127910914 mahatma-gandhi

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Mahatma Gandhi
"Gandhi" redirectshere.For other uses,see Gandhi (disambiguation).
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
pronunciation (help·info) (pronounced: [ˈmoːɦənd̪aːs ˈkərəmtʃənd̪
ˈɡaːnd̪ʱi];2 October1869[1]
– 30 January 1948),commonlyknown
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.[2][3]
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
disobediencethat he developed.Returning to India in 1915,he set about
organising peasants to protestexcessive land-taxes. A lifelong opponentof
"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,
endinguntouchability, increasing economic self-reliance,and above all for
achieving Swaraj—the independence ofIndia 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 QuitIndia in 1942,during World War II. He was imprisoned for
that and for numerous other political offenses overthe 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 supportthe industrialization
programs of his discipleJawaharlal Nehru. He lived modestlyin a self-
sufficientresidential 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,[4]
who ridiculed him as a "half-
naked fakir."[5]
He was a dedicated vegetarian, and undertook long fasts as
means of both self-purificationand political mobilization.
In his last year, unhappy at the partition of India, Gandhi worked to stop the
carnage betweenMuslims, Hindus and Sikhs that raged in the borderarea
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.[6]
In India he
was also called Bapu ("Father"). He is known in India as the Fatherof the
Nation;[7]
his birthday, 2 October,is commemorated there as Gandhi
Jayanti,a national 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."[8]
Early life and background

Gandhi in his earliest known photo, aged 7, c. 1876
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi[9]
was born on 2 October
1869[1]
in Porbandar, a coastal town which was then part of the Bombay
Presidency,BritishIndia.[10]
He was born in his ancestral home, now known
as Kirti Mandir.[11]
His father, Karamchand Gandhi (1822–1885),who
belonged to the Hindu Modh community, served as the diwan (chief
minister) of Porbanderstate, a small princely salute state in the Kathiawar
AgencyofBritish India.[11][12]
His grandfather was Uttamchand Gandhi, also
called Utta Gandhi.[11]
His mother, Putlibai, who came from
the PranamiVaishnava community, was Karamchand's fourth wife, the first
three wives having apparently died in childbirth.[13]
The Indian classics,especiallythe stories of Shravana and
king Harishchandra, had a great impact on Gandhi in his childhood. In his
autobiography, he admits that they left an indelible impressionon his mind.
He writes: "It haunted me and I must have acted Harishchandra to myself
times without number." Gandhi's early self-identificationwith truth and love
as supreme values is traceable to these epic characters.[14][15]
In May 1883,the 13-year-old Mohandas was married to 14-year-
old Kasturbai Makhanji (her first name was usually shortened to "Kasturba",
and affectionately to "Ba") in an arranged child marriage, according to the

custom of the region.[16]
In the process,he lost a year at school.[17]
Recalling
the day of their marriage, he once said, "As we didn't know much about
marriage, for us it meant only wearing new clothes, eating sweets and
playing with relatives." However, as was prevailing tradition, the adolescent
bride was to spend much time at her parents' house, and away from her
husband.[18]
In 1885,when Gandhi was 15, the couple's firstchild was born,
but survived only a few days. Gandhi's father, Karamchand Gandhi, had
also died earlier that year.[19]
Mohandas and Kasturba had four more children, all sons: Harilal, born in
1888;Manilal, born in 1892; Ramdas, born in 1897;and Devdas, born in
1900.[16]
At his middle schoolin Porbandar and high schoolin Rajkot,
Gandhi remained a mediocre student. He shone neither in the classroom
nor on the playing field.One of the terminal reports rated him as "good at
English, fair in Arithmetic and weak in Geography; conduct very good,bad
handwriting." He passed the matriculation exam at Samaldas College
in Bhavnagar, Gujarat, with some difficulty. Gandhi's family wanted him to
be a barrister, as it would increase the prospects of succeeding to his
father's post.[20]
English barrister
Gandhi and his wife Kasturba (1902)
In 1888,Gandhi travelled to London,England, to study law at University
College London,where he studied Indian law and jurisprudence and to
train as a barrister at the Inner Temple.His time in London was influenced
by a vow he had made to his mother upon leaving India, in the presence of
a Jain monk, to observe the Hindu preceptsof abstinence from meat and
alcohol as well as of promiscuity.[21]
Gandhi tried to adopt "English"

customs,including taking dancing lessons.However, he could not
appreciate the bland vegetarian food offered by his landlady and was
frequently hungry until he found one of London's few vegetarian
restaurants. Influenced by Henry Salt's writing, he joined the Vegetarian
Society, was elected to its executive committee,[22]
and started a
localBayswater chapter.[13]
Some of the vegetarians he met were members
of the TheosophicalSociety, which had been founded in 1875 to further
universal brotherhood,and which was devoted to the study
of Buddhist and Hindu literature. They encouraged Gandhi to join them in
reading the Bhagavad Gita both in translation as well as in the
original.[22]
Not having shown interest in religion before,he became
interested in religious thought.
Gandhi was called to the bar in June 1891 and then left London for India,
where he learned that his mother had died while he was in Londonand that
his family had kept the news from him.[22]
His attempts at establishing a law
practice in Bombay failed because he was too shy to speak up in court. He
returned to Rajkot to make a modestliving drafting petitions for litigants, but
he was forced to close it when he ran afoul of a British officer.[13][22]
In 1893,
he accepted a year-long contract from Dada Abdulla & Co., an Indian firm,
to a post in the Colony of Natal, South Africa, then part of the British
Empire.[13]
Civil rights movement in South Africa (1893–1914)
Gandhi was 24 when he arrived in South Africa[23]
to work as a legal
representative for the Muslim Indian Traders based in the city of
Pretoria.[24]
He spent 21 years in South Africa, where he developed his
political views, ethics and political leadership skills.

Purported photograph of Gandhi in South Africa (1895)
Indians in South Africa were led by wealthy Muslims, who employed
Gandhi as a lawyer, and by impoverished Hindu indentured laborers with
very limited rights. Gandhi considered them all to be Indians, taking a
lifetime view that "Indianness" transcended religion and caste. He believed
he could bridge historic differences,especiallyregarding religion, and he
took that belief back to India where he tried to implementit. The South
African experience exposed handicaps to Gandhi that he had not known
about. He realised he was out of contact with the enormous complexities of
religious and cultural life in India, and believed he understood India by
getting to know and leading Indians in South Africa.[25]
In South Africa, Gandhi faced the discrimination directed at all coloured
people.He was thrown off a train at Pietermaritzburg after refusing to move
from the first-class.He protested and was allowed on first class the next
day.[26]
Travelling farther on by stagecoach,he was beaten by a driver for
refusing to move to make room for a European passenger.[27]
He suffered
other hardships on the journey as well, including being barred from several
hotels. In another incident, the magistrate of a Durban court ordered
Gandhi to remove his turban, which he refused to do.[28]
These events were a turning point in Gandhi's life and shaped his social
activism and awakened him to social injustice. After witnessing
racism, prejudice and injustice against Indians in South Africa, Gandhi
began to question his place in society and his people'sstanding in
the British Empire.[29]

Gandhi extended his original period of stay in South Africa to assist Indians
in opposing a bill to deny them the right to vote. In regards to this bill
Gandhi sent out a memorial toJosephChamberlain, British Colonial
Secretary, asking him to reconsiderhis position on this bill.[24]
Though
unable to halt the bill's passage,his campaign was successfulin drawing
attention to the grievances of Indians in South Africa. He helped found
the Natal Indian Congress in 1894,[13][26]
and through this organisation, he
moulded the Indian community of South Africa into a unified political force.
In January 1897,when Gandhi landed in Durban, a mob of white settlers
attacked him[30]
and he escaped only through the efforts of the wife of the
police superintendent. He, however, refused to press charges against any
memberof the mob,stating it was one of his principles not to seekredress
for a personalwrong in a court of law.[13]
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 Septemberthat year, Gandhi adopted his still
evolving methodologyof Satyagraha(devotionto the truth), or non-violent
protest,for the first time.[31]
He urged Indians to defythe new law and to
sufferthe punishments for doing so. The community adopted this plan, and
during the ensuing seven-year struggle, thousands of Indians were jailed,
flogged,or shot for striking, refusing to register,for burning their registration
cards or engaging in other forms of non-violent resistance. The government
successfullyrepressedthe Indian protesters,but the public outcry over the
harsh treatment of peacefulIndian protesters by the South African
government forced South African leader Jan Christiaan Smuts, himself a
philosopher,to negotiate a compromisewith Gandhi. Gandhi's ideas took
shape, and the conceptof Satyagraha matured during this struggle.
Gandhiand the Africans

Gandhi in South Africa (1909)
Gandhi focused his attention on Indians while in South Africa and opposed
the idea that Indians should be treated at the same level as native Africans
while in South Africa.[32][33][34]
He also stated that he believed "that the white
race of South Africa should be the predominating race."[35]
Afterseveral
treatments he received from Whites in South Africa, Gandhi began to
change his thinking and apparently increased his interest in
politics.[36]
White rule enforced strictsegregationamong all races and
generated conflict betweenthese communities.Bhana and Vahed argue
that Gandhi, at first, shared racial notions prevalent of the times and that
his experiences in jail sensitized him to the plight of blacks.
During the Boer War Gandhi volunteered in 1900 to form a group of
ambulance drivers. He wanted to disprove the British idea that Hindus were
not fit for "manly" activities involving danger and exertion. Gandhi raised
eleven hundred Indian volunteers. They were trained and medically
certified to serve on the front lines. At Spion Kop Gandhi and his bearers
had to carry wounded soldiers formiles to a field hospital because the
terrain was too rough for the ambulances. Gandhi was pleased when
someone said that European ambulance corpsmencould not make the trip
under the heat without food or water. General Redvers Buller mentioned
the courage of the Indians in his dispatch. Gandhi and thirty seven other
Indians received the War Medal.[37]
In 1906,the British declared war against the Zulu Kingdom in Natal, Gandhi
encouraged the British to recruit Indians.[38]
He argued that Indians should

supportthe war efforts in order to legitimise their claims to full
citizenship.[38]
The British accepted Gandhi's offerto let a detachment of 20
Indians volunteer as a stretcher-bearercorps to treat wounded British
soldiers.This corps was commanded by Gandhi and operated for less than
two months.[39]
The experience taught him it was hopeless to directly
challenge the overwhelming military power of the British army—he decided
it could only be resisted in non-violent fashion by the pure of heart.[40]
After the black majority came to power in South Africa, Gandhi was
proclaimed a national hero with numerous monuments.[41]
Struggle for Indian Independence(1915–47)
See also: Indian independence movement
In 1915,Gandhi returned to India permanently. He brought an international
reputation as a leading Indian nationalist, theorist and organizer. He joined
the Indian National Congressand was introduced to Indian issues,politics
and the Indian people primarily by Gopal Krishna Gokhale. Gokhale was a
key leader of the Congress Party best known for his restraint and
moderation, and his insistence on working inside the system. Gandhi took
Gokhale's liberal approach based on British Whiggishtraditions and
transformed it to make it look wholly Indian.[42]
Gandhi took leadership of Congress in 1920 and began a steady escalation
of demands (with intermittent compromisesor pauses) until on 26 January
1930 the Indian National Congress declared the independenceof India.
The British did not recognize that and more negotiations ensued, with
Congress taking a role in provincial government in the late 1930s.Gandhi
and Congress withdrew their supportof the Raj when the Viceroy declared
war on Germany in September1939 without consulting anyone. Tensions
escalated until Gandhi demanded immediate independencein 1942 and
the British responded byimprisoning him and tens of thousands of
Congress leaders for the duration. Meanwhile the Muslim League did
cooperate with Britain and moved, against Gandhi's strong opposition,to
demands for a totally separate Muslim state of Pakistan. In August 1947
the British partitioned the land, with India and Pakistan each achieving
independence onterms Gandhi disapproved.[43]

Role in World War I
See also: The role of India in World War I
In April 1918,during the latter part of World War I, the Viceroy invited
Gandhi to a War Conference in Delhi.[44]
Perhaps to show his supportfor
the Empire and help his case for India's independence,[45]
Gandhi agreed to
actively recruit Indians for the war effort.[46]
In contrast to the Zulu War of
1906 and the outbreak of World War I in 1914,when he recruited
volunteers for the Ambulance Corps,this time Gandhi attempted to recruit
combatants. In a June 1918 leaflet entitled "Appealfor Enlistment", Gandhi
wrote "To bring about such a state of things we should have the ability to
defend ourselves,that is, the ability to bear arms and to use them...If we
want to learn the use of arms with the greatestpossible despatch,it is our
duty to enlist ourselves in the army."[47]
He did, however, stipulate in a letter
to the Viceroy's private secretary that he "personally will not kill or injure
anybody, friend or foe."[48]
Gandhi's war recruitment campaign brought into question his consistency
on nonviolence as his friend Charlie Andrews confirms,"Personally I have
never been able to reconcile this with his own conduct in other respects,
and it is one of the points where I have found myself in painful
disagreement."[49]
Gandhi's private secretary also had acknowledged that
"The question of the consistencybetweenhis creed of 'Ahimsa' (non-
violence) and his recruiting campaign was raised not only then but has
been discussed eversince."[46]
Champaran and Kheda
Main article: Champaran and KhedaSatyagraha

Gandhi in 1918,at the time of the Kheda and Champaran Satyagrahas
Gandhi's first major achievements came in 1918 with the Champaran and
Kheda agitations of Bihar and Gujarat. The Champaran agitation pitted the
local peasantry against their largely British landlords who were backed by
the local administration. The peasantry was forced to grow Indigo,a cash
crop whose demand had beendeclining over two decades,and were
forced to sell their crops to the planters at a fixed price. Unhappy wIth this,
the peasantry appealed to Gandhi at his ashram in Ahmedabad.Pursuing a
strategy of non-violent protest,Gandhi took the administration by surprise
and won concessions from the authorities.[50]
In 1918, Kheda was hit by floods and famine and the peasantry was
demanding relief from taxes. Gandhi moved his headquarters
to Nadiad,[51]
organising scores of supporters and fresh volunteers from the
region, the most notable being Vallabhbhai Patel.[52]
Using non-cooperation
as a technique, Gandhi initiated a signature campaign where peasants
pledged non-paymentof revenue even under the threat of confiscationof
land. A social boycott of mamlatdars and talatdars(revenue officials within
the district) accompanied the agitation. Gandhi worked hard to win public
supportfor the agitation across the country. For five months, the
administration refused but finally in end-May 1918,the Government gave
way on important provisions and relaxed the conditions of payment of
revenue tax until the famine ended.In Kheda, Vallabhbhai Patel

represented the farmers in negotiations with the British, who suspended
revenue collectionand released all the prisoners.[53]
Khilafat movement
In 1919 Gandhi, with his weak position in Congress,decided to broadenhis
base by increasing his appeal to Muslims. The opportunity came from
the Khilafat movement,a worldwide protestby Muslims against the
collapsing status of the Caliph, the leader of their religion. The Ottoman
Empire had lost the World War and was dismembered,as Muslims feared
for the safety of the holy places and the prestige of their religion.[54]
Although
Gandhi did not originate the All-India Muslim Conference,[55]
which directed
the movement in India, he soon became its most prominent spokesman
and attracted a strong base of Muslim supportwith local chapters in all
Muslim centers in India.[56]
His successmade him India's first national
leader with a multicultural base and facilitated his rise to power within
Congress,which had previously been unable to reach many Muslims. In
1920 Gandhi became a major leader in Congress.[57][58]
By the end of 1922
the Khilafat movementhad collapsed.[59]
Gandhi always fought against "communalism",which pitted Muslims
against Hindus in politics, but he could not reverse the rapid growth of
communalism after 1922.Deadly religious riots broke out in numerous
cities, including 91 in U.P. (Uttar Pradesh) alone.[60][61]
At the leadership
level, the proportionof Muslims among delegates to Congress fellsharply,
from 11% in 1921 to under 4% in 1923.[62]
Non-cooperation
Main article: Non-cooperationmovement
Mahatma Gandhi spinning yarn, in the late 1920s

With Congress nowbehind him in 1920,Gandhi had the base to employ
non-cooperation,non-violence and peacefulresistance as his "weapons" in
the struggle against the British Raj. His wide popularity among both Hindus
and Muslims made his leadership possible;he even convinced the extreme
faction of Muslims to support peacefulnon-cooperation.[63]
The spark that
ignited a national protest was overwhelming anger at the Jallianwala Bagh
massacre (or Amritsar massacre)of hundreds of peacefulcivilians by
British troops inPunjab. Many Britons celebrated the action as needed to
prevent another violent uprising similar to the Rebellionof 1857,an attitude
that caused many Indian leaders to decide the Raj was controlled by their
enemies.Gandhi criticised both the actions of the British Raj and the
retaliatory violence of Indians. He authored the resolution offering
condolencesto British civilian victims and condemning the riots which, after
initial oppositionin the party, was accepted following Gandhi's emotional
speechadvocating his principle that all violence was evil and could not be
justified.[64]
After the massacre and subsequentviolence, Gandhi began to focus on
winning completeself-governmentand control of all Indian government
institutions, maturing soon into Swaraj or completeindividual, spiritual,
political independence.[65]
During this period,Gandhi claimed to be a
"highly orthodoxHindu" and in January 1921 during a speechat
a temple in Vadtal, he spoke of the relevance of non-cooperationto Hindu
Dharma, "At this holy place, I declare, if you want to protect your 'Hindu
Dharma', non-cooperation is first as well as the last lessonyou must learn
up.".[66]

Sabarmati Ashram, Gandhi's home in Gujarat
In December1921,Gandhi was invested with executive authority on behalf
of the Indian National Congress.Under his leadership, the Congress was
reorganised with a new constitution, with the goal of Swaraj.Membership in
the party was opened to anyone prepared to pay a token fee. A hierarchy
of committeeswas set up to improve discipline,transforming the party from
an elite organisation to one of mass national appeal. Gandhi expanded his
non-violence platform to include the swadeshi policy—the boycottof
foreign-made goods,especially British goods.Linked to this was his
advocacy that khadi (homespuncloth) be worn by all Indians instead of
British-made textiles. Gandhi exhorted Indian men and women, rich or
poor, to spend time each day spinning khadi insupport of the
independence movement.[67]
Gandhi even invented a small, portable spinning wheel that could be folded
into the size of a small typewriter.[68]
This was a strategy to inculcate
discipline and dedication to weeding out the unwilling and ambitious and to
include women in the movementat a time when many thought that such
activities were not respectableactivities for women. In addition to
boycotting British products,Gandhi urged the people to boycottBritish
educational institutions and law courts, to resign from government
employment,and to forsake British titles and honours.[69]
"Non-cooperation" enjoyed widespread appeal and success,increasing
excitementand participation from all strata of Indian society.Yet, just as
the movement reached its apex, it ended abruptly as a result of a violent
clash in the town of Chauri Chaura, Uttar Pradesh,in February 1922.
Fearing that the movementwas about to take a turn towards violence, and
convinced that this would be the undoing of all his work, Gandhi called off
the campaign of mass civil disobedience.[70]
This was the third time that
Gandhi had called off a major campaign.[71]
Gandhi was arrested on 10
March 1922,tried for sedition,and sentenced to six years' imprisonment.
He began his sentence on 18 March 1922.He was released in February
1924 for an appendicitis operation, having served only 2 years.[72]
Without Gandhi's unifying personality, the Indian National Congress began
to splinter during his years in prison, splitting into two factions, one led

by Chitta Ranjan Das and Motilal Nehru favouring party participation in the
legislatures, and the other led by Chakravarti Rajagopalachari and Sardar
Vallabhbhai Patel, opposing this move. Furthermore, cooperationamong
Hindus and Muslims, which had been strong at the height of the non-
violence campaign, was breaking down. Gandhi attempted to bridge these
differences throughmany means, including a three-week fast in the autumn
of 1924,but with limited success.[73]
In this year, Gandhi was persuaded to
preside over the Congress sessionto be held inBelgaum. Gandhi agreed to
become presidentof the sessionon one condition: that Congressmen
should take to wearing homespunkhadi. In his long political career, this
was the only time when he presided over a Congress session.[74]
Salt Satyagraha(Salt March)
Main article: SaltSatyagraha
Original footage of Gandhi and his followers marching to Dandi in the Salt
Satyagraha
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. He returned to the fore
in 1928.In the preceding year, the British government had appointed a new
constitutional reform commissionunder Sir John Simon, which did not
include any Indian as its member.The result was a boycottof the
commissionby Indian political parties. Gandhi pushed through a resolution
at the Calcutta Congress in December1928 calling on the British
government to grant India dominion status or face a new campaign of non-
cooperationwith complete independence forthe country as its goal. Gandhi

had not only moderated the views of younger men like Subhas Chandra
Bose and Jawaharlal Nehru, who sought a demand for immediate
independence,but also reduced his own call to a one year wait, instead of
two.[75]
The British did not respond.On 31 December1929,the flag of India was
unfurled in Lahore. 26 January 1930 was celebrated as India's
Independence Dayby the Indian National Congress meeting in Lahore.
This day was commemorated by almost every other Indian organisation.
Gandhi then 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 mi) 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
successfulat upsetting British hold on India; Britain respondedby
imprisoning over 60,000 people.[76]
Women
Salt as a household necessitywas of special interest to women. Gandhi
strongly favoured the emancipation of women, and he went so far as to say
that "the women have come to look upon me as one of themselves." He
opposed purdah,child marriage, untouchability, and the extreme
oppressionof Hindu widows, up to and including sati.He especially
recruited women to participate in the salt tax campaigns and the boycottof
foreignproducts.[77]
Sarma concludes that Gandhi's success in enlisting
women in his campaigns, including the salt tax campaign, anti-
untouchability campaign and the peasant movement,gave many women a
new self-confidenceand dignity in the mainstream of Indian public life.[78]
Gandhias folk hero
Congress in the 1920s appealed to peasants by portraying Gandhi as a
sort of messiah, a strategy that succeeded in incorporating radical forces
within the peasantry into the nonviolent resistance movement. In thousands
of villages plays were performed that presented Gandhi as the
reincarnation of earlier Indian nationalist leaders, or even as a demigod.
The plays built supportamong illiterate peasants steeped intraditional
Hindu culture. Similar messianic imagery appeared in popular songs and

poems,and in Congress-sponsored religious pageants and celebrations.
The result was that Gandhi became not only a folk hero but the Congress
was widely seen in the villages as his sacred instrument.[79]
Negotiations
Mahadev Desai (left) reading out a letter to Gandhi from the viceroy at Birla
House, Bombay, 7 April 1939
The government, represented by Lord Edward Irwin, decided to negotiate
with Gandhi. The Gandhi–Irwin Pact was signed in March 1931.The British
Government agreed to free all political prisoners,in return for the
suspensionof the civil disobediencemovement.Also as a result of the
pact, Gandhi was invited to attend the Round Table Conference inLondon
as the sole representative of the Indian National Congress.The conference
was a disappointmentto Gandhi and the nationalists, because it focused
on the Indian princes and Indian minorities rather than on a transfer of
power. Lord Irwin's successor,Lord Willingdon, taking a hard line against
nationalism, began a new campaign of controlling and subduing the
nationalist movement. Gandhi was again arrested,and the government
tried and failed to negate his influence by completelyisolating him from his
followers.[80]
Untouchables

In 1932,through the campaigning of the Dalit leader B. R. Ambedkar,the
government granted untouchables separate electorates under the new
constitution, known as the Communal Award. In protest,Gandhi embarked
on a six-day fast on 20 September1932,while he was imprisoned at
the Yerwada Jail, Pune.[81]
The resulting public outcry successfully forced
the government to adopt an equitable arrangement (Poona Pact) through
negotiations mediated by Palwankar Baloo.[81]
This was the start of a new
campaign by Gandhi to improve the lives of the untouchables, whom he
named Harijans, the children of God.[82]
On 8 May 1933,Gandhi began a 21-day fast of self-purificationand
launched a one-year campaign to help the Harijan movement.[83]
This new
campaign was not universally embraced within the Dalit community, as
Ambedkarcondemned Gandhi's use of the term Harijans as saying that
Dalits were socially immature, and that privileged caste Indians played a
paternalistic role. Ambedkar and his allies also felt Gandhi was
undermining Dalit political rights. Gandhi had also refused to support the
untouchables in 1924–25 when they were campaigning for the right to pray
in temples.Because of Gandhi's actions, Ambedkardescribedhim as
"devious and untrustworthy".[71]
Gandhi, although born into
the Vaishya caste, insisted that he was able to speak on behalf of Dalits,
despite the presence ofDalit activists such as Ambedkar.[84]
Gandhi and
Ambedkaroften clashed because Ambedkarsought to remove the Dalits
out of the Hindu community, while Gandhi tried to save Hinduism by
exorcising untouchability. Ambedkarcomplained that Gandhi moved too
slowly, while Hindu traditionalists said Gandhi was a dangerous radical who
rejected scripture. Guha noted in 2012 that, "Ideologues have carried these
old rivalries into the present, with the demonization of Gandhi now common
among politicians who presume to speak in Ambedkar’s name."[85]
Guha
adds that their work complemented each other, and Gandhi often praised
Ambedkar.
In the summer of 1934,three attempts were made on Gandhi's life.[86][87]
Congresspolitics
In 1934 Gandhi resigned from Congress party membership.He did not
disagree with the party's position but felt that if he resigned,his popularity

with Indians would cease to stifle the party's membership,which actually
varied, including communists,socialists,trade unionists, students, religious
conservatives, and those with pro-business convictions,and that these
various voices would get a chance to make themselves heard. Gandhi also
wanted to avoid being a target for Raj propagandaby leading a party that
had temporarily accepted politicalaccommodationwith the Raj.[88]
Gandhi returned to active politics again in 1936,with the Nehru presidency
and the Lucknow sessionof the Congress.Although Gandhi wanted a total
focus on the task of winning independenceand not speculationabout
India's future, he did not restrain the Congress from adopting socialism as
its goal. Gandhi had a clash with Subhas Chandra Bose,who had been
elected presidentin 1938,and who had previously expressed a lack of faith
in non-violence as a means of protest.[89]
Despite Gandhi's opposition,
Bose won a second term as Congress President,against Gandhi's
nominee, Dr. Pattabhi Sitaramayya; but left the Congress when the All-
India leaders resigned en masse in protestof his abandonment of the
principles introduced by Gandhi.[90][91]
Gandhi declared that Sitaramayya's
defeatwas his defeat.[92]
World War II and QuitIndia
Main article: QuitIndia Movement
Gandhi and Nehru in 1942
Gandhi initially favoured offering "non-violent moral support" to the British
effortwhen World War II broke out in 1939,but the Congressionalleaders
were offended bythe unilateral inclusion of India in the war without

consultation of the people's representatives.All Congressmenresigned
from office.[93]
Afterlong 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,calling for the British to Quit
India in a speechat Gowalia Tank Maidan. This was Gandhi's and the
Congress Party's mostdefinitive revolt aimed at securing the British exit
from India.[94]
Gandhi was criticised by some Congress partymembers and other Indian
political groups, both pro-British and anti-British. Some felt that not
supporting Britain more in its struggle against Nazi Germany was unethical.
Others felt that Gandhi's refusal for India to participate in the war was
insufficientand more directoppositionshould be taken, while Britain fought
against Nazism, it continued to refuse to grant India Independence. Quit
India became the most forcefulmovementin the history of the struggle,
with mass arrests and violence on an unprecedented scale.[95]
In 1942,although still committed in his efforts to "launch a non-violent
movement",Gandhi clarified that the movementwould not be stopped by
individual acts of violence, saying that the "ordered anarchy" of "the present
system of administration" was "worse than real anarchy."[96][97]
He called on
all Congressmenand Indians to maintain discipline via ahimsa, and Karo
ya maro ("Do or die") in the cause of ultimate freedom.[98]
Gandhi and Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Bombay, 1944
Gandhi and the entire Congress Working Committee were arrested
in Bombayby the British on 9 August 1942.Gandhi was held for two years
in the Aga Khan Palace in Pune. It was here that Gandhi suffered two
terrible blows in his personal life. His 50-year old secretaryMahadev

Desai died of a heart attack 6 days later and his wife Kasturba died after 18
months imprisonment on 22 February 1944;six weeks later Gandhi
suffered asevere malaria attack. He was released before the end of the
war on 6 May 1944 because of his failing health and necessarysurgery;
the Raj did not want him to die in prison and enrage the nation. He came
out of detention to an altered political scene—the Muslim League for
example, which a few years earlier had appeared marginal, "now occupied
the centre of the political stage"[99]
and the topic of Jinnah's campaign for
Pakistan was a major talking point. Gandhi met Jinnah in September1944
in Bombaybut Jinnah rejected,on the grounds that it fell short of a fully
independentPakistan, his proposalof the right of Muslim provinces to opt
out of substantial parts of the forthcoming political union.[100][101]
While the leaders of Congress languished in jail, the other parties
supported the war and gained organizational strength. Underground
publications flailed at the ruthless suppressionof Congress,but it had little
control over events.[102]
At the end of the war, the British gave clear
indications that power would be transferred to Indian hands. At this point
Gandhi called off the struggle, and around 100,000 politicalprisoners were
released,including the Congress'sleadership.[103]
Partition and independence,1947
See also: Partition of India
As a rule, Gandhi was opposed to the conceptof partition as it contradicted
his vision of religious unity.[104]
Concerning the partition of India to create
Pakistan, while the Indian National Congress and Gandhi called for
the British to quit India, the Muslim League passed a resolution for them to
divide and quit, in 1943.[105]
Gandhi suggested an agreementwhich
required the Congress and Muslim League to cooperate and attain
independence undera provisional government, thereafter, the question of
partition could be resolved by a plebiscite in the districts with a Muslim
majority.[106]
When Jinnah called for Direct Action, on 16 August 1946,
Gandhi was infuriated and personally visited the mostriot-prone areas to
stop the massacres.[107]
He made strong efforts to unite the Indian Hindus,
Muslims, and Christians and struggled for the emancipation of the
"untouchables" in Hindu society.[108]

On 14 and 15 August 1947 the Indian IndependenceAct was invoked. In
borderareas some 10—12 million people moved from one side to another
and upwards of a half million were killed in communal riots pitting Hindus,
Muslims, and Sikhs against each other.[109]
But for his teachings, the efforts
of his followers,and his own presence,there perhaps could have been
much more bloodshed during the partition, according to prominent
Norwegian historian, Jens Arup Seip.[110]
Stanley Wolpert has argued, The "plan to carve up British India was never
approved of or accepted byGandhi...who realised too late that his closest
comrades and discipleswere more interested in power than principle, and
that his own vision had long beenclouded by the illusion that the struggle
he led for India's freedomwas a nonviolent one."[111]
Assassination
See also: Assassinationof Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
Raj Ghat, Delhi is a memorial to Mahatma Gandhi that marks the spotof
his cremation.
On 30 January 1948,Gandhi was shot while he was walking to a platform
from which he was to address a prayer meeting. The assassin, Nathuram
Godse,was a Hindu nationalist with links to the extremist Hindu
Mahasabha, who held Gandhi guilty of favouring Pakistan and strongly
opposed the doctrine of nonviolence.[112]
Godse and his co-conspirator
were tried and executed in 1949.Gandhi's memorial (or Samādhi)at Rāj
Ghāt, New Delhi, bears the epigraph "Hē Ram", (Devanagari: हे !
राम or, He Rām), which may be translated as "Oh God".These are widely
believed to be Gandhi's last words after he was shot, though the veracity of

this statement has beendisputed.[113]
Prime Minister Jawaharlal
Nehru addressedthe nation through radio:[114]
"Friends and comrades,the light has gone out of our lives, and there is
darkness everywhere, and I do not quite know what to tell you or how to
say it. Our beloved leader, Bapu as we called him, the father of the nation,
is no more. Perhaps I am wrong to say that; nevertheless, we will not see
him again, as we have seen him for these many years, we will not run to
him for advice or seek solace from him, and that is a terrible blow, not only
for me, but for millions and millions in this country."—Jawaharlal Nehru's
address to Gandhi[115]
Funeral processionof Gandhi at New Delhi on 6 February 1948
Gandhi's death was mourned nationwide. Over two million people joined
the five mile long funeral processionthat took over five hours to reach Raj
Ghat from Birla house, where he was assassinated. Gandhi's body was
transported on a weapons carrier, whose chassis was dismantled overnight
to allow a high-floor to be installed so that people could catch a glimpse of
his body. The engine of the vehicle was not used, instead four drag-ropes
manned by 50 people each pulled the vehicle.[116]
All Indian owned
establishments in London remained closed in mourning as thousands of
people from all faiths and denominations and Indians from all over Britain
converged at India House in London.[117]
While India mourned and communal (inter-religious) violence escalated,
there were calls for retaliation, and even an invasion of Pakistan by the
Indian army. Nehru and Patel, the two strongestfigures in the government
and in Congress,had beenpulling in opposite directions;the assassination

pushed them together. They agreed the first objective must be to calm the
hysteria.[118]
They called on Indians to honor Gandhi's memoryand even
more his ideals.[119]
They used the assassination to consolidate the
authority of the new Indian state. The government made sure everyone
knew the guilty party was not a Muslim. Congress tightly controlled the epic
public displays of grief over a two-week period—the funeral, mortuary
rituals and distribution of the martyr's ashes—as millions participated and
hundreds of millions watched. The goal was to assert the power of the
government and legitimize the Congress Party's control. This move built
upon the massive outpouring of Hindu expressions ofgrief.The
government suppressed the RSS,the Muslim National Guards, and
the Khaksars, with some 200,000arrests. Gandhi's death and funeral
linked the distant state with the Indian people and made more understood
the need to suppress religious parties during the transition to independence
for the Indian people.[120]
Ashes
By Hindu tradition the ashes were to be spread on a river. Gandhi's ashes
were poured into urns which were sent across India for memorial
services.[121]
Most were immersed at the Sangam at Allahabad on 12
February 1948,but some were secretlytaken away. In 1997, Tushar
Gandhi immersed the contents of one urn, found in a bank vault and
reclaimed through the courts, at the Sangam at Allahabad.[122][123]
Some of
Gandhi's ashes were scattered at the source of the Nile River near Jinja,
Uganda, and a memorial plaque marks the event. On 30 January 2008,the
contents of another urn were immersed at Girgaum Chowpatty. Another urn
is at the palace of the Aga Khan in Pune[122]
(where Gandhi had been
imprisoned from 1942 to 1944)and another in the Self-Realization
Fellowship Lake Shrine in Los Angeles.[124]
Principles,practices and beliefs
Main article: Gandhism
Gandhism designates the ideas and principles Gandhi promoted.Of central
importance is nonviolent resistance.A Gandhian can mean either an
individual who follows,or a specific philosophywhich is attributed to,

Gandhism.[50]
M.M.Sankhdher argues that Gandhism is not a systematic
position in metaphysics or in political philosophy. Rather, it is a political
creed,an economic doctrine,a religious outlook, a moral precept,and
especially,a humanitarian world view. It is an effortnot to systematize
wisdom but to transform society and is based on an undying faith in the
goodnessof human nature.[125]
However Gandhi himself did not approve of
the notion of "Gandhism", as he explained in 1936:
There is no such thing as "Gandhism", and I do not want to leave any sect
after me. I do not claim to have originated any new principle or doctrine. I
have simply tried in my own way to apply the eternal truths to our daily life
and problems...The opinions I have formed and the conclusions I have
arrived at are not final. I may change them tomorrow. I have nothing new to
teach the world. Truth and non-violence are as old as the hills.[126]
Influences
Gandhi with famous poet Rabindranath Tagore, 1940
Historian R.B. Cribb argues that Gandhi's thought evolved over time, with
his early ideas becoming the core or scaffolding forhis mature philosophy.
In Londonhe committed himself to truthfulness, temperance,chastity, and
vegetarianism. His return to India to work as a lawyer was a failure, so he
went to South Africa for a quarter century, where he absorbed ideas from
many sources,mostof them non-Indian.[127]
While Gandhi was born a
Hindu, he grew up in an eclectic religious atmosphere and throughout his
life searched for insights from many religious traditions.[128]
He was
exposed to Jain ideas through his mother who was a devout Jain and was
in contact with Jain leaders. Themes from Jainism that Gandhi absorbed

included asceticism;compassionforall forms of life; the importance of
vows for self-discipline;vegetarianism; fasting for self-purification;mutual
tolerance among people of differentcreeds;and "syadvad", the idea that all
views of truth are partial, a doctrine that lies at the root of
Satyagraha.[129][130]
He received much of his influence
from Jainismparticularly during his younger years.[131]
Gandhi's London experience provided a solid philosophical base focused
on truthfulness, temperance,chastity, and vegetarianism. When he
returned to India in 1891,his outlook was parochial and he could not make
a living as a lawyer. This challenged his belief that practicality and morality
necessarily coincided.By moving in 1893 to South Africa he found a
solution to this problem and developed the central concepts of his mature
philosophy.[132]
N. A. Toothi[133]
felt that Gandhi was influenced by the
reforms and teachings ofSwaminarayan, stating "Close parallels do exist in
programs of social reform based on to non-violence, truth-telling,
cleanliness, temperance and upliftment of the masses."[134]
Vallabhbhai
Patel, who grew up in a Swaminarayan household was attracted to Gandhi
due to this aspect of Gandhi's doctrine.[135]
Gandhi's ethical thinking was heavily influenced by a handful of books,
which he repeatedlymeditated upon. They included especially
Plato's Apology,(which he translated into his native Gujarati); William
Salter's EthicalReligion (1889);Henry David Thoreau's On the Duty of Civil
Disobedience(1847);Leo Tolstoy's The Kingdom ofGod Is Within
You (1893); and John Ruskin's Unto this Last (1862), which he also
translated into Gujarati. Ruskin inspired his decisionto live an austere life
on a commune,at first on the Phoenix Farm in Natal and then on the
TolstoyFarm just outside Johannesburg, South Africa.[136]
Balkrishna Gokhale argues that Gandhi took his philosophyof history from
Hinduism and Jainism, supplemented byselectedChristian traditions and
ideas of Tolstoyand Ruskin. Hinduism provided central concepts of God's
role in history, of man as the battleground of forces ofvirtue and sin, and of
the potential of love as an historical force.From Jainism, Gandhi took the
idea of applying nonviolence to human situations and the theory that
Absolute Reality can be comprehendedonly relatively in human affairs.[137]

Historian Howard Spodekargues for the importance of the culture of
Gujarat in shaping Gandhi's methods.Spodekfinds that some of Gandhi's
most effective methods such as fasting, noncooperationand appeals to the
justice and compassionof the rulers were learned as a youth in Gujarat.
Later on, the financial, cultural, organizational and geographicalsupport
needed to bring his campaigns to a national audience were drawn from
Ahmedabad and Gujarat, his Indian residence 1915–1930.[138]
Tolstoy
Mohandas K. Gandhi and other residents of Tolstoy Farm, South Africa,
1910
In 1908 Leo Tolstoywrote A Letter to a Hindu,which said that only by using
love as a weapon through passive resistance could the Indian people
overthrow colonial rule. In 1909,Gandhi wrote to Tolstoyseeking advice
and permissionto republish A Letter to a Hinduin Gujarati. Tolstoy
respondedand the two continued a correspondenceuntil Tolstoy's death in
1910.The letters concern practical and theological applications of non-
violence.[139]
Gandhi saw himself a disciple of Tolstoy,for they agreed
regarding oppositionto state authority and colonialism; both hated violence
and preached non-resistance. However, they differedsharply on political
strategy. Gandhi called for political involvement; he was a nationalist and
was prepared to use nonviolent force.He was also willing to
compromise.[140]
It was at TolstoyFarm where Gandhi and Hermann
Kallenbach systematically trained their disciples inthe philosophyof
nonviolence.[141]
Truth and Satyagraha

"God is truth. The way to truth lies throughahimsa (non-violence)"—
Sabarmati 13 March 1927
Gandhi dedicated his life to the wider purpose of discovering truth,
or Satya.He tried to achieve this by learning from his own mistakes and
conducting experiments on himself. He called his autobiography The Story
of My Experiments with Truth.[142]
Bruce Watsonargues that Gandhi based Satyagraha on the Vedantic ideal
of self-realization, and notes it also contains Jain and Buddhist notions of
nonviolence, vegetarianism, the avoidance of killing, and 'agape' (universal
love). Gandhi also borrowed Christian-Islamic ideas of equality, the
brotherhood of man, and the conceptof turning the other cheek.[143]
Gandhi stated that the most important battle to fight was overcoming his
own demons,fears, and insecurities.Gandhi summarised his beliefs first
when he said "God is Truth". He would later change this statement to
"Truth is God".Thus, satya (truth) in Gandhi's philosophy is "God".[144]
The essence of Satyagraha (a name Gandhi invented meaning "adherence
to truth"[145]
) is that it seeks to eliminate antagonisms without harming the
antagonists themselves and seeks to transform or "purify" it to a higher
level. A euphemism sometimes usedforSatyagraha is that it is a "silent
force" or a "soul force" (a term also used by Martin Luther King Jr. during
his famous "I Have a Dream" speech).It arms the individual with moral
power rather than physical power. Satyagraha is also termed a "universal
force",as it essentially "makes no distinction between kinsmen and
strangers, young and old, man and woman, friend and foe."[146]

Gandiji wrote: "There must be no impatience,no barbarity, no insolence,no
undue pressure.If we want to cultivate a true spirit of democracy,we
cannot afford to be intolerant. Intolerance betrays want of faith in one's
cause."[147]
Civil disobedienceand non-cooperationas practised under
Satyagraha are based on the "law of suffering",[148]
a doctrine thatthe
enduranceof suffering is a means to an end. This end usually implies a
moral upliftment or progress ofan individual or society. Therefore,non-
cooperationin Satyagraha is in fact a means to secure the cooperationof
the opponentconsistently with truth and justice.[149]
Nonviolence
Gandhi with textile workers at Darwen, Lancashire, 26 September1931.
Although Gandhi was not the originator of the principle of non-violence, he
was the first to apply it in the political field on a large scale.[150]
The concept
of nonviolence (ahimsa)and nonresistance has a long history in Indian
religious thought and has had many revivals in Hindu, Buddhist, Jain,
Jewish and Christian contexts.Gandhi explains his philosophyand way of
life in his autobiography The Story of My Experimentswith Truth. Some of
his other remarks were widely quoted, such as "An eye for an eye makes
the whole world blind."[151]
"There are many causes that I am prepared to
die for but no causes that I am prepared to kill for."[152]
Gandhi realized later
that this level of nonviolence required incredible faith and courage, which

he believed everyone did not possess.He therefore advised that everyone
need not keep to nonviolence, especially if it were used as a cover for
cowardice,saying, "where there is only a choice between cowardice and
violence, I would advise violence."[153][154]
Gandhi thus came under some political fire for his criticism of those who
attempted to achieve independencethrough more violent means. His
refusal to protestagainst the hanging of Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev, Udham
Singh and Rajguru were sources of condemnationamong some
parties.[155][156]
Of this criticism, Gandhi stated, "There was a time when people listened to
me because I showed them how to give fight to the British without arms
when they had no arms [...] but today I am told that my non-violence can be
of no avail against the [Hindu–Moslem riots] and, therefore,people should
arm themselves for self-defense."[157]
Gandhi's views came under heavy criticism in Britain when it was under
attack from Nazi Germany, and later when the Holocaust was revealed. He
told the British people in 1940,"I would like you to lay down the arms you
have as being useless for saving you or humanity. You will invite Herr Hitler
and Signor Mussolini to take what they want of the countries you call your
possessions...If these gentlemenchoose to occupyyour homes, you will
vacate them. If they do not give you free passage out, you will allow
yourselves, man, woman, and child, to be slaughtered, but you will refuse
to owe allegiance to them."[158]
In a post-war interview in 1946,he said, "Hitler killed five million Jews. It is
the greatest crime of our time. But the Jews should have offered
themselves to the butcher’s knife. They should have thrown themselves
into the sea from cliffs...It would have aroused the world and the people of
Germany... As it is they succumbed anyway in their millions."[159]
Gandhi
believed this act of "collective suicide",in response to the Holocaust,
"would have been heroism".[160]
Muslims
One of the Gandhi's major strategies,first in South Africa and then in India,
was uniting Muslims and Hindus to work together in oppositionto British
imperialism. In 1919–22he won strong Muslim support for his leadership in

the Khilafat Movement to supportthe historic Ottoman Caliphate. By 1924
that Muslim supporthad largely evaporated.[161][162]
Jews
In 1931,he suggested that while he could understand the desire of
European Jews to emigrate to Palestine, he opposedany movementthat
supported British colonialism or violence. Muslims throughout India and the
Middle East strongly opposedthe Zionist plan for a Jewish state in
Palestine, and Gandhi (and Congress)supported the Muslims in this
regard. By the 1930s all major political groups in India opposeda Jewish
state in Palestine.[163]
This led to discussions concerning the persecutionof the Jews in
Germany and the emigration of Jews from Europe to Palestine, which
Gandhi framed through the lens ofSatyagraha.[164][165]
In 1937,Gandhi
discussedZionism with his close Jewish friend Hermann
Kallenbach.[166]
He said Zionism was not the right answer to the Jewish
problem[167]
and instead recommendedSatyagraha. Gandhi thought the
Zionists in Palestine represented Europeanimperialism and used violence
to achieve their goals; he argued that "the Jews should disclaim any
intention of realizing their aspiration under the protectionof arms and
should rely wholly on the goodwillof Arabs. No exceptioncan possiblybe
taken to the natural desire of the Jews to found a home in Palestine. But
they must wait for its fulfillment till Arab opinion is ripe for it."[168]
In 1938,
Gandhi stated that his "sympathies are all with the Jews. I have known
them intimately in South Africa. Some of them became life-long
companions."[169]
Philosopher Martin Buber was highly critical of Gandhi's
approach and in 1939 wrote an openletter to him on the subject. Gandhi
reiterated his stance on the use of Satyagraha in Palestine in 1947.[170]
Vegetarianism and Food
Stephen Hay argues that Gandhi in Londonlooked into numerous religious
and intellectual currents. He especiallyappreciated how the theosophical
movement encouraged a religious eclecticism and an antipathy to atheism.
Hay says the vegetarian movementhad the greatest impact for it was
Gandhi's point of entry into other reformistagendas of the time.[171]
The
idea of vegetarianism is deeply ingrained in Hindu and Jain traditions in

India, especiallyin his native Gujarat.[172]
Gandhi was close to the chairman
of the LondonVegetarian Society, Dr. Josiah Oldfield,and corresponded
with Henry Stephens Salt, a vegetarian campaigner. Gandhi became a
strict vegetarian. He wrote the book The Moral Basis of Vegetarianism and
wrote for the LondonVegetarian Society's publication.[173]
Gandhi was
somewhat of a food faddist taking his own goat to travels so he could
always have fresh milk.[174]
Gandhi noted in his autobiography that vegetarianism was the beginning of
his deep commitmentto Brahmacharya; without total control of the palate,
his success in Brahmacharya would likely falter. "You wish to know what
the marks of a man are who wants to realize Truth which is God",he wrote.
"He must reduce himself to zero and have perfectcontrol over all his
senses-beginning with the palate or tongue."[175][176]
Fasting, with young Indira Gandhi, mid-1920s
Fasting
Gandhi used fasting as a political device, oftenthreatening suicide unless
demands were met. Congress publicized the fasts as a political action that
generated widespread sympathy. In response the government tried to
manipulate news coverage to minimize his challenge to the Raj. He fasted
in 1932 to protest the voting scheme forseparate political representation
for Dalits; Gandhi did not want them segregated.The government stopped
the London press from showing photographs of his emaciated body,
because it would elicit sympathy. Gandhi's 1943 hunger strike took place
during a two-year prison term for the anticolonial Quit India movement. The
government called on nutritional experts to demystifyhis action, and again
no photos were allowed. However his final fast in 1948,after India was

independent,was lauded by the British press and this time did include full-
length photos.[177]
Alter argues that Gandhi's fixation on diet and celibacywere much deeper
than exercises inself-discipline.Rather, his beliefs regarding health offered
a critique of both the traditional Hindu system of ayurvedic medicine and
Westernconcepts.This challenge was integral to his deeperchallenge to
tradition and modernity, as health and nonviolence became part of the
same ethics.[178]
Celibacy
A core Gandhian value that came in for much bantering and ribald music
hall humour in Britain was his nakedness—Churchill publicly called him a
"half-naked fakir"[179]
– and his experiments in "brahmacharya" or the
elimination of all desire in the face of temptation.[180]
In 1906 Gandhi,
although married and a father, vowed to abstain from sexual relations. In
the 1940s,in his mid-seventies,he brought his grandniece Manubehn to
sleep naked in his bed as part of a spiritual experiment in which Gandhi
could test himself as a "brahmachari." Several other young women and
girls also sometimesshared his bed as part of his experiments.[181]
Gandhi
discussedhis experiment with friends and relations; mostdisagreed and
the experiment ceased in 1947.[182]
Nai Talim,Basic Education
Main article: Nai Talim
Gandhi's educational policies reflected Nai Talim ('Basic Education for all'),
a spiritual principle which states that knowledge and work are not separate.
It was a reaction against the British educational system and colonialism in
general, which had the negative effectof making Indian children alienated
and career-based;it promoted disdain for manual work, the developmentof
a new elite class, and the increasing problems of industrialisation and
urbanisation. The three pillars of Gandhi's pedagogywere its focus on
the lifelong character of education, its socialcharacter and its form as
a holistic process.For Gandhi, education is 'the moral developmentof the
person',a processthat is by definition 'lifelong'.[183]

Nai Talim evolved out of the spiritually oriented education program at
TolstoyFarm in South Africa, and Gandhi's work at the ashram at
Sevagram after 1937.[184]
After1947 the Nehru government's vision of an
industrialized, centrally planned economyhad scant place for Gandhi's
village-oriented approach.[185]
Swaraj,Self-Rule
Main article: Swaraj
Rudolph argues that after a false start in trying to emulate the English in an
attempt to overcome his timidity, Gandhi discovered the inner courage he
was seeking by helping his countrymen in South Africa. The new courage
consisted of observing the traditional Bengali way of "self-suffering" and, in
finding his own courage, he was enabled also to point out the way of
'Satyagraha' and 'ahimsa' to the whole of India.[186]
Gandhi's writings
expressedfour meanings of freedom:as India's national independence;as
individual political freedom;as group freedom from poverty; and as the
capacity for personal self-rule.[187]
Gandhi was a self-described philosophicalanarchist,[188]
and his vision of
India meant an India without an underlying government.[189]
He once said
that "the ideally nonviolent state would be an ordered anarchy."[190]
While
political systems are largely hierarchical, with each layer of authority from
the individual to the central government have increasing levels of authority
over the layer below, Gandhi believed that societyshould be the exact
opposite,where nothing is done without the consent of anyone, down to the
individual. His idea was that true self-rule in a country means that every
personrules his or herself and that there is no state which enforces laws
upon the people.[191]
This would be achieved over time with nonviolent conflictmediation, as
power is divested from layers of hierarchical authorities, ultimately to the
individual, which would come to embodythe ethic of nonviolence. Rather
than a system where rights are enforcedby a higher authority, people are
self-governedby mutual responsibilities.On returning from South Africa,
when Gandhi received a letter asking for his participation in writing a world
charter for human rights, he responded saying, "in my experience,it is far
more important to have a charter for human duties."[192]

A free India did not mean merely transferring the established British
administrative structure into Indian hands. He warned, "you would make
India English. And when it becomesEnglish, it will be called not Hindustan
but Englishtan. This is not the Swaraj I want."[193]
Tewari argues that
Gandhi saw democracyas more than a system of government; it meant
promoting both individuality and the self-discipline of the community.
Democracywas a moral system that distributed power and assisted the
developmentof every social class, especially the lowest. It meant settling
disputes in a nonviolent manner; it required freedom of thought and
expression.For Gandhi, democracywas a way of life.[194]
Gandhianeconomics
A free India for Gandhi meant the flourishing of thousands of self-sufficient
small communities who rule themselves without hindering others. Gandhian
economicsfocused on the need for economic self-sufficiencyat the village
level. His policy of "sarvodaya"[195]
called for ending poverty through
improved agriculture and small-scale cottage industries in every
village.[196]
Gandhi challenged Nehru and the modernizers in the late 1930s
who called for rapid industrialization on the Soviet model;Gandhi
denounced that as dehumanizing and contrary to the needs of the villages
where the great majority of the people lived.[197]
After Gandhi's death Nehru
led India to large-scale planning that emphasized modernization and heavy
industry, while modernizing agriculture through irrigation. Historian Kuruvila
Pandikattu says "it was Nehru's vision, not Gandhi's, that was eventually
preferred by the Indian State."[198]
After Gandhi's death activists inspired by
his vision promoted their oppositionto industrialization through the
teachings of Gandhian economics.
Literary works

Young India,a weekly journal published by Gandhi from 1919 to 1932
Gandhi was a prolific writer. One of Gandhi's earliest publications, Hind
Swaraj,published in Gujarati in 1909,is recognised[by whom?]
as the
intellectual blueprint of India's freedommovement.The book was
translated into English the next year, with a copyright legend that read "No
Rights Reserved".[199]
For decades he edited several newspapers
including Harijan in Gujarati, in Hindi and in the English language; Indian
Opinion while in South Africa and, Young India,in English, and Navajivan,
a Gujarati monthly, on his return to India. Later, Navajivan was also
published in Hindi. In addition, he wrote letters almost every day to
individuals and newspapers.[200]
Gandhi also wrote several books including his autobiography, The Story of
My Experiments with Truth (Gujarātī "સત્યના પ્રયોગો અથવા આત્મકથા"), of
which he bought the entire first edition to make sure it was reprinted.[71]
His
other autobiographies included: Satyagraha inSouth Africa about his
struggle there, Hind Swarajor Indian HomeRule,a political pamphlet, and
a paraphrase in Gujarati of John Ruskin's Unto This Last.[201]
This last
essay can be considered his programme on economics.He also wrote
extensively on vegetarianism, diet and health, religion, social reforms,etc.
Gandhi usually wrote in Gujarati, though he also revised the Hindi and
English translations of his books.[202]
Gandhi's complete works were published by the Indian government under
the name The CollectedWorks of MahatmaGandhi in the 1960s.The

writings comprise about 50,000 pages published in about a hundred
volumes. In 2000,a revised edition of the complete works sparked a
controversy, as it constituted large number of errors and omissions.[203]
The
Indian government later withdrew the revised edition.[204]
Legacyand depictions in popular culture
See also: Listof artistic depictions ofMohandas Karamchand Gandhi
A wall graffiti in San Francisco containing a quote and image of Gandhi
The word Mahatma,while often mistaken for Gandhi's given name in the
West,is taken from the Sanskrit words maha (meaning Great)
and atma (meaning Soul).Rabindranath Tagore is said to have accorded
the title to Gandhi.[205]
In his autobiography, Gandhi nevertheless explains
that he never valued the title, and was oftenpained by it.[206][207][208]
Followersand internationalinfluence
Mahatma Gandhi on a 1969 postage stamp of the Soviet Union
Gandhi influenced important leaders and political movements.Leaders of
the civil rights movement in the United States, including Martin Luther

King, James Lawson, and James Bevel, drew from the writings of Gandhi
in the developmentof their own theories about non-violence.[209][210][211]
King
said "Christ gave us the goals and Mahatma Gandhi the tactics."[212]
King
sometimesreferred to Gandhi as "the little brown saint."[213]
Anti-
apartheid activist and formerPresidentof South Africa, Nelson Mandela,
was inspired by Gandhi.[214]
Others include Khan Abdul Ghaffar
Khan,[215]
Steve Biko, and Aung San Suu Kyi.[216]
In his early years, the former Presidentof South Africa Nelson
Mandela was a followerof the non-violent resistance philosophy of
Gandhi.[214]
Bhana and Vahed commented on these events as "Gandhi
inspired succeeding generations of South African activists seeking to end
White rule. This legacy connects him to Nelson Mandela...in a sense
Mandela completedwhat Gandhi started."[217]
Gandhi's life and teachings inspired many who specificallyreferred to
Gandhi as their mentor or who dedicated their lives to spreading Gandhi's
ideas. In Europe, Romain Rolland was the first to discuss Gandhi in his
1924 bookMahatmaGandhi, and Brazilian anarchist and feminist Maria
Lacerda de Moura wrote about Gandhi in her work on pacifism.In 1931,
notable European physicist Albert Einstein exchanged written letters with
Gandhi, and called him "a role modelfor the generations to come" in a later
writing about him.[218]
Einstein said of Gandhi:
Mahatma Gandhi's life achievement stands unique in political history. He
has invented a completelynew and humane means for the liberation war of
an oppressedcountry, and practised it with greatest energy and devotion.
The moral influence he had on the consciouslythinking human being of the
entire civilized world will probably be much more lasting than it seems in
our time with its overestimation of brutal violent forces.Because lasting will
only be the work of such statesmenwho wake up and strengthen the moral
power of their people through their example and educational works.We
may all be happy and grateful that destiny gifted us with such an
enlightened contemporary,a role modelfor the generations to come.
Generations to come will scarce believe that such a one as this walked the
earth in flesh and blood.[219]

Lanza del Vasto went to India in 1936 intending to live with Gandhi; he later
returned to Europe to spread Gandhi's philosophy and founded
the Community of the Ark in 1948 (modelled afterGandhi's
ashrams). Madeleine Slade (known as "Mirabehn") was the daughter of a
British admiral who spent much of her adult life in India as a devotee of
Gandhi.[220][221]
In addition, the British musician John Lennon referred to Gandhi when
discussing his views on non-violence.[222]
At the Cannes Lions International
Advertising Festival in 2007,formerU.S. Vice-Presidentand
environmentalist Al Gore spoke of Gandhi's influence on him.[223]
Presidentof the United States Barack Obama in an address to a Joint
Sessionof the Parliament of India said that:
"I am mindful that I might not be standing before you today, as President of
the United States, had it not beenfor Gandhi and the message he shared
with Americaand the world."—Barack Obama in an address to a Joint
Sessionof the Parliament of India, 2010[224]
Obama in September2009 said that his biggestinspiration came from
Mahatma Gandhi. His reply was in response to the question'Who was the
one person, dead or live, that you would choose to dine with?'. He
continued that "He's somebodyI find a lot of inspiration in. He inspired Dr.
King with his message of nonviolence. He ended up doing so much and
changed the world just by the power of his ethics."[225]
Time Magazine named The 14th Dalai Lama, Lech Wałęsa,Martin Luther
King, Cesar Chavez, Aung San Suu Kyi, Benigno Aquino, Jr., Desmond
Tutu, and Nelson Mandela asChildren ofGandhi and his spiritual heirs to
non-violence.[226]
The Mahatma Gandhi District in Houston, Texas, United
States, an ethnic Indian enclave, is officiallynamed after Gandhi.[227]
Globalholidays
In 2007,the United Nations General Assembly declared Gandhi's birthday
2 Octoberas "the International Day of Non-Violence."[228]
First proposedby
UNESCO in 1948,as the SchoolDay of Non-violence and Peace (DENIP
in Spanish),[229]
30 January is observed the SchoolDay of Non-violence

and Peace in schools of many countries[230]
In countries with a Southern
Hemisphere schoolcalendar, it is observed on 30 March.[230]
Awards
Monument to M.K. Gandhi inNew Belgrade,Serbia. On the monument is
written "Non-violence is the essence ofall religions".
Time magazine named Gandhi the Man of the Year in 1930.Gandhi was
also the runner-up to Albert Einstein as "Personof the Century"[231]
at the
end of 1999.The Government of India awards the annual Gandhi Peace
Prize to distinguished social workers, world leaders and citizens.Nelson
Mandela, the leader of South Africa's struggle to eradicate racial
discrimination and segregation,is a prominent non-Indian recipient. In
2011,Time magazine named Gandhi as one of the top 25 political icons of
all time.[232]
Gandhi did not receive the Nobel Peace Prize, although he was nominated
five times between 1937 and 1948,including the first-ever nomination by
the American Friends Service Committee,[233]
though he made the short list
only twice, in 1937 and 1947.[108]
Decades later, the Nobel Committee
publicly declared its regret for the omission,and admitted to deeplydivided
nationalistic opinion denying the award.[108]
Gandhi was nominated in 1948
but was assassinated before nominations closed.That year, the committee
chose not to award the peace prize stating that "there was no suitable living
candidate" and later research shows that the possibilityof awarding the
prize posthumouslyto Gandhi was discussed and that the reference to no
suitable living candidate was to Gandhi.[108]
When the 14th Dalai Lama was

awarded the Prize in 1989,the chairman of the committee said that this
was "in part a tribute to the memoryof Mahatma Gandhi."[108]
Film and literature
Mahatma Gandhi has beenportrayed in film, literature, and in the
theatre. Ben Kingsley portrayed Gandhi in the 1982 film Gandhi,which won
theAcademyAward for Best Picture. Gandhi is a central figure in the
2006 Bollywood comedyLage Raho MunnaBhai.The 1996 film, The
Makingof the Mahatma,documents Gandhi's time in South Africa and his
transformation from an inexperienced barrister to recognised political
leader.[234]
Anti-Gandhi themes have also been showcased through films
and plays. The 1995 Marathi play Gandhi Virudh Gandhi explored the
relationship betweenGandhi and his son Harilal. The 2007 film, Gandhi,
My Father was inspired on the same theme. The 1989 Marathi play Me
Nathuram GodseBoltoyand the 1997 Hindi play Gandhi
Ambedkarcriticized Gandhi and his principals.[235][236]
Several biographers have undertaken the task of describing Gandhi's life.
Among them are: D. G. Tendulkar with his Mahatma.Life of Mohandas
KaramchandGandhi in eight volumes, and Pyarelal and Sushila
Nayyar with their MahatmaGandhi in 10 volumes. There is also another
documentary, titled Mahatma: Life of Gandhi, 1869–1948,which is 14
chapters and 6 hours long.[237]
The April 2010 biography, Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle
With India by JosephLelyveld contained controversial material speculating
about Gandhi's sexual life.[238]
Lelyveld,however, stated that the press
coverage "grosslydistort[s]" the overall message of the book.[239]
Currentimpactwithin India

The Gandhi Mandapam, a temple inKanyakumari, Tamil Nadu in India. This
temple was erected to honour M.K.Gandhi.[240]
India, with its rapid economic modernizationand urbanization, has
rejected Gandhi's economics[241]
but accepted much of his politics and
continues to revere his memory. ReporterJim Yardley notes that, "modern
India is hardly a Gandhian nation, if it ever was one. His vision of a village-
dominated economywas shunted aside during his lifetime as rural
romanticism, and his call for a national ethos of personal austerity and
nonviolence has proved antithetical to the goals of an aspiring economic
and military power." By contrast Gandhi is "given full credit for India’s
political identity as a tolerant, secular democracy."[242]
Gandhi's birthday, 2 October,is a national holiday in India, Gandhi Jayanti.
Gandhi's image also appears on paper currency of all
denominations issued by Reserve Bank of India, exceptfor the one rupee
note.[243]
Gandhi's date of death, 30 January, is commemorated as
a Martyrs' Day in India.[244]
There are two temples in India dedicated to Gandhi.[245]
One is located
at Sambalpur in Orissa and the other at Nidaghatta village near Kadur
in Chikmagalur district of Karnataka.[245]
The Gandhi Memorial
in Kanyakumari resemblescentral Indian Hindu temples and theTamukkam
or Summer Palace in Madurai now houses the Mahatma Gandhi
Museum.[246]
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