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Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)

Mahatma Gandhi was an advocate and pioneer of nonviolence. He led the struggle for India's independence from British colonial rule. Born Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi in the town of Porbander in what is today known as Gujarat on 2 October 1869.

In 1888 Gandhi set sail for England, where he had decided to pursue a degree in law. As a British-educated lawyer, Gandhi first employed his ideas of peaceful civil disobedience in the Indian community's struggle for civil rights in South Africa. South Africa changed Gandhi dramatically, as he faced the discrimination commonly directed at blacks and Indians. Gandhi extended his original period of stay in South Africa to assist Indians in opposing a bill to deny them the right to vote. Though unable to halt the bill's passage, his campaign was successful in drawing attention to the grievances of Indians in South Africa.

In January 1897, when Gandhi returned from a brief trip to India, a white mob attacked and tried to lynch him. At a mass protest meeting held in Johannesburg on September 11th that year, Gandhi adopted his still evolving methodology of satyagraha (devotion to the truth), or non-violent protest, for the first time, calling on his fellow Indians to defy the new law and suffer the punishments for doing so, rather than resist through violent means. He returned to India to take up the struggle there. Upon his return to India, he organized poor farmers and labourers to protest against oppressive taxation and widespread discrimination.

Assuming leadership of the Indian National Congress, Gandhi led nationwide campaigns for the alleviation of poverty, for the liberation of women, for brotherhood amongst differing religions and ethnicities, for an end to the Untouchables caste discrimination, and for the economic self-sufficiency of the nation.

Between 1946 and 1948 , over 5,000 people were killed in violence. Gandhi was vehemently opposed to any plan that partitioned India into two separate countries. An overwhelming majority of Muslims living in India, side by side with Hindus and Sikhs, were in favour of Partition.

On January 30, 1948, Gandhi was shot and killed while having his nightly public walk on the grounds of the Birla Bhavan in New Dehli.

Gandhi was born a Hindu and practiced Hinduism all his life, deriving most of his principles from Hinduism. As a common Hindu, he believed all religions to be equal, and rejected all efforts to convert him to a different faith. He was an avid theologian and read extensively about all major religions. Later in his life when he was asked whether he was a Hindu, he replied:

"Yes I am. I am also a Christian, a Muslim, a Buddhist and a Jew."

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