Mahatma

Gandhi
Who was Ghandi?

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, also known as

Mahatma Gandhi, 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 in turn inspired
movements for civil rights and freedom across
the world.
What did Ghandi believe
in?
Ghandi believed in
nonviolence because of the
religious principle of ahimsa,
common in Buddhism and
Hinduism.
Early Life

Early life
Gandhi was born on October 2, 1869, in an area
called Porbandar, which is now known as Gujarat.
His father was the chief minister of Porbandar, and
his mother was a devotee of Vishnu. Both of his
parents were very strict Hindus. At the age of 19,
Ghandi left home to study law in London at the
Inner Temple, one of the city’s four law colleges.
Upon returning to India in mid-1891, he set up a
law practice in Bombay, but had little success. He
soon accepted a position with an Indian firm that
sent him to its office in South Africa. Along with
his wife, Kasturbai, and their children, Gandhi
remained in South Africa for nearly 20 years.

Ghandi
Work
While in south Africa, Ghandi began to
realize that there was a lot of
discrimination against coloured people,
including himself. Several people had
shown racist behavior to him. He
worked there for the next 20 years as a
well-known writer and freedom fighter
since he Believed in non-violence also
known as Ahimsa. He said that one had
to stand up for what you believe in but
not fight for it with violence.
Gandhi stressed the importance of economic
independence for India. He particularly
advocated the manufacture of khaddar, or
homespun cloth, in order to replace
imported textiles from Britain. His followers
called him Mahatma which is Sanskrit for
“the great-souled one”. Gandhi turned the
independence movement into a massive
organization, leading boycotts of British
manufacturers and institutions representing
British influence in India, including
legislatures and schools.
 Work
Jail and hunger strikes
Arrested upon his return by the government,
Gandhi began a series of hunger strikes in
protest of the treatment of the untouchables,
whom he renamed Harijans, or children of
God. These were the lowest and poorest
class of Hindus. The fasting caused an
uproar among his followers and resulted in
swift reforms by the Hindu community and
the government.
World war 2
In 1934, Gandhi said he was retired from
politics to concentrate his efforts on working
in rural communities. Gandhi again took
control of the INC when world war 2 broke
out. He demanded a British withdrawal from
India in return for Indian cooperation with
the war effort. Instead, British forces
imprisoned the entire Congress leadership,
bringing Anglo-Indian relations to a new low
point.
Protests and jail

Gandhi announced the end of the resistance

movement after extreme violence broke out.
British authorities arrested Gandhi in March
1922 and he was sentenced to six years in
prison but was released in 1924 after
undergoing an operation for appendicitis. He
had no participation in politics for the next few
years, but in 1930 launched a new civil
campaign against the colonial government’s tax
on salt, which greatly affected Indian’s poorest
citizens.
Partition and death

Gandhi had strongly opposed Partition, but he

decided to agree to it in hopes that after
independence Hindus and Muslims could achieve
peace. Amid the massive riots that followed Partition,
Gandhi urged Hindus and Muslims to live peacefully
together, and undertook a hunger strike until riots in
Calcutta ceased. On January 30, he was shot to death
by Nathuram Godse. The next day, roughly 3 million
people followed the procession as Gandhi’s body was
carried in state through the streets of the city and
cremated on the banks of the holy Jumna River.
Why was Gandhi’s work
important?
His peaceful opposition helped end British
guideline in India and has affected present day
common defiance developments over the globe.
Mahatma, means incredible soul or holy person
in Sanskrit, Gandhi helped India arrive at
freedom through a way of thinking of peaceful
non-cooperation. Gandhi did a lot of talks
about India.
Are Gandhi’s beliefs
and practices still
important today?
Mahatma Gandhi was an Indian-born world's
mentor. Great Indian values, particularly the
supreme value of Ahimsa (non-violence).
His ideas based on non-violence are entirely
important in the new world. They are
completely relevant today and will remain so in
future as well. Gandhi believed non-violence
and tolerance require a great level of courage
and patience. In a world that is moving through
the phases of war marred by violence and
terrorism, there is a significant requirement
of Gandhi’s idea of non- violence more and
more today than the past days.