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Mahatma Gandhi Album

Gandhi: A Biography
First Online: August 15, 1997 Table of
Page Last Updated: January 04, 2011 Contents
First See: Introduction to learn Who was Gandhi? Biography
Early Years
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869-1948), Man and Wheel
also known as Mahatma Gandhi, was born
in Porbandar in the present day state
Gandhi -Timeline
ofGujarat in India on October 2, 1869. He was
raised in a very conservative family that had Churchill &
affiliations with the ruling family of Kathiawad. Gandhi
He was educated in law at University
College, London. In 1891, after having been Illustrations
admitted to the British bar, Gandhi returned to
India and attempted to establish a law practice Dandi March
in Bombay, without much success. Two years
later an Indian firm with interests in South Africa On Education
retained him as legal adviser in its office in
Durban. Arriving in Durban, Gandhi found
himself treated as a member of an inferior race. On Jews
He was appalled at the widespread denial of civil
liberties and political rights to Indian immigrants Autobiography
to South Africa. He threw himself into the
struggle for elementary rights for Indians.
Gandhi &
See Also: Parentage and Childhood from
Women
Gandhi's autobiography

Resistance to Injustice Ask Gandhi

Gandhi remained in South Africa for twenty
years, suffering imprisonment many times. In
1896, after being attacked and humiliated by "Leader Lead"
white South Africans, Gandhi began to teach a
policy of passive resistance to, and non- Leather Puppet
cooperation with, the South African authorities.
Part of the inspiration for this policy came from
 the Russian writer Leo Tolstoy, whose influence Gandhi on Gita
Top of Form on Gandhi was profound. Gandhi
alsoacknowledged his debt to the teachings of Photo Quilt
Christ and to the 19th-century American writer Voice Clip
Search Henry David Thoreau, especially to Thoreau's
famous essay "Civil Disobedience." Gandhi
Bottom of Form
considered the terms passive resistance and civil Boy Gandhi
disobedience inadequate for his purposes,
however, and coined another
term, Satyagraha (from Sanskrit, "truth and As a Lawyer
firmness"). During the Boer War, Gandhi
organized an ambulance corps for the British Day with
army and commanded a Red Cross unit. After the Gandhi
war he returned to his campaign for Indian rights.
In 1910, he founded Tolstoy Farm, near Durban,
a cooperative colony for Indians. In 1914 the Visit to
government of the Union of South Africa made Sevashram
important concessions to Gandhi's demands,
including recognition of Indian marriages and Gandhi by
abolition of the poll tax for them. His work in Laxman
South Africa complete, he returned to India.

Gandhiji
Quotes
Campaign for Home Rule
Gandhi became a leader in a complex struggle, Radhakrishnan on
the Indian campaign for home rule. Following Gandhi
World War I, in which he played an active part in Gandhi Cartoon
recruiting campaigns, Gandhi, again advocating
Satyagraha, launched his movement of non-
violent resistance to Great Britain. When, in Man & Wife
1919, Parliament passed the Rowlatt Acts, giving
the Indian colonial authorities emergency powers
to deal with so-called revolutionary activities, On Bhagat
Satyagraha spread throughout India, gaining Singh
millions of followers. A demonstration against
the Rowlatt Acts resulted in a massacre of Indians ASCII Gandhi
at Amritsar by British soldiers; in 1920, when the Gandhi Rangoli
British government failed to make amends,
Gandhi proclaimed an organized campaign of
non-cooperation. Indians in public office Portrait
resigned, government agencies such as courts of
law were boycotted, and Indian children were
withdrawn from government schools. Throughout Gandhi Stamps
India, streets were blocked by squatting Indians Gandhi
who refused to rise even when beaten by police. Painting
Gandhi was arrested, but the British were soon
forced to release him. Miracle Worker

Economic independence for India, involving the Alphabetical Index

complete boycott of British goods, was made a
corollary of Gandhi's Swaraj (from Sanskrit, Internet links
"self-governing") movement. The economic Satyagraha
aspects of the movement were significant, for the
exploitation of Indian villagers by British Eulogy by
industrialists had resulted in extreme poverty in Nehru
the country and the virtual destruction of Indian
home industries. As a remedy for such poverty,
Gandhi advocated revival of cottage industries; Gandhi
he began to use a spinning wheel as a token of the Currency
return to the simple village life he preached, and
of the renewal of native Indian industries.
Hind Swaraj
Gandhi became the international symbol of a free
India. He lived a spiritual and ascetic life of Citations
prayer, fasting, and meditation. His union with
his wife became, as he himself stated, that of a Gandhi
brother and sister. Refusing earthly possessions, Pictures
he wore the loincloth and shawl of the lowliest
Indian and subsisted on vegetables, fruit juices,
and goat's milk. Indians revered him as a saint
and began to call him Mahatma (great-souled), a
title reserved for the greatest sages. Gandhi's
advocacy of nonviolence, known as ahimsa (non-
violence), was the expression of a way of life
implicit in the Hindu religion. By the Indian
practice of nonviolence, Gandhi held, Great
Britain too would eventually consider violence
useless and would leave India.

The Mahatma's political and spiritual hold on

India was so great that the British authorities
dared not interfere with him. In 1921 theIndian
National Congress, the group that spearheaded
the movement for nationhood, gave Gandhi
complete executive authority, with the right of
naming his own successor. The Indian
population, however, could not fully comprehend
the unworldly ahimsa. A series of armed revolts
against the British broke out, culminating in such
violence that Gandhi confessed the failure of the
civil-disobedience campaign he had called, and
ended it. The British government again seized
and imprisoned him in 1922.
After his release from prison in 1924, Gandhi
withdrew from active politics and devoted
himself to propagating communal unity.
Unavoidably, however, he was again drawn into
the vortex of the struggle for independence. In
1930 the Mahatma proclaimed a new campaign
of civil disobedience, calling upon the Indian
population to refuse to pay taxes, particularly the
tax on salt. The campaign was a march to the sea,
in which thousands of Indians followed Gandhi
from Ahmedabad to the Arabian Sea, where they
made salt by evaporating sea water. Once more
the Indian leader was arrested, but he was
released in 1931, halting the campaign after the
British made concessions to his demands. In the
same year Gandhi represented the Indian National
Congress at a conference in London.

V.N. O'key/Kamat's Potpourri

 Smiling Gandhi
Photograph by V.N. O'key, circa 1945

Gandhi takes on Domestic Problems

In 1932, Gandhi began new civil-disobedience
campaigns against the British. Arrested twice, the
Mahatma fasted for long periods several times;
these fasts were effective measures against the
British, because revolution might well have
broken out in India if he had died. In September
1932, while in jail, Gandhi undertook a "fast unto
death" to improve the status of the Hindu
Untouchables. The British, by permitting
the Untouchables to be considered as a separate
part of the Indian electorate, were, according to
Gandhi, countenancing an injustice. Although he
was himself a member of an upper caste, Gandhi
was the great leader of the movement in India
dedicated to eradicating the unjust social and
economic aspects of the caste system.
In 1934 Gandhi formally resigned from politics,
being replaced as leader of the Congress party
by Jawaharlal Nehru. Gandhi traveled through
India, teaching ahimsa and demanding
eradication of "untouchability." The esteem in
which he was held was the measure of his
political power. So great was this power that the
limited home rule granted by the British in 1935
could not be implemented until Gandhi approved
it. A few years later, in 1939, he again returned to
active political life because of the pending
federation of Indian principalities with the rest of
India. His first act was a fast, designed to force
the ruler of the state of Rajkot to modify his
autocratic rule. Public unrest caused by the fast
was so great that the colonial government
intervened; the demands were granted. The
Mahatma again became the most important
political figure in India.
© K. L. Kamat

Man of Firm Step

Independence for India

When World War II broke out, the Congress
party and Gandhi demanded a declaration of war
aims and their application to India. As a reaction
to the unsatisfactory response from the British,
the party decided not to support Britain in the war
unless the country were granted complete and
immediate independence. The British refused,
offering compromises that were rejected. When
Japan entered the war, Gandhi still refused to
agree to Indian participation. He was interned in
1942 but was released two years later because of
failing health.
Times of India/Kamat's Potpourri

Men Carrying Gandhi, Noakhali

By 1944 the Indian struggle for independence
was in its final stages, the British government
having agreed to independence on condition that
the two contending nationalist groups, the
Muslim League and the Congress party, should
resolve their differences. Gandhi stood steadfastly
against the partition of India but ultimately had to
agree, in the hope that internal peace would be
achieved after the Muslim demand for separation
had been satisfied. India and Pakistan became
separate states when the British granted India its
independence in 1947 (see: Tryst with Destiny --
the story of India's independence). During the
riots that followed the partition of India, Gandhi
pleaded with Hindus and Muslims to live together
peacefully. Riots engulfed Calcutta, one of the
largest cities in India, and the Mahatma fasted
until disturbances ceased. On January 13, 1948,
he undertook another successful fast in New
Delhi to bring about peace, but on January 30, 12
days after the termination of that fast, as he was
on his way to his evening prayer meeting, he was
assassinated by a fanatic Hindu.

Gandhi's death was regarded as an international

catastrophe. His place in humanity was measured
not in terms of the 20th century, but in terms of
history. A period of mourning was set aside in the
United Nations General Assembly, and
condolences to India were expressed by all
countries. Religious violence soon waned in India
and Pakistan, and the teachings of Gandhi came
to inspire nonviolent movements elsewhere,
notably in the U.S.A. under the civil rights leader
Martin Luther King, Jr. and in South Africa under
Nelson Mandela.

See Also:
• Sardar Bhagat Singh
• Bal Gangadhar Tilak
• Indian War of Independence
• Gandhiji and his views on Women
• India's Struggle for Freedom

References
• "Gandhi, Mohandas Karamchand,"
Microsoft (R) Encarta. Copyright © 1993
Microsoft Corporation. Copyright ©
1993 Funk & Wagnall's Corporation
• Green Martin (Ed) Gandhi in India, 1987
• A compilation of research papers on
Gandhi for further study

© The Creative works are copyrighted by

respective photographers, artists and writers.
Most of Gandhi's Writings © by Navajivan Trust.
Check with us before you reproduce.

Kamat's Potpourri Mahatma Gandhi Album

© 1996-2010 Kamat's Potpourri. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without prior permission.
Standard disclaimers apply
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Mahatma Gandhi's Autobiography

In Gandhi's Words - His Early Years and Experiments with Truth

Jan 5, 2008 Elaine Walker

Mahatma Gandhi - Wikimedia Commons

A heartwarming account of Mahatma Gandhi's life and the experiences that led him to become the world's greatest teacher in non-violen

Born in 1869, Ghandi was assassinated in January 1948. He is best remembered for his consistent teaching and practice of Ahimsa whi
deed. With the knowledge that Mahatma (Sanskrit title meaning Great Soul) Gandhi was instrumental in bringing about India’s independ
reading for understanding his early years and how they shaped the great teacher he became.
Gandhi’s autobiography, The Story of My Experiments with Truth, begins with Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi’s boyhood. He was cle
whom he remembers as saintly, religiously devout, and intelligent; and his father whom he describes as “incorruptible” and “strictly impar
as in his career as prime minister of the region.
Early Experiments
Written in the first person in a simple narrative style, the book is a tender and honest read. Ghandi talks with some shame, of his early m
was the Hindu custom in India, his young illiterate wife moved into the Gandhi family home and he continued to go to school during the d
and remembers daydreaming with feelings of carnal longing during his daily lessons. One of his earliest experiments with truth, and one
break free from “the shackles of lust.”
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Dancing Lessons
Parts of the book are touchingly funny, particularly when he explains how he set about trying to become an English gentleman during his
buying British clothes and having a standard haircut under his tall black hat, he writes:
“I decided to take dancing lessons at a class and paid down £ 3 as fees for a term. I must have taken about six lessons in three weeks. B
He bought a violin instead, and added elocution lessons to the regime. It is typical of his single-mindedness that he would do all that he c
into British society. However, when the “truth” dawned on him that England was not, and never would be his home, he immediately sold
classes.
Read on
• A Season for Nonviolence
• Mahatma Gandhi Spiritual Leader to India
• Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948)
Reluctant Vegetarian
Another experiment and an important theme of these memoirs is vegetarianism, and diet in general. Originally a reluctant vegetarian, he
meatless diet and was elected to the committee of the Vegetarian Society in England.
Religious Enquiry
Gandhi’s religious experiment began in earnest after his graduation as a lawyer, and during the time spent in South Africa. He writes with
encountered alongside his enquiry into Christianity and Islam. It was here that his practice of non-violence was born, and from here that
and the right to personal freedom.
Tribute
The final chapters describe the beginning of his experiment with politics and civil disobedience, and end with his introduction of the spinn
the ways of honesty and simplicity, inspirational as a guide to looking deeply into the truth of one’s own life.
The seeds of non-violence are evident throughout and fascinating as a background for the great things to come in the life of Mahatma G
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Copyright Elaine Walker. Contact the author to obtain permission for republication.

Print Article|Share Article|

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Comments/distribution
News: be sure to read our news guidelines before marking an article as "news".
Comments: Your article is also a potential conversation-starter, and conversations attract readers. We recommend you take pa
Sep 17, 2008 2:34 AM

Guest :

Great person !!!!!!Iwished to meet him but he didn't wait for me .

Nov 28, 2008 10:12 AM

Guest :

A true human being!! im getting a tattoo of one of his quotations but dont know which yet. any ideas??

Jan 8, 2009 12:07 PM

Guest :

He is a really good person and he is GREAT for my history project!!!

Feb 6, 2009 5:26 AM

Guest :

that sound wierd but oh well he is agreat guy

RIDE ON

Feb 6, 2009 5:27 AM

Guest :

he is agreat guy he helped a lot of people

RIDE ON Gandhi

Feb 24, 2009 9:33 AM

Guest :

HE IS COOL. I WANA BE LIKE HIM WHEN I GROW UP. i HATE VIOLENCE. hE IS MY HERO! YAAAAAAAAAAAY!! =]=]

Feb 24, 2009 9:37 AM

Guest :

I LOVE GANDHIII !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11

Feb 26, 2009 7:46 AM

Guest :

Gandhi is a good man ...

fell sorry that he died
but he was trying to do the
right thing..
=] <3 ///

8 Comments/distribution

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Reference

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• non-violence
• gandhi's life
• review gandhi autobiography
• story of my experiments with truth
• gandhi vegetarian

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