Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

Abstract

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (2 October 1869–30 January 1948) is internationally known for his leadership in India’s independence movement and the methods of ahiṃsā (nonviolence) and satyagraha (truth force; nonviolent resistance). Because of his personal ascetic practices, political methods, and selfless service, he was given the honorific title Mahatma, “Great Soul.” Gandhi was born in a bania merchant subcaste in Porbandar (Gujarat), western India. His devout mother, Putali Bai, was a major influence in molding his character. Keeping with the norms of that time, his marriage was arranged at age thirteen to Kasturba, also thirteen. They had four sons—Harilal, Ramdas, Manilal, and Devdas—and many grandchildren. Gandhi’s character and political methods developed through his experiences studying law in England in 1888–1891, and his work commencing in 1893 as a lawyer for an Indian firm in South Africa, where he started a movement to end discrimination against Indians. The writings of Leo Tolstoy and John Ruskin, as well as texts such as the Sermon on the Mount and the Bhagavad Gītā, were influential both in his personal and activist lives. He established ashrams to train an army of nonviolent resisters and to disrupt inequality based on caste, economic status, religion, and gender. In his forty-year tenure as the leader of the movement against British occupation in South Africa and India, he led many nonviolent resistance campaigns, including the Salt March to protest the salt tax and the Quit India movement. He occasionally fasted to resist various forms of violence, including riots against Muslims. His dedication to India’s nation-building earned him the title “Father of the Nation.” Gandhi was also a prolific writer and authored many periodicals and books: an autobiography, a translation of and commentary on the Bhagavad Gītā, the manifesto Hind Swaraj, and others. His nonviolent methods have been utilized by international movements and leaders, including Martin Luther King Jr., César Chávez, Nelson Mandela, and Rev. James M. Lawson Jr. Along with laudatory appraisals by prominent thinkers such as Albert Einstein, he has also had many detractors, such as B. R. Ambedkar, who confronted him on his views ofcaste and untouchability. Various Hindu, Sikh, and Muslim leaders saw his views on nonviolence, religion, culture, and politics simply as ideological and unfeasible. Numerous studies focus on his idiosyncratic practices of celibacy and his views on women, caste, and technology, which depict him as stubborn, unprogressive, and even dangerous. Gandhi was assassinated by Nathuram Godse in Delhi, on 30 January 1948. Even though Gandhi appears to be a forgotten figure in India, thousands of books about him, an Academy Award–winning film, and, more recently, renewed interest in his philosophy and methods all are a testament to the ongoing global impact of his life and legacy.