Mahatma Gandhi

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi[pron 1] (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. He inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. The
honorific Mahātmā (from Sanskrit 'great-souled, venerable'), first applied to him
in South Africa in 1914, 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.
Gandhi's vision of an independent India based on religious pluralism was challenged
in the early 1940s 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 was begun in Delhi on 12 January 1948 when he was 78. The belief that
Gandhi had been too resolute in his defense of both Pakistan and Indian Muslims
spread among some Hindus in India. Among these was Nathuram Godse, a
militant Hindu nationalist from Pune, 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
considered to be the Father of the Nation in post-colonial India. During India's
nationalist movement and in several decades immediately after, he was also
commonly called Bapu (Gujarati endearment for "father", roughly "papa",
[2] "daddy".[3]).
Early life and background
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi[4][5] was born on 2 October 1869[6] into
a Gujarati Hindu Modh Bania family[7][8] 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.[9][10] His family originated from the then village
of Kutiana in what was then Junagadh State.[11]
Although he only had been a clerk in the state administration and had an elementary
education, Karamchand proved a capable chief minister.[12] 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,[12] and was from a Pranami Vaishnava family.[13] Karamchand and
Putlibai had three children over the ensuing decade: a son, Laxmidas (c. 1860–
1914); a daughter, Raliatbehn (1862–1960); and another son, Karsandas (c. 1866–
1913).[14][15]
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."[16] 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.[17][18]
The family's religious background was eclectic. Gandhi's father Karamchand
was Hindu and his mother Putlibai was from a Pranami Vaishnava Hindu family.[19]
[20] Gandhi's father was of Modh Baniya caste in the varna of Vaishya.[21] 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.[20][22] 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."[23]
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.[24] 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.[25]

Gandhi (right) with his eldest brother Laxmidas in

1886[26]
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.
[25] At the age of 11, he joined the High School in Rajkot, Alfred High School.
[27] 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.[28]
In May 1883, the 13-year-old Mohandas was married to 14-year-old Kasturbai
Gokuldas 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.[29] In the process, he lost a year at school but was later
allowed to make up by accelerating his studies.[30] 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 the prevailing
tradition, the adolescent bride was to spend much time at her parents' house, and
away from her husband.[31]
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.[32]
In late 1885, Gandhi's father Karamchand died.[33] 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.[33] 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.[29]
In November 1887, the 18-year-old Gandhi graduated from high school
in Ahmedabad.[34] In January 1888, he enrolled at Samaldas College in Bhavnagar
State, then the sole degree-granting institution of higher education in the region.
However, he dropped out, and returned to his family in Porbandar.[35]