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Gandhi was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist
and political ethicist.
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He is known for employing nonviolent resistance to lead the successful campaign for India's
independence from British rule.
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Born in a Hindu family in Pobandar (GJ) India, Gandhi
was trained in law at the Inner
Temple, London, and was called to
the bar at age 22 in June 1889.
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He moved to South
Africa in 1893 to represent an Indian merchant in a lawsuit and went on to
live in South Africa for 21 years.
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He helped found the Natal Indian Congress in 1894,
and through this organisation, he moulded the Indian community of South Africa
into a unified political force.
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Mahatma Gandhi founded
two ashrams for community living in South Africa тАУ Phoenix Settlement in Durban and Tolstoy Farm in Johannesburg.
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In 1915,
aged 45, he returned to India and
soon set about organising peasants, farmers, and urban labourers to protest
against excessive land-tax and discrimination.
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Assuming leadership
of the Indian National Congress in 1921,
Gandhi led nationwide campaigns and movements for easing poverty, expanding
women's rights, building religious and ethnic amity, ending untouchability,
and, above all, achieving swaraj or self-rule.
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For decades he edited
several newspapers including Harijan
in Gujarati, Hindi and English language, Indian
Opinion while in South Africa, Young
India, in English, and Navajivan,
a Gujarati monthly, on his return to India.
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One of Gandhi's earliest publications, Hind Swaraj, published in Gujarati in
1909, became the intellectual blueprint for India's independence movement.
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Gandhi also wrote several books including his autobiography, The Story of My Experiments with Truth.
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His most prominent
movements in India against the colonial rule are following:
o Champaran agitations (1917)
o Ahamedabad strike (1917)
o Kheda agitations (1918)
o Khilafat movement (1920)
o Non-co-operation movement (1920)
o Salt Satyagraha (Salt March) (12 March-6 April,
1930)
o Civil Disobedience movement (1930-1934)
o Quit India movement (1942)
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He died in
1948, when Nathuram Godse, a
Hindu nationalist, fired three bullets into his chest from a pistol at close
range.
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Gandhi's birthday, 2 October, is commemorated in India as Gandhi Jayanti, a national holiday, and worldwide as the International Day of Nonviolence.