Mohandas Gandhi (1869 - 1948)

Mohandas Gandhi Known as Mahatma ('Great-Soul'), Gandhi was the leader of the Indian nationalist movement against British rule, and is  considered the father of his country. His example of non-violent protest to achieve political and social progress has never been forgotten. 

Mohandas  Gandhi was born on 2 October 1869 in Porbandar in Gujarat. After university, he went to London to train as a barrister.

South Africa

 He returned to India in 1891 and in 1893 accepted a job at an Indian law firm in  South Africa.

Gandhi was saddened by the treatment of Indian immigrants there, and joined the struggle to obtain basic rights for them.

 During his 20 years in South Africa he was sent to prison many times.

 Influenced by a variety of writers and thinkers, including  Jesus Christ, Gandhi developed the  ('devotion to truth'), a new non-violent way to redress wrongs. In 1914, the South African government agreed to many of Gandhi's demands.

Gandhi returned to India shortly afterwards. In 1919, British plans to intern people suspected of sedition - the Rowlatt Acts - prompted Gandhi to announce a new plan which attracted millions of followers.

 A demonstration against the acts resulted in the Amritsar Massacre. By 1920, Gandhi was a dominant figure in Indian politics. He transformed the Indian National Congress, and his programme of peaceful non co-operation with the British included boycotts of British goods and institutions, leading to arrests of thousands.

In 1922 Gandhi himself was sentenced to six years' imprisonment. He was released after two years and withdrew from politics, devoting himself to trying to improve Hindu-Muslim relations, which had worsened. In 1930, Gandhi proclaimed a new campaign of civil disobedience in protest at a tax on salt, leading thousands on a 'March to the Sea' to symbolically make their own salt from seawater.

In 1931 Gandhi attended the Round Table Conference in London, as the sole representative of the Indian National Congress, but resigned from the party in 1934. He was replaced as leader by Jawaharlal Nehru.

In 1945, the British government began negotiations which resulted in the creation of the two new independent states of India and Pakistan, divided along religious lines. Massive inter-communal violence spolied the months before and after independence.

Gandhi was against the partition, and he fasted in an attempt to bring calm in Calcutta and Delhi.

On 30 January 1948 he was assassinated/ murdered in Delhi by a Hindu fanatic.