Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (Mahatma Gandhi) was born on October 2,
1869, into a Hindu Modh family in Porbanadar, Gujarat, India. His
father, named Karamchand Gandhi, was the Chief Minister (diwan) of the
city of Porbanadar. His mother, named Putlibai, was the fourth wife;
the previous three wives died in childbirth. Gandhi was born into the
vaishya (business caste). He was 13 years old when married Kasturbai
(Ba) Makhanji, through his parents arrangement. They had four sons.
Gandhi learned tolerance and non-injury to living beings from an early
age. He was abstinent from meat, alcohol, and promiscuity.
Gandhi studied law at the University of Bombay for one year, then at
the University College London, from which he graduated in 1891, and was
admitted to the bar of England. His reading of "Civil Disobedience" by
David Thoreau inspired his devotion to the principle of non-violence. He
returned to Bombay and practiced law there for a year, then went to
South Africa to work for an Indian firm in Natal. There Gandhi
experienced racism: he was thrown off a train while holding a valid
first class ticket and pushed to third class. Later he was beaten by a
stagecoach driver for refusing to travel on the foot-board to make room
for a European passenger. He was barred from many hotels because of his
race. In 1894, Gandhi founded the Natal Indian Congress. They focused
on the Indian cause and British discrimination in South Africa. In
1897, Gandhi brought his wife and children to South Africa. He was
attacked by a mob of racists, who tried to lynch him. He refused to
press charges on any member of the mob. Gandhi became the first
non-white lawyer to be admitted to the bar in South Africa.
During the South African War, Gandhi was a stretcher barer. He
organized the Indian Ambulance corps of 300 Indian volunteers and
hundreds of associates to serve wounded black South Africans. He was
decorated for his courage at the Battle of Spion Kop. At that time
Gandhi corresponded with Lev Tolstoy and expressed his admiration of the
Tolstoyan principles of non-violence. In 1906 Gandhi, for the first
time, organized a non-violent resistance against the Transvaal
government's registration act. He called upon his fellow Indians to
defy the new law in a non-violent manner and suffer the punishment for
doing so. He was jailed on many occasions along with thousands of his
supporters. Peaceful Indian protests caused a public outcry and forced
the South African General J. C. Smuts to negotiate a compromise with
Gandhi. However, Gandhi supported the British in World War I and
encouraged Indians to join the Army to defend the British Empire, in
compliance with the full citizenship requirement.
Back in India, Gandhi became active in the struggle for Indian
Independence. He spoke at the conventions of the Indian National
Congress, becoming one of its leaders. In 1918, Gandhi opposed the
increasing tax levied by the British during the devastating famine. He
was arrested in Champaran, state Bihar, for organizing civil resistance
of tens of thousands of landless farmers and serfs. In jail Gandhi was
on a hunger strike in solidarity with the famine stricken farmers.
Hundreds of thousands of his supporters gathered around the jail.
Gandhi was addressed by the people as Mahatma (Great Soul) and Bapu
(Father). He was released. Then he represented the farmers in
negotiation with the British administration. His effort worked. The tax
collection was suspended and all prisoners were released. He declared
that all violence was evil after the Amritsar massacre of 379 civilians
by British troops, which traumatized the Indian nation. As the leader
of the Indian National Congress party Gandhi launched "Swaraj", a
campaign for independence and non-cooperation with the British
authorities. He urged Indians to replace British goods with their own
fabrics and goods. He was imprisoned from 1922-1924, being released
after an appendectomy. During that time a Swaraj party was formed by
his anxious opponents; it later dissolved back into the Congress.
On New Year's Eve, December 31, 1929, the Indian National Congress
unfurled it's flag of independence. Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru issued
the Declaration of Independence on January 26, 1930. Gandhi planned to
achieve stability through the secularization of India, as the only way
of uniting Hindus and Muslims in one peaceful nation. The religious
divide was growing under the British colonial rule, which prospered
from the monopoly on the salt trade. Everyone needed salt. Gandhi wrote
to the Viceroy, Lord Irwin: "If my letter makes no appeal to your
heart, on the eleventh day of March I shall proceed with co-workers of
the Ashram as I can take, to disregard the provisions of the Salt Laws.
I regard this tax to be the most iniquitous of all from the poor man's
standpoint. As the Independence movement is essentially for the poorest
in the land, the beginning will be made with this evil."
From March 12 to April 6, 1930, Gandhi made the famous Satyagraha
("Satya" - truth, "Agraha" - persuasion), The Salt March to Dandi. He
walked on foot to the ocean in protest against the British salt
monopoly and salt tax. He led thousands of Indians on a 240 mile (400
km) march from Ashram Ahmetabad to the village of Dandi on the ocean to
make their own salt. For 23 days the two-mile long procession was
watched by every resident along the journey. On April 6, Gandhi raised
a grain of salt and declared, "With this, I am shaking the foundations
of the British Empire." Gandhi's plan worked because it appealed to
people in every region, class, religion, and ethnicity. The successful
campaign led to the reaction of the British government and imprisonment
of over 60,000 people for making or selling salt without a tax. The
British opened fire on the unarmed crowd and shot hundreds of
demonstrators. Gandhi was arrested in his sleep on the night of May
4th, 1930. Eventually the British government, represented by Lord
Irwin, signed the Gandhi-Irwin Pact in March 1931, agreeing to free all
political prisoners. Gandhi was invited to London as the leader of the
Indian National Congress, but he was disappointed with the British
attempts to destroy his influence by dividing him from his followers.
Gandhi campaigned to improve the lives of the untouchables, whom he
called Harijans (the children of God). He promoted equitable rights,
including the right to vote in the same electorates as other castes. In
1934 Gandhi survived three attempts on his life. In 1936, he briefly
resigned from the party, because his popularity was stifling the
diversity of membership; ranging from communists and socialists to
religious conservatives and pro-business groups. He returned to the
head of the party with the Jawaharlal Nehru presidency. At the
beginning of the Second World War Gandhi declared that India could not
be a party to this war, unless it has independence. His "Quit India"
campaign led to mass arrests on an unprecedented scale of struggle. He
was arrested in Bombay (Mumbai) and was held for two years. During his
captivity his wife passed away and his secretary also died. Gandhi was
released in May of 1944, due to a necessary surgery. His campaign led
to a release of over 100,000 political prisoners before the end of the
war.
India won independence in 1947, followed by the Indo-Pakistani War of
1947, and partition of India. Gandhi said, "Before partitioning India,
my body will have to be cut into two pieces." About one million people
died in the bloody riots until partition was reluctantly asserted by
Gandhi as the only way to stop the Civil War. He urged the Congress
Party to accept partition, and launched his last "fast-into-death"
campaign in Delhi, calling for a stop to all violence. Gandhi also
called to give Pakistan the 550,000,000 rupees in honor of the
partition agreement. He tried to prevent instability and anger against
India.
Gandhi was shot three times in the chest and died while on his way to a
prayer meeting, on January 30, 1948. His assassins were convicted and
executed a year later. The ashes of Mahatma Gandhi were split in
portions and sent to all states of India to be scattered in rivers.
Part of Gandhi's ashes rest in Raj Ghat, near Delhi, India. Part of
Mahatma Gandhi's ashes are at the Lake Shrine in Los
Angeles.
