Mohandas Gandhi
1869 – 1948
Led India to Independance from British Rule
by Rit Nosotro( )
How did Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi evolve from his roots in the merchant class in western India into the most renowned person in India’s history? Mohandas was the son of Karamchand Gandhi, the chief minister to Poorbandar, and his fourth wife, Putlibai; and was born on October 2, 1869, in Poorbandar, in western India. His mother was a deeply religious Hindu, and her faith shaped his thoughts on religion, and on the world. At 13 he was married to Kasturbai, a girl of the same age, though an arranged marriage. And then at 19 he went to London to study law at the Inner Temple. He was admitted to the British bar in 1891, and returned to India, where he tried to set up a law practice. But his venture was unsuccessful, so in 1893 he accepted a years contract in South Africa as a legal advisor.
During his time in South Africa, where all non-British were seen as inferiors, he first experienced the humiliation or racial prejudice. He was persuaded to stay in South Africa in order to oppose an impending bill to revoke the rights of Indians to vote. He opposed that bill and many others by means of non-violent defiance, for Gandhi believed that non-violence "blesses him who uses it and him against whom it is used." After he was attacked and beaten by white South Africans in 1896, Gandhi began to teach his ideas of passive resistance to, and non-cooperation with, the South African authorities.
Gandhi’s ideas were inspired in part by, the strong beliefs of his mother, the Russian writer Leo Tolstoy, the teachings of Christ, and the writings of 19th-century American writer Henry David Thoreau. From these influences he developed his philosophy of civil disobedience. But Gandhi believed the terms civil disobedience or even passive resistance to be inadequate, so he coined his own term for it, Sanskirt, meaning “truth and firmness.”
Although many of his ideas were based on the teachings of Christ, Gandhi saw him only as a great teacher of humanity, but not the only begotten son of God. Instead he believed all people to be sons of God in a metaphorical sense. He was a deeply devoted Hindu, but wished not to undermine peoples’ faith, because that would mean superiority of one religion, instead of realizing as he said, “[that] all religions [are] true and also that all [have] some error in them.” He thought only that “a Hindu should be a better Hindu, a Muslim a better Muslim, [and] a Christian a better Christian.” He respected all religions, but did not believe in the conversion of one person by another, because religion is such a deeply personal thing.
After nearly 20 years in South Africa, the government fulfilled many of Gandhi’s, including recognition of Indian marriages, and abolition of the poll tax. With his work in South Africa complete, Gandhi returned to India in 1914, at the age of 45. While supporting the British in World War I, he began to become interested in Home Rule for India, and became a dominant influence in the National Congress movement. Although facing a new challenge, Gandhi’s philosophies remained unchanged: non-violent, non-cooperation. During his civil disobedience campaign Gandhi was jailed many times, and British soldiers killed many of his followers. In 1930 he led one of the most widely known demonstration during his campaign in which he led a 200-mile march to the sea to collect salt, in symbolic defiance of the government monopoly. He, along with 60,000 others, was imprisoned during that march, and he was not released until 1931.
After his release, at age 69, he traveled to London to attend the Round Table Conference on Indian constitutional reform; using his education as a means of helping his cause. However, at the outbreak of World War 2, Gandhi was convinced that only a free India could give Britain effective support, and began pushing even more for independence. As a result he was arrested again in August of 1942 and was not released until May 1944. By then the Indian struggle for independence was coming to a close, and the British government agreed to independence under the condition that the Muslim League and the Congress Party (Hindu) should resolve their differences. Gandhi wished for them to work together, yet when India was granted independence in 1947, Pakistan became a separate Muslim state. Although disappointed that India was not united in its freedom, Gandhi considered Britain’s granting of independence to be “the noblest act of the British nation.”
Nevertheless the last months of his life were still full of strife as the Hindu and Muslim factions continued to conflict. However his fasts to shame the rebels helped to prevent a deeper national tragedy. But on January 30th, 1948 a Hindu fanatic named Nathuram Godse assassinated Gandhi in Delhi. His death was regarded as an international tragedy, and the United Nations General Assembly even set a period of morning, and all countries expressed their condolences to the grieving Indians. He had come to be known as, Mahatma, meaning “great soul,” as was remembered as a moral teacher, reformer, and a dedicated patriot. After his death, the religious violence soon decreased between India and Pakistan, and Gandhi’s teachings became highly acclaimed. Although he left the world suddenly, Mohandas Gandhi made a huge impact on his country and the world, in his 79 years. And many people came to follow his example of non-violent non-cooperative protest, most notably would be the civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Sources:
"Gandhi, Mohandas Karamchand." Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia 2001.
CD-ROM. 1993-2000 Microsoft Corporation.
Aksharanandaji, Swami. “Mahatma Gandhi on The Christian Missionary Menace.” CaribbeanHindu.com. January 19, 2001. November 12, 2002. <http://www.caribbeanhindu.com/Gandhi_Conversion.htm>
Muzumdar, Haridas T. Mahatma Gandhi: Peaceful Revolutionary. New York: Scribner, 1952.
