Monday, November 18, 2013

LINCOLN

                LINCOLN      

 Abraham Lincoln
16th U.S. President
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865.
Born: February 12, 1809, Hodgenville, Kentucky, United States
Died:   April 15, 1865 (aged 56)
Petersen House
Washington, D.C., U.S.
Height: 1.93 m
Assassinated: April 15, 1865, Penn Quarter, Washington, D.C., United States
Children: William Wallace Lincoln, Robert Todd Lincoln, Edward Baker Lincoln, Tad Lincoln
EARLY LIFE OF LINCOLN:
Abraham Lincoln was born February 12, 1809, the second child of Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Lincoln (née Hanks), in a one-room log cabin on the Sinking Spring Farm in Hardin County, Kentucky (now LaRue County). He is descended from Samuel Lincoln, who arrived in Hingham, Massachusetts, from Norfolk, England, in the 17th century. Lincoln's paternal grandfather and namesake, Abraham, had moved his family from Virginia.
EDUCATION:
Abraham Lincoln, who attended school for less than a year, became a lawyer under an Illinois law enacted in 1833. This law stated that to be a lawyer someone had to "obtain a certificate procured from the court of an Illinois county certifying to the applicant's good moral character." Lincoln actually went to the Illinois Supreme Court to get his certificate. On September 9, 1836, a license to practice law was issued to Abraham Lincoln by two of the justices of the Illinois Supreme Court. Later, in a more formal session, on March 1, 1837, Lincoln appeared before the clerk of the Illinois Supreme Court and took an oath to support the Constitution of the United States and of Illinois.
Marriage:

In 1840, Lincoln became engaged to Mary Todd, who was from a wealthy slave-holding family in Lexington, Kentucky. They met in Springfield, Illinois, in December 1839 and were engaged the following December. A wedding set for January 1, 1841, was canceled when the two broke off their engagement at Lincoln's initiative. They later met again at a party and married on November 4, 1842.



Abraham Lincoln’s Military Service During the Black         Hawk War, 1832:
During the Black Hawk War, Abraham Lincoln of New Salem, Illinois served three enlistments. Each enrollment lasted for approximately 30 days.
His first enlistment was as elected captain of a company in the 4th Regiment of Mounted Volunteers, of Gen. Samuel Whiteside's Brigade. Lincoln enrolled on April 21, 1832, and mustered out with his company at Fort Johnson (Ottawa) on May 27, 1832. The company served at Beardstown, and reportedly Lincoln's company helped bury the dead of "Stillman's Run"— although this occurrence is still under investigation. Along with the muster-out of Lincoln’s company was the general muster-out of what became known as the “First Army” of Illinois. While a new army was being raised and organized, Illinois enlisted and mustered in a 20-day interim regiment (the so-called “Second Army”) and the only defense the State of Illinois had until the so-called “Third Army” could be brought into the field.Lincoln re-enlisted on the same day he mustered out of his old company, and was mustered in on May 29 as a private in Captain Elijah Ises' Company, Twenty-Day Interim Regiment. He actively served with the company when General Henry Atkinson detached Captain Iles' command to ride north from Ottawa along the Kellogg Trail and reopen communications with Galena-- which had been out of touch with the rest of the world since the Felix St. Vrain Massacre. As part of this movement, Iles’ company (including Lincoln) spent an overnight at Apple River Fort... about a week before Black Hawk's attack against that strongpoint later in June. Once this ride was completed, the service of Iles’ company was essentially at an end. On June 16, Lincoln was mustered out.Lincoln's third enlistment was as a private in Captain Jacob M. Early's "Spy Company." This unit mustered in approximately June 20, 1832.

Congressman Lincoln 1847-1849:
The first session of the 30th Congress was to convene on December 6, 1847. In October the Lincolns rented their house for $90 a year to Cornelius Ludlum, and they left for Washington via Lexington.
Though Lincoln was active as a new member of Congress, his colleagues generally appraised him as a droll  Westerner of average talents. Lincoln's opposition to the Mexican War which had broken out in May 1846 soon made him unpopular with his constituents. In Illinois the patriotic fervor and hunger for new lands disspelled any doubts that the people may have had about the American cause. Lincoln's "spot" resolutions asking President James Polk to admit that the "spot" where American blood was first shed was Mexican territory and his anti-administration speeches created surprised resentment at home and earned him the nickname "Spotty Lincoln." Illinois Democrats called Lincoln a disgrace. May 1849, the second session of the 30th Congress ended and Lincoln returned home, happy to be reunited with his friends and family, who had stayed in Washington only a short time. Feeling that he had no future in politics, Lincoln took to the dusty roads of the Eighth Circuit to regain the friends and clients who had slipped away while he was in Congress. Lincoln was offered the governorship of the new Oregon Territory, but he declined it.

LINCOLN'S LEGAL CAREER:
 Lincoln returned to practicing law in Springfield, handling "every kind of business that could come before a prairie lawyer". Twice a year for 16 years, 10 weeks at a time, he appeared in county seats in the midstate region when the county courts were in session. Lincoln handled many transportation cases in the midst of the nation's western.Lincoln always had a law partner. In order his partners were: (1) John T. Stuart; (2) Stephen T. Logan; (3) William Herndon. Lincoln's offices with all his partners were always located in Springfield.
Lincoln's most notable criminal trial occurred in 1858 when he defended William "Duff" Armstrong, who was on trial for the murder of James Preston Metzker. The case is famous for Lincoln's use of a fact established by judicial notice in order to challenge the credibility of an eyewitness. After an opposing witness testified seeing the crime in the moonlight, Lincoln produced a Farmers' Almanac showing the moon was at a low angle, drastically reducing visibility. Based on this evidence, Armstrong was acquitted. Lincoln rarely raised objections in the courtroom; but in an 1859 case, where he defended a cousin, Peachy Harrison, who was accused of stabbing another to death, Lincoln angrily protested the judge's decision to exclude evidence favorable to his client. Instead of holding Lincoln in contempt of court as was expected, the judge, a Democrat, reversed his ruling, allowing the evidence and acquitting Harrison.

Politics & Politicians:
    The Republican Party  "Birth of an Antislavery Party"  February 1854:

As the 1850's progressed, the nation's politicians increasingly were becoming divided more along geographical lines than party lines. The two major U.S. political parties were the Democratic party and the Whig party, both of which had Southern and Northern factions. The issues of slavery and the expansion of slavery into new territories and states were causing the national parties to crumble and break into many splinter groups. Politicians who supported the party line would find themselves not being re-elected; those who split with party policy were losing their influence in the party. New parties such as the People's party, the American "Know-Nothing" party, the Free-Soil party, and others were springing up around the country in an effort to unite disillusioned Whigs and Democrats.It was in February 1854, at a political rally in Ripon, Wis., that the label "Republican" was first decided upon by a small group supporting an antislavery position. The Republican party rapidly absorbed other splinter parties under the platform of the nonexpansion of slavery, a strong central government, high tariffs, federally funded internal improvements, and other measures repugnant to Southerners. The area of the country from which the Republican party drew its support was the most densely populated and industrializes; it had most of the railroads and controlled much of the country's commerce. The Republicans were capable of making an immediate impact in national elections. In the presidential election of 1856, the Republican party, labeled "Black Republicans" for their stand against slavery, nominated the western explorer John C. Fremont. He received less than 1 percent of the Southern vote; however, he carried 11 Northern states outright. For the first time a purely Northern major political party had positioned itself squarely against the Southern slave power.
Fascinating Fact:  Abraham Lincoln, a former Whig, joined the Republican party in 1856. In 1858, he lost the race for U.S. Senate to Stephen A. Douglass, author of the Nebraska-Kansas Act.

1860 Presidential nomination and campaign:
Despite his electoral setback, Lincoln remained a leading Republican spokesman, and he continued to maintain "that slavery is wrong and ought to be dealt with as wrong" as a bedrock Republican principle. For his part, the victorious Stephen A. Douglas continued to present popular sovereignty as the best solution to the slavery question in American politics. Lincoln's dramatic performance in 1858, and the positive reaction to his 1859 efforts, sparked speculation on his prospects as a presidential nominee in 1860. Lincoln was well aware of his limitations and initially was inclined to dismiss talk of his candidacy. His qualifications seemed dubious - he had failed to be elected senator twice of late, had never held a significant government administrative post, had served only a single term in the House of Representatives, had scant formal education and no web of national political contacts. East to begin thinking seriously of Lincoln as a potential president. On May 10, 1860, a united Illinois Republican Party chose Lincoln as its presidential candidate, dubbing him the "Rail Splitter," a nickname that harkened to Lincoln's humble frontier origins. Lincoln focused his campaign on the northern and western states, and rightly considered himself persona non grata in the slaveholding South.

Presidency:
On November 6, 1860, Lincoln was elected the 16th president of the United States. Lincoln received 1,866,452 votes, Douglas 1,376,957 votes, Breckinridge 849,781 votes, and Bell 588,789 votes. Turnout was 82.2 percent, with Lincoln winning the free Northern states, as well as California and Oregon. Douglas won Missouri, and split New Jersey with Lincoln. Bell won Virginia, Tennessee, and Kentucky, and Breckinridge won the rest of the South. Although Lincoln won only a plurality of the popular vote,
              The President ended his address with an appeal to the people of the South: "We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies ... The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield, and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearthstone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature."[141] The failure of the Peace Conference of 1861 signaled that legislative compromise was implausible. By March 1861, no leaders of the insurrection had proposed rejoining the Union on any terms. Meanwhile, Lincoln and nearly every Republican leader agreed that the dismantling of the Union could not be tolerated.

Beginning of the war:
The commander of Fort Sumter, South Carolina, Major Robert Anderson, sent a request for provisions to Washington, and the execution of Lincoln's order to meet that request was seen by the secessionists as an act of war. On April 12, 1861, Confederate forces fired on Union troops at Fort Sumter, forcing them to surrender, and began the war.
           On April 15, Lincoln called on all the states to send detachments totaling 75,000 troops to recapture forts, protect Washington, and "preserve the Union", which, in his view, still existed intact despite the actions of the seceding states. This call forced the states to choose sides. Virginia declared its secession and was rewarded with the Confederate capital, despite the exposed position of Richmond so close to Union lines. North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas also voted for secession over the next two months. Secession sentiment was strong in Missouri and Maryland, but did not prevail; Kentucky tried to be neutral.
Troops headed south towards Washington to protect the capital in response to Lincoln's call. On April 19 Lincoln came under heavy attack from antiwar Democrats, called Copperheads.
General McClellan: After the Union defeat at the First Battle of Bull Run and the retirement of the aged Winfield Scott in late 1861, Lincoln appointed Major General George B. McClellan general-in-chief of all the Union armies.[162] McClellan, a young West Point graduate, railroad executive, and Pennsylvania Democrat, took several months to plan and attempt his Peninsula Campaign, longer than Lincoln wanted.
Lincoln removed McClellan as general-in-chief and appointed Henry Wager Halleck in March 1862, after McClellan's "Harrison's Landing Letter", in which he offered unsolicited political advice to Lincoln urging caution in the war effort.[164] McClellan's letter incensed Radical Republicans, who successfully pressured Lincoln to appoint John Pope, a Republican, as head of the new Army of Virginia. Pope complied with Lincoln's strategic desire to move toward Richmond from the north, thus protecting the capital from attack. However, lacking requested reinforcements from McClellan, now commanding the Army of the Potomac, Pope was soundly defeated at the Second Battle of Bull Run in the summer of 1862, forcing the Army of the Potomac to defend Washington for a second time. The war also expanded with naval operations in 1862 when the CSS Virginia, formerly the USS Merrimack, damaged or destroyed three Union vessels in Norfolk, Virginia, before being engaged and damaged by the USS Monitor. Lincoln closely reviewed the dispatches and interrogated naval officers during their clash in the Battle of Hampton Roads. Despite his dissatisfaction with McClellan's failure to reinforce Pope, Lincoln was desperate, and restored him to command of all forces around Washington, to the dismay of all in his cabinet but Seward. Two days after McClellan's return to command, General Robert E. Lee's forces crossed the Potomac River into Maryland, leading to the Battle of Antietam in September 1862. McClellan then resisted the President's demand that he pursue Lee's retreating and exposed army, while his counterpart General Don Carlos Buell likewise refused orders to move the Army of the Ohio against rebel forces in eastern Tennessee. As a result, Lincoln replaced Buell with William Rosecrans; and, after the 1862 midterm elections, he replaced McClellan with Republican Ambrose Burnside. Both of these replacements were political moderates and prospectively more supportive of the Commander-in-Chief Hooker was routed by Lee at the Battle of Chancellorsville in May,[175] but continued to command his troops for some weeks. He ignored Lincoln's order to divide his troops, and possibly force Lee to do the same in Harper's Ferry, and tendered his resignation, which Lincoln accepted. He was replaced by George Meade, who followed Lee into Pennsylvania for the Gettysburg Campaign, which was a victory for the Union, though Lee's army avoided capture. At the same time, after initial setbacks, Grant laid siege to Vicksburg and the Union navy attained some success in Charleston harbor.[176] After the Battle of Gettysburg, Lincoln clearly understood that his military decisions would be more effectively carried out by conveying his orders through his War Secretary or his general-in-chief on to his generals, who resented his civilian interference with their own plans. Even so, he often continued to give detailed directions to his generals as Commander-in-Chief.

The Emancipation Proclamation:
Whereas, on the twenty-second day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, a proclamation was issued by the President of the United States, containing, among other things, the following, to wit:
"That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or
acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.
 "That the Executive will, on the first day of January aforesaid, by proclamation, designate the States and parts of States, if any, in which the people thereof, respectively, shall then be in rebellion against the United States; and the fact that any State, or the people thereof, shall on that day be, in good faith, represented in the Congress of the United States by members chosen thereto at elections wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such State shall have participated, shall, in the absence of strong countervailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence that such State, and the people thereof, are not then in rebellion against the United States."

General Grant:
Through the winter and spring after Abraham Lincoln's election sectional tensions heightened culminating with the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861. With the beginning of the Civil War, Grant aided in recruiting a company of volunteers and led it to Springfield, IL. Once there, Governor Richard Yates seized on Grant's military experience and set him to training newly arriving recruits. Proving highly effective in this role, Grant used his connections to Congressman Elihu B. Washburne to secure a promotion to colonel on June 14. Given command of the unruly 21st Illinois Infantry, he reformed the unit and made it an effective fighting force. On July 31, Grant was appointed a brigadier general of volunteers by Lincoln. This promotion led to Major General John C. Frémont giving him command of the District of Southeast Missouri at the end of August.

In November, Grant received orders from Frémont to demonstrate against the Confederate positions at Columbus, KY. Moving down the Mississippi River, he landed 3,114 men on the opposite shore and attacked a Confederate force near Belmont, MO. In the resulting Battle of Belmont, Grant had initial success before Confederate reinforcements pushed him back to his boats. Despite this setback, the engagement greatly boosted Grant's confidence and that of his men.

The RE - Election of 1864:
It is hard for modern Americans to believe that Abraham Lincoln, one of history's most beloved Presidents, was nearly defeated in his reelection attempt in 1864. Yet by that summer, Lincoln himself feared he would lose. How could this happen? First, the country had not elected an incumbent President for a second term since Andrew Jackson in 1832 — nine Presidents in a row had served just one term. Also, his embrace of emancipation was still a problem for many Northern voters. Despite Union victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg a year earlier, the Southern armies came back fighting with a vengeance. During three months in the summer of 1864, over 65,000 Union soldiers were killed, wounded, or missing-in-action. In comparison, there had been 108,000 Union casualties in the first three years. General Ulysses S.Grant was being called The Butcher. At one time during the summer, Confederate soldiers under JUBAL EARLY came within five miles of the White House.
Lincoln had much to contend with. He had staunch opponents in the Congress. Underground Confederate activities brought rebellion to parts of Maryland. Lincoln's suspension of the WRIT OF HABEAS CORPUS was ruled unconstitutional by Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger B. Taney — an order Lincoln refused to obey. But worst of all, the war was not going well. Meanwhile the DEMOCRATIC PARTY SPLIT, with major opposition from Peace Democrats, who wanted a negotiated peace at any cost. They chose as their nominee George B. McClellan, Lincoln's former commander of the Army of the Potomac. Even Lincoln expected that McClellan would win.The South was well aware of Union discontent. Many felt that if the Southern armies could hold out until the election, negotiations for Northern recognition of Confederate independence might begin. Everything changed on September 6, 1864, when General Sherman seized Atlanta. The war effort had turned decidedly in the North's favor and even McClellan now sought military victory.
Two months later, Lincoln won the popular vote that eluded him in his first election. He won the electoral college by 212 to 21 and the Republicans had won three-fourths of Congress. A second term and the power to conclude the war were now in his hands.

RECONSTRUCTION (1865–1877):
Plans for Reconstruction: After major Union victories at the battles of Gettysburg and Vicksburg in 1863, President Abraham Lincoln began preparing his plan for Reconstruction to reunify the North and South after the war’s end. Because Lincoln believed that the South had never legally seceded from the Union, his plan for Reconstruction was based on forgiveness. He thus issued the Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction in 1863 to announce his intention to reunite the once-united states. Lincoln hoped that the proclamation would rally northern support for the war and persuade weary Confederate soldiers to surrender.
Lincoln’s Vision for Reconstruction: President Lincoln seemed to favor self-Reconstruction by the states with little assistance from Washington. To appeal to poorer whites, he offered to pardon all Confederates; to appeal to former plantation owners and southern aristocrats, he pledged to protect private property. Unlike Radical Republicans in Congress, Lincoln did not want to punish southerners or reorganize southern society. His actions indicate that he wanted Reconstruction to be a short process in which secessionist states could draft new constitutions as swiftly as possible so that the United States could exist as it had before. But historians can only speculate that Lincoln desired a swift reunification, for his assassination in 1865 cut his plans for Reconstruction short.

The Radical Republicans:

Many leading Republicans in Congress feared that Lincoln’s plan for Reconstruction was not harsh enough, believing that the South needed to be punished for causing the war. These Radical Republicans hoped to control the Reconstruction process, transform southern society, disband the planter aristocracy, redistribute land, develop industry, and guarantee civil liberties for former slaves. Although the Radical Republicans were the minority party in Congress, they managed to sway many moderates in the postwar years and came to dominate Congress in later sessions.


judicial appointments:
Lincoln appointed 32 federal judges, including four Associate Justices and one Chief Justice to the Supreme Court of the United States, and 27 judges to the United States district courts. Lincoln appointed no judges to the United States circuit courts during his time in office.




States admitted to the Union:
West Virginia, admitted to the Union June 20, 1863, contained the former north-westernmost counties of Virginia that seceded from Virginia after that commonwealth declared its secession from the Union. As a condition for its admission, West Virginia's constitution was required to provide for the gradual abolition of slavery. Nevada, which became the third State in the far-west of the continent, was admitted as a free state on October 31, 1864

Lincoln’s Assassination:
At the end of the Civil War, in the spring of 1865, Lincoln and Congress were on the brink of a political showdown with their competing plans for Reconstruction. But on April 14, John Wilkes Booth, a popular stage actor from Maryland who was sympathetic to the secessionist South, shot Lincoln at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. When Lincoln died the following day, Vice President Andrew Johnson, a Democrat from Tennessee, became president.

LINCOLN MEMORIALS:










Abraham Lincoln Quotes:
We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.
                                                                     

                                                BY Abraham Lincoln



Wednesday, October 30, 2013

LIFE OF MAHATMA GANDHI

  
   LIFE OF MAHATMA GANDHI
     
   One of the greatest men in the history of India is unarguably Mahatma Gandhi.                    

TIMELINE :

           October 2, 1869 - Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi is born in Porbandar, Gujarat (India).

           1883 - A marriage is arranged between Gandhi and Kasturbai  Makhanji.

           1888 to 1891 - The young Gandhi studies law in London, where his relatively high level of religious asceticism, his vegetarianism, his sexual fidelity to his wife, and his overall refusal to conform to British norms earns him respect from some quarters and ridicule from others.

           1893 to 1915 - Gandhi works as an attorney in South Africa, where the discrimination he faces at the hands of the apartheid-era white government wears down his patience, transforming him from a principled but gregarious and timid young man into an advocate for social justice. In 1914, the Indian civil rights movement in South Africa successfully abolishes the Indian poll tax and requires the South African government to accept Indian marriages. Gandhi, already known as "Mahatma," becomes the most visible Indian civil rights activist on Earth.

           1916 - Gandhi returns to India, advocating for independence and civil rights.

           1921 - Gandhi becomes de facto leader of the Indian National Congress, the primary organization advocating for independence. Though never officially serving as president of the organization, he unofficially leads the Indian independence movement for the rest of his life.

           1922 to 1924 - Gandhi is imprisoned by the British government for "sedition."

           1937 to 1939 - Gandhi is nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize three times, but never becomes a laureate, presumably because this would force the Nobel Committee to stand in opposition to the British government.

            1942 to 1944 - Gandhi and his wife are imprisoned by the British colonial government for leading the "Quit India" movement. Gandhi's wife dies while he is in prison, and his own health eventually fails to the point where the British government is forced to release him.

            January 30, 1948 - Gandhi is assassinated by Hindu nationalist Nathuram Godse.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was the preeminent leader of Indian nationalism in British-ruled India. Employingnon-violent civil disobedience, Gandhi led India to independence and inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world.

 Born: October 2, 1869, Porbandar

Assassinated: January 30, 1948

Children: Harilal Gandhi, Devdas Gandhi, Ramdas Gandhi, Manilal Gandhi

Education: University College London, Alfred High School, Rajkot

Parents: Karamchand Gandhi, Putlibai Gandhi
                      
                     a coastal town on the Kathiawar Peninsula and then part of the small princely state of Porbandar in the Kathiawar Agency of the British Indian Empire. His father, Karamchand Gandhi (1822–1885), served as the diwan (chief minister) of Porbander state. His mother, Putlibai, who was from a Pranami Vaishnava family, was Karamchand's fourth wife, the first three wives having apparently died in childbirth. In May 1883, the 13-year-old Mohandas was married to 14-year-old Kasturbai Makhanji
In 1885, when Gandhi was 15, the couple's first child was born, but survived only a few days. Gandhi's father, Karamchand Gandhi, had also died earlier that year
In 1888, Gandhi travelled to London, England, to study law at University College London, where he studied Indian law and jurisprudence and trained as a barrister

CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT IN SOUTH AFRICA (1893–1914) :

                 Gandhi was 24 when he arrived in South Africa to work as a legal representative for the Muslim Indian Traders based in the city of Pretoria. He spent 21 years in South Africa, where he developed his political views, ethics and political leadership skills. Guha argues that when he returned to India in 1914.

GANDHI IN SOUTH AFRICA (1895) :
              Indians in South Africa In South Africa, Gandhi faced the discrimination directed at all coloured people. He was thrown off a train at Pietermaritzburg after refusing to move from the first-class. He protested and was allowed on first class the next day. Travelling farther on by stagecoach, he was beaten by a driver for refusing to move to make room for a European passenger. He suffered other hardships on the journey as well, including being barred from several hotels. In another incident, the magistrate of a Durban court ordered Gandhi to remove his turban, which he refused to do.
These events were a turning point in Gandhi's life and shaped his social activism and awakened him to social injustice. After witnessing racism, prejudice and injustice against Indians in South Africa, Gandhi began to question his place in society and his people's standing in the British Empire.

KHILAFAT MOVEMENT :
               In early 1920 the Indian Muslims started an agitation to bring pressure on the Brits to change her policy towards Turkey. This is known as the Khilafat (K) Movement, received enormous strength because of Gandhi’s support. Said he to the Muslims, “Arise, awake or forever be fallen. If the Hindus wish to cultivate eternal friendship of the Muslims, they must perish with them in the attempt to vindicate the honor of Islam”. He felt that the Muslims demand was justified and he was bound to secure the due fulfillment of the pledge the British PM had given to the Indian Muslims during the war.
Thus Gandhi had equated the Khilafat movement with India’s freedom movement. It was not suprising that Gandhi was elected president of the All India Khilafat Conference on 24/11/1919. The Conference asked the Muslims to hold threats of boycott and non-cooperation if the Brits did not resolve the Turkish problem to their satisfaction.
The release of the Ali brothers towards the end of December 1919 gave a great fillip to the K movement. Gandhi had a soft corner for them and they took full advantage of it. Swami Shraddananda narrates one such incident at the Khilafat Conference at Nagpur. 
Since the Viceroy did not respond favorably to their requests, Gandhi issued a Manifesto on March 10 outlining his course of action if their demands were not met. The Manifesto is important as it contains the first elaboration of Gandhi’s Non-violent non-cooperation movement. “The power that an individual or a nation forsaking violence can generate is a power that is irresistible, non-cooperation is therefore the only remedy available to us. England cannot expect a meek submission by us to an unjust usurpation of rights which to Muslims is a matter of life and death”. Lofty, idealistic sentiments no doubt, but is not pertinent to ask whether England’s treatment of Turkey was a greater humiliation to Indian than England’s treatment of India during the last 150 years and even the recent atrocities in Punjab (Jallianwala Bagh massacre).

NON CO-OPERATION MOVEMENT :
              
One of the first series of non violent protests nationwide was the non cooperation movement started by Mahatma Gandhi. This movement officially started the Gandhian era in India. In this freedom struggle, the non cooperation movement was basically aimed at making the Indians aware of the fact that the British government can be opposed and if done actively, it will keep a check on them. Thus, educational institutions were boycotted, foreign goods were boycotted, and people let go off their nominated seats in government institutions. Though the movement failed, Indians awakened to the concept of going against the British.

SALT MARCH (1930) :
                    On March 12, 1930, Gandhi set out from his ashram, or religious retreat, at Sabermanti near Ahmedabad with several dozen followers on a trek of some 240 miles to the coastal town of Dandi on the Arabian Sea. There, Gandhi and his supporters were to defy British policy by making salt from seawater. All along the way, Gandhi addressed large crowds, and with each passing day an increasing number of people joined the salt satyagraha. By the time they reached Dandi on April 5, Gandhi was at the head of a crowd of tens of thousands. He spoke and led prayers and early the next morning walked down to the sea to make salt.
He had planned to work the salt flats on the beach, encrusted with crystallized sea salt at every high tide, but the police had forestalled him by crushing the salt deposits into the mud. Nevertheless, Gandhi reached down and picked up a small lump of natural salt out of the mud--and British law had been defied. At Dandi, thousands more followed his lead, and in the coastal cities of Bombay (now called Mumbai) and Karachi, Indian nationalists led crowds of citizens in making salt. Civil disobedience broke out all across India, soon involving millions of Indians, and British authorities arrested more than 60,000 people. Gandhi himself was arrested on May 5, but the satyagraha continued without him.
On May 21, the poet Sarojini Naidu (1879-1949) led 2,500 marchers on the Dharasana Salt Works, some 150 miles north of Bombay. Several hundred British-led Indian policemen met them and viciously beat the peaceful demonstrators. The incident, recorded by American journalist Webb Miller, prompted an international outcry against British policy in India.
QUIT INDIA MOVEMENT :
             The Quit India Movement was launched under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi in August 1942. The main aim for launching this movement was to bring the British to negotiate with the Indian leaders. It was a call for immediate independence of India and the slogan of "Do or Die" was adopted for the same. However the leaders were arrested soon after Gandhi's speech and were put in jail by British officials. Gandhi went on a fast for 21 days demanding the release of the leaders despite his failing health. The British had to secure the release of the leaders.

REORGANIZATION OF THE INDIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS :

              
When the Indian National Congress was reorganized in 1916, Gandhi represented a new generation of reformers. The father of the radical Indian independence movement, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, had just defeated a moderate faction for control of the INC. And Gandhi, fresh on the heels of his Indian civil rights work in South Africa and his efforts at organizing laborers in Champaran, became the new face of a new movement. When he wasn't in prison, Gandhi was the unofficial leader of the INC--and with it, the independence movement--from 1916 until his own death in 1948.

ASSASSINATION OF GANDHI :
               
            Godse assassinated Mahatma Gandhi on January 30, 1948, approaching him during the evening prayer, bowing, and shooting him three times at close range with a Beretta semi-automatic pistol. After the incident, he did not run away but stood at the spot and voluntarily gave himself up to the police.









      GANDHI TOMB AT RAJGHAT, NEW DELHI



the history of the world is full of men who rose to leadership, by sheer force of self-confidence, bravery and tenacity.
                                                                        By mahatma gandhi