Mahatma GandhiEssay Preview: Mahatma GandhiReport this essayMahatma GandhiMohandas Karamchand Gandhi (Gujarati: મોહનદાસ કરમચંદ ગાંધી, pronounced [moːɦən̪d̪aːs kərəmʨən̪d̪ ɡaːn̪d̪ʱiː] ( listen); 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was the pre-eminent political and spiritual leader of India during the Indian independence movement. He pioneered satyagraha–resistance to tyranny through mass civil disobedience, a philosophy firmly founded upon ahimsa, or total nonviolence, which helped India to gain independence, and inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. Gandhi is often referred to as Mahatma Gandhi ([məɦaːt̪maː]; Sanskrit: महात्मा mahātmā or “Great Soul”, an honorific first applied to him by Rabindranath Tagore),[1] and in India also as Bapu (Gujarati: બાપુ, bāpu or “Father”). He is officially honoured in India as the Father of the Nation; his birthday, 2 October, is commemorated there as Gandhi Jayanti, a national holiday, and worldwide as the International Day of Non-Violence.
Gandhi first employed civil disobedience while an expatriate lawyer in South Africa, during the resident Indian communitys struggle there for civil rights. After his return to India in 1915, he organised protests by peasants, farmers, and urban labourers concerning excessive land-tax and discrimination. After assuming leadership of the Indian National Congress in 1921, Gandhi led nationwide campaigns to ease poverty, expand womens rights, build religious and ethnic amity, end untouchability, and increase economic self-reliance. Above all, he aimed to achieve Swaraj or the independence of India from foreign domination. Gandhi famously led his followers in the Non-cooperation movement that protested the British-imposed salt tax with the 400 km (240 mi) Dandi Salt March in 1930. Later, in 1942, he launched the Quit India civil disobedience movement demanding immediate independence for India. Gandhi spent a number of years in jail in both South Africa and India.
As a practitioner of ahimsa, he swore to speak the truth and advocated that others do the same. Gandhi lived modestly in a self-sufficient residential community and wore the traditional Indian dhoti and shawl, woven with yarn he had hand spun himself. He ate simple vegetarian food, experimented for a time with a fruitarian diet, and undertook long fasts as a means of both self-purification and social protest.
Contents [hide]1 Early life and background2 Civil rights movement in South Africa (1893-1914)2.1 Racism and controversy2.2 Role in Zulu War of 19063 Struggle for Indian Independence (1915-1945)3.1 Role in World War I3.2 Champaran and Kheda3.3 Non-cooperation3.4 Salt Satyagraha (Salt March)3.5 World War II and Quit India4 Freedom and partition of India5 Assassination6 Gandhis principles6.1 Truth6.2 Nonviolence6.3 Vegetarianism6.4 Brahmacharya6.5 Simplicity6.6 Faith6.7 Swaraj7 Literary works8 Legacy and depictions in popular culture8.1 Followers and influence8.2 National holidays8.3 Awards8.4 Film and literature9 See also10 Notes10.1 Further reading11 External linksEarly life and backgroundA young Gandhi c. 1876Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi[2] was born on 2 October 1869 in Porbandar, a coastal town in present-day Gujarat, India. His father, Karamchand Gandhi (1822-1885), who belonged
e.g., the most influential party in India, was a staunch Christian. He took part in numerous religious rites; his wife, Anu Pratap, would often receive her husband’s name at events organized at a communal level among her group. Gandhi also established an annual gala attended by various groups for the poor and upper-class individuals, from which he received a salary of 500 rupees (around Rs 2,400) a year. During the period when his government was being divided between the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the two political parties had some disagreements over which was best for the Indian national image. In 1892, Pratap became Prime Minister, and her first duty as Prime Minister was to ensure that the Gurdwara and Rajya Sabha should be properly and thoroughly represented in parliament. The government subsequently tried to resolve the two, and was unable to bring things forward, although the Government had the support of various other parties. The Congress Party, while accepting the idea, did not believe that the best way for its government to gain electoral success was through electoral reform. The only one able to do so was the Congress-led Central Advisory Council for the purpose. Thereupon Congress leader Ravi Shankar Prasad, who played a decisive role in the decision-making on Election Day, called up Pratap. Her role at the time was to bring her support for Reform and the Government Accountability Office into the government, both at the political and ideological levels. However, the new government did not have enough time to reform the Indian National Congress, in which she had also been instrumental. Pratap had to be deposed in December 1892 after four years of opposition in the Indian National Congress. It might have been possible, though, that her influence on Pratap might have been limited in the circumstances. Pratap became Minister of State, in 1893. She was replaced by Prakash Mishra, an ex-ruler whom she became involved in during and after her marriage to Karamchand Gandhi II on March 26, 1893.[3]The second most influential figure in the early American Indian movement was the 1869 founding of the first Union School, founded in 1869, by President Washington. The school was officially renamed the Indian Institute of Technology in 1872,[4] under which all students from all universities were required to take four-year courses on mathematical and business subjects, including algebra, trigonometry, algebra, mathematics, geometry and algebraic theory.[5] When the Union School was dissolved, the remaining members found that Washington was in favor of consolidating the national college into the colleges of their choice – in which he maintained a huge monopoly. The National Collegiate Commission of Mathematics (NCM)[6] recommended that the University of Chicago be added to its national list of Indian universities.[7] Both the Union School and NCM held some large membership. At this time, an Indian president, the father of the Union Council for Education (UCER), and his wife had come from England and had been in India