Mahatma Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was the preeminent leader of Indian nationalism in British-ruled India. Employing nonviolent civil disobedience, Gandhi led India to independence and inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. The honorific Mahatma —applied to him first in 1914 in South Africa,—is now used worldwide. He is also called Bapu in India. More
Born and raised in a Hindu merchant caste family in coastal Gujarat, western India, and trained in law at the Inner Temple, London, Gandhi first employed nonviolent civil disobedience as an expatriate lawyer in South Africa, in the resident Indian community's struggle for civil rights. After his return to India in 1915, he set about organising peasants, farmers, and urban labourers to protest against excessive land-tax and discrimination. Assuming leadership of the Indian National Congress in 1921, Gandhi led nationwide campaigns for easing poverty, expanding women's rights, building religious and ethnic amity, ending untouchability, but above all for achieving Swaraj or self-rule.
Gandhi famously led Indians in challenging the British-imposed salt tax with the 400 km Dandi Salt March in 1930, and later in calling for the British to Quit India in 1942. He was imprisoned for many years, upon many occasions, in both South Africa and India. Gandhi attempted to practise nonviolence and truth in all situations, and advocated that others do the same. He lived modestly in a self-sufficient residential community and wore the traditional Indian dhoti and shawl, woven with yarn hand spun on a charkha. He ate simple vegetarian food, and also undertook long fasts as means of both self-purification and social protest.
Mahatma Gandhi timeline
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Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi is Born in Gujarat, India
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born in Porbandar, a coastal town in present-day Gujarat, India, on 2 October 1869. His father, Karamchand Gandhi... Read more
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Mohandes Gandhi Begins Primary School in Rajkot
The Indian classics, especially the stories of Shravana and Maharaja Harishchandra from the Indian epics, had had a great impact on Gandhi in his... Read more
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Mohandes Gandhi Enters High School in Rajkot
Gandhi was a shy and fearful child. Short and spindly, he shied away from athletics, and his lack of physical prowess was matched by his... Read more
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Mohandes Gandhi Marries Kasturbai Makhanji in an Arranged Child Marriage
In May 1883, the 13-year old Mohandas was married to 14-year old Kasturbai Makhanji (her first name was usually shortened to "Kasturba," and... Read more
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Mohandes Gandhi Enters Rebellious Adolescent Phase, Engaging in Activities He Will Soon Reject
Like most growing children he passed through a rebellious phase, but contrary to the impression fostered by his autobiography, Gandhi’s adolescence... Read more
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Mohandes Gandhi's Father Dies at 63
Mohan passed the matriculation examination of Bombay University in 1887. His father’s death a year earlier had strained the means of the family.... Read more
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Mohandes Gandhi Travels to London to Train as a Barrister
On 4 September 1888, less than a month shy of his 19th birthday, Gandhi traveled to London, England, to study law at University College London and... Read more
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Mohandes Gandhi Returns to India from London After Passing the Bar
A great shock lay in store for him when he landed at Bombay. His mother had died while he was in England. It was only natural that he should have... Read more
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Mohandes Gandhi Travels to South Africa to Work Under a Year-Long Contract with Dada Abdulla & Co., an Indian Firm
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was a young man of 24 when he arrived in South Africa in 1893. Gandhi's work in South Africa dramatically changed... Read more
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Mahatma Gandhi is Ejected from a South African Train, Motivating Him to Fight for Indian Rights in the British Colony
Pietermaritzburg is also famous for an incident early in the life of Mahatma Gandhi. In May 1893, while Gandhi was on his way to Pretoria, a white... Read more
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Mohandes Gandhi Founds the Natal Indian Congress
Gandhi realized that what the India urgently needed was a permanent organization to look after their interests. Out of deference to Dadabhai... Read more
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Mohandes Gandhi is Nearly Lynched by White Settlers in Durban upon Returning from a Brief Trip to Fetch his Family in India
It is a measure of Gandhi’s success as a publicist that the Indian National Congress Recorded its protest against the disabilities imposed upon the... Read more
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Gandhi Organizes an Indian Ambulance Corps of 1100 Men During His Service in the Boer War
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... Read more
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Gandhi Founds the Phoenix Settlement
Influenced by the teachings of Ruskin, Gandhi purchased a farm at Phoenix, near Mount Edgecombe in 1904 in order to establish a communal... Read more
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Asiatic Law Amendment Ordinance Requires Asians in Transvaal to Carry Fingerprinted Identification
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... Read more
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Gandhi Organizes Stretcher-Bearer Corps that Serves During the Zulu Uprising
The Boer War had not brought home to me the horrors of war with anything like the vividness that the [Zulu] 'rebellion' did. This was no war but a... Read more
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Gandhi Introduces Non-Violent Protest Philosophy of Satyagraha
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... Read more
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Gandhi is Arrested for the First Time, for Refusing to Carry an Obligatory ID Card in South Africa
In January 1908, he was arrested for breach of the registration law and clapped into prison. The following month he was released after an... Read more
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Gandhi Establishes the Tolstoy Farm, which Serves as a Base of Operations for His Activities in South Africa
Since the centre of the campaign was in the Transvaal, the farm had to be close to Johannesburg. Herman Kallenbach, an architect until he became... Read more
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Gandhi Begins "Great March" to Gain Indian Rights in South Africa
Led at 6.30.a.m. the "great march", consisting of 2,037 men, 127 women and 57 children from Charlestown; addressed marchers halfway between... Read more
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Gandhi Suspends South African Struggle After Winning Passage of the Indian Relief Act
The treatment of Indians had reached pathetic limits. The prisons were too small to house the resisters. Mr Hult, a mine manager had flogged 300... Read more
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Gandhi Receives Hero's Welcome Upon Returning to India from South Africa
In 1915, Gandhi returned from South Africa to live in India. He spoke at the conventions of the Indian National Congress, but was primarily... Read more
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Gandhi Goes to Champaran to Investigate Conditions of Local Farmers
Bhumihar Brahmins in Champaran had earlier revolted against the conditions of indigo cultivation in 1914 (at Pipra) and 1916 (Turkaulia). Then... Read more
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Gandhi Establishes Sabarmati Ashram
Sabarmati Ashram (Gujarati: સાબરમતી આશ્રમ also known as Gandhi Ashram, Harijan Ashram, or Satyagraha Ashram) is located in the Ahmedabad suburb of... Read more
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Gandhi Begins Advocating on Behalf of Farmers in Kheda Subject to Oppressive Taxation During a Famine
In Gujarat, Gandhi was only the spiritual head of the struggle. His chief lieutenant, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and a close coterie of devoted... Read more