Mohandas K. Gandhi was a major political and spiritual leader of India and the Indian independence movement. He is commonly known as "Mahatma Gandhi" (Great Soul) and "Bapu" (Father). Gandhi practiced and advocated non-violence and truth, even in the most extreme situations. As a British-educated lawyer, Gandhi first employed his ideas of peaceful civil disobedience in the Indian community's struggle for civil rights in South Africa.

1. Mohandas K. Gandhi

2. At the age of 13, Gandhi was married through his parents' arrangements to Kasturba Makhanji. At the age of 18, Gandhi went to University College London to train as an attorney.

3. South Africa changed Gandhi dramatically, as he faced the discrimination commonly directed at blacks and Indians. He founded the Natal Indian Congress in 1894.

4. Upon his return to India, he organized poor farmers and laborers to protest against oppressive taxation and widespread discrimination. Non-cooperation and peaceful resistance were Gandhi's "weapons" in the fight against injustice.

5. Gandhi was arrested on March 10, 1922, tried for sedition, and sentenced to six years imprisonment. Gandhi was addressed by the people as Bapu (Father) and Mahatma (Great Soul).

6. This campaign was one of his most successful at upsetting British rule; Britain responded by imprisoning over 60,000 people. Gandhi launched a new satyagraha against the tax on salt in March 1930, marching 400 kilometres from Ahmedabad to Dandi, Gujarat to make salt himself.

7. Gandhi was invited to attend the Round Table Conference in London as the sole representative of the Indian National Congress.

8. Madelaine Slade, a British aristocrat, daughter of an admiral, stayed with Gandhi for 23 years, who renamed her Miraben (sister Mira).

9. 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. World War II

10. As the war progressed, Gandhi intensified his demand for independence, drafting a resolution calling for the British to Quit India . At the end of the war, the British gave clear indications that power would be transferred to Indian hands.

11. Gandhi was vehemently opposed to any plan that partitioned India into two separate countries. He launched his last fast-unto-death in Delhi.

12. On January 30, 1948, Gandhi was shot and killed while having his public walk on the grounds of the Birla Bhavan in New Delhi. Hindu, Muslim and Sikh community leaders assured him that they would renounce violence and call for peace.

13. Gandhi's principles Truth Nonviolence Vegetarianism Brahmacharya Simplicity Faith

14. "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind."