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Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

Born

2 October 1869

Porbandar , Kathiawar Agency, British

Indian Empir e[1]

 

Died30 January 1948 (aged 78)

 New Delhi, Dominion of India 

Cause of 

deathAssassination by shooting 

Resting place

Cremated at Rajghat, Delhi. 

28°38′29″N 77°14′54″E28.6415°N

77.2483°E 

Nationality Indian

Other names Mahatma Gandhi, Bapu, Gandhiji

Alma mater  

Alfred High School, Rajkot, 

Samaldas College, Bhavnagar , 

Inner Temple, London 

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Known for

Prominent figure of  Indian independence

movement, 

 propounding the philosophy of  Satyagraha 

and Ahimsa advocating non-violence, 

 pacifism 

Religion Hinduism, with Jain influences

Spouse(s) Kasturba Gandhi

Children

Harilal 

Manilal 

Ramdas 

Devdas 

ParentsPutlibai Gandhi (Mother)

Karamchand Gandhi (Father)

Signature

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi   pronunciation (help·info),(pronounced:     ʱi]; 2 October 1869

[1]  – 30 January 1948), commonly known as Mahatma

Gandhi, was the preeminent leader of  Indian nationalism in British-ruled India. Employing non-

violent civil disobedience, Gandhi led India to independence and inspired movements for non-

violence, civil rights and freedom across the world.[2][3]

 

The son of a senior government official, Gandhi was born and raised in a  Hindu  Bania 

community in coastal Gujarat, and trained in law in London. Gandhi became famous by fightingfor the civil rights of Muslim and Hindu Indians in South Africa, using the new techniques of non-violent civil disobedience that he developed. Returning to India in 1915, he set about

organising peasants to protest excessive land-taxes. A lifelong opponent of "communalism" (i.e.

 basing politics on religion) he reached out widely to all religious groups. He became a leader of Muslims protesting the declining status of the Caliphate. Assuming leadership of the Indian

 National Congress in 1921, Gandhi led nationwide campaigns for easing poverty, expanding

women's rights, building religious and ethnic amity, ending untouchability, increasing economic

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self-reliance, and above all for achieving Swaraj — the independence of India from British

domination.

Gandhi led Indians in protesting the national salt tax with the 400 km (250 mi) Dandi Salt March 

in 1930, and later in demanding the British to immediately Quit India in 1942, during World War 

II. He was imprisoned for that and for numerous other political offenses over the years. Gandhisought to practice non-violence and truth in all situations, and advocated that others do the same.

He saw the villages as the core of the true India and promoted self-sufficiency; he did not

support the industrialization programs of his disciple Jawaharlal Nehru. He lived modestly in aself-sufficient residential community and wore the traditional Indian dhoti and shawl, woven

with yarn he had hand spun on a charkha. His chief political enemy in Britain was Winston

Churchill,[4]

 who ridiculed him as a "half-naked fakir ."[5]

 He was a dedicated vegetarian, and

undertook long fasts as means of both self-purification and political mobilization.

In his last year, unhappy at the  partition of India, Gandhi worked to stop the carnage between

Muslims on the one hand and Hindus and Sikhs that raged in the border area between India and

Pakistan. He was assassinated on 30 January 1948 by a Hindu nationalist who thought Gandhiwas too sympathetic to India's Muslims. 30 January is observed as Martyrs' Day in India. The

honorific  Mahatma ("Great Soul"), was applied to him by 1914.[6]

 In India he was also called

 Bapu ("Father"). He is known in India as the  Father of the Nation;[7]

 his birthday, 2 October, is

commemorated there as Gandhi Jayanti, a national holiday, and world-wide as the International

Day of Non-Violence. Gandhi's philosophy was not theoretical but one of pragmatism, that is,

 practicing his principles in real time. Asked to give a message to the people, he would respond,"My life is my message."