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Mahatma Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
India's "Father of the nation" —Mahatma Gandhi
Born October 2, 1869
Porbandar, Gujarat, India
Died January 30, 1948
New Delhi, India
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (October 2, 1869–January 30, 1948) was the
spiritual and political leader of India who led the struggle for India's
independence from the British Empire, empowered by tens of millions of Indians.
Throughout his life he opposed any form of terrorism or violence, instead using
only the highest moral standards. His philosophy of nonviolence, for which he
coined the term satyagraha, has influenced national and international nonviolent
resistance movements to this day.
From the time he took charge of the freedom struggle and the Indian National
Congress in 1918, he became a national icon and was lovingly revered as Mahatma,
or Great Soul by millions of Indians. Although he was much averse to honorary
addresses, Gandhi is still today commonly referred to as Mahatma Gandhi, all
over the world. Apart from being considered one of the greatest Hindu and Indian
leaders of all time, he is revered by many in India as the "Father of the
Nation" or Bapu (Hindi for Father). His birthday on October 2, Gandhi Jayanti,
is a national holiday in India.
By means of nonviolent civil disobedience, Gandhi helped bring about India's
independence from British rule, inspiring other colonial peoples to work for
their own independence and ultimately dismantling the British Empire. Gandhi's
principle of satyagraha (from Sanskrit; satya for truth and agraha for
endeavor), often translated as "way of truth" or "pursuit of truth", has
inspired other freedom activists such as Martin Luther King, Jr., the Dalai
Lama, Lech Wałęsa, Stephen Biko, Aung San Suu Kyi and Nelson Mandela. However,
not all these leaders kept to Gandhi's strict principle of nonviolence and
nonresistance.
Gandhi often stated that his principles were simple; drawn from traditional
Hindu beliefs: truth (satya) and nonviolence (ahimsa). As Gandhi said:
"I have nothing new to teach the world. Truth and nonviolence are as old as the
hills."
Contents
[hide]
* 1 Early Life
* 2 Civil rights movement in South Africa (1893–1914)
* 3 Movement for India's Independence (1914–1947)
o 3.1 Champaran and Kheda
o 3.2 Non-Cooperation Movement
o 3.3 1930s: Simon Commission, Salt Satyagraha
o 3.4 Do or Die: World War II and Quit India
o 3.5 Freedom and Partition of India (1945–1947)
* 4 Personal Life During the Movement
* 5 Assassination
* 6 Vision for India
* 7 Principles
o 7.1 Nonviolence
o 7.2 Truth
o 7.3 Vegetarianism
o 7.4 Celibacy
o 7.5 Silence
o 7.6 Clothing
o 7.7 Religion
o 7.8 Faith
* 8 The Leadership of Mahatma Gandhi
* 9 Recognition
o 9.1 Mahatma
o 9.2 Artistic depictions
* 10 Modern criticism
* 11 See also
* 12 References for the article on Mahatma Gandhi
[edit]
Early Life
Gandhi and his wife Kasturba (1902)
Enlarge
Gandhi and his wife Kasturba (1902)
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born into a Hindu Modh family in Porbandar,
Gujarat, India in 1869. He was the son of Karamchand Gandhi, the diwan (Chief
Minister) of Porbandar, and Putlibai, Karamchand's fourth wife, a Hindu of the
vaishnava sect. Growing up with a devout Vaishnava mother and surrounded by the
Jain influences of Gujarat, Gandhi learned from an early age the tenets of
non-injury to living beings, vegetarianism, fasting for self-purification, and
mutual tolerance between members of various creeds and sects. He was born into
the vaishya, or business, caste. In May 1882, at the age of 13, Gandhi was
married through his parents arrangement to Kasturba Makharji, who was the same
age as he at 13. They had four sons: Harilal Gandhi, born in 1888; Manilal
Gandhi, born in 1892; Ramdas Gandhi, born in 1897; and Devdas Gandhi, born in
1900.
Gandhi was a mediocre student in his youth at Porbandar and later Rajkot, barely
passing the matriculation exam for the University of Bombay in 1887, and joining
Samaldas College, Bhavnagar. He did not stay there long, however, as his family
felt he must become a barrister if he were to continue the family tradition of
holding high office in Gujarat. Unhappy at Samaldas College, he leapt at the
opportunity to study in England, which he viewed as "a land of philosophers and
poets, the very centre of civilization."
At the age of 19, Gandhi went to University College London to train as a
barrister. His time in London, the Imperial capital, was influenced by a vow he
had made to his mother in the presence of a Jain monk Becharji, upon leaving
India to observe the Hindu precepts of abstinence from meat and alcohol.
Although Gandhi experimented with becoming "English", taking dancing lessons for
example, he could not stomach his landlady's mutton and cabbage. She pointed him
towards one of London's few vegetarian restaurants. Rather than simply go along
with his mother's wishes, he read about, and intellectually converted to
vegetarianism. He joined the Vegetarian Society, was elected to its Executive
Committee, and founded a local chapter. He later credited this with giving him
valuable experience in organising and running institutions. Some of the
vegetarians he met were members of the Theosophical Society, which had been
founded in 1875 by H.P. Blavatsky to further universal brotherhood. The
Theosophists were devoted to the study of Buddhist and Hindu Brahmanistic
literature. They encouraged Gandhi to read the Bhagavad Gita. Although he had
not shown a particular interest in religion before, he began to read works of
and about Hinduism, Christianity, Buddhism and other religions.
He returned to India after being admitted to the British bar. Trying to
establish a law practice in Bombay, he had limited success. By this time, the
legal profession was overcrowded in India, and Gandhi was not a dynamic figure
in a courtroom. He applied for a part-time job as a teacher at a Bombay high
school but was turned down. He ended up returning to Rajkot to make a modest
living drafting petitions for litigants but was forced to close down that
business as well when he ran afoul of a British officer. In his autobiography,
he describes this incident as a kind of unsuccessful lobbying attempt on behalf
of his older brother. It was in this climate that (in 1893) he accepted a
yearlong contract from an Indian firm to a post in Natal, South Africa.
[edit]
Civil rights movement in South Africa (1893–1914)
At this point in his life, Gandhi was a mild-mannered, diffident, politically
indifferent individual. He had read his first newspaper at age 18 and was prone
to horrible stage fright when speaking in court. South Africa changed him
dramatically as he faced the humiliation and oppression that was commonly
directed at Indians in that country. One day in court in the city of Durban, the
magistrate asked him to remove his turban, which he refused to do, and Gandhi
stormed out of the courtroom. A turning point in his life, often acknowledged in
biographies, that would serve as the catalyst for his activism occurred several
days later when he began a journey to Pretoria. He was literally thrown off a
train at Pietermaritzburg after refusing to move from first class to a third
class compartment, normally used by coloured peoples, while travelling on a
valid first class ticket. Later, travelling further on by stagecoach, he was
beaten by a driver for refusing to travel on the footboard to make room for a
European passenger. He suffered other hardships on the journey as well,
including being barred from many hotels on account of his race. This experience
led him to more closely examine the hardships his people suffered in South
Africa during his time in Pretoria.
Gandhi in South Africa (1895)
Enlarge
Gandhi in South Africa (1895)
It was in South Africa through witnessing racism, prejudice and injustice
first-hand that he started to question his countrymen's status and his own place
in society. In fact Gandhi has been accused of prejudice himself through some of
his remarks made in his early life against the native Africans [1].
When Gandhi's contract was up, he prepared to return to India. However, at a
farewell party in his honor in Durban, he happened to glance at a newspaper and
learned that a bill was being considered by the Natal Legislative Assembly to
deny the vote to Indians. When he brought this up with his hosts, they lamented
that they did not have the expertise necessary to oppose the bill and implored
Gandhi to stay and help them. He circulated several petitions to both the Natal
Legislature and the British government in opposition to the bill. Though unable
to halt the bill's passage, his campaign was successful in drawing attention to
the grievances of Indians in South Africa. Supporters convinced him to remain in
Durban to continue fighting against the injustices levied against Indians in
South Africa. He founded the Natal Indian Congress in 1894 with himself as
secretary. Through this organization, he formed the Indian community of South
Africa into a heterogeneous political force, inundating government and press
alike with statements of Indian grievances and evidence of British
discrimination in South Africa. Gandhi returned briefly to India in 1896 to
bring his wife and children to live with him in South Africa. When he returned
in January 1897, a white mob attacked and tried to lynch him. In an early
indication of the personal values that would shape his later campaigns, he
refused to press charges on any member of the mob, stating it was one of his
principles not to seek redress for a personal wrong in a court of law.
At the onset of the South African War, Gandhi argued that Indians must support
the war effort in order to legitimize their claims to full citizenship,
organising a volunteer ambulance corps of 300 free Indians and 800 indentured
laborers. At the conclusion of the war, however, the situation for the Indians
did not improve, but continued to deteriorate. In 1906, the Transvaal government
promulgated a new act compelling registration of the colony's Indian population.
At a mass protest meeting held in Johannesburg that September, Gandhi adopted
his platform 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. This plan was
adopted, leading to a seven-year struggle in which thousands of Indians were
jailed (including Gandhi himself on many occasions), flogged, or even shot, for
striking, refusing to register, burning their registration cards, or engaging in
other forms of non-violent resistance. While the government was successful in
repressing the Indian protesters, the public outcry stemming from the harsh
methods employed by the South African government in the face of peaceful Indian
protesters finally forced South African General Jan Christian Smuts to negotiate
a compromise with Gandhi.
During his years in South Africa, Gandhi drew inspiration from the Bhagavad Gita
and the writings of Leo Tolstoy (especially The Kingdom of God is Within You
[2]), who in the 1880s had undergone a profound conversion to a personal form of
Christian anarchism. Gandhi translated Tolstoy's A Letter to a Hindu (available
at wikisource), written in 1908 in response to aggressive Indian nationalists.
The two corresponded until Tolstoy's death in 1910. The letter by Tolstoy
applies Hindu philosophy from the Vedas and the sayings of Krishna to the
growing Indian nationalism. Gandhi was also inspired by the American writer
Henry David Thoreau's famous essay Civil Disobedience. Gandhi's years in South
Africa as a socio-political activist were when the concepts and techniques of
civil disobedience and non-violent resistance were developed. Upon the outbreak
of World War I, Gandhi decided to return to India, bringing all that he had
learned from his experiences in South Africa with him.
[edit]
Movement for India's Independence (1914–1947)
See Also: Indian Independence Movement, Non-Cooperation Movement
As he had done in the South African War, Gandhi urged support of the British War
effort and was active in encouraging Indians to join the army. His rationale,
opposed by many others, was that if he desired the full citizenship, freedoms
and rights in the Empire, it would be wrong not to help in its defense. He spoke
at the conventions of the Indian National Congress, but was primarily introduced
to Indian issues, politics and the Indian people by Gopal Krishna Gokhale, at
the time the most respected leader of the Congress Party.
Gandhi in India
Enlarge
Gandhi in India
[edit]
Champaran and Kheda
Gandhi's first major achievements came in 1918 with the Champaran agitation and
Kheda Satyagraha, although in the latter he was involved at par with Sardar
Vallabhbhai Patel, who acted as his right-hand and leader of the rebels. In
Champaran, a district in the state of Bihar, he organized civil resistance on
the part of tens of thousands of landless farmers and serfs, and poor farmers
with small lands, who were forced to grow indigo and other cash crops instead of
the food crops necessary for their survival. Suppressed by the ruthless militias
of the landlords (mostly British), they were given measly compensation, leaving
them mired in extreme poverty. The villages were kept extremely dirty and
unhygienic, and alcoholism, untouchability and purdah were rampant. Now in the
throes of a devastating famine, the British levied an oppressive tax which they
insisted on increasing in rate. The situation was desperate. In Kheda in
Gujarat, the problem was the same.
Gandhi established an ashrama there, organizing scores of his veteran supporters
and fresh volunteers from the region. He organized a detailed study and survey
of the villages, accounting the atrocities and terrible episodes of suffering,
including the general state of degenerate living. Building on the confidence of
villagers, he began leading the clean-up of villages, building of schools and
hospitals and encouraging the village leadership to undo purdah, untouchability
and the suppression of women.
But his main assault came as he was arrested by police on the charge of creating
unrest and was ordered to leave the province. Hundreds of thousands of people
protested and rallied outside the jail, police stations and courts demanding his
release, which the court unwillingly did. Gandhi led organized protests and
strike against the landlords, who with the guidance of the British government,
signed an agreement granting more compensation and control over farming for the
poor farmers of the region, and cancellation of revenue hikes and collection
until the famine ended. It was during this agitation, that Gandhi was addressed
by the people as Bapu (Father) and Mahatma (Great Soul). In Kheda, Patel
represented the farmers in negotiations with the British, who suspended revenue
collection and granted relief. All prisoners were released. Gandhi's resulting
fame spread like fire all over the nation. He had become a defining influence on
Indian Nationalism.
[edit]
Non-Cooperation Movement
See Also: Non-Cooperation Movement
The Rowlatt Act of 1919, which empowered the government to imprison those
accused of sedition without trial, was passed. Gandhi and the Congress Party
organized major protests and strikes, all of a non-violent character around the
nation. All major Indian cities and towns shut down, and the government
machinery had to be taken over by the Army. Thousands of people were arrested,
and martial law was imposed in many parts of the country. In Punjab, the
Amritsar Massacre of 379 civilians by British and Indian troops caused deep
trauma to the nation, and increased public anger and acts of violence.
Gandhi criticized both the actions of the British, and the retaliatory violence
of Indians. He famously authored the resolution offering condolences to British
civilian victims and condemning the riots, which after initial opposition in the
party, was accepted after Gandhi made an emotional speech pushing forth his
principle that all violence was evil and could not be justified. Indians should
not become guilty of the racial hate carried by the British, and should not
punish innocent British civilians.
But it was after the massacre and violence that Gandhi realized not only were
Indians unprepared for mass scale resistance but the British rule in India was
evil and inherently oppressive. Gandhi's mind focused upon obtaining complete
self-government and control of all Indian government institutions, maturing soon
into Swaraj or complete individual, spiritual, political independence.
In April 1920, Gandhi was elected president of the All India Home Rule League.
He was invested with executive authority on behalf of the Indian National
Congress in December 1921. Under Gandhi's leadership, the Congress was
reorganized and given a new constitution, with the goal of swaraj
(independence). Membership in the party was opened to anyone prepared to pay a
token fee. A hierarchy of committees was set up to improve discipline and
control over a hitherto amorphous and diffuse movement, transforming the party
from an elite organization to one of mass national appeal. Gandhi expanded his
non-violence platform to include the swadeshi policy – the boycott of
foreign-made goods, especially British goods. Linked to this was his advocacy
that khadi (homespun cloth) be worn by all Indians instead of British-made
textiles. Gandhi exhorted Indian men and women, rich or poor, to spend time each
day spinning khadi in support of the independence movement. This was a strategy
to inculcate discipline and dedication to weed out the unwilling and ambitious,
and include women in the movement at a time when many thought that such
activities were not 'respectable' for women. In addition to boycotting British
products, Gandhi urged the people to boycott British educational institutions
and law courts, to resign from government employment, to refuse to pay taxes,
and to forsake British titles and honours. This new program enjoyed wide-spread
appeal and success, empowering the Indian people as never before, yet just as
the movement reached its apex, it ended abruptly as a result of a violent clash
in the town of Chauri Chaura, Uttar Pradesh, in February 1922. Fearing that the
movement was about to take a turn towards violence, and convinced that this
would be the undoing of all his work, Gandhi called off the campaign of mass
civil disobedience. Now vulnerable, Gandhi was arrested on March 10, 1922, tried
for sedition, and sentenced to six years. This was not the first time he had
been jailed, but it was to be his longest term of imprisonment. Beginning on
March 18, 1922, he only served about two years of the sentence, being released
in February 1924 after an operation for appendicitis.
Without Gandhi's forceful personality to keep his colleagues in check, the
Indian National Congress began to splinter during his years in prison, splitting
into two factions, one led by Chitta Ranjan Das and Motilal Nehru favoring party
participation in the legislatures, and the other led by Chakravarti
Rajagopalachari and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, opposing this move. Furthermore,
cooperation among Hindus and Muslims, which had been strong at the height of the
nonviolence campaign, was breaking down. Gandhi attempted to bridge these
differences through many means, including a three-week fast in the autumn of
1924, but with limited success.
Gandhi during the Salt March (1930)
Enlarge
Gandhi during the Salt March (1930)
[edit]
1930s: Simon Commission, Salt Satyagraha
See Also: Simon Commission, Salt Satyagraha
Gandhi stayed out of the limelight for most of the 1920s, preferring to resolve
the wedge between the Swaraj Party and the Indian National Congress, and
expanding initiatives against untouchability, alcoholism, ignorance and poverty.
He returned to the fore in 1928. The year before, the British government
appointed a new constitutional reform commission under Sir John Simon numbering
not a single Indian in its ranks. The result was a boycott of the commission by
Indian political parties. Gandhi pushed through a resolution at the Calcutta
Congress in December 1928 calling on the British government to grant India
dominion status within a year or face a new campaign of non-violence with
complete independence for the country as its goal.
January 26, 1930 was celebrated by the Indian National Congress, meeting in
Lahore as India's Independence Day. This day was commemorated by almost every
other Indian political organization which strived for the country's independence
or the socio-political empowerment of different peoples.
Making good on his word in March 1930, he launched a new satyagraha against the
tax on salt, highlighted by the famous Salt March to Dandi from March 21 to
April 6 1930, marching 400 kilometres (248 miles) from Ahmedabad to Dandi,
Gujarat to make his own salt. Thousands of Indians joined him on this march to
the sea. This campaign was one of his most successful, resulting in the
imprisonment of over 60,000 people. The government, represented by Lord Irwin,
decided to negotiate with Gandhi.
The Gandhi-Irwin Pact was signed in March 1931. In it, the British Government
agreed to set all political prisoners free in return for the suspension of the
civil disobedience movement. Furthermore, Gandhi was invited to attend the Round
Table Conference in London as the sole representative of the Indian National
Congress. The conference was a disappointment to Gandhi and the nationalists as
it focused on the Indian princes and Indian minorities rather than the transfer
of power. Furthermore, Lord Irwin's successor, Lord Willingdon, embarked on a
new campaign of repression against the nationalists.
Gandhi was again arrested, and the government attempted to destroy his influence
by completely isolating him from his followers. This tactic was not successful.
In 1932, through the campaigning of the Dalit leader B. R. Ambedkar, the
government granted untouchables separate electorates under the new constitution.
In protest, Gandhi embarked on a six-day fast in September 1932, successfully
forcing the government to adopt a more equitable arrangement via negotiations
mediated by the Dalit cricketer turned political leader Palwankar Baloo. This
began a new campaign by Gandhi to improve the lives of the untouchables, whom he
named Harijans, the children of God. On May 8, 1933 Gandhi began a 21-day fast
to protest British oppression in India. In the summer of 1934, three
unsuccessful attempts were made on his life.
When the Congress Party chose to contest elections and accept power under the
Federation scheme, Gandhi decided to resign from party membership. He did not at
all disagree with the party's move, but felt that if he resigned, his iconic
status to common Indians would cease to stifle the party's membership, that
actually varied from communists, socialists, trade unionists, students,
religious conservatives, pro-business and property rights. Gandhi also did not
want to prove a target for Raj propaganda by leading a party that had
temporarily accepted political accommodation with the Raj.
Gandhi returned to the head in 1936, with the Nehru presidency and the Lucknow
session of the Congress. Although Gandhi desired a total focus on the task of
winning independence and not speculation about India's future government, Gandhi
did not restrain the Congress from adopting socialism as its goal.
Gandhi also criticized Subhas Chandra Bose and his rise to the presidency in
1938. While some historians suggest this was a power struggle between two iconic
leaders, Gandhi basically objected to Bose's lack of commitment to non-violence
and democracy, which Gandhi felt were fundamental to the struggle. Bose's desire
to launch a widespread revolt against the British did not include the provision
that all rebels use non-violent means, and Bose focused his first year of
presidency on bringing in close supporters into leadership.
Bose won his second term despite Gandhi's criticism, but left the Congress when
the All-India leaders resigned en masse in protest of his abandonment of
principles introduced by Gandhi in the early 1920s. In 1938-1939, all elected
Congressmen resigned their offices as the Congress protested the unilateral
inclusion of India into World War II without consultation of elected
representatives.
He continued his fight against untouchability, promoted handspinning and other
cottage industries, and attempted to create a new system of education suited to
the rural areas. He lived a simple life during these years at a village in
central India called Sevagram. He underwent another fast at the end of the
decade in Bombay on March 3, 1939.
[edit]
Do or Die: World War II and Quit India
See also: Quit India Movement
World War II broke out in 1939 when Nazi Germany invaded Poland. Gandhi was
fully sympathetic with the victims of fascist aggression. After lengthy
deliberations with colleagues in the Congress, he declared that India could not
be party to a war ostensibly being fought for democratic freedom while that
freedom was denied in India herself. He said he would support the British if
they could show him how the war's aims would be implemented in India after the
war. The British government's response was entirely negative. They began
fomenting tension between Hindus and Muslims. As the war progressed, Gandhi
increased his demands for independence, drafting a resolution calling for the
British to Quit India.
This was Gandhi's and the Congress Party's most definitive, all-out revolt aimed
at securing the British exit from Indian shores. Gandhi was criticized by some
Congressmen and other Indian political groups, pro-British and anti-British.
Some felt that opposing Britain in its life-death struggle was immoral, and
others were angered that Gandhi wasn't doing enough. Many political parties
actually opposed Gandhi's call. Thus apart from his age and health, it was
probably likely to be his final initiative.
This sparked the largest movement for Indian independence to date, with mass
arrests and violence on an unprecedented scale. Thousands of resisters were
killed or injured in police fire, and hundreds of thousands of freedom-fighters
were arrested. Gandhi and his supporters made it clear they would not support
the war effort unless India were granted immediate independence. He even
clarified that this time the movement would not be stopped if individual acts of
violence were committed, saying that the "ordered anarchy" around him was "worse
than real anarchy." He called on all Congressmen and Indians to maintain
peaceful discipline, and do or die in the cause of ultimate freedom.
Gandhi and the entire Congress Working Committee was arrested in Mumbai by
British forces on August 9, 1942. Gandhi was held for two years in the Aga Khan
Palace in Pune. It was here that Gandhi suffered to the worst blows of his life:
his wife Kasturba passed on, just a few months after Mahadev Desai, his 42-year
old, son-like secretary died of a heart attack. He was released before the end
of the war only because of his failing health and necessary surgery; the Raj did
not want him to die in prison and enrage the entire nation beyond control.
Although the ruthless suppression of the movement by British forces brought
relative order to India by end 1943, Quit India succeeded in its objective. At
the end of the war, the British gave clear indications that power would be
transferred to Indian hands, and Gandhi called off the struggle, and the
Congress leadership and around 100,000 political prisoners were released. After
90 years of trying, freedom was just around the corner for India.
[edit]
Freedom and Partition of India (1945–1947)
See also: Partition of India
Gandhi's Memorial in Delhi.
Enlarge
Gandhi's Memorial in Delhi.
Gandhi advised the Congress to reject the proposals of the British Cabinet
Mission Plan offered in 1946, as he was deeply suspicious of power-sharing with
the Muslim League and the divisions and minimization of central power involved.
Gandhi warned against the grouping proposed for Muslim-majority states. However,
this became one of the few times the Congress broke from Gandhi's advice (not
his leadership though), as not only did Congress leaders want to create a
government which would take over from the British as quickly as possible, but
the aim was to prevent Mohammed Ali Jinnah and the League from obtaining
political parity to the more national, secular Congress Party.
Between 1946 and 1947, over 5,000 people were killed in violence. The League
enjoyed popularity in the Muslim majority Punjab, Bengal, Sindh, NWFP and
Baluchistan. The partition plan was approved by the Congress leadership as the
only way to prevent a wide-scale Hindu-Muslim civil war.
Senior Congress leaders knew that although Gandhi would viscerally oppose
partition, it was doubly impossible for the Congress to go ahead without his
agreement, for Gandhi's support in the party and throughout India was wide and
deep. Gandhi's closest colleagues had accepted partition as the best way out,
and Sardar Patel endeavored to convince Gandhi that it was the only way to avoid
civil war. Gandhi gave his assent and endorsed the move.
Gandhi had great influence among the Hindu and Muslim communities of India. It
is said that he ended riots through his mere presence. He was vehemently opposed
to any plan that partitioned India into two separate countries. The Muslim
League argued that the Muslim minority would be systematically oppressed by the
Hindu majority in a united India, and that a separate Muslims homeland was the
only just solution. However, many Muslims in the Indian heartland lived side by
side with Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis, Christians, and Jews, and
were in favor with a united India. But Jinnah commanded widespread support in
Western Punjab, Sindh, NWFP and Eastern Bengal, all that form today's Pakistan
and Bangladesh. This new Muslim homeland was created from areas on the east and
west of India. It was originally called West and East Pakistan, which now
correspond to Pakistan and Bangladesh, respectively. On the day of the transfer
of power, Gandhi did not celebrate independence with the rest of India, but was
alone in Kolkata, mourning the partition and working to end the violence.
[edit]
Personal Life During the Movement
Please improve this section according to the posted request for expansion.
Gandhi and his wife Kasturba would travel all over the country, and live in a
series of ashrams in Gujarat and Maharashtra, and the homes of colleagues and
sympathizers. When visiting Delhi, they would reside at Birla House, provided
for by Ghanshyamdas Birla, a close friend. For a while in Delhi, Gandhi lived in
the Bhangi Colony, the center of his work against untouchability.
Gandhi was an avid writer of letters, and would continually experiment with his
diet, fine-tuning his understanding of religion and philosophy, but primarily
pondering over political events. He would direct the ashram work and guide
fellow activists on personal issues.
[edit]
Assassination
On January 30, 1948, on his way to a prayer meeting, Gandhi was shot dead in
Birla House, New Delhi, by Nathuram Godse. Godse was a Hindu radical with
alleged links to right-wing Hindu organisations, like the Hindu Mahasabha, who
held him responsible for weakening the new government by insisting upon a
payment to Pakistan. Godse and his co-conspirator Narayan Apte were later tried
and convicted, and executed on 15 November 1949. A prominent revolutionary and
Hindu extremist, the president of the Mahasabha, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar was
accused of being the architect of the plot, but was acquitted due to lack of
evidence.
It is indicative of Gandhi's long struggle and search for God that his dying
words were said to have been a homage to God, Rama: "He Ram!" (Oh God!). This is
seen as an inspiring signal of his spirituality as well as his idealism
regarding the possibility of a unifying peace. The words are inscribed upon his
memorial in New Delhi. While some are sceptical of this, evidence from a number
of witnesses supports the claim that he made this utterance (see External
links). Some sources state that Gandhi's last words were "He Ram, He Ram" or "Rama,
Rama". It has also been claimed that when Gandhi fell to the ground dying, he
clasped his hands together in the form of the namaste.
[edit]
Vision for India
Please improve this section according to the posted request for expansion.
Mohandas Gandhi had wanted a united India, absolutely free in every possible
sense of the word. He wanted Muslims and Hindus to live in absolute freedom with
respect and friendship. He wanted each to be free to express themselves, worship
and enjoy their heritage and culture, especially with each other. Gandhi wanted
women to be equal to men, live with dignity, security and enjoy opportunities of
personal progress. Gandhi wanted untouchability, casteism in Hindu society to be
absolutely eliminated, and all Hindus to be equal and united, proud of their
faith and heritage.
Gandhi wanted the people to help themselves: for the rich to help the poor,
respect each other as brother and sister. He inspired the Sarvodaya movement
launched by Gandhians like Vinoba Bhave, seeking land reform and re-distribution
by encouraging amity and a sense of community between landlords and landless
farmers, instead of the class warfare prescribed by Lenin and Mao Zedong.
Gandhi had fought and led millions of Indians with a vision of individual
freedom, and genuine cultural and religious respect and harmony, not merely
"tolerance." He wanted the people to develop the spirit of love and brotherhood.
This is exemplified by his adoption of the Khilafat cause as his own, and
encouraging Hindus to express support and fight alongside Indian Muslims for a
cause which they were not directly concerned with.
The adoption of Satyagraha to fight social, economic and political evils, felt
Gandhi, would bind the nation together in a new discipline, culture of ahimsa,
brotherhood, self-sufficiency and pride. Re-inventing with satyagraha would
create an India self-sufficent in fulfilling the needs of the people, including
providing opportunity and hope for a better future.
According to the biographic film Gandhi by Richard Attenborough, in his last
months, Gandhi was a broken man inside. He regarded the partition as his
personal failure. In the book Patel: A Life, author Rajmohan Gandhi supplies a
quote that Gandhi was considering launching a popular, mass struggle against the
partition schemes, but lacked a second tier of leadership and support within the
Congress.
The partition of India altered Gandhi's vision as he desperately worked to make
sure that war may not break out between the two nations. Gandhi insisted that
the Rs. 55 crores due to the Government of Pakistan, as agreed upon by the
Partition Council should be released despite the on-going Kashmir War. Gandhi
felt that encouraging economic instability and bankrupting Pakistan's government
would only increase the violence and warfare, even though Pakistan could have
used the money to finance the war effort against India. Gandhi feared war, and
also the possibility that an open war could degenerate into a civil war between
Hindus and Muslims across India and Pakistan.
[edit]
Principles
See also: Gandhism
Gandhi's principles and his ideas of satya and ahimsa were influenced by the
Bhagavad Gita, Hinduism, Jainism and Christian anarchism.
[edit]
Nonviolence
The concept of nonviolence (ahimsa) and nonresistance has a long history in
Indian religious thought and has had many revivals in Hindu, Buddhist, Jain and
Christian contexts. Gandhi explains his philosophy and way of life in his
autobiography The Story of My Experiments with Truth. He was quoted with saying:
"What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, and the homeless,
whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the
holy name of liberty and democracy?"
"An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind".
"There are many causes that I am prepared to die for but no causes that I am
prepared to kill for".
In applying these principles, Gandhi did not balk from taking them to their most
logical extremes. In 1940, when invasion of the British Isles by Nazi Germany
looked imminent, Gandhi offered the following advice to the British people
(Non-Violence in Peace and War):
"I would like you to lay down the arms you have as being useless for saving you
or humanity. You will invite Herr Hitler and Signor Mussolini to take what they
want of the countries you call your possessions.... If these gentlemen choose to
occupy your homes, you will vacate them. If they do not give you free passage
out, you will allow yourselves, man, woman, and child, to be slaughtered, but
you will refuse to owe allegiance to them".
[edit]
Truth
The embracing of nonviolence was part of Gandhi's wider mission to seek truth
(The Story of My Experiments with Truth). He tried to achieve this by learning
from his own mistakes and conducting experiments on himself.
He found that uncovering the truth was not always popular as many people were
resistant to change, preferring instead to maintain the existing status quo
because of either inertia, self-interest or misguided beliefs. However he also
discovered that once the truth was on the march nothing could stop it. All it
took was time to achieve traction and gain momentum. As Gandhi said:
"The Truth is far more powerful than any weapon of mass destruction".
He said that the most important battle to fight was in overcoming his own
demons, fears and insecurities. He thought it was all too easy to blame people,
governing powers or enemies for his personal actions and well-being. He noted
the solution to problems could normally be found just by looking in the mirror.
One of the greatest contributions of Mahatma Gandhi was in the realm of ontology
and its association with truth. For Gandhi, "to be" did not mean to exist within
the realm of time, as it has in the past with the Greek philosophers. But
rather, "to exist" meant to exist within the realm of truth, or to use the term
Gandhi did, satya. Gandhi summarized his beliefs first when he said "God is
Truth," but as typical of Gandhi, he evolved, later to correct himself and state
that "Truth is God." The first statement seemed insufficient to Gandhi, as the
mistake could be made that Gandhi was using Truth as a description of God, as
opposed to God as an aspect of satya. Satya (Truth) in Gandhi's philosophy IS
God. It shares all the characteristics of the Hindu concept of God, or Brahman.
It lives within us, that little voice that tells us what to do, but also guides
the universe.
[edit]
Vegetarianism
Although he experimented with eating meat in India when he was very young, he
later became a strict vegetarian. He wrote books on the subject while in London,
having met vegetarian campaigner Henry Stephens Salt at gatherings of the
Vegetarian Society. The idea of vegetarianism is deeply ingrained in Hindu and
Jain traditions in India, and, in his native land of Gujarat, most Hindus were
vegetarian. He experimented with various diets and concluded that a vegetarian
diet should be enough to satisfy the minimum requirements of the body. However
he was flexible for his time and had little reservations on eating table eggs as
seen in his 1948 article Key to Health [3]. He abstained from eating for long
periods, using fasting as a political weapon. He refused to eat until his death
or his demands were met.
Gandhi (last picture taken of him alive; spinning wheel in foreground)
Enlarge
Gandhi (last picture taken of him alive; spinning wheel in foreground)
[edit]
Celibacy
Gandhi gave up sexual intercourse at the age of 36, becoming totally celibate
while still married. This decision was deeply influenced by the Hindu idea of
brahmacharya—spiritual and practical purity—largely associated with celibacy and
asceticism. Gandhi did not however believe that this was something that everyone
should take up. In his autobiography he tells of his battle against lustful
urges and fits of jealousy with his childhood bride, Kasturba. He felt it his
personal obligation to remain celibate so that he could learn to love, rather
than lust.
[edit]
Silence
Gandhi spent one day of each week in silence. He believed that abstaining from
speaking brought him inner peace. This influence was drawn from the Hindu
principles of mouna (silence) and shanti (harmony). On such days he communicated
with others by writing on paper. For three and a half years, from the age of 37,
Gandhi refused to read newspapers, claiming that the tumultuous state of world
affairs caused him more confusion than his own inner unrest.
[edit]
Clothing
Returning to India from South Africa, where he had enjoyed a successful legal
practice, he gave up wearing Western-style clothing, which he associated with
wealth and success. He dressed to be accepted by the poorest person in India. He
advocated the use of homespun cloth (khadi). Gandhi and his followers adopted
the practice of weaving their own clothes from thread they themselves spun, and
encouraged others to do so. While Indian workers were often idle due to
unemployment, they had often bought their clothing from industrial manufacturers
owned by British interests. It was Gandhi's view that if Indians made their own
clothes, it would deal an economic blow to the British establishment in India.
Consequently, the spinning wheel was later incorporated into the flag of the
Indian National Congress.
[edit]
Religion
Gandhi questioned religious practices and doctrines regardless of traditions or
beliefs. On the subject of Christianity he noted that:
"The only people on Earth who do not see Christ and His teachings as nonviolent
are Christians".
Although Gandhi was born a Hindu he was critical of most religions, including
Hinduism. He wrote in his autobiography:
"Thus if I could not accept Christianity either as a perfect, or the greatest
religion, neither was I then convinced of Hinduism being such. Hindu defects
were pressingly visible to me. If untouchability could be a part of Hinduism, it
could but be a rotten part or an excrescence. I could not understand the raison
d'etre of a multitude of sects and castes. What was the meaning of saying that
the Vedas were the inspired Word of God? If they were inspired, why not also the
Bible and the Koran? As Christian friends were endeavouring to convert me, so
were Muslim friends. Abdullah Sheth had kept on inducing me to study Islam, and
of course he had always something to say regarding its beauty".
He then went on to say:
"As soon as we lose the moral basis, we cease to be religious. There is no such
thing as religion over-riding morality. Man, for instance, cannot be untruthful,
cruel or incontinent and claim to have God on his side".
Gandhi was critical of the hypocrisy in organised religion, rather than the
principles on which they were based. He also said the following about Hinduism:
"Hinduism as I know it entirely satisfies my soul, fills my whole being ... When
doubts haunt me, when disappointments stare me in the face, and when I see not
one ray of light on the horizon, I turn to the Bhagavad Gita, and find a verse
to comfort me; and I immediately begin to smile in the midst of overwhelming
sorrow. My life has been full of tragedies and if they have not left any visible
and indelible effect on me, I owe it to the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita".
The concept of Islamic jihad can also be taken to mean a nonviolent struggle or
satyagraha, in the way Gandhi practiced it. On Islam he said:
"The sayings of Muhammad are a treasure of wisdom, not only for Muslims but for
all of mankind".
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".
Gandhi believed that at the core of every religion was Truth and Love
(compassion, nonviolence and the Golden Rule). He was deeply influenced by the
Christian teaching of nonresistance and "turning the other cheek", once stating
that if Christianity practised the Sermon on the Mount, he would indeed be a
Christian. Gandhi felt that one should be aware of worshiping the symbols and
idols of the religion and not its teachings, such as worshipping the crucifix
whilst ignoring its significance as a symbol for self-sacrifice, for example.
[edit]
Faith
In spite of their deep reverence to each other, Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore
got involved in protracted debates more than once. These debates exemplify the
philosophical differences between the two most famous Indians at the time. On
January 15, 1934, an earthquake hit Bihar and caused extensive damage and loss
of life. Gandhi maintained this was because of the sin committed by upper caste
Hindus by not letting untouchables in their temples (Gandhi was committed to the
cause of improving the fate of untouchables, referring to them as Harijans,
people of Krishna). Tagore vehemently opposed Gandhi's stance, maintaining that
an earthquake can only be caused by natural forces, not moral reasons, however
repugnant the practice of untouchability may be.
[edit]
The Leadership of Mahatma Gandhi
To explore how Mahatma Gandhi's leadership transformed India as a nation, The
Leadership of Mahatma Gandhi.
The article explores Satyagraha, the making of a nation, Gandhi's leadership of
Hindu society, his mentors and proteges, modern criticism of Gandhi, and his
special relationship with Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and Jawaharlal Nehru,
together the most important Indian leadership during the freedom struggle.
[edit]
Recognition
Gandhi never received the Nobel Peace Prize, though he was nominated for it five
times between 1937 and 1948. Decades later however, the Nobel Committee publicly
declared its regret for the omission, and admitted to deeply divided
nationalistic opinion denying the award to Gandhi. When the Dalai Lama was
awarded the Peace Prize in 1989, the chairman of the committee said that this
was "in part a tribute to the memory of Mahatma Gandhi". The official Nobel
e-museum has an article discussing the issue.[4]
Time Magazine named Gandhi as the runner-up to Albert Einstein as "Person of the
Century" and had an article with write-ups on Dalai Lama, Lech Wałęsa, Martin
Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela titled "Children of Gandhi" to recognise his
influence on the future generations of leaders.
Rs. 1000 currency of the Mahatma Gandhi series
Enlarge
Rs. 1000 currency of the Mahatma Gandhi series
The Government of India awards the Mahatma Gandhi Peace Prize to distinguished
social workers, world leaders and citizen leaders. Nelson Mandela, the leader of
South Africa's struggle to end racial discrimination and segregation, is a
prominent non-Indian recipient of this honor.
In 1996, the Government introduced the Mahatma Gandhi series of currency notes
of denominations Rupees 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 500 and 1000.
[edit]
Mahatma
The word Mahatma, while often mistaken for Gandhi's given name, is taken from
the Sanskrit term of reverence mahatman, meaning “Great Soul”. The title
"Mahatma" was accorded Gandhi in 1915 by his admirer Rabindranath Tagore (the
first Asian to win the Nobel Prize for Literature). It was given in response to
Gandhi conferring the title of "Gurudev" (Great Teacher; Guru: Teacher Dev:
God/Holy) upon Tagore. As stated in his autobiography, Gandhi never accepted the
title because he believed himself unworthy of it.
The wide acceptance of this title outside India may in part reflect the
complexities of the relationship between India and Britain during Gandhi's
lifetime. Such acceptance is consistent with the widespread perception of his
deeply held religious beliefs and commitment to non-violence.
[edit]
Artistic depictions
The best-known artistic depiction of his life is the film Gandhi (1982),
directed by Richard Attenborough and starring Ben Kingsley (himself
half-Gujarati) in the title role. However, the film has since been criticised by
post-colonial scholars who argue that it depicts Gandhi as single-handedly
bringing India to independence, and ignores other prominent figures (both elite
and subaltern) in the anti-colonial struggle. The Making of the Mahatma,
directed by Shyam Benegal and starring Rajat Kapur, is a film about Gandhi's 21
years of life in South Africa.
In the United Kingdom, there are several prominent statues of Gandhi, most
notably in Tavistock Gardens, London, near University College London, where he
studied law.
The centennial commemorative statue of Mahatma Gandhi in the center of downtown
Pietermaritzburg, South Africa.
Enlarge
The centennial commemorative statue of Mahatma Gandhi in the center of downtown
Pietermaritzburg, South Africa.
In the United States, there are statues of Gandhi outside the Ferry Building in
San Francisco, in Hermann Park, Houston Garden Center in Houston, in Union
Square Park in New York City, at the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic
Site in Atlanta, outside the Honolulu Zoo in Kapiolani Park, Hawaii, in the
village of Skokie (a suburb of Chicago, Illinois)[5], and near the Indian
Embassy in the Dupont Circle neighbourhood of Washington, DC.
The city of Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, home to the infamous 1893 ejection
of Gandhi from a first-class train, now hosts a commemorative statue of the
Indian independence figure, installed a century after the incident.
There are statues in honour of Gandhi in other cities such as Moscow, Paris,
Amsterdam, Barcelona, Lisbon, Canberra and San Fernando, Trinidad and Tobago.
The government of India donated a statue to the City of Winnipeg, Manitoba,
Canada, to signify their support for the future Canadian Museum for Human
Rights. [6]
There is also a large bust of Gandhi in front of the library at Laurentian
University [7] in Sudbury, Ontario. In St. Louis, Missouri there is a bust
honoring Gandhi in front of the International Institute. [8]
[edit]
Modern criticism
Various historians and commentators have criticized Gandhi for his attitudes
regarding Hitler and Nazism, including statements to the effect that the Jews
would win God's love if they willingly went to their deaths as martyrs. [9] [10]
Penn and Teller, in an episode of their Showtime program Bullshit! ("Holier than
Thou"), attacked Gandhi for, inter alia, hypocrisy for perceived inconsistent
stands on nonviolence, alleged inappropriate behavior with women and apparent
racist statements against Africans. On addressing a public meeting in Bombay on
September 26, 1896 (Collected Works Volume II, page 74) following his return
from South Africa, Gandhi said:
Ours is one continued struggle against degradation sought to be inflicted upon
us by the European, who desire to degrade us to the level of the raw kaffir,
whose occupation is hunting and whose sole ambition is to collect a certain
number of cattle to buy a wife with, and then pass his life in indolence and
nakedness.
[edit]
See also
Wikisource
Wikisource has original works written by or about:
Mahatma Gandhi
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
Mahatma Gandhi
Commons
Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
Mohandas K. Gandhi
Gandhian Philosophy
* Ahimsa, Gandhism, Satyagraha, Christian anarchism, Charismatic authority,
Vegetarianism,
The Gandhian Era of Indian Politics
* Indian Independence Movement, Indian National Congress, List of Indians,
GandhiCon
Inspirations and Supporters of Gandhi's Vision
* Sarojini Naidu, Vinoba Bhave, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Jawaharlal Nehru,
Narhari Parikh, Mohanlal Pandya, Ravi Shankar Vyas, Mahadev Desai, Horace
Alexander, Jesus
Critics and Opponents of Gandhi's Leadership
* Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, Subhas Chandra Bose, Winston Churchill
[edit]
References for the article on Mahatma Gandhi
For a list of references to quotes, text and citations, bibliography and
external links, see References for the article Mahatma Gandhi.
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