Mahatma Gandhi and India's Struggle for Independence

Mahatma Gandhi was known for his campaigns of civil disobedience centered around non-violence. His leadership helped India gain independence after nearly a century of British rule. He's been called the father of India and was given the nickname Mahatma, meaning great soul. He became a symbol of peace and human rights all around the world and remains to this day one of the most prominent figures in history. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born in Porbandar in the present-day state of Gujarat in India to Karamchand and Putilivai Gandhi. Gandhi grew up in a home immersed in Vaishnavism and Jainism. His beliefs included non-injury to all living things, fasting for self-purification, meditation and vegetarianism. At the young age of 13, as it was common at that time, Gandhi was married in an arranged marriage. He soon had to face the death of his father and a few years later welcomed his first child. Shortly after, Gandhi left to study law in London while his wife stayed behind to care for their new baby. In 1891, Gandhi returned to India and to a bittersweet period of his life. He found out that his mother had died during his absence and soon after he welcomed his second son. After struggling to find work in India, Gandhi accepted the offer of a one-year contract to become a lawyer in South Africa. In April 1893, he set sail for Durban in the South African state of Natal. While living in South Africa, Gandhi became acquainted with world religions and immersed himself in sacred Hindu spiritual texts. It was during this time that Gandhi adopted a life of simplicity and austerity, freeing himself from material goods. Gandhi was soon exposed to a series of racial discriminations which were commonly faced by Indian immigrants in South Africa. While in a Durban court, Gandhi was asked to take off his turban by the magistrate but he refused to do so and instead left the courtroom. On another occasion, while on a train journey to Pretoria, he was ordered to move from the first class section where he was sitting to the lower class compartment of the train, despite carrying a first class ticket. Gandhi refused and was thrown off the train. This was a turning point for Gandhi and gave him the determination to devote himself to fight for civil rights. As Gandhi was preparing to move back to India, he was convinced to stay to fight against a bill that would deprive Indians from their right to vote. He drew international attention to the injustice and formed the Natal Indian Congress in 1894 to fight discrimination. Two years later, he brought his wife and two children to South Africa and the last two of his four children were soon born. After a law which further discriminated against Indians was passed in South Africa in 1906, Gandhi introduced Satyagraha which is a way of non-violent resistance that would later grow on to become a major tool in the fight against British-controlled India. Gandhi led a campaign of non-violent civil disobedience that went on for more than seven years. Hundreds of Indians, including Gandhi, were imprisoned in 1913. However, the South African government was forced to negotiate with Gandhi after much pressure from Britain and India. South Africa had an immense impact on Gandhi, transforming him into a leader. But for Gandhi and his family, it was time to go back to India. He shortly founded an ashram which was open to all castes. Here, he devoted his life to prayer, meditation, and fasting, quickly earning him the nickname of Mahatma. The Rola Act, which allowed authorities to imprison any person suspected of sedition without trial, angered Gandhi and so he called for peaceful protests and strikes through a Satyagraha campaign. However, violence soon broke out instead and resulted in the massacre of Amritsar on April 13, 1919, where nearly 400 people were killed after British troops opened fire into the unarmed crowd of protesters. By 1920, Gandhi was the most prominent figure in the movement for Indian independence. He started a non-violent home rule movement against the British government that included boycotts of any institution operated by the British in India. He encouraged government officials to stop working for Britain, students to leave government schools, and citizens to stop paying their taxes. He urged them to stop purchasing British goods and began to use a portable spinning wheel to make his own clothing. The spinning wheel soon became an important symbol of self-reliance and Indian independence. Gandhi's movement broke the fear of foreign rule and led to the arrest of thousands of Satyagrahis who were eager to defy the law and line up for prison in order to achieve independence. Gandhi also assumed the leadership of the political party Indian National Congress, which dominated the Indian movement for independence from Britain. But to the shock of his followers, Gandhi suddenly announced the end of his movement after scattered violence broke out. He was tried for sedition and sentenced to six years in prison in 1922, but was released early after undergoing surgery for appendicitis two years later. Some years later, he launched a new protest against Britain's salt act. This act prohibited Indians from collecting or selling salt and instead forced them to buy it from the British and in addition pay a heavy salt tax. On March 12, 1930, Gandhi set out from his ashram in Namedabad to the coastal town of Dandi in the Arabian Sea. He walked for over 240 miles and this became famously known as the Salt March. Gandhi and thousands of followers that he gained along the way arrived at Dandi on April 5th and early the next morning, Gandhi produced salt from evaporated seawater, thus breaking the law. The Salt March sparked similar protests involving millions of people around India. Gandhi and more than 60,000 people were soon arrested. After the protests, Mahatma Gandhi's name was recognized all over the world and he was even named Man of the Year by Time Magazine in 1930. Gandhi was released from prison the following year and made an agreement to end the salt satyagraha in exchange for the release of thousands of prisoners and allow those who lived on the coast the right to harvest salt from the sea. During the outbreak of World War II, Gandhi took control of the Indian National Congress. He demanded Britain to withdraw from India, launching the Quit India Movement. The British responded with the imprisonment of Gandhi, his wife, and several other top party leaders. With his health failing, Gandhi was released in 1944 after spending 19 months in jail. His wife had died in prison shortly before he was released. After the war, Britain's Labour Party unexpectedly took power in 1945. The new British government started negotiations for Indian independence with the two main political parties, the Indian National Congress and the Muslim League. The negotiations concluded in the 1947 Indian Independence Act, where Britain granted India its independence but split the country into two dominions, India and Pakistan. Gandhi strongly opposed the partition of his country but finally agreed since they would at least be free. He hoped that predominantly Hindu India and predominantly Muslim Pakistan could achieve peace after their independence. However, massive riots followed the partition and violence broke out between Muslims and Hindus even before independence took effect on August 15, 1947. Gandhi began a series of hunger strikes and visited troubled areas in an effort to end the bloodshed and promote peace. On January 30, 1948, the weakened 78-year-old Gandhi was on his way to an evening prayer meeting in his New Delhi's Birla House when Nathuram Godse emerged from the crowd and shot Gandhi. Gandhi's life tragically came to an end. The following day, an estimated crowd of 1 million people joined the five-mile route funeral procession. Mahatma Gandhi's death came less than a year after India had finally won its independence. Gandhi's lifelong pursuits through non-violence allowed him to achieve change for his country. Satyagraha remains even to this day one of the most powerful campaigns for freedom throughout the world. Gandhi's actions have inspired many human rights movements, including those of Martin Luther King Jr. in the U.S. and Nelson Mandela in South Africa. Gandhi's powerful words continue to inspire us to change the world for the better.