Mahatma Gandhi's Life and Achievements

Study Notes

Mahatma Gandhi was born on October 2, 1869 in Gujarat, India to a Hindu family.
He trained as a lawyer and moved to South Africa in 1893 to represent an Indian merchant.
He began to use nonviolent resistance to campaign for civil rights in South Africa.
In 1915, he returned to India and led the Indian National Congress.
He led nationwide campaigns for easing poverty, expanding womens rights, building religious and ethnic amity, ending untouchability, and achieving self-rule.
He 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.
He was imprisoned many times and for many years in both South Africa and 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.
As many displaced Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs made their way to their new lands, religious violence broke out, especially in the Punjab and Bengal.
Gandhi attempted to alleviate distress in the months following independence.
In 1948, he undertook a hunger strike to pressure India to pay out some cash assets owed to Pakistan.
He died on January 30, 1948.