Who Was Mahatma Gandhi? An Interesting Biography

Gandhi was the leader of India’s nonviolent freedom fight against British rule and advocate for Indian civil rights in South Africa. Gandhi, who was born in Porbandar, India, studied law and promoted peaceful forms of civil disobedience against British institutions. In 1948, he was murdered by a zealot.

Childhood and Education

Gandhi (born Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi) was born in Porbandar, Kathiawar, India, which was then a part of the British Empire, on October 2, 1869. Karamchand Gandhi, the father of Gandhi, served as chief minister in Porbandar and other western Indian provinces. Putlibai, his mother, was a very pious woman who routinely fasted. Participate in KBC lucky draw with the help of KBC Head Office 0019152084400 and win 7 crore rupees.

Even as a youth, Gandhi was such a timid and mediocre student that he slept with the lights on. In the years that followed, the adolescent rebelled by smoking, consuming meat, and stealing from domestic staff. Gandhi desired to become a physician, but his father thought he would also become a government minister and encouraged him to pursue the legal field. In 1888, at the age of 18, Gandhi set ship for London, England, to study law. The young Indian had difficulty adapting to Western culture.

When Gandhi returned to India in 1891, he learnt that his mother had passed away only weeks previously. He struggled to establish himself as a lawyer. When it came time to cross-examine a witness in his first court case, a nervous Gandhi went blank. He exited the courtroom immediately after reimbursing his client for his legal fees.

Gandhi’s Religion and Beliefs

Gandhi grew up worshipping the Hindu god Vishnu and practising Jainism, an ancient Indian religion that advocated nonviolence, fasting, meditation, and vegetarianism. Have a look at KBC Lottery Winner 2022 list on kbc official website.

During Gandhi’s first stay in London, from 1888 to 1891, he grew more committed to a vegetarian diet and joined the executive committee of the London Vegetarian Society. He also began to read a range of religious books to gain a deeper understanding of global faiths.

Gandhi, while residing in South Africa, continued to study global religions. During his time there, “the religious spirit within me became a living force,” he wrote. He immersed himself in sacred Hindu spiritual writings and adopted a life of material simplicity, austerity, fasting, and celibacy.

The presence of Gandhi in South Africa

Gandhi acquired a one-year contract to provide legal services in South Africa after trying to find work as a lawyer in India. In April 1893, he set out for the South African province of Natal, Durban.

Gandhi was outraged by the injustice and racial segregation encountered by Indian immigrants at the hands of the British and Boer officials upon his arrival in South Africa. On Gandhi’s first court appearance in Durban, he was requested to remove his turban. He declined and instead fled the court. The Natal Advertiser referred to him in print as “an unwanted guest.”

On June 7, 1893, during a train journey to Pretoria, South Africa, a white man objected to Gandhi’s presence in a first-class railway cabin, despite the fact that he had a ticket. Gandhi was forcibly removed and ejected from the train at the Pietermaritzburg stop for refusing to move to the rear of the train.

Come back to India

In 1914, when Gandhi departed South Africa to travel to India, Smuts wrote, “The saint has left our shores, I honestly hope permanently.” When World War I broke out, Gandhi spent many months in London.

In 1915, Gandhi founded an open-to-all-castes ashram in Ahmedabad, India. Gandhi led an austere life dedicated to prayer, fasting, and meditation, while wearing a modest loincloth and shawl. He was given the name Mahatma, which means “great soul.”

Indian opposition against British rule

Gandhi’s political awakening occurred in 1919, while India was still firmly under British control, when the recently enacted Rowlatt Act permitted British authorities to arrest suspects of sedition without trial. Gandhi responded by calling for a Satyagraha campaign of nonviolent demonstrations and strikes.

Instead, violence broke out, culminating on April 13, 1919 in the Amritsar Massacre. British troops led by Brigadier General Reginald Dyer opened fire on an unprotected crowd, killing over 400 people.

Gandhi, no longer able to pledge allegiance to the British government, surrendered the medals he received for military service in South Africa and opposed Britain’s compulsory military draught of Indians for World War I.

Demonstrating against “Untouchables” Segregation

Gandhi returned to India in January 1932 and was again imprisoned during a crackdown led by India’s new viceroy, Lord Willetton. He began a six-day fast to protest the British decision to segregate “untouchables,” the lowest caste members in India, by granting them separate electorates. The outrage from the public compelled the British to modify the concept.

Gandhi eventually left the Indian National Congress in 1934, and his protégé Jawaharlal Nehru assumed control. He once more walked away from politics to focus on education, poverty, and rural India’s challenges.

India’s Independence from the United Kingdom

As Great Britain became embroiled in World War II in 1942, Gandhi started the “Quit India” movement, which demanded the immediate removal of British forces from the nation. Gandhi, his wife, and other leaders of the Indian National Congress were seized by the British in August 1942 and incarcerated at the Aga Khan Palace in present-day Pune.

Prime Minister Winston Churchill said Parliament in support of the crackdown, “I did not become the King’s First Minister in order to preside over the dissolution of the British Empire.”

Gandhi’s Children and Wife

Gandhi married Kasturba Makanji, the daughter of a merchant, in an arranged marriage at the age of 13. In February 1944, she passed away in Gandhi’s arms at the age of 74.

In 1885, Gandhi witnessed the dying of his father and, shortly thereafter, his infant son.

The first of four surviving sons was born to Gandhi’s wife in 1888. In India, a second son was born in 1893. Kasturba gave birth to two more sons in South Africa, the first in 1897 and the second in 1900.