Mahatma Gandhi's Life and Achievements

• Mahatma Gandhi was born on October 2, 1869 and died on January 30, 1948.
• He was a lawyer and anti-colonial nationalist and was successful in leading the successful campaign for Indias independence from British rule.
• Gandhi adopted the short dhoti woven with hand-spun yarn as a mark of identification with Indias rural poor.
• He began to live in a self-sufficient residential community, to eat simple food, and undertake long fasts as a means of both introspection and political protest.
• Gandhi's vision of an independent India based on religious pluralism was challenged in the early 1940s by a Muslim nationalism which demanded a separate homeland for Muslims within British India.
• In 1947, Britain granted independence to India and the British Indian Empire was partitioned into two dominions, a Hindu-majority India and a Muslim-majority Pakistan.
• Gandhi visited the affected areas, attempting to alleviate distress, after the partition of British India.
• Gandhi undertook several hunger strikes to stop the religious violence. The last of these, begun in Delhi on January 12, 1948, also had the indirect goal of pressuring India to pay out some cash assets owed to Pakistan.

Test your knowledge of Mahatma Gandhi's life and achievements, including his role in India's independence movement, his advocacy for simplicity and self-sufficiency, and his efforts to promote religious pluralism and peace amidst the partition of British India.