Mohandis Karamchand Gandhi was born in October 2,1869.
He grew up in amiddle-class Hindu family. He married at the age of 13 to Kasturbu a girl hisage. As a young boy, he traveled to England to study law. In 1891, he returnedto India but did not succeed as a lawyer. Gandhi thought it would be better offif he moved to South Africa to practice law but all he got was a taste of theApartheid.
This is where he starts a non-violent fight called Ahimsa. He calledit Satyagraha or “truth force. ” Satyagraha was in truth civil disobedience. This was rooted by Hindu beliefs and Christian traditions.
Also, philosopherHenry David Thoreau influenced Gandhi. His goal was to “convert thewrongdoer. ” To make the world aware of British injustice laws we allow thegovernment to punish him with out striking back. One example of this is whenGandhi burned a pass that was required carried with you if you were not whitethe British officials beat him up for this. Another example was The Salt Marchin 1930 when Gandhi led his followers from his home to the coast (200 miles) sothey could make there own salt in stead of buying the heavily priced salt.
Inboth situations, Gandhi was arrested but it did spark a lot of attention. In1915 Gandhi left South Africa and went to India. When World War two started theINC (Indian National Congress) refused to help Britain unless they were grantedfreedom. When they were denied Gandhi and members from congress started the”Quit India” movement. They asked the people of India not to corporatewith the British.
In turn, Gandhi was once again imprisoned along with 20,000congress members. As the war went on Britain was becoming to weak to hold on toIndia. As independence came near Hindu-Muslim violence broke out. The Muslimsfelt that their rights would not be respected in a Hindu dominating country.
Astension grew Gandhi tried very hard to fight this. He almost fasted to hisdeath. By 1946, widespread rioting broke out. Instead of fighting Britain, Indiawas fighting it’s self. Britain decided to partition India in two: One nationwas Hindu dominated India lead by Jawaharal Nehru as Prime Minister and theother was Pakistan with most of the population Muslim lead by Jinnah as governorgeneral.
Finally, India was independent. He was deeply distressed by thereligious partition of the country into India and Pakistan. When violence brokeout between Hindus and Muslims, he resorted to fasts and visits to the troubledareas in efforts to end the violence. He was on one such prayer vigil in NewDelhi when a Hindu extremist who objected to Gandhi’s tolerance for theMuslims fatally shot him. Gandhi was a great Indian nationalist and spiritualleader who developed the practice of nonviolent disobedience that forced GreatBritain to grant independence to India (1947). He dedicated his life to betterthe world.
He even got the title of Mahatma, which means “Great Soul. ” Itwas a lost to every one when he died.
