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Biography of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

• Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist, and political ethicist who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful campaign for India's independence from British rule.

• Gandhi inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world and was given the honorific Mahātmā, which means "great-souled" or "venerable".

• He was born into a Gujarati Hindu Modh Bania family in Porbandar, a coastal town on the Kathiawar Peninsula and then part of the small princely state of Porbandar in the Kathiawar Agency of the British Raj.

• Gandhi trained in the law at the Inner Temple, London, and was called to the bar at age 22 in June 1891.

• After two uncertain years in India, where he was unable to start a successful law practice, he moved to South Africa in 1893 to represent an Indian merchant in a lawsuit.

• Gandhi raised a family and first employed nonviolent resistance in a campaign for civil rights while living in South Africa for 21 years.

• He returned to India in 1915 and soon set about organizing peasants, farmers, and urban laborers to protest against excessive land-tax and discrimination.

• Gandhi led nationwide campaigns for easing poverty, expanding women's rights, building religious and ethnic amity, ending untouchability, and achieving self-rule.

• Gandhi adopted the short dhoti woven with hand-spun yarn as a mark of identification with India's rural poor, began to live in a self-sufficient residential community, eat simple food, and undertake long fasts as a means of both introspection and political protest.

• Gandhi was assassinated by Nathuram Godse, a militant Hindu nationalist from Pune, western India, who fired three bullets into his chest at an interfaith prayer meeting in Delhi on 30 January 1948.

• Gandhi's birthday, 2 October, is commemorated in India as Gandhi Jayanti, a national holiday, and worldwide as the International Day of Nonviolence.

• Gandhi is considered the Father of the Nation in India and is commonly called Bapu (Gujarati endearment for 'father', 'papa').Mahatma Gandhi's Life and Legacy

• Gandhi was called to the bar in June 1891 but failed to establish a law practice in Bombay because he was unable to cross-examine witnesses.

• In 1893, Gandhi went to South Africa to work as a lawyer and faced discrimination because of his skin colour and heritage.

• Gandhi adopted his methodology of Satyagraha, or nonviolent protest, for the first time in September 1906.

• Initially, Gandhi focused on the racial persecution of Indians before he started to focus on racism against Africans.

• Gandhi established Tolstoy Farm near Johannesburg in 1910, where he nurtured his policy of peaceful resistance.

• Gandhi joined the Indian National Congress in 1915 and took leadership in 1920, escalating demands until the Indian National Congress declared the independence of India on 26 January 1930.

• The British did not recognise the declaration, but negotiations ensued, with the Congress taking a role in provincial government in the late 1930s.

• Gandhi and the Congress withdrew their support of the Raj when the Viceroy declared war on Germany in September 1939 without consultation.

• Tensions escalated until Gandhi demanded immediate independence in 1942, and the British responded by imprisoning him and tens of thousands of Congress leaders.

• In August 1947, the British partitioned the land with India and Pakistan each achieving independence on terms that Gandhi disapproved.

• In April 1918, during World War I, the Viceroy invited Gandhi to a War Conference in Delhi, where he agreed to actively recruit Indians for the war effort.

• Gandhi's first major achievement came in 1917 with the Champaran agitation in Bihar, where he pursued a strategy of nonviolent protest and won concessions from the authorities.

• In 1919, following World War I, Gandhi sought political co-operation from Muslims by supporting the Ottoman Empire that had been defeated in the World War.Mahatma Gandhi's Political Activism and Impact

• Gandhi believed that Hindu-Muslim co-operation was necessary for political progress against the British and leveraged the Khilafat movement to achieve this.

• His support for the Khilafat movement initially led to strong Muslim support for Gandhi, but the Hindu leaders largely opposed it.

• The increasing Muslim support for Gandhi temporarily stopped Hindu-Muslim communal violence and raised his stature as a political leader to the British.

• Gandhi's advocacy for non-co-operation and civil disobedience against the British led to the Rowlatt Act and the Jallianwala Bagh massacre.

• The massacre and Gandhi's non-violent response to it moved many but also made some Sikhs and Hindus upset that Dyer was getting away with murder.

• Gandhi expanded his non-violent non-co-operation platform to include the swadeshi policy, the boycott of foreign-made goods, and khadi (homespun cloth).

• The appeal of non-co-operation grew, but after Gandhi's arrest, the Indian National Congress split into factions, and co-operation among Hindus and Muslims ended.

• Gandhi's Salt March to Dandi in 1930 was one of his most successful campaigns at upsetting British hold on India, resulting in the imprisonment of over 60,000 people.

• The British Government agreed to negotiate with Gandhi and signed the Gandhi-Irwin Pact, which led to his attendance at the Round Table Conference in London.

• Churchill became a vigorous and articulate critic of Gandhi and opponent of his long-term plans.

• During the Round Table Conferences, Gandhi sought constitutional reforms as a preparation to the end of colonial British rule and self-rule by Indians.

• Gandhi vehemently opposed a constitution that enshrined rights or representations based on communal divisions.The Life and Legacy of Mahatma Gandhi

• Gandhi declined the government's offer of accommodation in an expensive West End hotel, preferring to stay in the East End, to live among working-class people.

• Gandhi started a new satyagraha after returning from the Second Round Table conference, and he was arrested and imprisoned at the Yerwada Jail, Pune.

• In 1934, Gandhi resigned from Congress party membership to give other voices a chance to be heard and to avoid being a target for Raj propaganda.

• Gandhi opposed providing any help to the British war effort and campaigned against any Indian participation in World War II.

• Gandhi's Quit India movement played a role in weakening the control over the South Asian region by the British regime and ultimately paved the way for Indian independence.

• Gandhi opposed the partition of the Indian subcontinent along religious lines, but the British reluctantly agreed to grant independence and partition the land into Pakistan and India.

• Gandhi spent the day of independence appealing for peace among his countrymen by fasting and spinning in Calcutta on 15 August 1947.

• On 30 January 1948, Gandhi was assassinated by Nathuram Godse, a Hindu nationalist, who fired three bullets into his chest from a pistol at close range.

• Over a million people joined the five-mile-long funeral procession that took over five hours to reach Raj Ghat from Birla house, where he was assassinated.

• Nehru used Gandhi's martyrdom as a political weapon to silence all advocates of Hindu nationalism as well as his political challengers.

• Gandhi's death helped marshal support for the new government and legitimize the Congress Party's control, leveraged by the massive outpouring of Hindu expressions of grief for a man who had inspired them for decades.

• Gandhi was cremated in accordance with Hindu tradition, and most of his ashes were immersed at the Sangam at Allahabad on 12 February 1948.

• Gandhi's shadow loomed large over the political life of the new Indian Republic for years after the assassination, and the government reconstructed Gandhi's image and ideals to quell any opposition to its economic and social policies.