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Mahatma Gandhi Biography - Quotes

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, widely known as Mahatma Gandhi meaning "Great Soul" and as Bapu ("Father"), was born October 2, 1869 in Porbander, in present-day Gujarat, Western India. His father, Karamchand Gandhi, was the diwan (Prime Minister) of the Porbander state. His mother, Putlibai, was Karamchand's fourth wife.

At the age of 13, Gandhi was married through his parents' arrangements to Kasturba Makhanji. They had five children, the first died in infancy.

On September 4, 1888, Gandhi went to University College London to study law and train as a barrister. While in London, Gandhi embraced vegetarianism and joined the Vegetarian Society, was elected to its executive committee, and founded a local chapter. Some vegetarians of the society were also members of the Theosophical Society. They encouraged Gandhi to read works about Hinduism, Christianity, Buddhism, Islam and other religions. He then returned to India, but had limited success establishing a law practice in Bombay. He then returned to Rajkot and made a modest living drafting petitions for litigants, but was forced to close down due.

In 1894, Gandhi founded the Natal Indian Congress in South Africa. The community became a homogeneous political force, but was unable to halt a bill denying Indians the right to vote.

Gandhi returned to London in 1895, where he met Colonial Secretary Joseph Chamberlain, whose son would later help suppress Gandhi in the 1930s. Joseph Chamberlain agreed that the treatment of Indians was barbaric, but declined to push any legislation.

In 1906, the Transvaal government required all South African Indians to register. At this time Gandhi embraced the methodology of satyagraha (devotion to the truth), a non-violent protest. His plan was adopted and lead to a seven-year struggle in which thousands of Indians were jailed, flogged and killed for refusing to register. Although the suppression was a success, it faced large public outcry that forced the South African General Jan Christiaan Smuts to negotiate a compromise with Gandhi.

Upon Gandhi's return to India, he organized poor farmers and laborers to protest the oppressive taxation and discrimination. He assumed leadership of the Indian National Congress and led nationwide campaigns for the alleviation of poverty, liberation of women, religious and ethnic tolerance, an end to untouchable and caste discrimination, economic self-sufficiency of India, and India independence from foreign domination.

On January 30, 1948, Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated while having his nightly public walk on the grounds of the Birla Bhavan in New Delhi. The assassin, Nathuram Godse, was a Hindu radical with links to the extremist Hindu Mahasbha, who blamed Gandhi responsible for weakening India by insisting payments to Pakistan.

In India, he is officially accorded the honor of Father of the Nation with his birthday being commemorated each year as Gandhi Jayanti, a national holiday.

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