandhi put significance on the Indian national movement. His secular beliefs were evident from the instances such as his support to the Muslims during the Khilafat movement. His first public speech in India after his South Africa tour demonstrated his secular ideologies and beliefs. More... Gandhi's Views on Women Mahatma Gandhi not only worked for the political emancipation in India, but he equally believed and worked towards the betterment and liberation of the oppressed and suppressed section of the society. His work and emphasis towards the awakening of women, not only brought light into the lives of the female section, but also gave rise to self-esteem and dignity within them. He was against such dogmatic practices of society women such as child marriage, Purdah system, Sati etc. More... Gandhi's Economic Ideologies The economic thoughts of Mahatma Gandhi are assimilated from his overall philosophy. He had a holistic approach and always aimed at socio-economic development of the society. His ideals were governed by the moral and ethical considerations. He had an unconditional sympathy towards the poor and the underprivileged class of the society. He also believed that the capitalist endeavours were the root of all the sufferings.

He worked towards the betterment of the society and worked for the reformation of the economy. More... Mahatma Gandhi Facts and Information Name

Question: What was the name of the Indian political party led by Mahatma Ghandi for 20 years prior to India's independence?
Answer: INDIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS PARTY