Mahatma Gandhi

Mahatma Gandhi : Father of the Nation

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born in the town of Porbander in the state of Gujarat on 2 October 1869. He studied law at University College, London. In 1891, after having been admitted to the British bar, Gandhi returned to India and attempted to establish a law practice in Bombay, with little success. He went to South Africa to wrork but found himself treated very shabbily and like someone of inferior race.
This realization changed the face of Indian dependence and freedom struggle.

Political Awakening
Gandhi emerged as the leader of the Indian community, and it is in South Africa that he first coined the term satyagraha to signify his theory and practice of non-violent resistance. Gandhi returned to India in early 1915 ver the next few years, he was to become involved in numerous local struggles all over the country. Gandhi became the international symbol of a free India. He lived a spiritual and ascetic life of prayer, fasting, and meditation.

In 1921 the Indian National Congress, the group that spearheaded the movement for nationhood, gave Gandhi complete executive authority, with the right of naming his own successor.

The British government again seized and imprisoned him in 1922 for the failure of the civil disobedience movement.

Gandhian Philosophy Attacked caste system: In September 1932, while in jail, Gandhi undertook a “fast unto death” to improve the status of the Hindu Untouchables. He pledged to eradicate the unjust social and economic aspects of the caste system.

Ahinsa Gandhi beleived that truth can be achieved with Ahimsa -non violence and he stuck to the path of non-violence and freed India from the cluthces of foreign rule.

During the riots that followed the partition of India, Gandhi pleaded with Hindus and Muslims to live together peacefully. Riots engulfed Calcutta, one of the largest cities in India, and the Mahatma fasted until disturbances ceased. On January 13, 1948, he undertook another successful fast in New Delhi to bring about peace, but on January 30, 12 days after the termination of that fast, as he was on his way to his evening prayer meeting, he was assassinated by a fanatic Hindu.

A period of mourning was set aside in the United Nations General Assembly, and condolences to India were expressed by all countries.