Ghandi
Early life
Mahatma Gandhi (October 2, 1869, to January 30, 1948) was the leader of India's non-violent independence movement against British rule and in South Africa who advocated for the civil rights of Indians. Born in Porbandar, India, Gandhi studied law and organized boycotts against British institutions in peaceful forms of civil disobedience. https://www.biography.com/people/mahatma-gandhi-9305898
what started it all for him?
Gandhi was shocked and disgusted by the discrimination he experienced as an Indian immigrant in South Africa. When a European magistrate in Durban asked him to take off his turban, he refused and left the courtroom. On a train voyage to Pretoria, he was thrown out of a first-class railway compartment and beaten up by a white stagecoach driver after refusing to give up his seat for a European passenger. That train journey served as a turning point for Gandhi, and he soon began developing and teaching the concept of satyagraha (truth and firmness), or passive resistance, as a way of non-cooperation with authorities. https://www.history.com/topics/india/mahatma-gandhi
western ideals
Gandhi was thoroughly shaped by his Western legal education in England. Nevertheless, he took great care to represent ideals of nationhood and freedom in an Indian vocabulary that successfully united all social groups in opposing the British. This, Brown contends, is Gandhi's greatest legacy: bridging gaps between the modern and the traditional, the new and the old. https://daily.jstor.org/mahatma-gandhi-master-mediator/
Passive resistance
In 1906, after the Transvaal government passed an ordinance, Gandhi led a campaign of civil disobedience that would last for the next eight years. In 1913, hundreds of Indians living in South Africa went to jail, and thousands of striking Indian miners were imprisoned, flogged and even shot. Finally, under pressure from the British and Indian governments, the government of South Africa accepted a compromise negotiated by Gandhi and General Jan Christian Smuts, which included important concessions such as the recognition of Indian marriages and the abolition of the existing poll tax for Indians. https://www.history.com/topics/india/mahatma-gandhi
Non-violent civil disobedience
In 1919, with India still under control of the British, Gandhi had a political reawakening when the Rowlatt Act authorized British authorities to imprison people suspected of sedition without trial. In response, Gandhi called for a Satyagraha campaign of peaceful protests and strikes. Violence broke out instead, which culminated on April 13, 1919, in the Massacre of Amritsar, when troops led by British Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer fired machine guns into a crowd of unarmed demonstrators and killed nearly 400 people. No longer able to pledge allegiance to the British government, Gandhi returned the medals he earned for his military service in South Africa and opposed Britain's mandatory military draft of Indians to serve in World War I. https://www.biography.com/people/mahatma-gandhi-9305898
Death
In January 1948, Gandhi underwent another fast, this time to bring about peace in the city of Delhi. On January 30, 12 days after that fast ended, Gandhi was on his way to an evening prayer meeting in Delhi when he was shot to death by Nathuram Godse, a Hindu fanatic enraged by Mahatma's efforts to negotiate with Jinnah and other Muslims. The next day, roughly 1 million people followed the procession as Gandhi's body was carried in state through the streets of the city and cremated on the banks of the holy Jumna River. https://www.history.com/topics/india/mahatma-gandhi
Beliefs
Living in South Africa, Gandhi continued to study world religions. "The religious spirit within me became a living force". He studied sacred Hindu spiritual texts and adopted a life of simplicity, austerity, fasting and celibacy, that was free of material goods. https://www.biography.com/people/mahatma-gandhi-9305898
Religion
Gandhi grew up worshiping the Hindu god Vishnu and following Jainism, a morally rigorous ancient Indian religion that espoused non-violence, fasting, meditation and vegetarianism. During Gandhi's stay in London, from 1888 to 1891, he became more committed to a meatless diet, joining the executive committee of the London Vegetarian Society, and started to read a variety of sacred texts to learn more about world religions. https://www.biography.com/people/mahatma-gandhi-9305898
Untouchables "They are the children of God"
A group of people who exist outside of the Hindu caste system and are believed to contaminate anything or or anyone with whom they come in contact with. Gandhi's wife initially resisted helping them. https://www.jstor.org/stable/4402906?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
muslim league
A now-defunct political party origanally formed to protect the right of Muslims in India, which evolved into the main representative group for Muslims after Pakistan was formed in 1947 https://www.livescience.com/2851-gandhi-changed-world.html
Gandhi and the Indian National Congress
After his long stay in South Africa and his activism against the racist policy of the British, Gandhi had earned the reputation as a nationalist, theorist and organiser. Gopal Krishna Gokhale, a senior leader of the Indian National Congress, invited Gandhi to join India's struggle for independence against the British Rule. Gokhale guided Gandhi about the prevailing political situation in India and also the social issues of the time. He then joined the Indian National Congress and before taking over the leadership in 1920, lead many agitations which he named Satyagraha. https://www.culturalindia.net/indian-history/modern-history/mahatma-gandhi.html
Partition
After the Labor Party took power in Britain in 1947, negotiations over Indian home rule began between the British, the Congress Party and the Muslim League. Later that year, Britain granted India its independence but split the country into two dominions: India and Pakistan. Gandhi strongly opposed Partition, but he agreed to it in hopes that after independence Hindus and Muslims could achieve peace internally. Amid the massive riots that followed Partition, Gandhi urged Hindus and Muslims to live peacefully together and undertook a hunger strike until riots in Calcutta ceased. https://www.history.com/topics/india/mahatma-gandhi
Movement
After violence broke out, Gandhi announced the end of the resistance movement, to the protest of his followers. British authorities arrested Gandhi in March 1922 and tried him for sedition; he was sentenced to six years in prison but was released in 1924 after undergoing an operation for appendicitis. He refrained from active participation in politics for the next several years, but in 1930 launched a new civil disobedience campaign against the colonial government's tax on salt, which greatly affected Indian's poorest citizens. https://www.history.com/topics/india/mahatma-gandhi
Quotes
An eye for eye only ends up making the whole world blind. In a gentle way, you can shake the world. Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will. Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony. Where there is love there is life.
Movement
As part of his nonviolent non-cooperation campaign for home rule, Gandhi stressed the importance of economic independence for India. He advocated the manufacture of khaddar, or homespun cloth, in order to replace imported textiles from Britain. Gandhi's eloquence and embrace of an ascetic lifestyle based on prayer, fasting, and meditation earned him the reverence of his followers, who called him Mahatma ((the great-souled one). Gandhi turned the independence movement into a massive organization, leading boycotts of British manufacturers and institutions representing British influence in India. https://www.history.com/topics/india/mahatma-gandhi
Why was he killed?
Because a Hindu didn't agree with his ideas of tolerance among different religions https://www.history.com/topics/india/mahatma-gandhi
Legacy
Even after Gandhi's death, he affected so many people, his commitment to nonviolence and his belief in simple living: making his own clothes, eating a vegetarian diet and using fasts for self-purification as well as a means of protest. inspired many of the oppressed and marginalized people throughout the world. Satyagraha remains one of the most potent philosophies in freedom struggles throughout the world today, and Gandhi's actions inspired future human rights movements around the globe, including those of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela. https://www.biography.com/people/mahatma-gandhi-9305898
Buddhist ideas in his life
Every year, his birthday is celebrated as Gandhi Jayanti, a national holiday in India, and also observed as the International Day of Nonviolence. https://www.culturalindia.net/indian-history/modern-history/mahatma-gandhi.html
Kheda Satyagraha
Farmers asked the British to relax the payment of taxes as Kheda was hit by floods in 1918. When the British failed to pay heed to the requests, Gandhi took the case of the farmers and led the protests. He instructed them to refrain from paying revenues no matter what. Later, the British gave in and accepted to relax the revenue collection and gave its word to Vallabhbhai Patel, who had represented the farmers. https://daily.jstor.org/mahatma-gandhi-master-mediator/
Family
Mahatma Gandhi's father, Karamchand Gandhi, served as a chief minister in Porbandar and other states in western India. His mother, Putlibai, was a deeply religious woman who fasted regularly. At the age of 13, Mahatma Gandhi wed Kasturba Makanji, a merchant's daughter, in an arranged marriage. In 1885, his father died and shortly after that the death of his young baby. In 1888, Gandhi's wife gave birth to the first of four surviving sons. A second son was born in India in 1893; she would later give birth to two more sons while living in South Africa. https://www.biography.com/people/mahatma-gandhi-9305898
Ghandi
Mohandas Gandhi, affectionately known as Mahatma, led India's independence movement in the 1930s and 40s by speaking softly, facing down the British colonialists with stirring speeches and non-violent protest https://www.livescience.com/2851-gandhi-changed-world.html
Name
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi is called Mahatma "Great Soul" because the great Indian Poet and Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore called him that. He uses to refer him as Mahatma in his letters to him. Gandhi inspired millions to live their lives with simplicity, kindness, and love. It is also noted that a Mahatma is someone who practices Trikaranasuddhi. https://www.quora.com/Why-is-Gandhiji-called-Mahatma
Champaran Satyagraha
The Champaran agitation in 1917 was the first major success of Gandhi after his arrival in India. The peasants of the area were forced by the British landlords to grow Indigo, which was a cash crop, but its demand had been declining. To make matters worse, they were forced to sell their crops to the planters at a fixed price. The farmers turned to Gandhi for help. Gandhi took the administration by surprise and was successful in getting concessions from the authorities. https://daily.jstor.org/mahatma-gandhi-master-mediator/
How did India divide up into parts?
The Hindus and the Muslims split apart, so Pakistan and India divided. https://www.jstor.org/stable/4402906?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
What happened when the British left the Indians?
The Hindus and the Muslims started to fight, and it was a civil war. https://www.history.com/topics/india/mahatma-gandhi
salt march
The Salt March sparked similar protests, and mass civil disobedience swept across India. Approximately 60,000 Indians were jailed for breaking the Salt Acts, including Gandhi, who was imprisoned in May 1930. protests against the Salt Acts elevated Gandhi into a transcendent figure around the world, and he was named "Man of the Year" in 1930. https://www.biography.com/people/mahatma-gandhi-9305898
Indian National Congress
The indian political organization that led the independence movement from Great Britain https://www.history.com/topics/india/mahatma-gandhi
being a leader
This is one of the main reasons why Gandhi is followed by millions, for he proved that one can become a great soul during the course of one's life, should they possess the will to do so. https://www.culturalindia.net/indian-history/modern-history/mahatma-gandhi.html
What was the Homespun Movement?
This was when the Indians continued to protest against the British. As a non-violent approach, the Indians decided not to buy indigo from the British, so the British wouldn't get money. The Indians made a "pact" that they would make their own clothes. https://www.livescience.com/2851-gandhi-changed-world.html
influnced
With his unusual yet powerful political tools of Satyagraha and non-violence, he inspired several other political leaders all over the world including the likes of Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr and Aung San Suu Kyi. https://www.culturalindia.net/indian-history/modern-history/mahatma-gandhi.html
Education
Young Gandhi was said to be a shy, unremarkable student who was timid. later he rebelled by smoking, eating meat and stealing change from household servants. Although Gandhi was interested in becoming a doctor, his father had hoped he would also become a government minister, so his family steered him to enter the legal profession. In 1888, at 18years old Gandhi sailed for London to study law. He struggled with the transition to Western culture. Upon returning to India in 1891, Gandhi learned that his mother had died just weeks earlier. He struggled to gain his footing as a lawyer. In the courtroom case, he blanked when the time came to cross-examine a witness. He immediately fled the courtroom after reimbursing his client for his legal fees. https://www.biography.com/people/mahatma-gandhi-9305898