Mahatma Gandhi

"Gandhi" redirects here. For other uses, see Gandhi (disambiguation).

Mahatma Gandhi

Born	Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi 2 October 1869 Porbandar, Kathiawar Agency,Bombay Presidency, British India^[1]^{[disputed – discuss]}
Died	30 January 1948 (aged 78) New Delhi, Dominion of India
Cause of death	Assassination by shooting
Resting place	Cremated at Rajghat, Delhi. 28.6415°N 77.2483°E
Nationality	Indian
Other names	Mahatma Gandhi, Bapu, Gandhiji
Ethnicity	Indo-Aryan(Gujarati)^{[dubious – discuss]}
Alma mater	Alfred High School, Rajkot, Samaldas College, Bhavnagar, University College, London (UCL)
Known for	Prominent figure of Indian independence movement, propounding the philosophy ofSatyagraha and Ahimsa advocating non-violence, pacifism
Religion	Hinduism, with Jain influences
Spouse(s)	Kasturba Gandhi
Children	Harilal Manilal Ramdas Devdas
Parents	Putlibai Gandhi (Mother) Karamchand Gandhi (Father)
Signature

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (pronounced [ˈmoːɦənd̪aːs ˈkərəmtʃənd̪ ˈɡaːnd̪ʱi] (

listen); 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), commonly known as Mahatma Gandhi or Bapu (Father of Nation),^{[clarification needed]} was the preeminent leader of Indian nationalism in the Raj (British-ruled India). Employing non-violent civil disobedience, Gandhi led India to independence and inspired movements for non-violence, civil rights, and freedom across the world.

Gandhi was born in a Bania family in coastal Gujarat, and trained in law in London. He fought for the civil rights of Indians in South Africa, using non-violent civil disobedience. Returning to India in 1915, he set about organising peasants to protest excessive land-taxes. A lifelong opponent of "communalism" (basing politics on religion) he reached out widely to all religious groups.^{[contradiction]} He became a leader of Muslims protesting the declining status of the Caliphate.^{[disputed – discuss]} 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, increasing economic self-reliance, and above all for achievingSwaraj—the independence of India from British domination.

Gandhi led Indians in protesting the national salt tax with the 400 km (250 mi) Dandi Salt March in 1930, and later in demanding the British to immediately Quit India in 1942, duringWorld War II. He was imprisoned for that and for numerous other political offences over the years.^[specify] Gandhi sought to practice non-violence and truth in all situations, and advocated that others do the same. He saw the villages as the core of the true India and promoted self-sufficiency; he did not support the industrialisation programs of his disciple Jawaharlal Nehru.^[timeframe?] He lived modestly in a self-sufficient residential community and wore the traditional Indian dhoti and shawl, woven with yarn he had hand spun on a charkha. He was a vegetarian, and undertook long fasts as means of both self-purification and political mobilisation.^{[neutrality is disputed]}

In his last year, unhappy at the partition of India, Gandhi worked to stop the carnage between Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs that raged in the border area between India and Pakistan.^{[disputed – discuss]} He was assassinated on 30 January 1948 by Nathuram Godse who thought Gandhi was too sympathetic to India's Muslims. 30 January is observed asMartyrs' Day in India. The honorific Mahatma ("Great Soul") was applied to him by 1914.^[2] In India he was also called Bapu("Father"). He is known in India as the Father of the Nation;^[3]his birthday, 2 October, is commemorated there as Gandhi Jayanti, a national holiday, and world-wide as the International Day of Non-Violence.

[hide]

Early life and background

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi in his earliest known photo, aged 7, c. 1876

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi^[4] was born on 2 October 1869^[1] inPorbandar, a coastal town on the Kathiawar Peninsula and then part of the small princely state of Porbandar in the Kathiawar Agency of the British Indian Empire. His father, Karamchand Gandhi (1822–1885), served as thediwan (chief minister) of Porbander state. His mother, Putlibai, who was from a Pranami Vaishnava family,^[5]^[6] was Karamchand's fourth wife, the first three wives having apparently died in childbirth.^[7]^[8]

The Indian classics, especially the stories of Shravana and kingHarishchandra, had a great impact on Gandhi in his childhood. In his autobiography, he admits 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.^[9]^[10]

In May 1883, the 13-year-old Mohandas was married to 14-year-oldKasturbai Makhanji (her first name was usually shortened to "Kasturba", and affectionately to "Ba") in an arranged child marriage, according to the custom of the region.^[11] In the process, he lost a year at school.^[12]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." However, as was prevailing tradition, the adolescent bride was to spend much time at her parents' house, and away from her husband.^[13] In 1885, when Gandhi was 15, the couple's first child was born, but survived only a few days. Gandhi's father, Karamchand Gandhi, had also died earlier that year.^[14] The religious background was eclectic. Gandhi's father was Hindu^[15] Modh Baniya^[16] and his mother was from Pranami Vaishnava family. Religious figures were frequent visitors to the home.^[17]

Mohandas and Kasturba had four more children, all sons: Harilal, born in 1888; Manilal, born in 1892; Ramdas, born in 1897; and Devdas, born in 1900.^[11] At his middle school in Porbandar and high school in Rajkot, Gandhi remained a mediocre student. He shone neither in the classroom nor on the playing field. One of the terminal reports rated him as "good at English, fair in Arithmetic and weak in Geography; conduct very good, bad handwriting." He passed the matriculation exam at Samaldas College in Bhavnagar, Gujarat, with some difficulty. Gandhi's family wanted him to be a barrister, as it would increase the prospects of succeeding to his father's post.^[18]

English barrister

Gandhi and his wife Kasturba (1902)

In 1888, Gandhi travelled to London, England, to study law atUniversity College London, where he studied Indian law and jurisprudence and trained as a barrister at the Inner Temple. His time in London was influenced by a vow he had made to his mother upon leaving India, in the presence of a Jain monk, to observe the precepts of abstinence from meat and alcohol as well as of promiscuity.^[19] Gandhi tried to adopt "English" customs, including taking dancing lessons. However, he could not appreciate the bland vegetarian food offered by his landlady and was frequently hungry until he found one of London's few vegetarian restaurants. Influenced by Henry Salt's writing, he joined the Vegetarian Society, was elected to its executive committee,^[20] and started a local Bayswater chapter.^[7] Some of the vegetarians he met were members of the Theosophical Society, which had been founded in 1875 to further universal brotherhood, and which was devoted to the study of Buddhist and Hindu literature. They encouraged Gandhi to join them in reading the Bhagavad Gita both in translation as well as in the original.^[20] Not having shown interest in religion before, he became interested in religious thought.

Gandhi was called to the bar in June 1891 and then left London for India, where he learned that his mother had died while he was in London and that his family had kept the news from him.^[20] 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 he was forced to close it when he ran afoul of a British officer.^[7]^[20] In 1893, he accepted a year-long contract from Dada Abdulla & Co., an Indian firm, to a post in theColony of Natal, South Africa, then part of the British Empire.^[7]

Civil rights movement in South Africa (1893–1914)

Gandhi was 24 when he arrived in South Africa^[21] to work as a legal representative for the Muslim Indian Traders based in the city of Pretoria.^[22] He spent 21 years in South Africa, where he developed his political views, ethics and political leadership skills.

Gandhi in South Africa (1895)

Indians in South Africa were led by wealthy Muslims, who employed Gandhi as a lawyer, and by impoverished Hindu indentured labourers with very limited rights. Gandhi considered them all to be Indians, taking a lifetime view that "Indianness" transcended religion and caste. He believed he could bridge historic differences, especially regarding religion, and he took that belief back to India where he tried to implement it. The South African experience exposed handicaps to Gandhi that he had not known about. He realised he was out of contact with the enormous complexities of religious and cultural life in India, and believed he understood India by getting to know and leading Indians in South Africa.^[23]

In South Africa, Gandhi faced the discrimination directed at all coloured people. He was thrown off a train at Pietermaritzburg after refusing to move from the first-class. He protested and was allowed on first class the next day.^[24] Travelling farther on by stagecoach, he was beaten by a driver for refusing to move to make room for a European passenger.^[25] He suffered other hardships on the journey as well, including being barred from several hotels. In another incident, the magistrate of a Durban court ordered Gandhi to remove his turban, which he refused to do.^[26]

These events were a turning point in Gandhi's life and shaped his social activism and awakened him to social injustice. After witnessing racism, prejudice and injustice against Indians in South Africa, Gandhi began to question his place in society and his people's standing in the British Empire.^[27]

Gandhi extended his original period of stay in South Africa to assist Indians in opposing a bill to deny them the right to vote. In regards to this bill Gandhi sent out a memorial to Joseph Chamberlain, British Colonial Secretary, asking him to reconsider his position on this bill.^[22] Though unable to halt the bill's passage, his campaign was successful in drawing attention to the grievances of Indians in South Africa. He helped found theNatal Indian Congress in 1894,^[7]^[24] and through this organisation, he moulded the Indian community of South Africa into a unified political force. In January 1897, when Gandhi landed in Durban, a mob of white settlers attacked him^[28] and he escaped only through the efforts of the wife of the police superintendent. He, however, refused to press charges against any member of the mob, stating it was one of his principles not to seek redress for a personal wrong in a court of law.^[7]

In 1906, the Transvaal government promulgated a new Act compelling registration of the colony's Indian population. At a mass protest meeting held in Johannesburg on 11 September that year, Gandhi adopted his still evolving methodology of Satyagraha (devotion to the truth), or non-violent protest, for the first time.^[29] He urged Indians to defy the new law and to suffer the punishments for doing so. The community adopted this plan, and during the ensuing seven-year struggle, thousands of Indians were jailed, flogged, or shot for striking, refusing to register, for burning their registration cards or engaging in other forms of non-violent resistance. The government successfully repressed the Indian protesters, but the public outcry over the harsh treatment of peaceful Indian protesters by the South African government forced South African leader Jan Christiaan Smuts, himself a philosopher, to negotiate a compromise with Gandhi. Gandhi's ideas took shape, and the concept ofSatyagraha matured during this struggle.

Gandhi and the Africans

Gandhi in South Africa (1909)

Gandhi focused his attention on Indians while in South Africa and opposed the idea that Indians should be treated at the same level as native Africans while in South Africa.^[30]^[31]^[32] He also stated that he believed "that the white race of South Africa should be the predominating race."^[33] After several treatments he received from Whites in South Africa, Gandhi began to change his thinking and apparently increased his interest in politics.^[34]White rule enforced strict segregation among all races and generated conflict between these communities. Bhana and Vahed argue that Gandhi, at first, shared racial notions prevalent of the times and that his experiences in jail sensitized him to the plight of South Africa's indigenous peoples.

During the Boer war Gandhi volunteered in 1900 to form a group of ambulance drivers. He wanted to disprove the British idea that Hindus were not fit for "manly" activities involving danger and exertion. Gandhi raised eleven hundred Indian volunteers. They were trained and medically certified to serve on the front lines. At Spion Kop Gandhi and his bearers had to carry wounded soldiers for miles to a field hospital because the terrain was too rough for the ambulances. Gandhi was pleased when someone said that European ambulance corpsmen could not make the trip under the heat without food or water. General Redvers Buller mentioned the courage of the Indians in his dispatch. Gandhi and thirty-seven other Indians received the War Medal.^[35]

In 1906, the British declared war against the Zulu Kingdom in Natal, Gandhi encouraged the British to recruit Indians.^[36] He argued that Indians should support the war efforts to legitimise their claims to full citizenship.^[36]The British accepted Gandhi's offer to let a detachment of 20 Indians volunteer as a stretcher-bearer corps to treat wounded British soldiers. This corps was commanded by Gandhi and operated for less than two months.^[37] The experience taught him it was hopeless to directly challenge the overwhelming military power of the British army—he decided it could only be resisted in non-violent fashion by the pure of heart.^[38]

After the black majority came to power in South Africa, Gandhi was proclaimed a national hero with numerous monuments.^[39]

Struggle for Indian Independence (1915–47)

Role in World War I

In April 1918, during the latter part of World War I, the Viceroy invited Gandhi to a War Conference in Delhi.^[42]Perhaps to show his support for the Empire and help his case for India's independence,^[43] Gandhi agreed to actively recruit Indians for the war effort.^[44] In contrast to the Zulu War of 1906 and the outbreak of World War I in 1914, when he recruited volunteers for the Ambulance Corps, this time Gandhi attempted to recruit combatants. In a June 1918 leaflet entitled "Appeal for Enlistment", Gandhi wrote "To bring about such a state of things we should have the ability to defend ourselves, that is, the ability to bear arms and to use them...If we want to learn the use of arms with the greatest possible despatch, it is our duty to enlist ourselves in the army."^[45] He did, however, stipulate in a letter to the Viceroy's private secretary that he "personally will not kill or injure anybody, friend or foe."^[46]

Gandhi's war recruitment campaign brought into question his consistency on nonviolence. Gandhi's private secretary noted that "The question of the consistency between his creed of 'Ahimsa' (non-violence) and his recruiting campaign was raised not only then but has been discussed ever since."^[44]

Champaran and Kheda

Main article: Champaran and Kheda Satyagraha

Gandhi in 1918, at the time of the Kheda and Champaran Satyagrahas

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 were backed by the local administration. The peasantry was forced to grow Indigo, a cash crop whose demand had been declining over two decades, and were forced to sell their crops to the planters at a fixed price. Unhappy with this, the peasantry appealed to Gandhi at his ashram in Ahmedabad. Pursuing a strategy of non-violent protest, Gandhi took the administration by surprise and won concessions from the authorities.^[47]

In 1918, Kheda was hit by floods and famine and the peasantry was demanding relief from taxes. Gandhi moved his headquarters to Nadiad,^[48]organising scores of supporters and fresh volunteers from the region, the most notable being Vallabhbhai Patel.^[49] Using non-co-operation as a technique, Gandhi initiated a signature campaign where peasants pledged non-payment of revenue even under the threat of confiscation of land. A social boycott of mamlatdars and talatdars (revenue officials within the district) accompanied the agitation. Gandhi worked hard to win public support for the agitation across the country. For five months, the administration refused but finally in end-May 1918, the Government gave way on important provisions and relaxed the conditions of payment of revenue tax until the famine ended. In Kheda, Vallabhbhai Patel represented the farmers in negotiations with the British, who suspended revenue collection and released all the prisoners.^[50]

Khilafat movement

In 1919 Gandhi, with his weak position in Congress, decided to broaden his base by increasing his appeal to Muslims. The opportunity came from the Khilafat movement, a worldwide protest by Muslims against the collapsing status of the Caliph, the leader of their religion. The Ottoman Empire had lost the World War and was dismembered, as Muslims feared for the safety of the holy places and the prestige of their religion.^[51] Although Gandhi did not originate the All-India Muslim Conference,^[52] which directed the movement in India, he soon became its most prominent spokesman and attracted a strong base of Muslim support with local chapters in all Muslim centres in India.^[53] His success made him India's first national leader with a multicultural base and facilitated his rise to power within Congress, which had previously been unable to reach many Muslims. In 1920 Gandhi became a major leader in Congress.^[54]^[55] By the end of 1922 the Khilafat movement had collapsed.^[56]

Gandhi always fought against "communalism", which pitted Muslims against Hindus in politics, but he could not reverse the rapid growth of communalism after 1922. Deadly religious riots broke out in numerous cities, including 91 in U.P. (Uttar Pradesh) alone.^[57]^[58] At the leadership level, the proportion of Muslims among delegates to Congress fell sharply, from 11% in 1921 to under 4% in 1923.^[59]

Non-co-operation

Main article: Non-cooperation movement

Mahatma Gandhi spinning yarn, in the late 1920s

With Congress now behind him in 1920, Gandhi had the base to employ non-co-operation, non-violence and peaceful resistance as his "weapons" in the struggle against the British Raj. His wide popularity among both Hindus and Muslims made his leadership possible; he even convinced the extreme faction of Muslims to support peaceful non-co-operation.^[60] The spark that ignited a national protest was overwhelming anger at the Jallianwala Bagh massacre (or Amritsar massacre) of hundreds of peaceful civilians by British troops in Punjab. Many Britons celebrated the action as needed to prevent another violent uprising similar to theRebellion of 1857, an attitude that caused many Indian leaders to decide the Raj was controlled by their enemies. Gandhi criticised both the actions of the British Raj and the retaliatory violence of Indians. He authored the resolution offering condolences to British civilian victims and condemning the riots which, after initial opposition in the party, was accepted following Gandhi's emotional speech advocating his principle that all violence was evil and could not be justified.^[61]

After the massacre and subsequent violence, Gandhi began to focus on winning complete self-government and control of all Indian government institutions, maturing soon into Swaraj or complete individual, spiritual, political independence.^[62] During this period, Gandhi claimed to be a "highly orthodox Hindu" and in January 1921 during a speech at a temple in Vadtal, he spoke of the relevance of non-co-operation to Hindu Dharma, "At this holy place, I declare, if you want to protect your 'Hindu Dharma', non-cooperation is first as well as the last lesson you must learn up.".^[63]

Sabarmati Ashram, Gandhi's home in Gujarat

In December 1921, Gandhi was invested with executive authority on behalf of the Indian National Congress. Under his leadership, the Congress was reorganised with 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. Linked to this was his advocacy that khadi (homespun cloth) be worn by all Indians instead of British-made textiles. Gandhi exhorted Indian men and women, rich or poor, to spend time each day spinningkhadi in support of the independence movement.^[64]

Gandhi even invented a small, portable spinning wheel that could be folded into the size of a small typewriter.^[65] This was a strategy to inculcate discipline and dedication to weeding out the unwilling and ambitious and to include women in the movement at a time when many thought that such activities were not respectable activities for women. In addition to boycotting British products, Gandhi urged the people to boycott British educational institutions and

"YOUR FRIENDLY PHILIPPINE FOREIGNERS AND PHILIPPINE PROVINCES ONLINE ELECTRICAL SUPPLIER"

Monday, August 26, 2013

What you will learn from Sir Mahatma Gandhi

Mahatma Gandhi

Contents

Early life and background

English barrister

Civil rights movement in South Africa (1893–1914)

Gandhi and the Africans

Struggle for Indian Independence (1915–47)

Role in World War I

Champaran and Kheda

Khilafat movement

Non-co-operation

No comments:

About Me

Blog Archive

Followers