INTRODUCTION

Mahatma Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was an Indian lawyer,
anti-colonial nationalist and political ethicist who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the
successful campaign for India's independence from British rule, and to later inspire movements
for civil rights and freedom across the world. The honorific mahathma (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 or 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.

Early life and background

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born on 2 October 1869into
a Gujarati Hindu ModhBania 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 Indian Empire. His father, Karamchand Uttamchand
Gandhi (1822–1885), served as the dewan (chief minister) of Porbandar state
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 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.

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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..
In late 1885, Gandhi's father Karamchand died. Gandhi, then 16 years old, and his wife of age 17
had their first baby, who survived only a few days. The two deaths anguished Gandhi.[48] The
Gandhi couple had four more children, all sons: Harilal, born in 1888; Manilal, born in
1892; Ramdas, born in 1897; and Devdas, born in 1900.
In November 1887, the 18-year-old Gandhi graduated from high school in Ahmedabad.[49] In
January 1888, he enrolled at Samaldas College in Bhavnagar State, then the sole degree-granting
institution of higher education in the region. But he dropped out and returned to his family in
Porbandar.
Father of the Nation
Indians widely describe Gandhi as the father of the nation. Origin of this title is traced back to a
radio address (on Singapore radio) on 6 July 1944 by Subhash Chandra Bose where Bose
addressed Gandhi as "The Father of the Nation". On 28 April 1947, Sarojini Naidu during a
conference also referred Gandhi as "Father of the Nation". However, in response to an RTI
application in 2012, the Government of India stated that the Constitution of India did not permit
any titles except ones acquired through education or military service.

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Struggle for Indian independence (1915–1947)
See also: Indian independence movement
At the request of Gopal Krishna Gokhale, conveyed to him by C. F. Andrews, Gandhi returned to
India in 1915. He brought an international reputation as a leading Indian nationalist, theorist and
community organiser.
Gandhi joined the Indian National Congress and was introduced to Indian issues, politics and the
Indian people primarily by Gokhale. Gokhale was a key leader of the Congress Party best known
for his restraint and moderation, and his insistence on working inside the system. Gandhi took
Gokhale's liberal approach based on British Whiggish traditions and transformed it to make it
look Indian.
Gandhi took leadership of the Congress in 1920 and began escalating demands until on 26
January 1930 the Indian National Congress declared the independence of India. The British did
not recognise the declaration but negotiations ensued, with the Congress taking a role in
provincial government in the late 1930s. Gandhi and the Congress withdrew their support of the
Raj when the Viceroy declared war on Germany in September 1939 without consultation.
Tensions escalated until Gandhi demanded immediate independence in 1942 and the British
responded by imprisoning him and tens of thousands of Congress leaders. Meanwhile, the
Muslim League did co-operate with Britain and moved, against Gandhi's strong opposition, to
demands for a totally separate Muslim state of Pakistan. In August 1947 the British partitioned
the land with India and Pakistan each achieving independence on terms that Gandhi disapproved.
Role in World War I
See also: The role of India 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. Gandhi agreed to actively recruit Indians for the war effort. 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." 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."

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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' (nonviolence) and his recruiting campaign was raised not only then but has
been discussed ever since."
Champaran agitations

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

Gandhi's first major achievement came in 1917 with the Champaran agitation in Bihar. 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 Indigofera, a cash crop
for Indigo dye 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 nonviolent protest, Gandhi took the administration
by surprise and won concessions from the authorities.
Kheda agitations
Main article: Kheda Satyagraha
In 1918, Kheda was hit by floods and famine and the peasantry was demanding relief from taxes.
Gandhi moved his headquarters to Nadiad, organising scores of supporters and fresh volunteers
from the region, the most notable being Vallabhbhai Patel. 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 by the end of 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.
Khilafat movement
Every revolution begins with a single act of defiance.
In 1919, following World War I, Gandhi (aged 49) sought political co-operation from Muslims
in his fight against British imperialism by supporting the Ottoman Empire that had been defeated
in the World War. Before this initiative of Gandhi, communal disputes and religious riots
between Hindus and Muslims were common in British India, such as the riots of 1917–18.
Gandhi had already supported the British crown with resources and by recruiting Indian soldiers
to fight the war in Europe on the British side. This effort of Gandhi was in part motivated by the
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British promise to reciprocate the help with swaraj (self-government) to Indians after the end of
World War I. The British government, instead of self government, had offered minor reforms
instead, disappointing Gandhi. Gandhi announced his satyagraha (civil disobedience) intentions.
The British colonial officials made their counter move by passing the Rowlatt Act, to block
Gandhi's movement. The Act allowed the British government to treat civil disobedience
participants as criminals and gave it the legal basis to arrest anyone for "preventive indefinite
detention, incarceration without judicial review or any need for a trial".
Gandhi felt that Hindu-Muslim co-operation was necessary for political progress against the
British. He leveraged the Khilafat movement, wherein Sunni Muslims in India, their leaders such
as the sultans of princely states in India and Ali brothers championed the Turkish Caliph as a
solidarity symbol of Sunni Islamic community (ummah). They saw the Caliph as their means to
support Islam and the Islamic law after the defeat of Ottoman Empire in World War I.Gandhi's
support to the Khilafat movement led to mixed results. It initially led to a strong Muslim support
for Gandhi. However, the Hindu leaders including Rabindranath Tagore questioned Gandhi's
leadership because they were largely against recognising or supporting the Sunni Islamic Caliph
in Turkey. The increasing Muslim support for Gandhi, after he championed the Caliph's cause,
temporarily stopped the Hindu-Muslim communal violence. It offered evidence of inter-
communal harmony in joint Rowlatt satyagraha demonstration rallies, raising Gandhi's stature as
the political leader to the British. His support for the Khilafat movement also helped him
sideline Muhammad Ali Jinnah, who had announced his opposition to the satyagraha non-co-
operation movement approach of Gandhi. Jinnah began creating his independent support, and
later went on to lead the demand for West and East Pakistan. Though they agreed in general
terms on Indian independence, they disagreed on the means of achieving this. Jinnah was mainly
interested in dealing with the British via constitutional negotiation, rather than attempting to
agitate the masses
Non-co-operation
With his book Hind Swaraj (1909) Gandhi, aged 40, declared that British rule was established in
India with the co-operation of Indians and had survived only because of this co-operation. If
Indians refused to co-operate, British rule would collapse and swaraj (Indian independence)
would come.

In February 1919, Gandhi cautioned the Viceroy of India with a cable communication that if the
British were to pass the Rowlatt Act, he would appeal to Indians to start civil disobedience The
British government ignored him and passed the law, stating it would not yield to threats.
The satyagraha civil disobedience followed, with people assembling to protest the Rowlatt Act.

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On 30 March 1919, British law officers opened fire on an assembly of unarmed people,
peacefully gathered, participating in satyagraha in Delhi.
People rioted in retaliation. On 6 April 1919, a Hindu festival day, he asked a crowd to
remember not to injure or kill British people, but to express their frustration with peace, to
boycott British goods and burn any British clothing they owned. He emphasised the use of non-
violence to the British and towards each other, even if the other side used violence. Communities
across India announced plans to gather in greater numbers to protest. Government warned him to
not enter Delhi. Gandhi defied the order. On 9 April, Gandhi was arrested.
People rioted. On 13 April 1919, people including women with children gathered in an Amritsar
park, and a British officer named Reginald Dyer surrounded them and ordered his troops to fire
on them. The resulting Jallianwala Bagh massacre (or Amritsar massacre) of hundreds of Sikh
and Hindu civilians enraged the subcontinent, but was cheered by some Britons and parts of the
British media as an appropriate response. Gandhi in Ahmedabad, on the day after the massacre in
Amritsar, did not criticise the British and instead criticised his fellow countrymen for not
exclusively using love to deal with the hate of the British government. Gandhi demanded that
people stop all violence, stop all property destruction, and went on fast-to-death to pressure
Indians to stop their rioting. The massacre and Gandhi's non-violent response to it moved many,
but also made some Sikhs and Hindus upset that Dyer was getting away with murder.
Investigation committees were formed by the British, which Gandhi asked Indians to boycottThe
unfolding events, the massacre and the British response, led Gandhi to the belief that Indians will
never get a fair equal treatment under British rulers, and he shifted his attention to swaraj and
political independence for India 1921, Gandhi was the leader of the Indian National
Congress. He reorganised the Congress. With Congress now behind him, and Muslim support
triggered by his backing the Khilafat movement to restore the Caliph in Turkey,  Gandhi had the
political support and the attention of the British Raj.

Gandhi expanded his nonviolent non-co-operation 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 spinning khadi in support
of the independence movement. In addition to boycotting British products, Gandhi urged the
people to boycott British institutions and law courts, to resign from government employment,
and to forsake British titles and honours. Gandhi thus began his journey aimed at crippling the
British India government economically, politically and administratively.
The appeal of "Non-cooperation" grew, its social popularity drew participation from all strata of
Indian society. Gandhi was arrested on 10 March 1922, tried for sedition, and sentenced to six

6
years' imprisonment. He began his sentence on 18 March 1922. With Gandhi isolated in prison,
the Indian National Congress split into two factions, one led by Chitta Ranjan Das and 
Salt Satyagraha (Salt March)

After his early release from prison for political crimes in 1924, over the second half of the 1920s
Gandhi continued to pursue swaraj. He pushed through a resolution at the Calcutta Congress in
December 1928 calling on the British government to grant India dominion status or face a new
campaign of non-cooperation with complete independence for the country as its goal.[131] After
his support for World War I with Indian combat troops, and the failure of Khilafat movement in
preserving the rule of Caliph in Turkey, followed by a collapse in Muslim support for his
leadership, some such as Subhas Chandra Bose and Bhagat Singh questioned his values and non-
violent approach. many Hindu leaders championed a demand for immediate independence,
Gandhi revised his own call to a one-year wait, instead of two.
The British did not respond favourably to Gandhi's proposal. British political leaders such as
Lord Birkenhead and Winston Churchill announced opposition to "the appeasers of Gandhi" in
their discussions with European diplomats who sympathised with Indian demands. On 31
December 1929, an Indian flag was unfurled in Lahore. Gandhi led Congress in a celebration on
26 January 1930 of India's Independence Day in Lahore. This day was commemorated by almost
every other Indian organisation. Gandhi then launched a new Satyagraha against the British salt
tax in March 1930. Gandhi sent an ultimatum in the form of a letter personally addressed to Lord
Irwin, the viceroy of India, on 2 March. Gandhi condemned British rule in the letter, describing it
as "a curse" that "has impoverished the dumb millions by a system of progressive exploitation
and by a ruinously expensive military and civil administration...It has reduced us politically to
serfdom." Gandhi also mentioned in the letter that the viceroy received a salary "over five
thousand times India's average income." In the letter, Gandhi also stressed his continued
adherence to non-violent forms of protest.[134]
This was highlighted by the Salt March to Dandi from 12 March to 6 April, where, together with
78 volunteers, he marched 388 kilometres (241 mi) from Ahmedabad to Dandi, Gujarat to make
salt himself, with the declared intention of breaking the salt laws. The march took 25 days to
cover 240 miles with Gandhi speaking to often huge crowds along the way. Thousands of
Indians joined him in Dandi. On 5 May he was interned under a regulation dating from 1827 in
anticipation of a protest that he had planned. The protest at Dharasana salt works on 21 May
went ahead without him see. A horrified American journalist, Webb Miller, described the British
response thus:
In complete silence the Gandhi men drew up and halted a hundred yards from the stockade. A
picked column advanced from the crowd, waded the ditches and approached the barbed wire

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stockade... at a word of command, scores of native policemen rushed upon the advancing
marchers and rained blows on their heads with their steel-shot lathis [long bamboo sticks]. Not
one of the marchers even raised an arm to fend off blows. They went down like ninepins. From
where I stood I heard the sickening whack of the clubs on unprotected skulls... Those struck
down fell sprawling, unconscious or writhing with fractured skulls or broken shoulders.[135]
This went on for hours until some 300 or more protesters had been beaten, many seriously
injured and two killed. At no time did they offer any resistance..
Gandhi as folk hero

Indian workers on strike in support of Gandhi in 1930.

Indian Congress in the 1920s appealed to Andhra Pradesh peasants by creating Telugu language
plays that combined Indian mythology and legends, linked them to Gandhi's ideas, and portrayed
Gandhi as a messiah, a reincarnation of ancient and medieval Indian nationalist leaders and
saints. The plays built support among peasants steeped in traditional Hindu culture, according to
Murali, and this effort made Gandhi a folk hero in Telugu speaking villages, a sacred messiah-
like figure.
Gandhi also campaigned hard going from one rural corner of the Indian subcontinent to another.
He used terminology and phrases such as Rama-rajya from Ramayana, Prahlada as a
paradigmatic icon, and such cultural symbols as another facet of swaraj and satyagraha. During
his lifetime, these ideas sounded strange outside India, but they readily and deeply resonated
with the culture and historic values of his people.
Negotiations
The government, represented by Lord Irwin, decided to negotiate with Gandhi. The Gandhi–
Irwin Pact was signed in March 1931. The British Government agreed to free all political
prisoners, in return for the suspension of the civil disobedience movement. According to the
pact, Gandhi was invited to attend the Round Table Conference in London for discussions and as
the sole representative of the Indian National Congress. The conference was a disappointment to
Gandhi and the nationalists. Gandhi expected to discuss India's independence, while the British
side focused on the Indian princes and Indian minorities rather than on a transfer of power. Lord
Irwin's successor, Lord Willingdon, took a hard line against India as an independent nation,
began a new campaign of controlling and subduing the nationalist movement. Gandhi was again
arrested, and the government tried and failed to negate his influence by completely isolating him
from his followers.

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In Britain, Winston Churchill, a prominent Conservative politician who was then out of office
but later became its prime minister, became a vigorous and articulate critic of Gandhi and
opponent of his long-term plans. Churchill often ridiculed Gandhi, saying in a widely reported
1931 speech:
It is alarming and also nauseating to see Mr Gandhi, a seditious Middle Temple lawyer, now
posing as a fakir of a type well known in the East, striding half-naked up the steps of the Vice-
regal palace....to parley on equal terms with the representative of the King-Emperor.
Churchill's bitterness against Gandhi grew in the 1930s. He called Gandhi as the one who was
"seditious in aim" whose evil genius and multiform menace was attacking the British empire.
Churchill called him a dictator, a "Hindu Mussolini", fomenting a race war, trying to replace the
Raj with Brahmin cronies, playing on the ignorance of Indian masses, all for selfish gain.
[146]
 Churchill attempted to isolate Gandhi, and his criticism of Gandhi was widely covered by
European and American press. It gained Churchill sympathetic support, but it also increased
support for Gandhi among Europeans. The developments heightened Churchill's anxiety that the
"British themselves would give up out of pacifism and misplaced conscience".
Round Table Conferences

Gandhi and his personal assistant Mahadev Desai at Birla House, 1939

During the discussions between Gandhi and the British government over 1931–32 at the Round
Table Conferences, Gandhi, now aged about 62, sought constitutional reforms as a preparation to
the end of colonial British rule, and begin the self-rule by Indians. The British side sought
reforms that would keep Indian subcontinent as a colony. The British negotiators proposed
constitutional reforms on a British Dominion model that established separate electorates based
on religious and social divisions. The British questioned the Congress party and Gandhi's
authority to speak for all of India. They invited Indian religious leaders, such as Muslims and
Sikhs, to press their demands along religious lines, as well as B. R. Ambedkar as the
representative leader of the untouchables. Gandhi vehemently opposed a constitution that
enshrined rights or representations based on communal divisions, because he feared that it would
not bring people together but divide them, perpetuate their status and divert the attention from
India's struggle to end the colonial rule.
The Second Round Table conference was the only time he left India between 1914 and his death
in 1948. He declined the government's offer of accommodation in an expensive West End hotel,
preferring to stay in the East End, to live among working-class people, as he did in India. He
based himself in a small cell-bedroom at Kingsley Hall for the three-month duration of his
stay and was enthusiastically received by East Enders. During this time he renewed his links with
the British vegetarian movement.

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An admiring East End crowd gathers to witness the arrival of Mahatma Gandhi, 1931
After Gandhi returned from the Second Round Table conference, he started a new satyagraha. He
was arrested and imprisoned at the Yerwada Jail, Pune. While he was in prison, the British
government enacted a new law that granted untouchables a separate electorate. It came to be
known as the Communal Award. In protest, Gandhi started a fast-unto-death, while he was held
in prison. The resulting public outcry forced the government, in consultations with Ambedkar, to
replace the Communal Award with a compromise Poona Pact.
Congress politics
In 1934 Gandhi resigned from Congress party membership. He did not disagree with the party's
position but felt that if he resigned, his popularity with Indians would cease to stifle the party's
membership, which actually varied, including communists, socialists, trade unionists, students,
religious conservatives, and those with pro-business convictions, and that these various voices
would get a chance to make themselves heard. Gandhi also wanted to avoid being a target for Raj
propaganda by leading a party that had temporarily accepted political accommodation with the
Raj.
Gandhi returned to active politics again in 1936, with the Nehru presidency and the Lucknow
session of the Congress. Although Gandhi wanted a total focus on the task of winning
independence and not speculation about India's future, he did not restrain the Congress from
adopting socialism as its goal. Gandhi had a clash with Subhas Chandra Bose, who had been
elected president in 1938, and who had previously expressed a lack of faith in nonviolence as a
means of protest.[158] Despite Gandhi's opposition, Bose won a second term as Congress
President, against Gandhi's nominee, Dr. Pattabhi Sitaramayya; but left the Congress when the
All-India leaders resigned en masse in protest of his abandonment of the principles introduced by
Gandhi. Gandhi declared that Sitaramayya's defeat was his defeat.
World War II and Quit India movement

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Gandhi opposed providing any help to the British war effort and he campaigned against any
Indian participation in World War II. Gandhi's campaign did not enjoy the support of Indian
masses and many Indian leaders such as Sardar Patel and Rajendra Prasad, and as such failed.
Over 2.5 million Indians ignored Gandhi, volunteered and joined the British military to fight on
various fronts of the allied forces. Gandhi opposition to the Indian participation in World War II
was motivated by his belief that India could not be party to a war ostensibly being fought for
democratic freedom while that freedom was denied to India itself. He also condemned Nazism
and Fascism, a view which won endorsement of other Indian leaders. As the war progressed,
Gandhi intensified his demand for independence, calling for the British to Quit India in a 1942
speech in Mumbai. This was Gandhi's and the Congress Party's most definitive revolt aimed at
securing the British exit from India. The British government responded quickly to the Quit India
speech, and within hours after Gandhi's speech arrested Gandhi and all the members of the
Congress Working Committee. His countrymen retaliated the arrests by damaging or burning
down hundreds of government owned railway stations, police stations, and cutting down
telegraph wires.

Gandhi's arrest lasted two years, as he was held in the Aga Khan Palace in Pune. During this
period, his long time secretary Mahadev Desai died of a heart attack, his wife Kasturba died after
18 months' imprisonment on 22 February 1944; and Gandhi suffered a
severe malaria attack. While in jail, he agreed to an interview with Stuart Gelder, a British
journalist. Gelder then composed and released an interview summary, cabled it to the
mainstream press, that announced sudden concessions Gandhi was willing to make, comments
that shocked his countrymen, the Congress workers and even Gandhi. The latter two claimed that
it distorted what Gandhi actually said on a range of topics and falsely repudiated the Quit India
movement.
Gandhi was released before the end of the war on 6 May 1944 because of his failing health and
necessary surgery; the Raj did not want him to die in prison and enrage the nation. He came out
of detention to an altered political scene – the Muslim League for example, which a few years
earlier had appeared marginal, "now occupied the centre of the political stage"[171] and the topic
of Muhammad Ali Jinnah's campaign for Pakistan was a major talking point. Gandhi and Jinnah
had extensive correspondence and the two men met several times over a period of two weeks in
September 1944, where Gandhi insisted on a united religiously plural and independent India
which included Muslims and non-Muslims of the Indian subcontinent coexisting. Jinnah rejected
this proposal and insisted instead for partitioning the subcontinent on religious lines to create a
separate Muslim India (later Pakistan). These discussions continued through 1947.
While the leaders of Congress languished in jail, the other parties supported the war and gained
organizational strength. Underground publications flailed at the ruthless suppression of

11
Congress, but it had little control over events. At the end of the war, the British gave clear
indications that power would be transferred to Indian hands. At this point Gandhi called off the
struggle, and around 100,000 political prisoners were released, including the Congress's
leadership.
Partition and independence

Gandhi with Muhammad Ali Jinnah in 1944

Gandhi opposed the partition of the Indian subcontinent along religious lines. The Indian
National Congress and Gandhi called for the British to Quit India. However, the Muslim
League demanded "Divide and Quit India". Gandhi suggested an agreement which required the
Congress and the Muslim League to co-operate 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.
Jinnah rejected Gandhi's proposal and called for Direct Action Day, on 16 August 1946, to press
Muslims to publicly gather in cities and support his proposal for the partition of the Indian
subcontinent into a Muslim state and non-Muslim state. Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, the
Muslim League Chief Minister of Bengal – now Bangladesh and West Bengal, gave Calcutta's
police special holiday to celebrate the Direct Action Day. The Direct Action Day triggered a
mass murder of Calcutta Hindus and the torching of their property, and holidaying police were
missing to contain or stop the conflict. The British government did not order its army to move in
to contain the violence. The violence on Direct Action Day led to retaliatory violence against
Muslims across India. Thousands of Hindus and Muslims were murdered, and tens of thousands
were injured in the cycle of violence in the days that followed. Gandhi visited the most riot-
prone areas to appeal a stop to the massacres.

Gandhi in 1947, with Louis Mountbatten, Britain's last Viceroy of India, and his wife Edwina
Mountbatten

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The British reluctantly agreed to grant independence to the people of the Indian subcontinent, but
accepted Jinnah's proposal of partitioning the land into Pakistan and India. Gandhi was involved
in the final negotiations, but Stanley Wolpert states the "plan to carve up British India was never
approved of or accepted by Gandhi".
The partition was controversial and violently disputed. More than half a million were killed in
religious riots as 10 million to 12 million non-Muslims (Hindus and Sikhs mostly) migrated from
Pakistan into India, and Muslims migrated from India into Pakistan, across the newly created
borders of India, West Pakistan and East Pakistan.
Gandhi spent the day of independence not celebrating the end of the British rule but appealing
for peace among his countrymen by fasting and spinning in Calcutta on 15 August 1947. The
partition had gripped the Indian subcontinent with religious violence and the streets were filled
with corpses. Some writers credit Gandhi's fasting and protests for stopping the religious riots
and communal violence.

Truth and Satyagraha

Plaque displaying one of Gandhi's quotes on rumour

Gandhi dedicated his life to discovering and pursuing truth, or Satya, and called his
movement satyagraha, which means "appeal to, insistence on, or reliance on the Truth".[252] The
first formulation of the satyagraha as a political movement and principle occurred in 1920, which
he tabled as "Resolution on Non-cooperation" in September that year before a session of the
Indian Congress. It was the satyagraha formulation and step, states Dennis Dalton, that deeply
resonated with beliefs and culture of his people, embedded him into the popular consciousness,
transforming him quickly into Mahatma.

"God is truth. The way to truth lies through ahimsa (nonviolence)" – Sabarmati, 13 March 1927

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Gandhi based Satyagraha on the Vedantic ideal of self-realization, ahimsa (nonviolence),
vegetarianism, and universal love. William Borman states that the key to his satyagraha is rooted
in the Hindu Upanishadic texts. According to Indira Carr, Gandhi's ideas
on ahimsa and satyagraha were founded on the philosophical foundations of Advaita Vedanta. I.
Bruce Watson states that some of these ideas are found not only in traditions within Hinduism,
but also in Jainism or Buddhism, particularly those about non-violence, vegetarianism and
universal love, but Gandhi's synthesis was to politicise these ideas.[256] Gandhi's concept
of satya as a civil movement, states Glyn Richards, are best understood in the context of the
Hindu terminology of Dharma and Ṛta.
Gandhi stated that the most important battle to fight was overcoming his own demons, fears, and
insecurities. Gandhi summarised his beliefs first when he said "God is Truth". He would later
change this statement to "Truth is God". Thus, satya (truth) in Gandhi's philosophy is
"God".Gandhi, states Richards, described the term "God" not as a separate power, but as the
Being (Brahman, Atman) of the Advaita Vedanta tradition, a nondual universal that pervades in
all things, in each person and all life. According to Nicholas Gier, this to Gandhi meant the unity
of God and humans, that all beings have the same one soul and therefore equality,
that atman exists and is same as everything in the universe, ahimsa (non-violence) is the very
nature of this atman.

Gandhi picking salt during Salt Satyagraha to defy colonial law giving salt collection monopoly
to the British.[260] His satyagraha attracted vast numbers of Indian men and women.[261]
The essence of Satyagraha is "soul force" as a political means, refusing to use brute force against
the oppressor, seeking to eliminate antagonisms between the oppressor and the oppressed,
aiming to transform or "purify" the oppressor. It is not inaction but determined passive resistance
and non-co-operation where, states Arthur Herman, "love conquers hate".A euphemism
sometimes used for Satyagraha is that it is a "silent force" or a "soul force" (a term also used by
Martin Luther King Jr. during his "I Have a Dream" speech). It arms the individual with moral
power rather than physical power. Satyagraha is also termed a "universal force", as it essentially
"makes no distinction between kinsmen and strangers, young and old, man and woman, friend
and foe."

14
While Gandhi's idea of satyagraha as a political means attracted a widespread following among
Indians, the support was not universal. For example, Muslim leaders such as Jinnah opposed
the satyagraha idea, accused Gandhi to be reviving Hinduism through political activism, and
began effort to counter Gandhi with Muslim nationalism and a demand for Muslim homeland.
The untouchability leader Ambedkar, in June 1945, after his decision to convert to Buddhism
and a key architect of the Constitution of modern India, dismissed Gandhi's ideas as loved by
"blind Hindu devotees", primitive, influenced by spurious brew of Tolstoy and Ruskin, and
"there is always some simpleton to preach them". Winston Churchill caricatured Gandhi as a
"cunning huckster" seeking selfish gain, an "aspiring dictator", and an "atavistic spokesman of a
pagan Hinduism". Churchill stated that the civil disobedience movement spectacle of Gandhi
only increased "the danger to which white people there [British India] are exposed".
Nonviolence

Gandhi with textile workers at Darwen, Lancashire, 26 September 1931

Although Gandhi was not the originator of the principle of nonviolence, he was the first to apply
it in the political field on a large scale. The concept of nonviolence (ahimsa) has a long history in
Indian religious thought, with it being considered the highest dharma (ethical value virtue), a
precept to be observed towards all living beings (sarvbhuta), at all times (sarvada), in all respects
(sarvatha), in action, words and thought. Gandhi explains his philosophy and ideas
about ahimsa as a political means in his autobiography The Story of My Experiments with Truth.
Gandhi was criticised for refusing to protest the hanging of Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev, Udham
Singh and Rajguru He was accused of accepting a deal with the King's representative Irwin that
released civil disobedience leaders from prison and accepted the death sentence against the
highly popular revolutionary Bhagat Singh, who at his trial had replied, "Revolution is the
inalienable right of mankind". However Congressmen, who were votaries of non-violence,
defended Bhagat Singh and other revolutionary nationalists being tried in Lahore.
Gandhi's views came under heavy criticism in Britain when it was under attack from Nazi
Germany, and later when the Holocaust was revealed. He told the British people in 1940, "I
would like you to lay down the arms you have as being useless for saving you or humanity. You
will invite Herr Hitler and Signor Mussolini to take what they want of the countries you call your
possessions... If these gentlemen choose to occupy your homes, you will vacate them. If they do
not give you free passage out, you will allow yourselves, man, woman, and child, to be
slaughtered, but you will refuse to owe allegiance to them." George Orwell remarked that
Gandhi's methods confronted "an old-fashioned and rather shaky despotism which treated him in
a fairly chivalrous way", not a totalitarian power, "where political opponents simply disappear."

15
In a post-war interview in 1946, he said, "Hitler killed five million Jews. It is the greatest crime
of our time. But the Jews should have offered themselves to the butcher's knife. They should
have thrown themselves into the sea from cliffs... It would have aroused the world and the people
of Germany... As it is they succumbed anyway in their millions." Gandhi believed this act of
"collective suicide", in response to the Holocaust, "would have been heroism".
Gandhi as a politician, in practice, settled for less than complete non-violence. His method of
non-violent Satyagraha could easily attract masses and it fitted in with the interests and
sentiments of business groups, better-off people and dominant sections of peasantry, who did not
want an uncontrolled and violent social revolution which could create losses for them. His
doctrine of ahimsa lay at the core of unifying role played by the Gandhian Congress. But during
Quit India movement even many staunch Gandhians used 'violent means'.
Women
Gandhi strongly favoured the emancipation of women, and urged "the women to fight for their
own self-development." He opposed purdah, child marriage, dowry and sati. A wife is not a slave
of the husband, stated Gandhi, but his comrade, better half, colleague and friend, according to
Lyn Norvell. In his own life however, according to Suruchi Thapar-Bjorkert, Gandhi's
relationship with his wife were at odds with some of these values.
At various occasions, Gandhi credited his orthodox Hindu mother, and his wife, for first lessons
in satyagraha. He used the legends of Hindu goddess Sita to expound women's innate strength,
autonomy and "lioness in spirit" whose moral compass can make any demon "as helpless as a
goat".To Gandhi, the women of India were an important part of the "swadeshi movement" (Buy
Indian), and his goal of decolonising the Indian economy.
Some historians such as Angela Woollacott and Kumari Jayawardena state that even though
Gandhi often and publicly expressed his belief in the equality of sexes, yet his vision was one of
gender difference and complementarity between them. Women, to Gandhi, should be educated to
be better in the domestic realm and educate the next generation. His views on women's rights
were less liberal and more similar to puritan-Victorian expectations of women, states
Jayawardena, than other Hindu leaders with him who supported economic independence and
equal gender rights in all aspects.
Untouchability and castes
Gandhi spoke out against untouchability early in his life. Before 1932, he and his associates used
the word antyaja for untouchables. In a major speech on untouchability at Nagpur in 1920,
Gandhi called it a great evil in Hindu society but observed that it was not unique to Hinduism,
having deeper roots, and stated that Europeans in South Africa treated "all of us, Hindus and
Muslims, as untouchables; we may not reside in their midst, nor enjoy the rights which they do".
[350]
 Calling the doctrine of untouchability intolerable, he asserted that the practice could be
eradicated, that Hinduism was flexible enough to allow eradication, and that a concerted effort
was needed to persuade people of the wrong and to urge them to eradicate it. According
to Christophe Jaffrelot, while Gandhi considered untouchability to be wrong and evil, he
believed that caste or class is based on neither inequality nor inferiority Gandhi believed that
individuals should freely intermarry whomever they wish, but that no one should expect
everyone to be his friend: every individual, regardless of background, has a right to choose

16
whom he will welcome into his home, whom he will befriend, and whom he will spend time
with.
In 1932, Gandhi began a new campaign to improve the lives of the untouchables, whom he
began to call harijans, "the children of god".On 8 May 1933, Gandhi began a 21-day fast of self-
purification and launched a year-long campaign to help the harijan movement.This campaign
was not universally embraced by the Dalit community: Ambedkar and his allies felt Gandhi was
being paternalistic and was undermining Dalit political rights. Ambedkar described him as
"devious and untrustworthy".He accused Gandhi as someone who wished to retain the caste
system. Ambedkar and Gandhi debated their ideas and concerns, each trying to persuade the
other. It was during the Harijan tour that he faced the first assassination attempt. While in Poona,
a bomb was thrown by an unidentified assailant (described only as a sanatani in the pres) at a car
belonging to his entourage but Gandhi and his family escaped as they were in the car that was
following. Gandhi later declared that he "cannot believe that any sane sanatanist could ever
encourage the insane act ... The sorrowful incident has undoubtedly advanced the Harijan cause.
It is easy to see that causes prosper by the martyrdom of those who stand for them
Swaraj, self-rule
Gandhi believed that swaraj not only can be attained with non-violence, but it can also be run
with non-violence. A military is unnecessary, because any aggressor can be thrown out using the
method of non-violent non-co-operation. While the military is unnecessary in a nation organised
under swaraj principle, Gandhi added that a police force is necessary given human nature.
However, the state would limit the use of weapons by the police to the minimum, aiming for
their use as a restraining force. According to Gandhi, a non-violent state is like an "ordered
anarchy In a society of mostly non-violent individuals, those who are violent will sooner or later
accept discipline or leave the community, stated Gandhi. He emphasised a society where
individuals believed more in learning about their duties and responsibilities, not demanded rights
and privileges. On returning from South Africa, when Gandhi received a letter asking for his
participation in writing a world charter for human rights, he responded saying, "in my
experience, it is far more important to have a charter for human duties."
Swaraj to Gandhi did not mean transferring colonial era British power brokering system,
favours-driven, bureaucratic, class exploitative structure and mindset into Indian hands. He
warned such a transfer would still be English rule, just without the Englishman. "This is not the
Swaraj I want", said Gandhi. Tewari states that Gandhi saw democracy as more than a system of
government; it meant promoting both individuality and the self-discipline of the community.
Democracy meant settling disputes in a nonviolent manner; it required freedom of thought and
expression. For Gandhi, democracy was a way of life.
Hindu nationalism and revivalism
Some scholars state Gandhi supported a religiously diverse India,while others state that the
Muslim leaders who championed the partition and creation of a separate Muslim Pakistan
considered Gandhi to be Hindu nationalist or revivalist For example, in his letters to Mohammad
Iqbal, Jinnah accused Gandhi to be favouring a Hindu rule and revivalism, that Gandhi led
Indian National Congress was a fascist party.

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CONCLUSION
Death
Assassination of Mahatma Gandhi
At 5:17 pm on 30 January 1948, Gandhi was with his grandnieces in the garden of Birla
House (now Gandhi Smriti), on his way to address a prayer meeting, when Nathuram Godse, a
Hindu nationalist, fired three bullets into his chest from a pistol at close range. According to
some accounts, Gandhi died instantly.[187][188] In other accounts, such as one prepared by an
eyewitness journalist, Gandhi was carried into the Birla House, into a bedroom. There he died
about 30 minutes later as one of Gandhi's family members read verses from Hindu scriptures.[189]
Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru addressed his countrymen over the All-India Radio saying:[190]
Friends and comrades, the light has gone out of our lives, and there is darkness everywhere, and I
do not quite know what to tell you or how to say it. Our beloved leader, Bapu as we called him,
the father of the nation, is no more. Perhaps I am wrong to say that; nevertheless, we will not see
him again, as we have seen him for these many years, we will not run to him for advice or seek
solace from him, and that is a terrible blow, not only for me, but for millions and millions in this
country.[191]

Memorial where Gandhi was assassinated in 1948. His stylised footsteps lead to the memorial.
Godse, a Hindu nationalist with links to the extremist Hindu Mahasabha made no attempt to
escape; several other conspirators were soon arrested as well. hey were tried in court at Delhi's
Red Fort. At his trial, Godse did not deny the charges nor express any remorse. According to
Claude Markovits, a French historian noted for his studies of colonial India, Godse stated that he
killed Gandhi because of his complacence towards Muslims, holding Gandhi responsible for the
frenzy of violence and sufferings during the subcontinent's partition into Pakistan and India.
Godse accused Gandhi of subjectivism and of acting as if only he had a monopoly of the truth.
Godse was found guilty and executed in 1949.

Gandhi's funeral was marked by millions of Indians.

18
Gandhi's death was mourned nationwide. Over a million people joined the five-mile-long funeral
procession that took over five hours to reach Raj Ghat from Birla house, where he was
assassinated, and another million watched the procession pass by. Gandhi's body was transported
on a weapons carrier, whose chassis was dismantled overnight to allow a high-floor to be
installed so that people could catch a glimpse of his body. The engine of the vehicle was not
used; instead four drag-ropes manned by 50 people each pulled the vehicle. All Indian-owned
establishments in London remained closed in mourning as thousands of people from all faiths
and denominations and Indians from all over Britain converged at India House in London.
Gandhi's assassination dramatically changed the political landscape. Nehru became his political
heir. According to Markovits, while Gandhi was alive, Pakistan's declaration that it was a
"Muslim state" had led Indian groups to demand that it be declared a "Hindu state".[195] Nehru
used Gandhi's martyrdom as a political weapon to silence all advocates of Hindu nationalism as
well as his political challengers. He linked Gandhi's assassination to politics of hatred and ill-
will.
Funeral and memorials

Cremation of Mahatma Gandhi at Rajghat, 31 January 1948. It was attended by Jawaharlal

Nehru, Louis and Edwina Mountbatten, Maulana Azad, Rajkumari Amrit Kaur, Sarojini
Naidu and other national leaders. His son Devdas Gandhi lit the pyre.
Gandhi was cremated in accordance with Hindu tradition. Gandhi's ashes were poured into urns
which were sent across India for memorial services] Most of the ashes were immersed at
the Sangam at Allahabad on 12 February 1948, but some were secretly taken away. In
1997, Tushar Gandhi immersed the contents of one urn, found in a bank vault and reclaimed
through the courts, at the Sangam at Allahabad. Some of Gandhi's ashes were scattered at the
source of the Nile River near Jinja, Uganda, and a memorial plaque marks the event.

19
Reference

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