[149] In protest, Gandhi started a fast-unto-death, while he was held in prison. Birth (1869) Gandhi was born on October 2nd 1869, by the shores of the Arabian Sea in the small coastal town into a merchant family. [182] Some writers credit Gandhi's fasting and protests for stopping the religious riots and communal violence. [92] Gandhi agreed to actively recruit Indians for the war effort. Jinnah was mainly interested in dealing with the British via constitutional negotiation, rather than attempting to agitate the masses. Weakened from repeated hunger strikes, Gandhi clung to his two grandnieces as they led him from his living quarters in New Delhi’s Birla House to a late-afternoon prayer meeting. Pursuing a strategy of nonviolent protest, Gandhi took the administration by surprise and won concessions from the authorities. In 1919, with India still under the firm control of the British, Gandhi had a political reawakening when the newly enacted Rowlatt Act authorized British authorities to imprison people suspected of sedition without trial. The British Government agreed to free all political prisoners, in return for the suspension of the civil disobedience movement. [448] The 2019 play Bharat Bhagya Vidhata, inspired by Pujya Gurudevshri Rakeshbhai and produced by Sangeet Natak Akademi and Shrimad Rajchandra Mission Dharampur takes a look at how Gandhi cultivated the values of truth and non-violence. Mohandas Gandhi Biography http://www.notablebiographies.com/Fi-Gi/Gandhi-Mohandas.html Born: October 2, 1869 Porbandar, India Died: January 30, 1948 Delhi, India Indian religious leader, reformer, and lawyer Mohandas Gandhi was an Indian revolutionary and religious leader who used his religious power for political and social reform. "[451], Gandhi's birthday, 2 October, is a national holiday in India, Gandhi Jayanti. Gandhi leading the Salt March in protest against the government monopoly on salt production. [241] Pacifists criticised and questioned Gandhi, who defended these practices by stating, according to Sankar Ghose, "it would be madness for me to sever my connection with the society to which I belong". He wrote his views down on paper but shyness prevented him from reading out his arguments, so Hills, the President, asked another committee member to read them out for him. [116] Hindu-Muslim communal conflicts reignited. However, he refused to press charges against any member of the mob. "This is not the Swaraj I want", said Gandhi. Indira Gandhi was India's third prime minister, serving from 1966 until 1984, when her life ended in assassination. With his health failing, Gandhi was released after a 19-month detainment in 1944. Gandhi also mentioned in the letter that the viceroy received a salary "over five thousand times India's average income. He emphasised the use of non-violence to the British and towards each other, even if the other side used violence. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, also known as Mahatma Gandhi, was a Hindu thinker, lawyer, and politician, born on October 2, 1869, in Porbandar, India. [444][445], Several biographers have undertaken the task of describing Gandhi's life. For example, Muslim leaders such as Jinnah opposed the satyagraha idea, accused Gandhi to be reviving Hinduism through political activism, and began effort to counter Gandhi with Muslim nationalism and a demand for Muslim homeland. Recent scholars question these romantic biographies and state that Gandhi was neither a Christian figure nor mirrored a Christian saint. [172] The Indian National Congress and Gandhi called for the British to Quit India. While his cardio records show his heart was normal, there were several instances he suffered from ailments like Malaria and was also operated on twice for piles and appendicitis. He refused and left the court instead. [71] However, a new Natal government discriminatory proposal led to Gandhi extending his original period of stay in South Africa. Troops led by British Brigadier General Reginald Dyer fired machine guns into a crowd of unarmed demonstrators and killed nearly 400 people. Influenced by Henry Salt's writing, he joined the London Vegetarian Society and was elected to its executive committee[56] under the aegis of its president and benefactor Arnold Hills. In response, Gandhi called for a Satyagraha campaign of peaceful protests and strikes. Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, the Muslim League Chief Minister of Bengal – now Bangladesh and West Bengal, gave Calcutta's police special holiday to celebrate the Direct Action Day. [443], Anti-Gandhi themes have also been showcased through films and plays. In 1909, Gandhi wrote to Tolstoy seeking advice and permission to republish A Letter to a Hindu in Gujarati. [312][313] The idea of vegetarianism is deeply ingrained in Hindu Vaishnavism and Jain traditions in India, such as in his native Gujarat, where meat is considered as a form of food obtained by violence to animals. ", Power, Paul F. "Toward a Revaluation of Gandhi's Political Thought. Food to Gandhi was not only a source of sustaining one's body, but a source of his impact on other living beings, and one that affected his mind, character and spiritual well being. [99] Using non-co-operation as a technique, Gandhi initiated a signature campaign where peasants pledged non-payment of revenue even under the threat of confiscation of land. Violence between Hindus and Muslims flared even before independence took effect on August 15, 1947. In his weekly journal Young India, Gandhi further wrote in 1920 that "I would rather have India resort to arms in order to defend her honour, than that she should, in a cowardly manner, become helpless witness to her own dishonour." He warned such a transfer would still be English rule, just without the Englishman. [52] His mother was not comfortable about Gandhi leaving his wife and family, and going so far from home. Gandhi toured riot-torn areas in an appeal for peace and fasted in an attempt to end the bloodshed. [24][25][26][27] Karamchand and Putlibai had three children over the ensuing decade: a son, Laxmidas (c. 1860–1914); a daughter, Raliatbehn (1862–1960); and another son, Karsandas (c. [191], According to Guha, Nehru and his Congress colleagues called on Indians to honour Gandhi's memory and even more his ideals. However, the Hindu leaders including Rabindranath Tagore questioned Gandhi's leadership because they were largely against recognising or supporting the Sunni Islamic Caliph in Turkey. [28][29], On 2 October 1869, Putlibai gave birth to her last child, Mohandas, in a dark, windowless ground-floor room of the Gandhi family residence in Porbandar city. [321][322] For some of these experiments, Gandhi combined his own ideas with those found on diet in Indian yoga texts. [348] He accused Gandhi as someone who wished to retain the caste system. [178] Gandhi visited the most riot-prone areas to appeal a stop to the massacres. Gandhism designates the ideas and principles Gandhi promoted; of central importance is nonviolent resistance. The 1989 Marathi play Me Nathuram Godse Boltoy and the 1997 Hindi play Gandhi Ambedkar criticised Gandhi and his principles. His full name was Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. After years of protests, the government imprisoned hundreds of Indians in 1913, including Gandhi. His reply was in response to the question 'Who was the one person, dead or live, that you would choose to dine with?'. [452] Gandhi's date of death, 30 January, is commemorated as a Martyrs' Day in India. Kasturba gave birth to two more sons while living in South Africa, one in 1897 and one in 1900. [284] He stated in 1925 that he did not criticise the teachings of the Quran, but he did criticise the interpreters of the Quran. Indian cult leader Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh created the spiritual practice of dynamic meditation. [458][459], "Gandhi" redirects here. Childhood. In India, he is known as ‘Father of the Nation’. Biography: Mohandas Gandhi is one of the most … Also Known As: Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, Mahatma ("Great Soul"), Father of the Nation, Bapu ("Father"), Gandhiji. [408], In his early years, the former President of South Africa Nelson Mandela was a follower of the nonviolent resistance philosophy of Gandhi. He was critical of Christian missionary efforts in British India, because they mixed medical or education assistance with demands that the beneficiary convert to Christianity. [282] He stated he knew Jainism much more, and he credited Jains to have profoundly influenced him. He was called against his will by the poet Rabindranath Tagore, “Mahatma” which means Great Soul. [294] Gandhi accepted this and began having Muslim prayers read in Hindu temples to play his part, but was unable to get Hindu prayers read in mosques. With Gandhi isolated in prison, the Indian National Congress split into two factions, one led by Chitta Ranjan Das and Motilal Nehru favouring party participation in the legislatures, and the other led by Chakravarti Rajagopalachari and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, opposing this move. He became one of the most respected spiritual and political leaders of the 1900's. Jinnah began creating his independent support, and later went on to lead the demand for West and East Pakistan. [120], People rioted. Gandhiji’s full name was Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. Among them are D. G. Tendulkar with his Mahatma. Generations to come will scarce believe that such a one as this walked the earth in flesh and blood. Sikhism, to Gandhi, was an integral part of Hinduism, in the form of another reform movement. Born: October 2, 1869 in Porbandar, India. [292] According to the historian M. Naeem Qureshi, like the then Indian Muslim leaders who had combined religion and politics, Gandhi too imported his religion into his political strategy during the Khilafat movement. [345] Calling the doctrine of untouchability intolerable, he asserted that the practice could be eradicated, that Hinduism was flexible enough to allow eradication, and that a concerted effort was needed to persuade people of the wrong and to urge them to eradicate it. [314] He considered it a violence against animals, something that inflicted pain and suffering. He leveraged the Khilafat movement, wherein Sunni Muslims in India, their leaders such as the sultans of princely states in India and Ali brothers championed the Turkish Caliph as a solidarity symbol of Sunni Islamic community (ummah). Although Gandhi wanted a total focus on the task of winning independence and not speculation about India's future, he did not restrain the Congress from adopting socialism as its goal. [389] For decades he edited several newspapers including Harijan in Gujarati, in Hindi and in the English language; Indian Opinion while in South Africa and, Young India, in English, and Navajivan, a Gujarati monthly, on his return to India. Gandhi refused to endorse the view that economic forces are best understood as "antagonistic class interests". Ruskin inspired his decision to live an austere life on a commune, at first on the Phoenix Farm in Natal and then on the Tolstoy Farm just outside Johannesburg, South Africa. [362] In a society of mostly non-violent individuals, those who are violent will sooner or later accept discipline or leave the community, stated Gandhi. Investigation committees were formed by the British, which Gandhi asked Indians to boycott. [275], Gandhi's views came under heavy criticism in Britain when it was under attack from Nazi Germany, and later when the Holocaust was revealed. On 9 April, Gandhi was arrested. [105][106] Muslim leaders and delegates abandoned Gandhi and his Congress. However, the Muslim League demanded "Divide and Quit India". Mahatma Gandhi was a prominent Indian political leader who was a leading figure in the campaign for Indian independence. [354], Gandhi and his associates continued to consult Ambedkar, keeping him influential. Although sentenced to a six-year imprisonment, Gandhi was released in February 1924 after appendicitis surgery. [39], At age 9, Gandhi entered the local school in Rajkot, near his home. [216], According to Indira Carr and others, Gandhi was influenced by Vaishnavism, Jainism and Advaita Vedanta. [46], In late 1885, Gandhi's father Karamchand died. Gandhi's brother Laxmidas, who was already a lawyer, cheered Gandhi's London studies plan and offered to support him. 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. Cribb states that Gandhi's thought evolved over time, with his early ideas becoming the core or scaffolding for his mature philosophy. [330] To Gandhi, the women of India were an important part of the "swadeshi movement" (Buy Indian), and his goal of decolonising the Indian economy. [81] According to Ashwin Desai and Goolam Vahed, Gandhi's views on racism are contentious, and in some cases, distressing to those who admire him. The Natal Advertiser mocked him in print as “an unwelcome visitor.”. Some European employers even banned the donning of white Khadi caps in office. [101] After the war, the British government offered minor reforms instead, which disappointed Gandhi. I, Gandhi wrote: The question deeply interested me...I had a high regard for Mr. Hills and his generosity. [57] It would have been hard for Gandhi to challenge Hills; Hills was 12 years his senior and unlike Gandhi, highly eloquent. [159] He also condemned Nazism and Fascism, a view which won endorsement of other Indian leaders. [430] On 28 April 1947, Sarojini Naidu during a conference also referred Gandhi as "Father of the Nation". Gandhi and the Congress withdrew their support of the Raj when the Viceroy declared war on Germany in September 1939 without consultation. This, he believed, created a vicious vested system of materialism at the cost of other human needs, such as spirituality and social relationships. Some writers present him as a paragon of ethical living and pacifism, while others present him as a more complex, contradictory and evolving character influenced by his culture and circumstances. In August 1942, the British arrested Gandhi, his wife and other leaders of the Indian National Congress and detained them in the Aga Khan Palace in present-day Pune. Another grandson, Kanu Ramdas Gandhi (the son of Gandhi's third son Ramdas), was found living in an old age home in Delhi despite having taught earlier in the United States. To keep two or three consecutive fasts was nothing to her. [181], Gandhi spent the day of independence not celebrating the end of the British rule but appealing for peace among his countrymen by fasting and spinning in Calcutta on 15 August 1947. [251] Gandhi's concept of satya as a civil movement, states Glyn Richards, are best understood in the context of the Hindu terminology of Dharma and Ṛta. When India was a colony of Great Britain, Gandhi used nonviolent methods to protest against British rule. [269] Gandhi explains his philosophy and ideas about ahimsa as a political means in his autobiography The Story of My Experiments with Truth. Not one of the marchers even raised an arm to fend off blows. [14][15] Origin of this title is traced back to a radio address (on Singapore radio) on 6 July 1944 by Subhash Chandra Bose where Bose addressed Gandhi as "The Father of the Nation". He planned to assist Indians in opposing a bill to deny them the right to vote, a right then proposed to be an exclusive European right. He ended up doing so much and changed the world just by the power of his ethics. The Government of India awarded the annual Gandhi Peace Prize to distinguished social workers, world leaders and citizens. These are widely believed to be Gandhi's last words after he was shot, though the veracity of this statement has been disputed. Upon his first appearance in a Durban courtroom, Gandhi was asked to remove his turban. [176] The Direct Action Day triggered a mass murder of Calcutta Hindus and the torching of their property, and holidaying police were missing to contain or stop the conflict. While the military is unnecessary in a nation organised under swaraj principle, Gandhi added that a police force is necessary given human nature. [286], While Gandhi expressed mostly positive views of Islam, he did occasionally criticise Muslims. Gandhi's silence after the Khilafat period may represent an evolution in his understanding of the conflicting religious claims over Palestine, according to Kumaraswamy. [120], People rioted in retaliation. [376] This, states Bhatt, was a very different economic model than the socialism model championed and followed by free India by Nehru – India's first prime minister. "[37], In 1874, Gandhi's father Karamchand left Porbandar for the smaller state of Rajkot, where he became a counsellor to its ruler, the Thakur Sahib; though Rajkot was a less prestigious state than Porbandar, the British regional political agency was located there, which gave the state's diwan a measure of security. As was prevailing tradition, the adolescent bride was to spend much time at her parents' house, and away from her husband. But they must wait for its fulfillment till Arab opinion is ripe for it. The Hindu leader, Tej Bahadur Sapru, declared in 1941, states Herman, "A good many Congress leaders are fed up with the barren program of the Mahatma". [121], 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. He viewed Islam as a faith that proactively promoted peace, and felt that non-violence had a predominant place in the Quran. Gandhi took Gokhale's liberal approach based on British Whiggish traditions and transformed it to make it look Indian. [31][32], The family's religious background was eclectic. The British did not respond favourably to Gandhi's proposal. [415], Obama in September 2009 said that his biggest inspiration came from Gandhi. Tensions escalated until Gandhi demanded immediate independence in 1942 and the British responded by imprisoning him and tens of thousands of Congress leaders. [52][54] That year, the committee chose not to award the peace prize stating that "there was no suitable living candidate" and later research shows that the possibility of awarding the prize posthumously to Gandhi was discussed and that the reference to no suitable living candidate was to Gandhi. [373] Gandhi opposed missionary organisations who criticised Indian religions then attempted to convert followers of Indian religions to Islam or Christianity. [187], Godse, a Hindu nationalist with links to the extremist Hindu Mahasabha,[188] made no attempt to escape; several other conspirators were soon arrested as well. On returning from South Africa, when Gandhi received a letter asking for his participation in writing a world charter for human rights, he responded saying, "in my experience, it is far more important to have a charter for human duties. Further, it would also show the British that his fellow Indians were "their subjects by choice rather than out of cowardice." Work – Freedom fighter. In his first courtroom case, a nervous Gandhi blanked when the time came to cross-examine a witness. Gandhi’s act of civil disobedience awoke in him a determination to devote himself to fighting the “deep disease of color prejudice.” He vowed that night to “try, if possible, to root out the disease and suffer hardships in the process.”. [171], Gandhi opposed the partition of the Indian subcontinent along religious lines. Mohandas Gandhi. He later slept with women in the same bed but clothed, and finally, he slept naked with women. No longer able to pledge allegiance to the British government, Gandhi returned the medals he earned for his military service in South Africa and opposed Britain’s mandatory military draft of Indians to serve in World War I. Gandhi became a leading figure in the Indian home-rule movement. When violence between the two religious groups flared again, Gandhi began a three-week fast in the autumn of 1924 to urge unity. [56] His attempts at establishing a law practice in Bombay failed because he was psychologically unable to cross-examine witnesses. Date and place of birth – 2 October 1869, Porbandar (Gujarat) Death – 30 January 1948, New Delhi. [59][60] He spent 21 years in South Africa, where he developed his political views, ethics and politics. He was born on OCTOBER 2nd,1869 at Porbandar, Gujarat. '[229], Gandhi, in his autobiography, called Rajchandra his "guide and helper" and his "refuge [...] in moments of spiritual crisis". Churchill called him a dictator, a "Hindu Mussolini", fomenting a race war, trying to replace the Raj with Brahmin cronies, playing on the ignorance of Indian masses, all for selfish gain.