Mahatma Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi 2 October 1869 to 30 January 1948. popularly known as Mahatma Gandh was an Indian revolutionary, anti colonial nationalist, and political ethicist who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful campaign for India's independence from British rule and later inspire movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. The honorific epithet Mahātmā Sanskrit great souled. venerable first applied to him in 1914 in South Africa is now used throughout the world.
Born and raised in a Hindu family in coastal Gujarat Gandhi trained in the law at the Inner Temple, London and was called to the bar at age 22 in June 1891. After two uncertain years in India where he was unable to start a successful law practice. He moved to South Africa in 1893 to represent an Indian merchant in a lawsuit. He went on to live in South Africa for 21 years. It was here that Gandhi raised a family and first employed nonviolent resistance in a campaign for civil rights. In 1915 aged 45. He returned to India and soon set about organising peasants, farmers and urban labourers to protest against excessive land tax and discrimination.
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 ending untouchability and, above all achieving swaraj self rule. Gandhi adopted the short dhoti woven with hand spun yarn as a mark of identification with India's rural poor. He began to live in a self sufficient residential community to, eat simple food and undertake long fasts as a means of both introspection and political protest. Bringing anti colonial nationalism to the common Indians.Gandhi led them in challenging the British imposed salt tax with the 400 km 250 mi Dandi Salt March in 1930 and in calling for the British to quit India in 1942. He was imprisoned many times and for many years in both South Africa and India.
Gandhi's vision of an independent India based on religious pluralism was challenged in the early 1940 by a Muslim nationalism which demanded a separate homeland for Muslims within British India. In August 1947 Britain granted independence but the British Indian Empire was partitioned into two dominions a Hindu majority India and a Muslim majority Pakistan. As many displaced Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs made their way to their new lands, religious violence broke out. especially in the Punjab and Bengal. Abstaining from the official celebration of independence Gandhi visited the affected areas attempting to alleviate distress. In the months following, he undertook several hunger strikes to stop the religious violence. The last of these begun in Delhi on 12 January 1948 when he was 78 also had the indirect goal of pressuring India to pay out some cash assets owed to Pakistan. Although the Government of India relented, as did the religious rioters. The belief that Gandhi had been too resolute in his defence of both Pakistan and Indian Muslims especially those besieged in Delhi spread among some Hindus in India. Among these was Nathuram Godse a militant Hindu nationalist from western India who assassinated Gandhi by firing three bullets into his chest at an interfaith prayer meeting in Delhi on 30 January 1948.
Gandhi's birthday 2 October is commemorated in India as Gandhi Jayanti a national holiday and worldwide as the International Day of Nonviolence. Gandhi is commonly considered the Father of the Nation in India and is commonly called Bapu Gujarati endearment for father papa.
Early life and background
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born on 2 October 1869 into a Gujarati Hindu Modh Bania family in Porbandar also known as Sudamapuri. A coastal town on the Kathiawar Peninsula and then part of the small princely state of Porbandar in the Kathiawar Agency of the British Raj. His father Karamchand Uttamchand Gandhi 1822–1885 served as the dewan chief minister of Porbandar state.His family originated from the then village of Kutiana in what was then Junagadh State.
Although he only had an elementary education and had previously been a clerk in the state administration Karamchand proved a capable chief minister. During his tenure he married four times. His first two wives died young after each had given birth to a daughter and his third marriage was childless. In 1857. He sought his third wife's permission to remarry that year he married Putlibai (1844–1891. Who also came from Junagadh and was from a Pranami Vaishnava family. Karamchand and Putlibai had three children over the ensuing decade: a son, Laxmidas c. 1860–1914 a daughter, Raliatbehn 1862–1960and another son, Karsandas c. 1866–1913.
On 2 October 1869 Putlibai gave birth to her last child Mohandas in a dark windowless ground floor room of the Gandhi family residence in Porbandar city. As a child Gandhi was described by his sister Raliat as restless as mercury either playing or roaming about. One of his favourite pastimes was twisting dogs' ears. The Indian classics especially the stories of Shravana and king Harishchandra had a great impact on Gandhi in his childhood. In his autobiography he states that they left an indelible impression on his mind. He writes It haunted me and I must have acted Harishchandra to myself times without number. Gandhi's early self identification with truth and love as supreme values is traceable to these epic characters.
The family's religious background was eclectic. Gandhi's father Karamchand was Hindu and his mother Putlibai was from a Pranami Vaishnava Hindu family. Gandhi's father was of Modh Baniya caste in the varna of Vaishya. His mother came from the medieval Krishna bhakti based Pranami tradition. Whose religious texts include the Bhagavad Gita the Bhagavata Purana and a collection of 14 texts with teachings that the tradition believes to include the essence of the Vedas, the Quran and the Bible. Gandhi was deeply influenced by his mother an extremely pious lady who "would not think of taking her meals without her daily prayers... she would take the hardest vows and keep them without flinching. To keep two or three consecutive fasts was nothing to her.
In 1874 Gandhi's father Karamchand left Porbandar for the smaller state of Rajkot where he became a counsellor to its ruler the Thakur Sahib though Rajkot was a less prestigious state than Porbandar the British regional political agency was located there which gave the state's diwan a measure of security. In 1876 Karamchand became diwan of Rajkot and was succeeded as diwan of Porbandar by his brother Tulsidas. His family then rejoined him in Rajkot.
At age 9 Gandhi entered the local school in Rajkot near his home. There he studied the rudiments of arithmetic history the Gujarati language and geography. At age 11 he joined the High School in Rajkot, Alfred High School. He was an average student won some prizes. But was a shy and tongue tied student with no interest in games his only companions were books and school lessons.
In May 1883 the 13 year old Mohandas was married to 14 year old Kasturbai Makhanji Kapadia her first name was usually shortened to Kasturba and affectionately to Ba in an arranged marriage, according to the custom of the region at that time.In the process he lost a year at school but was later allowed to make up by accelerating his studies. His wedding was a joint event where his brother and cousin were also married. 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. As was prevailing tradition the adolescent bride was to spend much time at her parents' house, and away from her husband.
Writing many years later Mohandas described with regret the lustful feelings he felt for his young bride even at school I used to think of her and the thought of nightfall and our subsequent meeting was ever haunting me. He later recalled feeling jealous and possessive of her such as when she would visit a temple with her girlfriends and being sexually lustful in his feelings for her.
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