20/08/2023, 17:41 Mahatma Gandhi - Wikipedia

Mahatma Gandhi

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi[pron 1] (2 October

Mahātmā
1869 – 30 January 1948) was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial
nationalist and political ethicist who employed nonviolent Gandhi
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
Gandhi in London, 1931
civil rights. In 1915, aged 45, he returned to India and soon
set about organising peasants, farmers, and urban labourers Born Mohandas
to protest against excessive land-tax and discrimination. Karamchand Gandhi
2 October 1869
Assuming leadership of the Indian National Congress in Porbandar,
1921, Gandhi led nationwide campaigns for easing poverty, Porbandar State,
expanding women's rights, building religious and ethnic
Kathiawar Agency,
amity, ending untouchability, and, above all, achieving
British India
swaraj or self-rule. Gandhi adopted the short dhoti woven
with hand-spun yarn as a mark of identification with India's Died 30 January 1948
rural poor. He began to live in a self-sufficient residential (aged 78)
community, to eat simple food, and undertake long fasts as a New Delhi, Dominion
means of both introspection and political protest. Bringing of India
anti-colonial nationalism to the common Indians, Gandhi led
them in challenging the British-imposed salt tax with the Cause of Assassination
400 km (250 mi) Dandi Salt March in 1930 and in calling for death (gunshot wounds)
the British to quit India in 1942. He was imprisoned many Monuments Raj Ghat
times and for many years in both South Africa and India.
Gandhi Smriti
Gandhi's vision of an independent India based on religious Other names Bapu
pluralism was challenged in the early 1940s by a Muslim
Citizenship British Empire
nationalism which demanded a separate homeland for
Muslims within British India. In August 1947, Britain (1869–1947)
granted independence, but the British Indian Empire was Dominion of India
partitioned into two dominions, a Hindu-majority India and (1947–1948)
a Muslim-majority Pakistan. As many displaced Hindus,
Alma mater Samaldas Arts
Muslims, and Sikhs made their way to their new lands,
religious violence broke out, especially in the Punjab and College[a]
Bengal. Abstaining from the official celebration of
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20/08/2023, 17:41 Mahatma Gandhi - Wikipedia

independence, Gandhi visited the affected areas, attempting University College

to alleviate distress. In the months following, he undertook London[b]
several hunger strikes to stop the religious violence. The last
Inns of Court School
of these was begun in Delhi on 12 January 1948 when he was
of Law
78. The belief that Gandhi had been too resolute in his
defense of both Pakistan and Indian Muslims spread among Occupations Lawyer · anti-
some Hindus in India. Among these was Nathuram Godse, a colonialist · political
militant Hindu nationalist from Pune, western India, who ethicist
assassinated Gandhi by firing three bullets into his chest at
Years active 1893–1948
an interfaith prayer meeting in Delhi on 30 January 1948.
Gandhi's birthday, 2 October, is commemorated in India as Era British Raj
Gandhi Jayanti, a national holiday, and worldwide as the Known for Leadership of the
International Day of Nonviolence. Gandhi is considered to be campaign for
the Father of the Nation in post-colonial India. During
India's
India's nationalist movement and in several decades
independence
immediately after, he was also commonly called Bapu
from British rule
(Gujarati endearment for "father," roughly "papa,"[2]
"daddy."[3]). Nonviolent
resistance

Early life and background Notable work The Story of My

Experiments with
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi[4][5] was born on 2 October Truth
1869[6] into a Gujarati Hindu Modh Bania family[7][8] in Political party Indian National
Porbandar (also known as Sudamapuri), a coastal town on Congress (1920–
the Kathiawar Peninsula and then part of the small princely 1934)
state of Porbandar in the Kathiawar Agency of the British
Raj. His father, Karamchand Uttamchand Gandhi (1822– Movement Indian independence
1885), served as the dewan (chief minister) of Porbandar movement
state.[9][10] His family originated from the then village of Spouse Kasturba Gandhi
Kutiana in what was then Junagadh State.[11] ​
​(m. 1883; died 1944)​

Although he only had an elementary education and had Children Harilal · Manilal ·
previously been a clerk in the state administration, Ramdas · Devdas
Karamchand proved a capable chief minister.[12] During his Parents Karamchand Gandhi
tenure, he married four times. His first two wives died young, (father)
after each had given birth to a daughter, and his third
Putlibai Gandhi
marriage was childless. In 1857, he sought his third wife's
permission to remarry; that year, he married Putlibai (1844– (mother)

1891), who also came from Junagadh,[12] and was from a Relatives See Family of
Pranami Vaishnava family.[13] Karamchand and Putlibai had Mahatma Gandhi
three children over the ensuing decade: a son, Laxmidas (c. C. Rajagopalachari
1860–1914); a daughter, Raliatbehn (1862–1960); and (father-in-law of
another son, Karsandas (c. 1866–1913).[14][15] Gandhi's son
Devdas)
On 2 October 1869, Putlibai gave birth to her last child,
Mohandas, in a dark, windowless ground-floor room of the Awards Time Person of the
Gandhi family residence in Porbandar city. As a child, Year (1930)
Gandhi was described by his sister Raliat as "restless as
mercury, either playing or roaming about. One of his President of the Indian National
Congress
favourite pastimes was twisting dogs' ears."[16] The Indian
classics, especially the stories of Shravana and king In office
Harishchandra, had a great impact on Gandhi in his December 1924 – April 1925
childhood. In his autobiography, he states that they left an
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