Gandhi, Mahatma (1869-1948)

Indian nationalist leader. A pacifist, he led the struggle for Indian independence from the UK by advocating non-violent non-cooperation (satyagraha ‘truth and firmness’) from 1915. He was imprisoned several times by the British authorities. He was influential in the nationalist Congress Party and in the independence negotiations in 1947. He was assassinated by a Hindu nationalist in the violence that followed the partition of British India into India and Pakistan in 1948. Religious violence in India and Pakistan soon waned, and his teachings came to inspire non-violent movements in other parts of the world, notably in the USA under civil-rights leader Martin Luther King Jr, and in South Africa under Nelson Mandela.

Gandhi began to develop the principles of satyagraha, the practice of non-violent resistance, while practising as a lawyer in South Africa, where he lived from 1893. He led the Indian community there in opposition to racial discrimination until 1914, when the South African government made important concessions to his demands. He returned to India in January 1915 and became the leader in the country's complex struggle for independence from British rule. He organized hunger strikes, boycotts of British goods, and events of civil disobedience, and campaigned for social reform. In 1920, when the British failed to make amends, Gandhi proclaimed an organized campaign of non-cooperation. Indians in public office resigned, government agencies were boycotted, and Indian children were withdrawn from government schools. Gandhi was arrested by the British, but they were soon forced to release him.

India's economic independence was an important issue for Gandhi's Swaraj (self-ruling) movement. As a remedy for the extreme poverty affecting Indian villagers as a result of exploitation by British industrialists, Gandhi advocated the revival of cottage industries. He began to use a spinning wheel as a token of the renewal of native Indian industries and the return to the simple village life he expounded.

In 1921 the Indian National Congress, the group that spearheaded the movement for independence, gave Gandhi complete executive authority. However, a series of armed revolts against Britain broke out and Gandhi withdrew from active politics 1924-30. In 1930, he led a 265 km/165 mi march from Ahmadabad, Gujarat, to the Arabian Sea, and produced salt by evaporating sea water as a gesture of defiance against the British monopoly in salt production. In 1932, he began to fast as a method of protest. The fasts were effective measures against the British, because revolution could well have broken out had he died. He formally resigned from politics in 1934, but continued to travel through India teaching ahimsa (non-violence) and demanding the eradication of ‘untouchability’, the policy of shunning members of India's lowest caste. In real terms, his political power remained immense and, in 1939, he returned to active political life because of the pending federation of Indian principalities with the rest of India. Gandhi stood steadfastly against the partition of India, but ultimately had to concede to it, hoping that internal peace would be achieved after the Muslim demand for separation had been met.

Gandhi was born in Porbandar, Gujarat, and in 1888 went to study law in London. In 1891, after being admitted to the British bar, he returned to India and attempted to establish a law practice in Bombay (now Mumbai), with little success. He accepted an offer in 1893 to practice law in Durban, South Africa, where he found himself treated as a member of an inferior race. Appalled at the widespread denial of civil liberties and political rights to Indian immigrants, Gandhi began his campaign for Indian rights, including the recognition of Indian marriages and exemption from poll tax, for which he suffered imprisonment many times.

In India, his practice of satyagraha gained millions of followers when, in 1919, the British Parliament passed the Rowlatt Acts, giving the Indian colonial authorities emergency powers to deal with so-called revolutionary activities. Gandhi's protests and adoption of the simple life led to worldwide attention, and he became the international symbol of a free India. He lived a disciplined and spiritual life of prayer, fasting, and meditation. Indians revered him as a saint and began to call him Mahatma, a title reserved for the greatest sages. Gandhi's advocacy of non-violence was the expression of a way of life implicit in the Hindu religion.

The violence that broke out in 1921 led Gandhi to claim that his civil-disobedience campaign had failed, and he called an end to it. The British government imprisoned him in 1922 for two years. He was again arrested in 1930 for calling upon Indians to refuse to pay taxes, particularly the tax on salt. He was released in 1931, halting the campaign after the British made concessions to his demands.

His use of fasting as a method of protest increased his popularity among the Indian people, as well as around the world. Once again in prison, in September 1932, Gandhi undertook a ‘fast unto death’ to protest against the British government's treatment of India's lowest caste, the Harijan (‘untouchables’). He persisted in his demands for social reform, urged a new boycott of British goods, and after six days of fasting obtained a pact that improved the status of Harijans.

He used fasting again in 1939 to force the ruler of the state of Rajkot to modify his autocratic rule. The ensuing public unrest was so great that the colonial government intervened, and the demands were granted.

Gandhi refused to agree to Indian participation in World War II. He was imprisoned in 1942, but was released two years later because of poor health. By then, the Indian struggle for independence was in its final stages. When India and Pakistan became two separate independent states in 1947, riots and disturbances followed. Gandhi pleaded with Hindus and Muslims to live together peacefully and, in January 1948, undertook another successful fast in New Delhi to bring about peace. Just 12 days after ending that fast, as he was on his way to his evening prayer meeting, Gandhi was assassinated by a Hindu fanatic.