HISTORY: 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.