2. Mohandas
Karamchand
Gandhi was born
on 2 October 1869
in Porbandar,
Gujarat commonly
known as
Mahatma
Gandhi. His
father’s name was
Karamchand
Gandhi and
mother’ name
was Putlibai.
3. In May 1883, the
13-year-old
Mohandas was
married to 14-
year-
old Kasturbai
Makhanji (her
first name was
usually
shortened to
"Kasturba“.
4. 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 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 modest living drafting petitions for litigants
but was forced to close it when he ran afoul of a British
officer.
5. Gandhi spent 21 years
in South Africa, where
he developed his
political views, ethics
and political leadership
skills. 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.
6. Reactions to blacks
After the black majority came to power in
South Africa, Gandhi was proclaimed a
national hero with numerous
monuments.Gandhi focused his attention on
Indians in South Africa, but historians have
also examined his changing ideas on the
proper role for blacks. White rule enforced
strict segregation among all races and
generated conflict between these communities.
At first Gandhi shared racial notions prevalent
in the 1890s. Bhana and Vahed argue that
Gandhi's experiences in jail sensitized him to
M.K. Gandhi while the plight of blacks. "His negative views in the
serving in the Johannesburg jail were reserved for hardened
Ambulance Corps
during the Second African prisoners rather than Africans
Boer War (1899) generally."
7. 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
Gandhi in 1918, at the time
were backed by the local
of the Kheda and administration.
Champaran Satyagrahas
8. Mahatma Gandhi
spinning yarn, in
late 1920
With Congress now behind him in 1920,
Gandhi had the base to employ non-
cooperation, non-violence and peaceful
resistance as his "weapons" in the struggle
against the British Raj.
9. Under his leadership, the
Sabarmati Ashram,
Congress was reorganised with
Gandhi's home in Gujarat
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 committees was 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
boycott of foreign-made goods,
especially British goods.
10. Salt Satyagraha (Salt March)
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 commission under Sir John
Simon, which did not include any Indian as its
member. The result was a boycott of the
commission by Indian political parties.
11. World War II and Quit India Gandhi and Nehru in 1942
Gandhi initially favoured offering
"non-violent moral support" to the
British effort when World War II broke
out in 1939, but the Congressional
leaders were offended by the
unilateral inclusion of India in the war
without consultation of the people's
representatives. All Congressmen
resigned from office.[80] After long
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. Gandhi and Muhammad Ali Jinnah,
Bombay, 1944
12. Partition and independence, 1947
As a rule, Gandhi was opposed to the concept of partition as it
contradicted his vision of religious unity.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. Gandhi suggested an
agreement which required the Congress and Muslim League to
cooperate and attain independence under a provisional government,
thereafter, the question of partition could be resolved by a plebiscite in
the districts with a Muslim majority.When Jinnahcalled for Direct
Action, on 16 August 1946, Gandhi was infuriated and visited the most
riot prone areas to stop the massacres, personally.[91] He made strong
efforts to unite the Indian Hindus, Muslims and Christians and struggled
for the emancipation of the "untouchables" in Hindu society.On the 14
and 15 August 1947 the Indian Independence Act was invoked. In border
areas 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.
13. Assassination of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
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 responsible for
weakening India by insisting upon a payment to Pakistan.Godse and
his co-conspirator Narayan Apte, were later tried and convicted; they
were executed on 15 November 1949. Gandhi's memorial at Rajghat,
New Delhi, bears the epigraph "Hē Ram”
14. “Before you do anything, stop and recall the face of the
poorest most helpless destitute person you have seen and ask
yourself, “Is what I am about to do going to help him?”
“We must become the change we want to see in the world.”
“There are times when you have to obey a call which is the highest of all,
i.e. the voice of conscience even though such obedience may cost many
a bitter tear, and even more, separation from friends, from family, from
the state, to which you may belong, from all that you have held as dear
as life itself. For this obedience is the law of our being. ”
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