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Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (October 2, 1869 – January 30, 1948) (Devanagari : मोहनदास करमचन्द गांधी, Gujarati મોહનદાસ કરમચંદ ગાંધી) was a national icon who led the struggle for India's independence from British colonial rule, empowered by tens of millions of common Indians. Throughout his life he opposed any form of terrorism or violence, instead using only the highest moral standards. His philosophy of nonviolence, for which he coined the term satyagraha, has influenced national and international nonviolent resistance movements to this day, including the American Civil Rights Movement (1955-1968) led by Martin Luther King.

From the time he took charge of the freedom struggle and the Indian National Congress in 1918, he was lovingly reverred as "Mahatma", or "Great Soul" by millions of Indians. Although he was much averse to honorary addresses, Gandhi is still today commonly referred to as Mahatma Gandhi, and not Mohandas Gandhi, all over the world. Apart from being considered one of the greatest Hindu and Indian leaders of all time, he is revered by many in India as the "Father of the Nation" or Bapu (Hindi for Father). His birthday on October 2, Gandhi Jayanti, is a national holiday in India.

By means of nonviolent civil disobedience, Gandhi helped bring about India's independence from British rule, inspiring other colonial peoples to work for their own independence and ultimately dismantling the British Empire. Gandhi's principle of satyagraha (from Sanskrit; satya for truth and agraha for endeavor), often translated as "way of truth" or "pursuit of truth", has inspired other freedom activists such as the Dalai Lama, Lech Wałęsa, Steve Biko, Aung San Suu Kyi and Nelson Mandela. However not all these leaders kept to Gandhi's strict principle of nonviolence and nonresistance.

Gandhi often stated that his principles were simple; drawn from traditional Hindu beliefs: truth (satya) and nonviolence (ahimsa). As Gandhi said: "I have nothing new to teach the world. Truth and nonviolence are as old as the hills."

Life

Early life (1869 - 1893)

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born into a Hindu family in Porbandar, Gujarat, India in 1869. He was the son of Karamchand Gandhi, the dewan (Chief Minister) of Porbandar, and Putlibai, Karamchand's fourth wife, a Hindu of the vaishnava sect. Growing up with a devout Vaishnava mother and surrounded by the Jain influences of Gujarat, Gandhi learned from an early age the tenets of non-injury to living beings, vegetarianism, fasting for self-purification, and mutual tolerance between members of various creeds and sects. He was born into the vaishya, or business, caste. In May 1882, at the age of 13, Gandhi was married through arrangement to Kasturba Makharji, who was the same age as he. They had four sons: Harilal Gandhi, born in 1888; Manilal Gandhi, born in 1892; Ramdas Gandhi, born in 1897; and Devdas Gandhi, born in 1900.

Gandhi was a mediocre student in his youth at Porbandar and later Rajkot, barely passing the matriculation exam for the University of Bombay in 1887, and joining Samaldas College, Bhavnagar. He did not stay there long, however, as his family felt he must become a barrister if he were to continue the family tradition of holding high office in Gujarat. Unhappy at Samaldas College, he leapt at the opportunity to study in England, which he viewed as "a land of philosophers and poets, the very centre of civilization."

At the age of 19, Gandhi went to University College London to train as a barrister. His time in London, the Imperial capital, was influenced by a vow he had made to his mother upon leaving India to observe the Hindu precepts of abstinence from meat and alcohol. Although Gandhi experimented with becoming "English", taking dancing lessons for example, he could not stomach his landlady's mutton and cabbage. She pointed him towards one of London's few vegetarian restaurants. Rather than simply go along with his mother's wishes, he read about, and intellectually converted to vegetarianism. He joined the Vegetarian Society, was elected to its Executive Committee, and founded a local chapter. He later credited this with giving him valuable experience in organising and running institutions. Some of the vegetarians he met were members of the Theosophical Society, which had been founded in 1875 by H.P. Blavatsky to further universal brotherhood. The Theosophists were devoted to the study of Buddhist and Hindu Brahmanistic literature. They encouraged Gandhi to read the Bhagavad Gita. Although he had not shown a particular interest in religion before, he began to read works of and about Hinduism, Christianity, Buddhism and other religions.

He returned to India after being admitted to the British bar. Trying to establish a law practice in Bombay, he had limited success. By this time, the legal profession was overcrowded in India, and Gandhi was not a dynamic figure in a courtroom. He applied for a part-time job as a teacher at a Bombay high school but was turned down. He ended up returning to Rajkot to make a modest living drafting petitions for litigants but was forced to close down that business as well when he ran afoul of a British officer. In his autobiography, he describes this incident as a kind of unsuccessful lobbying attempt on behalf of his older brother. It was in this climate that (in 1893) he accepted a year-long contract from an Indian firm to a post in Natal, South Africa.

Civil rights movement in South Africa (1893 - 1914)

At this point in his life, Gandhi was a mild-mannered, diffident, politically indifferent individual. He had read his first newspaper at age 18 and was prone to horrible stage fright when speaking in court. South Africa changed him dramatically as he faced the humiliation and oppression that was commonly directed at Indians in that country. One day in court in the city of Durban, the magistrate asked him to remove his turban, which he refused to do, and Gandhi stormed out of the courtroom. A turning point in his life, often acknowledged in biographies, that would serve as the catalyst for his activism occurred several days later when he began a journey to Pretoria. He was literally thrown off a train at Pietermaritzburg after refusing to move from first class to a third class compartment, normally used by coloured peoples, while travelling on a valid first class ticket. Later, travelling further on by stagecoach, he was beaten by a driver for refusing to travel on the footboard to make room for a European passenger. He suffered other hardships on the journey as well, including being barred from many hotels on account of his race. This experience led him to more closely examine the hardships his people suffered in South Africa during his time in Pretoria.

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Gandhi in South Africa (1895)

It was in South Africa through witnessing racism, prejudice and injustice first-hand that he started to question his countrymens status and his own place in society. In fact Gandhi has been accused of prejudice himself through some of his remarks made in his early life against the native Africans. Addressing a public meeting in Bombay on September 26, 1896 (Collected Works Volume II, page 74), Gandhi said:

Ours is one continued struggle against degradation sought to be inflicted upon us by the European, who desire to degrade us to the level of the raw kaffir, whose occupation is hunting and whose sole ambition is to collect a certain number of cattle to buy a wife with, and then pass his life in indolence and nakedness.

When Gandhi's contract was up, he prepared to return to India. However, at a farewell party in his honor in Durban, he happened to glance at a newspaper and learned that a bill was being considered by the Natal Legislative Assembly to deny the vote to Indians. When he brought this up with his hosts, they lamented that they did not have the expertise necessary to oppose the bill and implored Gandhi to stay and help them. He circulated several petitions to both the Natal Legislature and the British government in opposition to the bill. Though unable to halt the bill's passage, his campaign was successful in drawing attention to the grievances of Indians in South Africa. Supporters convinced him to remain in Durban to continue fighting against the injustices levied against Indians in South Africa. He founded the Natal Indian Congress in 1894 with himself as secretary. Through this organization, he formed the Indian community of South Africa into a heterogeneous political force, inundating government and press alike with statements of Indian grievances and evidence of British discrimination in South Africa. Gandhi returned briefly to India in 1896 to bring his wife and children to live with him in South Africa. When he returned in January 1897, a white mob attacked and tried to lynch him. In an early indication of the personal values that would shape his later campaigns, he refused to press charges on any member of the mob, stating it was one of his principles not to seek redress for a personal wrong in a court of law.

At the onset of the South African War, Gandhi argued that Indians must support the war effort in order to legitimize their claims to full citizenship, organising a volunteer ambulance corps of 300 free Indians and 800 indentured laborers. At the conclusion of the war, however, the situation for the Indians did not improve, but continued to deteriorate. In 1906, the Transvaal government promulgated a new act compelling registration of the colony's Indian population. At a mass protest meeting held in Johannesburg that September, Gandhi adopted his platform of satyagraha (devotion to the truth), or non-violent protest, for the first time, calling on his fellow Indians to defy the new law and suffer the punishments for doing so rather than resist through violent means. This plan was adopted, leading to a seven-year struggle in which thousands of Indians were jailed (including Gandhi himself on many occasions), flogged, or even shot, for striking, refusing to register, or engaging in other forms of non-violent resistance. While the government was successful in repressing the Indian protesters, the public outcry stemming from the harsh methods employed by the South African government in the face of peaceful Indian protesters finally forced South African General Jan Christian Smuts to negotiate a compromise with Gandhi.

During his years in South Africa, Gandhi drew inspiration from the Bhagavad Gita and the writings of Leo Tolstoy (especially The Kingdom of God is Within You [1]), who in the 1880s had undergone a profound conversion to a personal form of Christian anarchism. Gandhi translated Tolstoy's A Letter to a Hindu (available at wikisource), written in 1908 in response to aggressive Indian nationalists. The two corresponded until Tolstoy's death in 1910. The letter by Tolstoy applies Hindu philosophy from the Vedas and the sayings of Krishna to the growing Indian nationalism. Gandhi was also inspired by the American writer Henry David Thoreau's famous essay Civil Disobedience. Gandhi's years in South Africa as a socio-political activist were when the concepts and techniques of civil disobedience and non-violent resistance were developed. Upon the outbreak of World War I, Gandhi decided to return to India, bringing all that he had learned from his experiences in South Africa with him.

Movement for Indian Independence (1914 - 1947)

As he had done in the South African War, Gandhi urged support of the British War effort and was active in encouraging Indians to join the army. His rationale, opposed by many others, was that if he desired the full citizenship, freedoms and rights in the Empire, it would be wrong not to help in its defense. He spoke at the conventions of the Indian National Congress, but was primarily introduced to Indian issues, politics and the Indian people by Gopal Krishna Gokhale, at the time the most respected leader of the Congress Party.

Gandhi's first major achievements came in 1918 with the Champaran agitation and Kheda Satyagraha, although in the latter he was involved at par with Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, who acted as his right-hand and leader of the rebels. In Champaran, a district in the state of Bihar, he organized civil resistance on the part of tens of thousands of landless farmers and serfs, and poor farmers with small lands, who were forced to grow indigo and other cash crops instead of the food crops necessary for their survival. Suppressed by the ruthless militias of the landlords (mostly British), they were given measly compensation, leaving them mired in extreme poverty. The villages were kept extremely dirty and unhygienic, and alcoholism, untouchability and purdah were rampant. Now in the throes of a devastating famine, the British levied an oppressive tax which they insisted on increasing in rate. The situation was desperate. In Kheda in Gujarat, the problem was the same.

Gandhi established an ashrama there, organizing scores of his veteran supporters and fresh volunteers from the region. He organized a detailed study and survey of the villages, accounting the atrocities and terrible episodes of suffering, including the general state of degenerate living. Building on the confidence of villagers, he began leading the clean-up of villages, building of schools and hospitals and encouraging the village leadership to undo purdah, untouchability and the suppression of women.

But his main assault came as he was arrested by police on the charge of creating unrest and was ordered to leave the province. Hundreds of thousands of people protested and rallied outside the jail, police stations and courts demanding his release, which the court unwillingly did. Gandhi led organized protests and strike against the landlords, who with the guidance of the British government, signed an agreement granting more compensation and control over farming for the poor farmers of the region, and cancellation of revenue hikes and collection until the famine ended. It was during this agitation, that Gandhi was addressed by the people as Bapu (Father) and Mahatma (Great Soul). In Kheda, Patel represented the farmers in negotiations with the British, who suspended revenue collection and granted relief. All prisoners were released. Gandhi's resulting fame spread like fire all over the nation. He had become a defining influence on Indian Nationalism.

The Rowlatt Act of 1919, which empowered the government to imprison those accused of sedition without trial, was passed. Gandhi and the Congress Party organized major protests and strikes, all of a non-violent character around the nation. All major Indian cities and towns shut down, and the government machinery had to be taken over by the Army. Thousands of people were arrested, and martial law was imposed in many parts of the country. In Punjab, the Amritsar Massacre of 379 civilians by British and Indian troops caused deep trauma to the nation, and increased public anger and acts of violence.

Gandhi criticized both the actions of the British, and the retaliatory violence of Indians. He famously authored the resolution offering condolences to British civilian victims and condemning the riots, which after initial opposition in the party, was accepted after Gandhi made an emotional speech pushing forth his principle that all violence was evil and could not be justified. Indians should not become guilty of the racial hate carried by the British, and should not punish innocent British civilians.

But it was after the massacre and violence, that Gandhi realized that not only Indians were unprepared for mass scale resistance, but also that the British rule in India was evil and inherently oppressive. Gandhi's mind focused upon obtaining complete self-government and control of all Indian government institutions, maturing soon into Swaraj or complete individual, spiritual, political independence.

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Gandhi in India

In April 1920, Gandhi was elected president of the All-India Home Rule League. He was invested with executive authority on behalf of the Indian National Congress in December 1921. Under Gandhi's leadership, the Congress was reorganized and given a new constitution, with the goal of swaraj (independence). Membership in the party was opened to anyone prepared to pay a token fee. A hierarchy of committees was set up to improve discipline and control over a hitherto amorphous and diffuse movement, transforming the party from an elite organization to one of mass national appeal. Gandhi expanded his non-violence platform to include the swadeshi policy – the boycott of foreign-made goods, especially British goods. Linked to this was his advocacy that khadi (homespun cloth) be worn by all Indians instead of British-made textiles. Gandhi exhorted Indian men and women, rich or poor, to spend time each day spinning khadi in support of the independence movement. This was a strategy to inculcate discipline and dedication to weed out the unwilling and ambitious, and include women in the movement at a time when many thought that such activities were not 'respectable' for women. In addition to boycotting British products, Gandhi urged the people to boycott British educational institutions and law courts, to resign from government employment, to refuse to pay taxes, and to forsake British titles and honours. This new program enjoyed wide-spread appeal and success, empowering the Indian people as never before, yet just as the movement reached its apex, it ended abruptly as a result of a violent clash in the town of Chauri Chaura, Uttar Pradesh, in February 1922. Fearing that the movement was about to take a turn towards violence, and convinced that this would be the undoing of all his work, Gandhi called off the campaign of mass civil disobedience. Now vulnerable, Gandhi was arrested on March 10, 1922, tried for sedition, and sentenced to six years. This was not the first time he had been jailed, but it was to be his longest term of imprisonment. Beginning on March 18, 1922, he only served about two years of the sentence, being released in February 1924 after an operation for appendicitis.

Without Gandhi's forceful personality to keep his colleagues in check, the Indian National Congress began to splinter during his years in prison, splitting into two factions, one led by Chitta Ranjan Das and Motilal Nehru favoring party participation in the legislatures, and the other led by Chakravarti Rajagopalachari and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, opposing this move. Furthermore, cooperation among Hindus and Muslims, which had been strong at the height of the nonviolence campaign, was breaking down. Gandhi attempted to bridge these differences through many means, including a three-week fast in the autumn of 1924, but with limited success.

Gandhi stayed out of the limelight for most of the 1920s, preferring to resolve the wedge between the Swaraj Party and the Indian National Congress, and expanding initiatives against untouchability, alcoholism, ignorance and poverty. He returned to the fore in 1928. The year before, the British government appointed a new constitutional reform commission under Sir John Simon numbering not a single Indian in its ranks. The result was a boycott of the commission by Indian political parties. Gandhi pushed through a resolution at the Calcutta Congress in December 1928 calling on the British government to grant India dominion status within a year or face a new campaign of non-violence with complete independence for the country as its goal.

January 26, 1930 was celebrated by the Indian National Congress, meeting in Lahore as India's Independence Day. This day was commemorated by almost every other Indian political organization which strived for the country's independence or the socio-political empowerment of different peoples.

Making good on his word in March 1930, he launched a new satyagraha against the tax on salt, highlighted by the famous Salt March to Dandi from March 21 to April 6, 1930, marching 400 kilometres (248 miles) from Ahmedabad to Dandi to make his own salt. Thousands of Indians joined him on this march to the sea. This campaign was one of his most successful, resulting in the imprisonment of over 60,000 people. The government, represented by Lord Irwin, decided to negotiate with Gandhi.

The Gandhi-Irwin Pact was signed in March 1931. In it, the British Government agreed to set all political prisoners free in return for the suspension of the civil disobedience movement. Furthermore, Gandhi was invited to attend the Round Table Conference in London as the sole representative of the Indian National Congress. The conference was a disappointment to Gandhi and the nationalists as it focused on the Indian princes and Indian minorities rather than the transfer of power. Furthermore, Lord Irwin's successor, Lord Willingdon, embarked on a new campaign of repression against the nationalists.

Gandhi was again arrested, and the government attempted to destroy his influence by completely isolating him from his followers. This tactic was not successful. In 1932, through the campaigning of the Dalit leader B. R. Ambedkar, the government granted untouchables separate electorates under the new constitution. In protest, Gandhi embarked on a six-day fast in September 1932, successfully forcing the government to adopt a more equitable arrangement via negotiations mediated by the Dalit cricketer turned political leader Palwankar Baloo. This began a new campaign by Gandhi to improve the lives of the untouchables, whom he named Harijans, the children of God. On May 8, 1933 Gandhi began a 21-day fast to protest British oppression in India. In the summer of 1934, three unsuccessful attempts were made on his life.

When the Congress Party chose to contest elections and accept power under the Federation scheme, Gandhi decided to resign from party membership. He did not at all disagree with the party's move, but felt that if he resigned, his iconic status to common Indians would cease to stifle the party's membership, that actually varied from communists, socialists, trade unionists, students, religious conservatives, pro-business and property rights. Gandhi also did not want to prove a target for Raj propaganda by leading a party that had temporarily accepted political accommodation with the Raj.

Gandhi returned to the head in 1936, with the Nehru presidency and the Lucknow session of the Congress. Although Gandhi desired a total focus on the task of winning independence and not speculation about India's future government, Gandhi did not restrain the Congress from adopting socialism as its goal.

Gandhi also criticized Subhas Chandra Bose and his rise to the presidency in 1938. While some historians suggest this was a power struggle between two iconic leaders, Gandhi basically objected to Bose's lack of commitment to non-violence and democracy, which Gandhi felt were fundamental to the struggle. Bose's desire to launch a widespread revolt against the British did not include the provision that all rebels use non-violent means, and Bose focused his first year of presidency on bringing in close supporters into leadership.

Bose won his second term despite Gandhi's criticism, but left the Congress when the All-India leaders resigned en masse in protest of his abandonment of principles introduced by Gandhi in the early 1920s. In 1938-1939, all elected Congressmen resigned their offices as the Congress protested the unilateral inclusion of India into World War II without consultation of elected representatives.

He continued his fight against untouchability, promoted handspinning and other cottage industries, and attempted to create a new system of education suited to the rural areas. He lived a simple life during these years at a village in central India called Sevagram. He underwent another fast at the end of the decade in Bombay on March 3, 1939.

Do or Die: World War II and Quit India

World War II broke out in 1939 when Nazi Germany invaded Poland. Gandhi was fully sympathetic with the victims of fascist aggression. After lengthy deliberations with colleagues in the Congress, he declared that India could not be party to a war ostensibly being fought for democratic freedom while that freedom was denied in India herself. He said he would support the British if they could show him how the war's aims would be implemented in India after the war. The British government's response was entirely negative. They began fomenting tension between Hindus and Muslims. As the war progressed, Gandhi increased his demands for independence, drafting a resolution calling for the British to Quit India.

This was Gandhi's and the Congress Party's most definitive, all-out revolt aimed at securing the British exit from Indian shores. Gandhi was criticized by some Congressmen and other Indian political groups, pro-British and anti-British. Some felt that opposing Britain in its life-death struggle was immoral, and others were angered that Gandhi wasn't doing enough. Many political parties actually opposed Gandhi's call. Thus apart from his age and health, it was probably likely to be his final initiative.

This sparked the largest movement for Indian independence to date, with mass arrests and violence on an unprecedented scale. Thousands of resisters were killed or injured in police fire, and hundreds of thousands of freedom-fighters were arrested. Gandhi and his supporters made it clear they would not support the war effort unless India were granted immediate independence. He even clarified that this time the movement would not be stopped if individual acts of violence were committed, saying that the "ordered anarchy" around him was "worse than real anarchy." He called on all Congressmen and Indians to maintain peaceful discipline, and do or die in the cause of ultimate freedom.

Gandhi and the entire Congress Working Committee was arrested in Mumbai by British forces on August 9, 1942. Gandhi was held for two years the Aga Khan Palace in Pune. It was here that Gandhi suffered to the worst blows of his life: his wife Kasturba passed on, just a few months after Mahadev Desai, his 42-year old, son-like secretary died of a heart attack. He was released before the end of the war only because of his failing health and necessary surgery; the Raj did not want him to die in prison and enrage the entire nation beyond control.

Although the ruthless suppression of the movement by British forces brought relative order to India by end 1943, Quit India succeeded in its objective. At the end of the war, the British gave clear indications that power would be transferred to Indian hands, and Gandhi called off the struggle, and the Congress leadership and around 100,000 political prisoners were released. After 90 years of trying, freedom was just around the corner for India.

Freedom, partition of India and Assassination (1945 - 1948)

Gandhi advised the Congress to reject the proposals of the British Cabinet Mission Plan offered in 1946, as he was deeply suspicious of power-sharing with the Muslim League and the divisions and minimization of central power involved. Gandhi warned against the grouping proposed for Muslim-majority states. However, this became one of the few times the Congress broke from Gandhi's advice (not his leadership though), as not only did Congress leaders want to create a government which would take over from the British as quickly as possible, but the aim was to prevent Mohammed Ali Jinnah and the League from obtaining political parity to the more national, secular Congress Party.

Initial acceptance of the Cabinet Mission plan, which would leave a united India, by the Muslim League faltered after the Congress rejected the plan. A deep sene or mistrust existed in the minds of Muslims regarding the motives of the Congress and Gandhi. Disagreement between the League and Congress regarding safeguards of the Muslim religious rights and freedoms in post colonial India wreaked havoc to any proposed plan for a unified India. Between 1946 and 1947, over 5,000 people were killed in violence. The League enjoyed popularity in the Muslim majority Punjab, Bengal, Sindh, NWFP and Baluchistanas demonstrated in the 1946 legislative elections. The lack of an agreement between the two large political parties lead to the Partition Plan of India in June 1947 which was accepted by the Congress and the League as the only solution which would avoid a total civil war.

Senior Congress leaders knew that although Gandhi would viscerally oppose partition, it was doubly impossible for the Congress to go ahead without his agreement, for Gandhi's support in the party and throughout India was wide and deep. Gandhi's closest colleagues had accepted partition as the best way out, and Sardar Patel endeavored to convince Gandhi that it was the only way to avoid civil war. Gandhi gave his assent and endorsed the move.

Gandhi had great influence among the Hindu and Muslim communities of India. It is said that he ended riots through his mere presence. He was vehemently opposed to any plan that partitioned India into two separate countries. The Muslim League argued that the Muslim minority would be systematically oppressed by the Hindu majority in a united India, and that a separate Muslims homeland was the only just solution. However, many Muslims in the Indian heartland lived side by side with Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis, Christians, and Jews, and were in favor with a united India. But Jinnah commanded widespread support in Western Punjab, Sindh, NWFP and Eastern Bengal, all that form today's Pakistan and Bangladesh. This new Muslim homeland was created from areas on the east and west of India. It was originally called West and East Pakistan, which now correspond to Pakistan and Bangladesh, respectively. On the day of the transfer of power, Gandhi did not celebrate independence with the rest of India, but was alone in Kolkata, mourning the partition and working to end the violence.

He was assassinated in Birla House, New Delhi, on January 30, 1948 when he was on his way to a prayer meeting by Nathuram Godse, a Hindu radical with alleged links to right-wing Hindu organisations, like the Hindu Mahasabha, who held him responsible for weakening the new government by insisting upon a payment to Pakistan. Godse was later tried, convicted, and executed. A prominent revolutionary and Hindu extremist, the president of the Mahasabha, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar was accused of being the architect of the plot, but was acquitted due to lack of evidence.

It is indicative of Gandhi's long struggle and search for God that his dying words were said to have been a homage to God, Rama: "He Ram!" (Oh God!). This is seen as an inspiring signal of his spirituality as well as his idealism regarding the possibility of a unifying peace. The words are inscribed upon his memorial in New Delhi. While some are sceptical of this, evidence from a number of witnesses supports the claim that he made this utterance (see External links). Some sources state that Gandhi's last words were "He Ram, He Ram" or "Rama, Rama". It has also been claimed that when Gandhi fell to the ground dying, he clasped his hands together in the form of the namaste.

Vision for India

The anger of Hindu extremists and the antagonism of Pakistan advocates and extremist Muslims have left blurred the vision of India cherished by the Mahatma and his followers.

Gandhi was blamed directly by men like Vinayak Damodar Savarkar for mollycoddling Jinnah and his Muslims, and thus increasing his political importance, treating him and his League as equals of the Congress. Savarkar's modern-day supporters point to damning evidence that Gandhi had at one point offered to hand over the entire Government of a free India to be run exclusively by Jinnah and his party, if he would drop his Pakistan demand.

During the riots, Gandhi was again criticized for protecting Muslims in India even as Hindus in Pakistan were hurtled out in refugee caravans or simply murdered by extremists and the unsympathetic new government and Pakistani army.

What Gandhi had really wanted was a united India, absolutely free in every possible sense of the word. He wanted Muslims and Hindus to live in absolute freedom with respect and friendship. He wanted each to be free to express themselves, worship and enjoy their heritage and culture, especially with each other.

Gandhi wanted women to be equal to men, live with dignity, security and enjoy opportunities of personal progress. Gandhi wanted untouchability, casteism in Hindu society to be absolutely eliminated, and all Hindus to be equal and united, proud of their faith and heritage.

Gandhi wanted the people to help themselves: for the rich to help the poor, respect each other as brother and sister. He did not want big Government, but a government limited to protecting people, giving justice and spreading opportunities.

Gandhi had fought and led millions of Indians with a vision of individual freedom, and genuine cultural and religious respect and harmony, not merely "tolerance." He wanted the people to develop the spirit of love and brotherhood, and not just create a legal system imposing these virtues to an unresponsive population. However incidents, such as the Babri Mosque destruction by Hindu militant fanatics indicate that the religious tolerance, pacifism and harmony stressed by Gandhi may have been a unrealistic dreams. The pragmatism and practicality of Jinnah's demand for partition is easier to understand when viewed in the light of these facts.

In these years of the division process (1946-1947), Gandhi was a desperate man. Already above 75 years in age, thin, frail and with delicate health, exhausted after 30 years of struggles, all of Gandhi's soul, intelligence and health were expended in his desperation to avoid the partition of India. He foresaw, what many others did not, that the matter would not end there. It would tie-down generations of Indians in a bitter, poisonous, continous war of attrition. The conflicts to come would be territorial, but they principally would arise from the Hindu-Muslim problem. Pakistan today contends for Kashmir only because of its Muslim-majority, which it claims only it can protect and represent, and India refutes that contention with its own military force because it believes Hindus and Muslims are one nation, and can live in freedom together. It is the very partition debate that is today being carried out, now with nuclear weapons on the debate teams.

Gandhi consented to partition only when his closest associates had pointed out the brutal truth, the consequences of not doing so: outright Hindu-Muslim civil war. An orgy of violence which Gandhi himself so deeply opposed would be unleashed. All the work of 30 years would be undone in moments, and Gandhi was old and weak, unable to retaliate with civil disobedience or popular protests. In a country of 350 million, the horrors would pale the Holocaust into insignificance.

In his last months, Gandhi was a broken man inside. He regarded the partition as his personal failure. Even though many great Congress leaders and freedom fighters and Mohammed Ali Jinnah and his supporters felt that only good could come out of it, that the dam had been sealed from explosion, Gandhi felt a hole, invisible as it was, had indeed been carved out.

The consequences of war between India and Pakistan today are far worse than in 1947: over 1.2 billion people inhabit the Indian subcontinent, and nuclear weapons are capable of killing 10 million people in a matter of minutes.

Principles

Gandhi's principles and his ideas of satya and ahimsa were influenced by the Bhagavad Gita, Hinduism, Jainism and Christian anarchism.

Nonviolence

The concept of nonviolence (ahimsa) and nonresistance has a long history in Indian religious thought and has had many revivals in Hindu, Buddhist, Jain and Christian contexts. Gandhi explains his philosophy and way of life in his autobiography The Story of My Experiments with Truth. He was quoted with saying:

"What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty and democracy?"

"An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind".

"There are many causes that I am prepared to die for but no causes that I am prepared to kill for".

In applying these principles, Gandhi did not balk from taking them to their most logical extremes. In 1940, when invasion of the British Isles by Nazi Germany looked imminent, Gandhi offered the following advice to the British people (Non-Violence in Peace and War):

"I would like you to lay down the arms you have as being useless for saving you or humanity. You will invite Herr Hitler and Signor Mussolini to take what they want of the countries you call your possessions.... If these gentlemen choose to occupy your homes, you will vacate them. If they do not give you free passage out, you will allow yourselves, man, woman, and child, to be slaughtered, but you will refuse to owe allegiance to them".

Truth

The embracing of nonviolence was part of Gandhi's wider mission to seek truth (The Story of My Experiments with Truth). He tried to achieve this by learning from his own mistakes and conducting experiments on himself.

He found that uncovering the truth was not always popular as many people were resistant to change, preferring instead to maintain the existing status quo because of either inertia, self-interest or misguided beliefs. However he also discovered that once the truth was on the march nothing could stop it. All it took was time to achieve traction and gain momentum. As Gandhi said:

"The Truth is far more powerful than any weapon of mass destruction".

He said that the most important battle to fight was in overcoming his own demons, fears and insecurities. He thought it was all too easy to blame people, governing powers or enemies for his personal actions and wellbeing. He noted the solution to problems could normally be found just by looking in the mirror.

One of the greatest contributions of Mahatma Gandhi was in the realm of ontology and its association with truth. For Gandhi, "to be" did not mean to exist within the realm of time, as it has in the past with the Greek philosophers. But rather, "to exist" meant to exist within the realm of truth, or to use the term Gandhi did, satya. Gandhi summarized his beliefs first when he said "God is Truth," but as typical of Gandhi, he evolved, later to correct himself and state that "Truth is God." The first statement seemed insufficient to Gandhi, as the mistake could be made that Gandhi was using Truth as a description of God, as opposed to God as an aspect of satya. Satya (Truth) in Gandhi's philosophy IS God. It shares all the characteristics of the Hindu concept of God, or Brahman. It lives within us, that little voice that tells us what to do, but also guides the universe.

Vegetarianism

Although he experimented with eating meat in India when he was very young, he later became a strict vegetarian. He wrote books on the subject while in London, having met vegetarian campaigner Henry Stephens Salt at gatherings of the Vegetarian Society. The idea of vegetarianism is deeply ingrained in Hindu and Jain traditions in India, and, in his native land of Gujarat, most Hindus were vegetarian. He experimented with various diets and concluded that a vegetarian diet should be enough to satisfy the minimum requirements of the body. However he was flexible for his time and had little reservations on eating table eggs as seen in his 1948 article Key to Health [2]. He abstained from eating for long periods, using fasting as a political weapon. He refused to eat until his death or his demands were met.

File:Gandhisitting.jpg

Gandhi at the spinning wheel

Celibacy

Gandhi gave up sexual intercourse at the age of 36, becoming totally celibate while still married. This decision was deeply influenced by the Hindu idea of brahmacharya—spiritual and practical purity—largely associated with celibacy. Gandhi did not however believe that this was something that everyone should take up. In his autobiography he tells of his battle against lustful urges and fits of jealousy with his childhood bride, Kasturba. He felt it his personal obligation to remain celibate so that he could learn to love, rather than lust.

Silence

Gandhi spent one day of each week in silence. He believed that abstaining from speaking brought him inner peace. This influence was drawn from the Hindu principles of mouna (silence) and shanti (harmony). On such days he communicated with others by writing on paper. For three and a half years, from the age of 37, Gandhi refused to read newspapers, claiming that the tumultuous state of world affairs caused him more confusion than his own inner unrest.

Clothing

Returning to India from South Africa, where he had enjoyed a successful legal practice, he gave up wearing Western-style clothing, which he associated with wealth and success. He dressed to be accepted by the poorest person in India. He advocated the use of homespun cloth (khadi). Gandhi and his followers adopted the practice of weaving their own clothes from thread they themselves spun, and encouraged others to do so. While Indian workers were often idle due to unemployment, they had often bought their clothing from industrial manufacturers owned by British interests. It was Gandhi's view that if Indians made their own clothes, it would deal an economic blow to the British establishment in India. Consequently, the spinning wheel was later incorporated into the flag of the Indian National Congress.

Religion

Gandhi questioned religious practices and doctrines regardless of traditions or beliefs. On the subject of Christianity he noted that:

"The only people on earth who do not see Christ and His teachings as nonviolent are Christians".

Although Gandhi was born a Hindu he was critical of most religions, including Hinduism. He wrote in his autobiography:

"Thus if I could not accept Christianity either as a perfect, or the greatest religion, neither was I then convinced of Hinduism being such. Hindu defects were pressingly visible to me. If untouchability could be a part of Hinduism, it could but be a rotten part or an excrescence. I could not understand the raison d'etre of a multitude of sects and castes. What was the meaning of saying that the Vedas were the inspired Word of God? If they were inspired, why not also the Bible and the Koran? As Christian friends were endeavouring to convert me, so were Muslim friends. Abdullah Sheth had kept on inducing me to study Islam, and of course he had always something to say regarding its beauty".

He then went on to say:

"As soon as we lose the moral basis, we cease to be religious. There is no such thing as religion over-riding morality. Man, for instance, cannot be untruthful, cruel or incontinent and claim to have God on his side".

Gandhi was critical of the hypocrisy in organised religion, rather than the principles on which they were based. He also said the following about Hinduism:

"Hinduism as I know it entirely satisfies my soul, fills my whole being ... When doubts haunt me, when disappointments stare me in the face, and when I see not one ray of light on the horizon, I turn to the Bhagavad Gita, and find a verse to comfort me; and I immediately begin to smile in the midst of overwhelming sorrow. My life has been full of tragedies and if they have not left any visible and indelible effect on me, I owe it to the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita".

The concept of Islamic jihad can also be taken to mean a nonviolent struggle or satyagraha, in the way Gandhi practiced it. On Islam he said:

"The sayings of Muhammad are a treasure of wisdom, not only for Muslims but for all of mankind".

Later in his life when he was asked whether he was a Hindu, he replied:

"Yes I am. I am also a Christian, a Muslim, a Buddhist and a Jew".

Gandhi believed that at the core of every religion was Truth (satya), Love/Nonviolence (ahimsa) and the Golden Rule. He was deeply influenced by the Christian teaching of nonresistance and "turning the other cheek", once stating that if Christianity practised the Sermon on the Mount, he would indeed be a Christian. Gandhi felt that one should be aware of worshiping the symbols and idols of the religion and not its teachings, such as worshipping the crucifix whilst ignoring its significance as a symbol for self-sacrifice, for example.

Faith

In spite of their deep reverence to each other, Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore got involved in protracted debates more than once. These debates exemplify the philosophical differences between the two most famous Indians at the time. On January 15, 1934, an earthquake hit Bihar and caused extensive damage and loss of life. Gandhi maintained this was because of the sin committed by upper caste Hindus by not letting untouchables in their temples (Gandhi was committed to the cause of improving the fate of untouchables, referring to them as Harijans, people of Krishna). Tagore vehemently opposed Gandhi's stance, maintaining that an earthquake can only be caused by natural forces, not moral reasons, however repugnant the practice of untouchability may be.

Influence on Hindu society

Mahatma Gandhi was perhaps the greatest modern leader of Hindu society, in the mold of reformers and religious thinkers like Kabir, Ramakrishna and Sai Baba, but with a considerably wider impact.

Gandhi was a member of the third caste, but was reverred by thousands of Brahmin priests as an expert on Hindu religion. His ascetic lifestyle, uncompromising adherence to the moral high-ground (he stopped a national civil disobedience campaign over the killing of a few policemen by a rowdy mob of agitators in 1922), and his insistence on the equality of all humankind enabled him to touch Indian society as few have.

Gandhi struck out firmly against untouchability and caste discrimination. He brought uniformity, a sense of common identity and unity to millions of Congressmen and hundreds of millions of people who were divided by caste, religion, language and ethnicity. Gandhi defended common Hindu traditions, customs and values against the criticism of Christian missionaries and the Westernized elite of England-educated Indians and Britons in India; equally, he was critical of Brahmin corruption and the oppression of the common people by corrupt priests and leaders.

Gandhi felt that as long as Hindu society retained this system of oppression, the nation could never truly be free in spirit and character, which he viewed as more important than mere control of the government. Adopting the call of the freedom struggle, tens of millions of orthodox Hindus invited untouchables to eat with them, and the Congress and social groups opened dozens of unsegregated schools and hospitals in different parts of the country. Thousands of prominent Hindus worked to end this regressive practice within Hindu society.

Gandhi never allowed the British government and other political groups to divide Hindu society along caste lines by granting them different political status; his fast at Yeravda Jail compelled B.R. Ambedkar, political leader of the untouchables, to agree to reject separate electorates, demonstrating the formidable support he commanded from the harijans of India.

Gandhi was also a champion of women's freedoms and rights, and was especially critical of child marriage and the social castigation of widows. He wanted Hindu women to receive equal treatment in the eyes of the law, and a position of respect and honour in mainstream society. He also worked strongly against alcoholism, which had ruined the lives of countless women by claiming their husbands.

Much of the persisting momentum to break with old, regressive social practices was fueled by Gandhi's leadership and the freedom movement he cultivated and strengthened. Untouchability, dowry, child marriage, and the purdah were outlawed in independent India and casteism was denied official recognition and use. Although a controversial figure for some Hindus (owing to the partition of India), and despite the persistence of many of the social problems he tried to end, Gandhi is widely viewed as having been a progressive influence on Hindu society.

The Gandhian generation

Gandhi was a leader of men and women. He inspired a team of Indian leaders, a generation of Indian people. The relationships he shared with men and women working with him will go a long way in testifying of the phenomenon that he was.

The Triumvirate

The most closely analyzed of all personal relationships with the Indian leaders by historians, is the Triumvirate of Gandhi, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and Jawaharlal Nehru.

Sardar Patel was a settled, successful middle-aged barrister in Ahmedabad, earning wealth and respect and with no hankering for the stylish politics of pre-Gandhi Congressmen. But in 1918, with the Kheda Satyagraha, Patel volunteered to head the movement with Gandhi, and abandoned his life of comfort and riches. Gandhi almost single-handedly inspired the re-birth of a proud, hard-charging barrister, who became the most aggressive and action-minded of all nationalist leaders, the undisputed leader of Gujarat, the paramount contributor state to the Indian Independence Movement and the "Ironman of India"; a man who single-handedly brought 565 princely states into the Union to form a united India by independence; led the charge to fight-back the communal riots in Punjab and Delhi and rehabilitate over 10 million refugees, and defended the young nation's unity and peace by swift action against the rogue state Hyderabad and Pakistan's invasion and claims over Jammu and Kashmir and Junagadh. This political phenomenon in 1918, had been a bridge-playing, sharp-witted, sophisticated barrister in the Gujarat Club, cracking jokes about loose-mouthed politicians and the newcomer from South Africa.

Sardar Patel grew very close to Gandhi and his wife Kasturba, personally serving Gandhi as a younger brother when they were incarcerated in the early 1930s at Yeravda. Patel developed a deep respect for Gandhi's political instincts, and did not disagree with him until the partition crisis in 1946-47. Patel realized that Gandhi's true power lay in inspiring common people to fight for their rights and freedom, that the purity of non-violent resistance empowered a wide majority of Indians. Gandhi in turn, developed a deep affection for Patel.

There were notable incidents in the Gandhi-Patel relationship. In 1929, a Sardar Patel who had just won a great victory in Gujarat over the British was passed up for the Congress Presidency for the glamourous, unseasoned and suave Nehru. Gandhi also famously asked Patel to stand down from the election for the party's presidency in 1946. This election was crucial because the elected man would go on to head a free India's new government. 11 out of 15 Congress provincial committees had submitted Patel's name. Despite receiving no nomination, Nehru's candidacy was backed by the Working Committee. After pointing out to Nehru the fact that no PCC had nominated him, and measuring Nehru's frigid response, Gandhi asked Patel in a written note to withdraw, even though the election was his.

Both in 1929 and 1946, Patel obeyed the Mahatma. In 1946 especially, it was the greatest sacrifice to forgo becoming India's first Prime Minister. Yet Patel never hesitated to relinquish the honor, and remained very close to Gandhi.

Why did Gandhi pick Nehru? Contemporary media often portrays the Gandhi-Nehru relationship as that of a father and son. Scion of a political family, Nehru was more radical in ideas, more glamorous in persona and the darling of the masses. Nehru and Subhas Bose were considered the young radicals of the Congress in the 1920s, but Nehru had, like Patel, agreed with the Mahatma or stuck to his line more than Subhas Bose did. Nehru was often a political liability, speaking his radical views at the embrassment of the Congress, and was never actually responsible for a singular initiative in the movement, or commanding the loyalty of Congress organization.

Gandhi saw all his flaws, but knew that Nehru's energy, passion and rapport with the public was more advantageous to a young nation when a leader was to be picked. The PM would be the public image, which would form the public's trust with the Government. Gandhi knew that Nehru's appeal to the hundreds of millions of common Indians, to the Muslim community and to young Indians would serve as a uniter, especially in the poisonous, suspicion-filled climate of partition-era India. Nehru was energetic and young, while both Gandhi and Patel were in their 70s in 1947.

While Gandhi sparked the inner fires of Sardar Patel, he actually made Nehru. Without Gandhi's patronage and mentorship, Nehru's raw, temperate political judgment would have won him no kudos from the Congress Party. Patel on the other hand was the chief of India's most nationalistic province. Patel was the architect of the Congress Party's election strategy in 1934, 1937, 1946 and 1947. Patel was Gandhi's foundation pillar of support and execution during the Civil Disobedience Movement and the controversial and divisive, yet India's largest mass revolt, the Quit India Movement, and of course, at anything that happened in Gujarat. Had Patel openly objected to Gandhi's leadership at any of these junctures, it would have wrecked the Congress right down the line. Even the British acknowledged that Sardar Patel was the only man who could stand up to Gandhi.

But the Sardar's loyalty and affection for Gandhi, and vice versa were higher than thirst for power or office. And if Gandhi gave birth to the modern rebellion and oversaw its nationwide expansion, it was the Sardar who saw the nationalists and India through the finish line and safely into a free future.

The relations between the Sardar and Nehru were never personally affectionate, but of camaderie despite ideological differences. After independence, Patel became the Deputy Prime Minister, and the rivalry that fostered there drew Patel to the limit of his emotions and constitution. Gandhi was the referee in the Patel-Nehru disputes, and in early 1948, it was widely assumed that an exhausted Patel would be asked to leave the Government in Nehru's hands entirely by the Mahatma.

On January 30th 1948, Gandhi and Patel had the most crucial talk of both their lives. Gandhi asked Patel to continue as Deputy Prime Minister, and equal partner in India's leadership team. Gandhi then asked Patel to tell Nehru about his wishes, and left for his prayer meeting. Sardar Patel thus became the last of Gandhi's closest associates to see and talk with him. He was assassinated half an hour later.

Before Gandhi's body later that evening, a distraught Nehru emotionally embraced the Sardar and gave his pledge for their united partnership. This would last till the Sardar's own death in 1950, although it would undergo more rocky bumps.

Sardar Patel himself suffered a heart attack one month after Gandhi's death. He was saved only by the divine-sent presence of his nurse. It was the observation of his closest associates and Patel's own confession that it was Gandhi's tragic murder and Patel's bottling up of immense grief that caused his own shy with death.

While Nehru's relationship with Gandhi is more celebrated and fantasized about by Indian media, school books and common people, the Gandhi-Patel relationship produced the phenomenon, the wonder of absolute self-less patriotism and dynamic revolution that propelled a disunited, enslaved and divided India into freedom, unity and the future.

Mentors and proteges

Gandhi inspired spiritually and emotionally many men and women like Kala Kalelkar, Vinoba Bhave, Mirabehn, Mahadev Desai, Narhari Parikh and Badshah Khan. Mirabehn was a young Englishwoman Madeleine Slade who had left England inspired by Gandhi's teaching and had come to live by his side, utterly devoted to her guru and his teachings. Mahadev Desai was a young lawyer who had abandoned his ambitions to become his most loyal secretary, gaining an insight into the Mahatma which Wikipedia and countless historians would have loved to have. Narhari Parikh was the architect of many inspired revolts and battles in Gujarat against the British, and a close associate of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel himself. Badshah Khan was a Pathan leader, who in stark contrast to the common perceptions of his people, built an organization more committed to non-violent resistance than the Congress itself.

Kalelkar and Bhave built ashramas in Maharashtra, and worked hard against economic injustice, social reform, against discrimination, untouchability, the opression of women and human freedom. Both are widely regarded as having carried the flame of Gandhi's non-political work and legacy, as Nehru is seen to have carried on Gandhi's political mission.

Gandhi's optimistic, sweet nature won him the undying loyalty and reverence of thousands of co-workers, and led them to openly confide with him and ask his guidance upon the most personal issues of the lives of each person. The daughter of Sardar Patel, Manibehn, spoke to Gandhi more openly about her future, especially marriage and family, than she could with her more reserved father. Gandhi served as a facilitator between the two.

Gandhi's open and humble nature also won him the admiration, mentorship and support of distinguished men who clashed with him ideologically on several issues at different times. Rabindranath Tagore, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Annie Besant, Gopal Krishna Gokhale and Motilal Nehru were all senior leaders of the Indian cultural conscience and the freedom movement before Gandhi came along. Besant and Tilak opposed the satyagraha of the early 1920s, and Tagore clashed with Gandhi from time to time. But he only fascinated them, despite the reality that he was disloding a departing generation and ushering in a new era, far more different than their own.

Rabindranath Tagore wrote a poem for Gandhi, which famously and beautifully asked him to press forward, do the right thing and walk forth, even if it meant walking alone. Luckily, the hundred million followers of Gandhi made sure this encouragement was not necessary.

Opponents

Throughout the Gandhi Era (1918-1948), there were many political leaders who fought for India's freedom but did not share Gandhi's views, and sometimes outrightly opposed them. Such leaders included Subhas Chandra Bose, who sided openly with Germany and Japan in World War II and organized the Indian National Army to militarily liberate India from colonial rule. Mohammad Ali Jinnah was opposed to Gandhi's satyagraha methodology, and became the leader of Muslim separatists. Vinayak Damodar Savarkar was a Hindu fundamentalist, who was implicated in the assassination of the Mahatma.

Gandhi's own entrance into Indian politics was greeted with skepticism over his work in South Africa. When he introduced Satyagraha as a methodology of revolution, Gandhi was opposed by the leading Indian revolutionaries of the earliest years: Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Bipin Chandra Pal, Annie Besant and Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Yet Gandhi was of the new generation of Indian nationalists, and his rise inevitable due to the empowerment the common man felt from non-violent resistance.

Indian heroes like Bhagat Singh and Chandrashekhar Azad also did not meet with Gandhi's approval, who absolutely despised violent means of gaining freedom. But Gandhi always admired the courage of revolutionaries like Bhagat Singh and Azad, and strongly protested the execution sentence handed to them. When their differing approaches were brought up, Gandhi always openly encouraged everybody to abandon violence and remain united, to prevent the British from justifying repression and dividing the Indian political leaders. There were never harsh words from Gandhi for anybody, even when he was on the receiving end of some terrible criticism. For example, Subhas Bose had repeatedly declared from Europe that Gandhi's leadership had failed. Jinnah called him a hypocrite, and openly accused him of suppressing Muslims. And Savarkar attacked him as being a "traitor" by conceeding Pakistan and mollycoddling Muslims at the expense of Hindus.

To Gandhi, men like Subhas Bose, Jinnah and Bhagat Singh were all Indians, and thus partners in the freedom struggle. Even at the height of the tensions between the Congress and the Muslim separatists, Gandhi never refrained from openly talking to Jinnah, calling him "my brother." After Pakistan was created, Gandhi had planned to visit to heal the wounds of partition, and re-create an atmosphere of friendship and goodwill, instead of the mistrust and hatred that poisoned inter-community and inter-nation relations for decades after Gandhi.

When the World War ended and the INA surrendered to the British, Gandhi openly lauded their bravery and encouraged the Congress to itself take up the work of rehabilitating INA soldiers, supporting the families of the soldiers and honoring their sacrifices.

To his direct and main opponents, the British, Gandhi was always most gracious and civil. While he was the victim of Raj propaganda attempting to defame him and break up the freedom fighters, Gandhi's image in the United Kingdom proper was of a holy man, a lovable, saint-like gentle soul. When he traveled to England in 1931, he was lovingly greeted by Lancashire textile workers, whose produced goods he had himself advocated to be burned in India. The working English, if not their government, understood how the manufactures were hurting poor Indians, and that Gandhi wanted friendship with the British, but only on equal terms and with a free India.

Legacy

India's independence was not won by Gandhi alone, but by the work and sacrifice of 100 million Indians over three to four generations. Gandhi himself stated that "truth and non-violence are as old as the hills" and that he had taught nothing new to the world. Mahatma Gandhi's biggest contributions to India and the world were:

The universal weapon

Gandhi was a simple, frail and timid-looking man. He had not been a distinguished student or great professional. Yet he led a rebellion of 300 million people from the front and tore down the British Empire. Gandhi gave the universal weapon of Satyagraha to ordinary human beings to fight injustice, tyranny and oppression. It did not require men becoming armed militants and leading the lives of the hunted. It instead gave voice and strength to the poorest farmers, the most downtrodden of a huge society, the youngest of men and women and the most timid housewife. Gandhi helped a silent nation that had suffered through 1,000 years of tyranny, oppression and invasion, to stand up for themselves, their beliefs and way of life, and tear down a world-wide empire.

The making of a nation

Before Gandhi, the Congress Party itself had been segregated by caste and ethnicity. Language differences and religious antagonism made it a body of talk, not action or results. It claimed to represent a country united only in poverty and ignorance. Elitist lawyers from Delhi and Mumbai made up its office-bearers, speakers and leaders.

In reality, India had not been united since Emperor Ashoka over 1,500 years ago. It had seen over 1,000 years of oppression, tyranny and invasion, new rulers coming and going. None had touched or changed the lives of the people.

The Rebellion of 1857 touched something deep in many common Indians, but failed to do anything more. It was Gandhi who created the first-ever nationwide organization truly representative of the common Indians. It contained men and women of all religions, 18 different language groups and from the poorest villages of the farthest corners of the Indian subcontinent. And all these Indians, numbering in the tens of millions, were united in a nationwide struggle for something called freedom and democracy.

In his famous attire of loincloth and shawl, Gandhi instantly struck a chord with the hundreds of millions of people who thought he was one of them. He talked in the native language, inspiring the common man to feel he belonged to something called a nation.

Gandhi made this Indian National Congress fight for the causes of common man: he led the fights against poverty, alcoholism, illiteracy, disease while simultaneously fighting the British. He knew there could be no freedom when a system of slavery remained a part of Hindu society, called untouchability. He gave voice to Muslim and Hindu women, and brought Muslims and Hindus together for the first time in history in a peaceful and righteous common cause. And above all, he made them work together for something common, and develop a common sense of identity and brotherhood.

Gandhi's all-cultures, egalitarian, democratic organization laid the foundation for a nation that would genuinely be free, and where all religions, ethnic and linguistic groups would have genuine respect, love and brotherhood for one another.

It may be too much to say he made a nation, for India is as timeless and boundless as the whole world itself. But he did something, without which there would be no one country but 500, and no real freedom for the so-called common Indian. All 350 million of them.

Modern Criticism

Supporters of Vinayak Damodar Savarkar and the Hindu hard-right seem to believe that Gandhi is single-handedly to blame for partition, and for the mollycoddling of Muslims at the expense of the concerns, feelings and rights of Hindu communities. Members of hard-right Hindu political parties have often been quoted making anti-Gandhi remarks. In 2004, the state of Gujarat was criticized for including anti-Gandhi passages in its mandated school history textbooks. The Gujarat government is controlled by Narendra Modi, Chief Minister and man demonized by his defence of and protection of Hindu extremist mobs that caused the 2002 Gujarat violence, in which over 2,000 people died and thousands were displaced.

Recognition

Gandhi never received the Nobel Peace Prize, though he was nominated for it five times between 1937 and 1948. Decades later however, the Nobel Committee publicly declared its regret for the omission, and admitted to deeply divided nationalistic opinion denying the award to Gandhi. When the Dalai Lama was awarded the Peace Prize in 1989, the chairman of the committee said that this was "in part a tribute to the memory of Mahatma Gandhi". The official Nobel e-museum has an article discussing the issue.[3]

Time Magazine had named Gandhi as the runner-up in "Person of the Century" and had an article with write-ups on Dalai Lama, Lech Wałęsa, Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela titled "Children of Gandhi" to recognise his influence on the future generations of leaders.

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Rs. 1000 currency of the Mahatma Gandhi series

The Government of India awards the Mahatma Gandhi Peace Prize to distinguished social workers, world leaders and citizen leaders. Nelson Mandela, the leader of South Africa's struggle to end racial discrimination and segregation, is a prominent non-Indian recipient of this honor.

In 1996, the Government introduced the Mahatma Gandhi series of currency notes of denominations Rupees 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 500 and 1000.

Mahatma

The word "Mahatma," while often mistaken for Gandhi's given name, is taken from the Sanskrit term of reverence "mahatman," meaning “Great Soul.” The title "Mahatma" was accorded Gandhi in 1915 by his admirer Rabindranath Tagore (the first Asian to win the Nobel Prize for Literature). It was given in response to Gandhi conferring the title of "Gurudev" (Great Teacher; Guru: Teacher Dev: God/Holy) upon Tagore. As stated in his autobiography, Gandhi never accepted the title because he found himself unworthy of it.

The wide acceptance of this title outside India may in part reflect the complexities of the relationship between India and Britain during Gandhi's lifetime. Such acceptance is consistent with the widespread perception of his deeply held religious beliefs and commitment to non-violence.

Artistic depictions

The best-known artistic depiction of his life is the film Gandhi (1982), directed by Richard Attenborough and starring Ben Kingsley (himself half-Gujarati) in the title role. However, the film has since been criticised by post-colonial scholars who argue that it depicts Gandhi as single-handedly bringing India to independence, and ignores other prominent figures (both elite and subaltern) in the anti-colonial struggle. The Making of the Mahatma, directed by Shyam Benegal and starring Rajat Kapur, is a film about Gandhi's 21 years of life in South Africa.

In the United Kingdom, there are several prominent statues of Gandhi, most notably in Tavistock Gardens, London, near University College London, where he studied law.

The centennial commemorative statue of Mahatma Gandhi in the center of downtown Pietermaritzburg, South Africa.

In the United States, there are statues of Gandhi outside the Ferry Building in San Francisco, in Herman Park, Houston Garden Center in Houston, in Union Square Park in New York City, at the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site in Atlanta, outside the Honolulu Zoo in Kapiolani Park, Hawaii, and near the Indian Embassy in the Dupont Circle neighbourhood of Washington, DC.

The city of Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, home to the infamous 1893 ejection of Gandhi from a first-class train, now hosts a commemorative statue of the Indian independence figure, installed a century after the incident.

There are statues in honour of Gandhi in other cities such as Moscow, Paris, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Lisbon, Canberra and San Fernando, Trinidad and Tobago. The government of India donated a statue to the City of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, to signify their support for the future Canadian Museum for Human Rights. [4]

There is also a large bust of Gandhi in front of the library at Laurentian University [5] in Sudbury, Ontario. In St. Louis, Missouri there is a bust honoring Gandhi in front of the International Institute. [6]

Miscellaneous

Throughout his lifetime, Gandhi's activities attracted a wide range of comment and opinion. For example, as a more than loyal subject of the British Empire, Winston Churchill once stated:

"It is... nauseating to see Mr. Gandhi, a seditious Middle Temple lawyer, now posing as a fakir of a type well-known in the East, striding half-naked up the steps of the Viceregal Palace".

Conversely, Albert Einstein said of Gandhi:

"Generations to come will scarcely believe that such a one as this ever walked upon this earth in flesh and blood".

Nobel Laureate and former Israel Premier Shimon Peres once commented that:

"Mahatma Gandhi belonged to the future, not to the past".

Mahatma Gandhi's work is not forgotten by his descendants. His grandsons, Arun Gandhi and Rajmohan Gandhi, and his great grandson, Tushar Gandhi, are also socio-political activists, promoting non-violence around the world.

Bibliography

An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments With Truth (available at wikisource) [7] (1929) ISBN 0807059099

References

Gandhi: A Photo biography by Peter Rühe ISBN 0714892793
The Essential Gandhi: An Anthology of His Writings on His Life, Work, and Ideas by Louis Fischer ISBN 1400030501
Gandhi: A Life by Yogesh Chadha ISBN 0471350621
Gandhi (1982), film by Richard Attenborough
Gandhi and India: A Century in Focus by Sofri, Gianni (1995) ISBN 1900624125
The Kingdom of God is Within You [8] by Leo Tolstoy (1894) ISBN 0803294042
An Autobiography, or the Story of My Experiments with Truth M.K. Gandhi (1929)
Patel: A Life by Rajmohan Gandhi

External links

Institutions

M.K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence
The Official Mahatma Gandhi eArchive & Reference Library
mkgandhi.org
The Gandhi Foundation
Gandhi Information Center
GandhiServe Foundation Mahatma Gandhi Research and Media Service
Mani Bhavan Gandhi Sangrahalaya Gandhi Museum & Library Mani Bhavan is the place where Gandhi stayed whenever he was in Mumbai between 1917 and 1934. It was from here that Gandhi initiated his Civil Disobedience, Swadeshi, Khadi and Khilafat movements.

Resources

Photo Library of Mahatma Gandhi Over 10,000 images of Gandhi and India’s independence movement – partly digitized
The Official Mahatma Gandhi Picture Site The Top 100 photographs of Mahatma Gandhi
Film Footage of Mahatma Gandhi List of 300 film clips – over 10 hours - on Gandhi and India’s independence movement
Films on Mahatma Gandhi List of over 100 hours of films on Gandhi and India’s independence movement
Documentary film MAHATMA – Life of Gandhi Online Watch the 5+ hours documentary film on Gandhi’s life and works!
Mahatma Gandhi’s Voice Online Listen to over 50 hours of Gandhi’s speeches in English and Hindi
Music Online on Mahatma Gandhi Listen to Gandhi’s favourite songs as well as to music on Gandhi
Online Audio Library on Mahatma Gandhi Listen to records, audio tapes, radio programmes, events and speeches on Mahatma Gandhi
Audio Testimonials on Mahatma Gandhi Statements by associates and celebrities on Gandhi
Albert Einstein on Mahatma Gandhi An audio statement, correspondence with Gandhi and a text document by Einstein
Writings Online on and by Mahatma Gandhi Read over 200 books and articles on and by Gandhi
Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi Online Read over 50,000 pages of Gandhi’s letters, speeches, articles and books
Books on Mahatma Gandhi List of over 8,800 library and current books in German and English on Gandhi and related subjects
Mahatma Gandhi’s Correspondence List of 35,000 letters - largely - to and from Mahatma Gandhi, incl. a summary of each letter
Journals on Mahatma Gandhi List of publishers of journals on Gandhi
Chronologies of Mahatma Gandhi’s Life A brief and a detailed day-to-day chronology of Gandhi’s life
Stamps, coins, medals, banknotes and cindrella on Mahatma Gandhi from all over the world
Lick Service to the Mahatma The Story of Gandhi's Life and Legacy told through Philately
Genealogy of Mahatma Gandhi Genealogical tables on Gandhi and his family with over 1,600 entries
Oral History on Gandhi on Video Online Watch interviews with freedom fighters of India’s independence movement
Oral History on Gandhi on Audio Online Listen to interviews with associates of the Mahatma
Quiz with Mahatma Gandhi Play, enjoy, and learn more about Gandhi
The Story of My Experiments with Truth Gandhi auto-bio; free download in English or 6 South-Asian languages
An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth Free e-text
Better World Links on Gandhi
Contextualizing Gandhi in Twenty-First Century World
Mahatma Gandhi - An Average Man - Nadesan Satyendra
Mahatma Gandhi and the Corea Family of Chilaw Mahatma Gandhi's visit to Ceylon in 1927
The Gandhi Nobody Knows Critical Review of the movie 'Gandhi', which eventually became a biography of the Indian leader.
Hey Ram: The Politics of Gandhi's Last Words: Critical review of Hey Ram – whether Gandhi really said those words or not.
Gandhi on Education (National Centre for Teacher Education, New Delhi 1998)
Gandhi Biography
Gandhi's Seven Deadly Sins
Big Picture TV Free video clip of Ela Gandhi talking about her grandfather
Gandhi at IMDb Template:Link FA