Gandhi was ejected from a train in South Africa in 1893 due to his race, which motivated him to fight for Indian rights in British colonies. He began his nonviolence movement there through acts like the Great March in 1913. After returning to India, he was inspired by events like the Jallianwala Bagh massacre and led the noncooperation movement against the British, including the famous Salt March. Throughout the 1920s and 30s, Gandhi continued to lead nonviolent protests and movements for independence and rights. This culminated in the Quit India movement in 1942 and finally independence in 1947, though it was marred by partition violence. In 1948, Gandhi undertook his final fast to promote

1. (1869- 1915)
Discovering Himself

2. 12 June 1891
Mohandas Gandhi returns to
India from London after
passing the Bar
- Due to his foreign education, Gandhi
gained a world perspective and an
understanding of the British modus
operandi, which helped him thwart
Britain‘s moves during the Independence
Movement.

3. May 1893
Mahatma Gandhi is ejected from a
South African train, motivating him
to fight for Indian rights in the
British Colony
―Pietermaritzburg is also famous for an incident
early in the life of Mahatma Gandhi. In May
1893, while Gandhi was on his way to Pretoria, a
white man objected to Gandhi's presence in a
first-class carriage, and he was ordered to move
to the van compartment at the end of the train.
Gandhi, who had a first-class ticket, refused, and
was thrown off the train at Pietermaritzburg.
Shivering through the winter night in the
waiting room of the station, Gandhi made the
momentous decision to stay on in South
Africa and fight the racial discrimination
against Indians there. Out of that struggle
emerged his unique version of nonviolent
resistance, Satyagraha.‖
- Courtesy of World History Project

4. 6 Nov 1913
Gandhi begins
"Great March" to gain
Indian rights in South
Africa
―Some of the major points on
which the Satyagraha struggle
had been waged were
conceded to the Indians. The tax
on the ex-indentured labourers was
abolished; marriages performed
according to Indian rites were
legalized, and a domicile certificate
bearing the holder‘s thumb-imprint
was too a sufficient evidence of the
right to enter South Africa.‖
- Courtesy of World History Project

5. (1917-1931)
Inspiring an Oppressed Nation

6. 17 June 1917
Gandhi establishes
Sabarmati Ashram
―This is the right place for our activities to carry
on the search for Truth and develop
Fearlessness – for, on one side, are the iron
bolts of the foreigners, and on the
other, thunderbolts of Mother Nature.‖
— Gandhi
- Courtesy of World History Project

7. March 1919
British government passes the
Rowlatt Act in Colonial
India, indefinitely extending the use
of ‘emergency measures'
―…enacted during the First World War in order
to control public unrest and root out
conspiracy.…Gandhi and others found that
constitutional opposition to the measure was
fruitless, so on April 6, a ‘hartal’ was organized
where Indians would suspend all business and
fast as a sign of their hatred for the legislation.
This event is known as the Rowlatt
Satyagraha.‖
-Courtesy of World History Project
- This was a turning point because Gandhi
emerged as a national leader.

8. 13 April 1919
Jallianwala Bagh Massacre
―…Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer
opened fire on a peaceful
religious gathering of Sikh men,
women and children. The firing lasted
for 10 to 15 minutes, until they ran
out of ammunition.‖
-Courtesy of World History Project

9. Sep 1920
The Gandhi Era of the Indian
Independence Movement begins with
the Non-Cooperation Movement
―The programme of ‘non-violent
non-cooperation’ included the boycott of
councils, courts and schools, set up by the
British and of all foreign cloth.… The British saw
that the success of ‗non-cooperation‘ would
paralyze their administration…. A number of
eminent ‗moderate‘ politicians joined official
critics in underlining the risks of mass
non-cooperation as proposed by Gandhi.‖
- Courtesy of World History Project

10. Gandhi founds the 'All-India
Spinners' Association
―During the next three years, while
national politics were dominated by
communal issues and controversies in
legislatures, Gandhi retired from the
political scene; to be precise, he retired
only from the political controversies of the
day to devote his time to the less
spectacular but more important task of
nation-building ‘from the bottom
up’…. He exhorted the people to shake
off the age-old social evils such as
child-marriage and
untouchability, and to ply the spinning
wheel…. It became a symbol of defiance
of foreign rule; Khadi, the cloth made
from yarn spun on the spinning
wheel, became the nationalist
garment, the ‘livery of freedom’, as
Jawaharlal Nehru once picturesquely
described it.‖
- Courtesy of World History Project
Sep 1925

11. 12 March 1930
Mahatma Gandhi embarks on the
Salt Satyagraha
―The Salt Satyagraha was a campaign of
nonviolent protest against the British
salt tax in colonial India which began with
the Salt March to Dandi on March 12, 1930….
Mahatma Gandhi led the Dandi march from
his Sabarmati Ashram to Dandi, Gujarat to
produce salt without paying the tax, with
growing numbers of Indians joining him
along the way.‖
- Courtesy of World History Project
- Dandi March was a singular event that
energized and mobilized the entire nation to
stand for its rights responsibly, for the tax
hurt everyone equally.

12. (1932-1948)
Gaining Rights Through Fortitude

13. Sep 1932
Gandhi begins six-day fast to
protest separate elections for
Untouchables
―When the British agreed with Ambedkar
and announced the awarding of separate
electorates, Gandhi began a fast-untodeath while imprisoned in the Yeravada
Central Jail of Pune in 1932.…The fast
dramatized the issues at stake; ostensibly
it suppressed reason, but in fact it was
designed to free reason from that
mixture of inertia and prejudice
which had permitted the evil of
untouchability, which condemned
millions of Hindus to humiliation,
discrimination and hardship.‖
- Courtesy of World History Project

14. 8 Aug 1942
The All India Congress Committee
launches the Quit India Movement
―The Quit India Movement (Bharat Chhodo
Andolan or the August Movement) was a
civil disobedience movement launched
in India in August 1942 in response to
Mohandas Gandhi's call for immediate
independence. Gandhi hoped to bring the
British government to the negotiating
table.‖
- Courtesy of World History Project
- Though marred by violence, Quit India
Movement spurred the nation towards
freedom.

15. 15 June 1947
United Kingdom passes the
Indian Independence Act 1947
―The Indian Independence Act 1947
was the legislation passed and
enacted by the British Parliament that
officially announced the
independence of India and the
partition of India.‖
- Courtesy of World History Project

16. 15 Aug 1947
The partition of India
―What Gandhi had feared had come to
pass. India was to be divided, but partition
was not being imposed; it had been
accepted by Nehru, Patel and a majority of
the Congress leaders. Gandhi had serious
doubts on the wisdom of this decision.‖
- Courtesy of World History Project

17. 12 Jan 1948
Mahatma Gandhi announces fast to
end Hindu/Muslim violence in Delhi
―On January 13, 1948, he began a fast; ‗my
greatest fast,‘ he wrote to Miraben, his English
disciple. It was also to be his last. The fast was
not to be broken until Delhi became peaceful.
The fast had a refreshing impact upon Pakistan.
In India there was an emotional shake-up. The
fast compelled people to think afresh on
the problem, on the solution of which he
had staked his life.‖
- Courtesy of World History Project