Mahatma Gandhi

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Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (Gujarati: મોહનદાસ કરમચંદ ગાંધી, pronounced [moːɦənˈdaːs kəɾəmˈtʂənd ˈɡaːndʱiː] (2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was the pre-eminent political and spiritual leader of India during the Indian independence movement. He was the pioneer of satyagraha—resistance to tyranny through mass civil disobedience, firmly founded upon ahimsa or total non-violence—which led India to independence and has inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. Gandhi is commonly known around the world as Mahatma Gandhi (Sanskrit: महात्मा mahātmā or 'Great Soul', an honorific first applied to him by Rabindranath Tagore),[1] and in India also as Bapu (Gujarati: બાપુ bāpu or 'Father'). He is officially honoured in India as the Father of the Nation; his birthday, 2 October, is commemorated there as Gandhi Jayanti, a national holiday, and worldwide as the International Day of Non-Violence.

Gandhi first employed non-violent civil disobedience while an expatriate lawyer in South Africa, during the resident Indian community's struggle for civil rights. After his return to India in 1915, he organized protests by peasants, farmers, and urban labourers concerning excessive land-tax and discrimination. After assuming leadership of the Indian National Congress in 1921, Gandhi led nationwide campaigns to ease poverty, expand women's rights, build religious and ethnic amity, end untouchability, and increase economic self-reliance. Above all, he aimed to achieve Swaraj or the independence of India from foreign domination. Gandhi famously led his followers in the Non-cooperation movement that protested the British-imposed salt tax with the 400 km (249 mi) Dandi Salt March in 1930. Later he campaigned against the British to Quit India. Gandhi spent a number of years in jail in both South Africa and India.

As a practitioner of ahimsa, he swore to speak the truth and advocated that others do the same. Gandhi lived modestly in a self-sufficient residential community and wore the traditional Indian dhoti and shawl, woven with yarn he had hand spun on a charkha. He ate simple vegetarian food, and also undertook long fasts as a means of both self-purification and social protest.[1]

Further reading

  • Bondurant, Joan V. Conquest of Violence: The Gandhian Philosophy of Conflict. Princeton UP, 1988 ISBN 0-691-02281-X
  • Dalton, Dennis (ed). Mahatma Gandhi: Selected Political Writings. Indianapolis/Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company, 1996. ISBN 0-87220-330-1
  • Eswaran, Eknath. Gandhi The Man. ISBN 0-915132-96-6
  • Fischer, Louis. The Essential Gandhi: An Anthology of His Writings on His Life, Work, and Ideas. Vintage: New York, 2002. (reprint edition) ISBN 1-4000-3050-1
  • Fischer, Louis. The Life of Mahatma Gandhi. Harper & Row, New York, 1950. ISBB 0-06-091038-0 (1983 pbk.)
  • Gandhi, M.K. Satyagraha in South Africa
  • Gandhi, M.K. The Gandhi Reader: A Sourcebook of His Life and Writings. Homer Jack (ed.) Grove Press, New York, 1956.
  • Gandhi, Mahatma. The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi. New Delhi: Publications Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Govt. of India, 1994.
  • Gandhi, Rajmohan. Patel: A Life. Navajivan Publishing House, 1990 ISBN 81-7229-138-8
  • Grenier, Richard. The Gandhi Nobody Knows. Commentary, March 1983

External links

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