Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (2 October 1869 - 30 January 1948) also called Mahatma Gandhi (Sanskrit: "great soul") was a spiritual leader and politician from India.
During Gandhi's time, many countries were colonies of Great Britain. The inhabitants of the colonies longed for independence so that they could rule their own country.
Gandhi was one of the most important people involved in the Indian Independence Movement. He is an activist who does not use violence, who carries the independence movement through peaceful demonstrations.
BIOGRAPHY
Gandhi was born on October 2, 1869, in the Indian state of Gujarat. Some of his family members work for the government. As a teenager, Gandhi moved to England to study law.
After he became a lawyer, he went to South Africa, a British colony, where he experienced racial discrimination known as apartheid. He then decided to become a political activist to change these discriminatory laws. Gandhi also formed a non-violent movement.
He started his career as a lawyer in South Africa, where he encountered racial issues for the first time. Once, on a train ride to Pretoria, Gandhi was asked to leave his first-class passenger seat even though he had paid for his ticket.
The white train conductor said sarcastically that other than white people were not allowed to occupy first-class seats. But Gandhi refused and insisted on remaining in the seat he had paid for. Because of this refusal, the conductor dropped him off at a small station.
That said, that was one of the events that made him always fight for justice. He always pointed out that we can fight injustice without resorting to violence.
It was during South Africa that Gandhi began to develop an idea called Ahimsa or nonviolence, and taught the Indians living there how to apply Ahimsa to overcome the various injustices they experienced.
A method is also known as passive resistance or anti-cooperation with those who commit injustices. Gandhi believed that, by refusing to cooperate, the individual would eventually realize his mistake and then stop his unfairness.
When he returned to India, he assisted in the process of India's independence from British rule; this inspired the people of the other colonies to fight for independence and split the British Empire to form the Commonwealth.
People of different religions and tribes living in India at that time believed that India needed to be divided into several countries so that different groups could have their states. Many want Hindus and Muslims to have their own country.
Gandhi was a Hindu but he liked the thoughts of other religions including Islam and Christianity. He believed that people of all religions should have equal rights and live together peacefully in one country.
In 1947, India became independent and split into two countries, India and Pakistan. Gandhi did not agree with this.
As the Movement continued, Gandhi continued his search for the truth and devised a suitable strategy for dealing with the enemy.
He called it Satyagraha - The Enforcement of the Truth. Gandhi believed that seeing the suffering of a person who upholds the truth would have an effect and would touch the conscience of the abuser (the enemy).
Satyagraha was then carried out widely and effectively in the struggle for independence. This struggle finally reached a point where Britain could not stand against the thousands of masses of people who opposed it, peaceful actions demanding independence.
After all, Gandhi believed in every effort and struggle made by those who were directly guided by him in practicing Satyagraha, and it was because of this Satyagraha teaching and training that his struggles were fruitful.
Gandhi's principle, satyagraha, often translated as "the right way" or "path to truth", has inspired generations of democracy and anti-racism activists such as Martin Luther King, Jr. and Nelson Mandela.
Gandhi often said that his teaching values were very simple, based on traditional Hindu beliefs: truth (Satya), and non-violence (ahimsa).
On January 30, 1948, Gandhi was murdered by a Hindu man who was angry with Gandhi because he was too siding with Muslims.
Nehru, the Prime Minister of India, called Gandhi the greatest figure in India after Gautama, the Buddha. When asked to comment on Gandhi, Einstein said: "In time there will be many people who will not believe and be amazed that there once lived a person like Gandhi on earth". Winston Churchill, British Prime Minister, called it 'Naked Fakir'.