HISTORIAN LEADERS

Mahatma Gandhi Bio
Mahatma Gandhi. 'Father of the Nation' for a country with a billion people.

Mahatma Gandhi was born on the 2nd of October, 1869 in Porbandar, Gujarat, India. He died on the 30th of January, 1948 in New Delhi, India. Gandhi was a great political and spiritual leader for India, when India was still under the rule of the British Empire.

Gandhi showed through protesting in a non-violent way, great things could be achieved. Through his pioneering way of the philosophy Satyagraha- (the resistance of tyranny through mass civil disobedience) Gandhi lead India to its independence. (name history)

Gandhi studied at the University College London to train as a barrister. After finishing his time in England Gandhi moved back to India where he tried unsuccessfully to open his own law firm.
In 1893 he accepted a year-long contract from an Indian firm to a post in Natal, South Africa.

Moving to South Africa was the changing point for him, here he experienced discrimination and racism in all areas of life. When his contract expired Gandhi had planed to return to India. At his farewell party it was brought to his attention about a new bill that the Natal Legislative Assembly was to deny the right to vote to Indians. In seeing this Gandhi was asked to stay in Durban and fight against the injustices levied against Indians in South Africa. After twenty years of passive resistance and noncooperation the South African government finally made several concessions to the Indian people living there.

At the end of the First World War, Gandhi moved back to India where he started his non-violent protesting, credit history, this caught on very quickly in India and soon he had a good following. The British government deemed this type of protesting revolutionary, so in 1920 British troops massacred many innocent Indians at a demonstration. Gandhi then instigated a policy of non-cooperation towards the Brits. Gandhi was imprisoned for a short time, in 1924 he decided to call an end to the campaign of non-cooperation because of India's increasing violence towards Britain.

After six years he again started various campaigns against the British Government, after been imprisoned on several other occasions, Gandhi formally retired from politics in 1934. In 1947 India finally got its independence from Britain. Unfortunately in 1948 Gandhi was assassinated by a Hindu radical whilst on his way to a prayer meeting.
Life of Mahatma Gandhi
Mahatma Gandhi was born as Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi on October 2, 1969 at Porbandar, located in the present day state of Gujarat. His father Karamchand Gandhi was the Diwan (Prime Minister) of Porbandar. Gandhi's mother Putlibai was a pious lady and under her tutelage Gandhi imbibed various principles of Hinduism at an early age.

In 1883, all of 13 and still in high school, Gandhi was married to Kasturbai as per the prevailing Hindu customs. For a person of such extraordinary visionary zeal and resilience, Mahatma Gandhi was by and large an average student in school and was of a shy disposition. After completing his college education, at his family's insistence Gandhi left for England on September 4, 1888 to study law at University College, London. During his tenure in London, Mohandas Gandhi strictly observed abstinence from meat and alcohol as per his mother's wishes.

Upon completion of his law degree in 1891, Gandhi returned to India and tried to set up a legal practice but could not achieve any success. In 1893, when an Indian firm in South Africa offered him the post of legal adviser Gandhi was only too happy to oblige and he set sail for South Africa. This decision alone changed the life of Gandhi, and with that, the destiny of an entire nation. As he descended in South Africa, Gandhi was left appalled at the rampant racial discrimination against Indians and blacks by the European whites.

Soon Gandhi found himself at the receiving end of such abuse and he vowed to take up the cudgels on behalf of the Indian community. He organized the expatriate Indians and protested against the injustices meted out by the African government. After years of disobedience and non-violent protests, the South African government finally conceded to Gandhi's demands and an agreement to this effect was signed in 1914. A battle was won, but Gandhi realized the war that was to be waged against the British awaits his arrival in India. He returned to India the next year.

After reaching India, Gandhi traveled across the length and breadth of the country to witness first hand the atrocities of the British regime. He soon founded the Satyagraha Ashram and successfully employed the principles of Satyagraha in uniting the peasants of Kheda and Champaran against the government. After this victory Gandhi was bestowed the title of Bapu and Mahatma and his fame spread far and wide.

In 1921, Mahatma Gandhi called for the non-cooperation movement against the British Government with the sole object of attaining Swaraj or independence for India. Even though the movement achieved roaring success all over the country, the incident of mob violence in Chauri Chaura, Uttar Pradesh forced Gandhi to call off the mass disobedience movement. Consequent to this, Mahatma Gandhi took a hiatus from active politics and instead indulged in social reforms.

The year 1930 saw Gandhi's return to the fore of Indian freedom movement and on March 12, 1930 he launched the historic Dandi March to protest against the tax on salt. The Dandi March soon metamorphosed into a huge civil disobedience movement. The Second World War broke out in 1939 and as the British might began to wane, Gandhi called for the Quit India movement on August 8, 1942. Post World War, the Labour Party came to power in England and the new government assured the Indian leadership of imminent independence.

The Cabinet Mission sent by the British government proposed for the bifurcation of India along communal lines which Gandhi vehemently protested. But eventually he had to relent and on the eve of independence thousands lost their lives in communal riots. Gandhi urged for communal harmony and worked tirelessly to promote unity among the Hindus and Muslims. But Mahatma's act of benevolence angered Hindu fundamentalists and on January 13, 1948 he was assassinated by Hindu fanatic Nathuram Godse.

Mahatma Gandhi Quotes
• Permanent good can never be the outcome of untruth and violence.
• First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.
• As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world - that is the myth of the atomic age - as in being able to remake ourselves.
• The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world's problems.
• You must be the change you want to see in the world.
• Victory attained by violence is tantamount to a defeat, for it is momentary.
• One needs to be slow to form convictions, but once formed they must be defended against the heaviest odds.
• I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent.
• Prayer is not an old woman's idle amusement. Properly understood and applied, it is the most potent instrument of action.
• The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.