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Mahatma Gandhi

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Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (October 2, 1869 – January 30, 1948) (Devanagari: मोहनदास करमचन्द गांधी, Gujarati મોહનદાસ કરમચંદ ગાંધી) was a national icon who led the struggle for India's independence from British colonial rule, empowered by tens of millions of common Indians. Throughout the struggle he opposed any form of terrorism or violence, instead using only the highest moral standards. His philosophy of nonviolence, for which he coined the term satyagraha, has influenced national and international nonviolent resistance movements to this day, including the American Civil Rights Movement (1955-1968) led by Martin Luther King Jr..

Mahatma Gandhi
"Gandhi" redirects here. For other uses, see Gandhi (disambiguation).

Mohandas Gandhi was, and still is, a deeply popular icon and inspiration to many Indians since he took charge of the freedom struggle with his Non Cooperation Movement in 1920. Considering the number of Indians at that point was over 320 million and today stands over 1 billion, all the vagaries of ethnic, religious and language differences plus the lack of communication technology and interest in politics, it is truly remarkable that he has become immortalised in less than a century. For many in India he is regarded as a messiah in a similar way to Lord Rama and Jesus are today.

From the start of the Champaran struggle in 1918, he was lovingly reverred as "Mahatma", or "Great Soul" by millions of people. Although he was much averse to honory addresses, Gandhi is still today commonly referred to as Mahatma Gandhi, and not Mohandas Gandhi, all over the world. Apart from being considered one of the greatest Hindu and Indian leaders of all time, he is revered by many in India as the "Father of the Nation" or Bapu (Hindi for Father).

By means of nonviolent civil disobedience, Gandhi helped bring about India's independence from British rule, inspiring other colonial peoples to work for their own independence and ultimately dismantling the British Empire. Gandhi's principle of satyagraha (from Sanskrit satya: truth, and agraha: endeavor), often translated as "way of truth" or "pursuit of truth", has inspired other freedom activists, such as the Dalai Lama, Steve Biko and Nelson Mandela. However not all these followed Gandhi's example of strict nonviolence.

Gandhi often stated that his principles were simple; drawn from traditional Hindu beliefs: truth (satya) and nonviolence (ahimsa). As Gandhi said: "I have nothing new to teach the world. Truth and nonviolence are as old as the hills."

Life

Early life (1869 - 1893)

 
Gandhi and his wife Kasturba (1902)

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born into a Hindu family in Porbandar, Gujarat, India in 1869. He was the son of Karamchand Gandhi, the dewan (Chief Minister) of Porbandar, and Putlibai, Karamchand's fourth wife, a Hindu of the Vaishnava sect. Growing up with a devout Vaishnava mother and surrounded by the Jain influences of Gujarat, Gandhi learned from an early age the tenets of non-injury to living beings, vegetarianism, fasting for self-purification, and mutual tolerance between members of various creeds and sects. He was born into the vaishya, or business, caste. At the age of 13 Gandhi married Kasturba Makharji, who was the same age as he. They had four sons: Harilal Gandhi, born in 1888; Manilal Gandhi, born in 1892; Ramdas Gandhi, born in 1897; and Devdas Gandhi, born in 1900.

Gandhi was a mediocre student in his youth at Porbandar and later Rajkot, barely passing the matriculation exam for the University of Bombay in 1887, and joining Samaldas College. He did not stay there long, however, as his family felt he must become a barrister if he were to continue the family tradition of holding high office in Gujarat. Unhappy at Samaldas College, he leapt at the opportunity to study in England, which he viewed as "a land of philosophers and poets, the very centre of civilization."

At the age of 19, Gandhi went to University College, of the University of London, to train as a barrister. His time in London, the Imperial capital, was influenced by a vow he had made to his mother upon leaving India to observe the Hindu precepts of abstinence from meat and alcohol. Although Gandhi experimented with becoming "English", taking dancing lessons for example, he could not stomach his landlady's mutton and cabbage. She pointed him towards one of London's few vegetarian restaurants. Rather than simply go along with his mother's wishes, he read about, and intellectually converted to vegetarianism. He joined the Vegetarian Society, was elected to its Executive Committee, and founded a local chapter. He later credited this with giving him valuable experience in organising and running institutions. Some of the vegetarians he met were members of the Theosophical Society, which had been founded in 1875 by H.P. Blavatsky to further universal brotherhood. The Theosophists were devoted to the study of Buddhist and Hindu Brahmanistic literature. They encouraged Gandhi to read the Bhagavad Gita. Although he had not shown a particular interest in religion before, he began to read works of and about Hinduism, Christianity, Buddhism and other religions.

He returned to India after being admitted to the British bar. Trying to establish a law practice in Bombay, he had limited success. By this time, the legal profession was overcrowded in India, and Gandhi was not a dynamic figure in a courtroom. He applied for a part-time job as a teacher at a Bombay high school but was turned down. He ended up returning to Rajkot to make a modest living drafting petitions for litigants but was forced to close down that business as well when he ran afoul of a British officer. In his autobiography, he describes this incident as a kind of unsuccessful lobbying attempt on behalf of his older brother. It was in this climate that (in 1893) he accepted a year-long contract from an Indian firm to a post in Natal, South Africa.

Civil rights movement in South Africa (1893 - 1914)

At this point in his life, Gandhi was a mild-mannered, diffident, politically indifferent individual. He had read his first newspaper at age 18 and was prone to horrible stage fright when speaking in court. South Africa changed him dramatically as he faced the humiliation and oppression that was commonly directed at Indians in that country. One day in court in the city of Durban, the magistrate asked him to remove his turban, which he refused to do, and Gandhi stormed out of the courtroom. A turning point in his life, often acknowledged in biographies, that would serve as the catalyst for his activism occured several days later when he began a journey to Pretoria. He was literally thrown off a train at Pietermaritzburg after refusing to move from first class to a third class compartment, normally used by coloured peoples, while travelling on a valid first class ticket. Later, travelling further on by stagecoach, he was beaten by a driver for refusing to travel on the footboard to make room for a European passenger. He suffered other hardships on the journey as well, including being barred from many hotels on account of his race. This experience led him to more closely examine the hardships his people suffered in South Africa during his time in Pretoria.

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Gandhi in South Africa (1895)

When Gandhi's contract was up, he prepared to return to India. However, at a farewell party in his honor in Durban, he happened to glance at a newspaper and learned that a bill was being considered by the Natal Legislative Assembly to deny the vote to Indians. When he brought this up with his hosts, they lamented that they did not have the expertise necessary to oppose the bill and implored Gandhi to stay and help them. He circulated several petitions to both the Natal Legislature and the British government in opposition to the bill. Though unable to halt the bill's passage, his campaign was successful in drawing attention to the grievances of Indians in South Africa. Supporters convinced him to remain in Durban to continue fighting against the injustices levied against Indians in South Africa. He founded the Natal Indian Congress in 1894 with himself as secretary. Through this organization, he formed the Indian community of South Africa into a heterogeneous political force, inundating government and press alike with statements of Indian grievances and evidence of British discrimination in South Africa. Gandhi returned briefly to India in 1896 to bring his wife and children to live with him in South Africa. When he returned in January 1897, a white mob attacked and tried to lynch him. In an early indication of the personal values that would shape his later campaigns, he refused to press charges on any member of the mob, stating it was one of his principles not to seek redress for a personal wrong in a court of law.

At the onset of the South African War, Gandhi argued that Indians must support the war effort in order to legitimize their claims to full citizenship, organising a volunteer ambulance corps of 300 free Indians and 800 indentured laborers. At the conclusion of the war, however, the situation for the Indians did not improve, but continued to deteriorate. In 1906, the Transvaal government promulgated a new act compelling registration of the colony's Indian population. At a mass protest meeting held in Johannesburg that September, Gandhi adopted his platform of satyagraha (devotion to the truth), or non-violent protest, for the first time, calling on his fellow Indians to defy the new law and suffer the punishments for doing so rather than resist through violent means. This plan was adopted, leading to a seven-year struggle in which thousands of Indians were jailed (including Gandhi himself on many occasions), flogged, or even shot, for striking, refusing to register, or engaging in other forms of non-violent resistance. While the government was successful in repressing the Indian protesters, the public outcry stemming from the harsh methods employed by the South African government in the face of peaceful Indian protesters finally forced South African General Jan Christian Smuts to negotiate a compromise with Gandhi.

During his years in South Africa, Gandhi drew inspiration from the Bhagavad Gita and the writings of Leo Tolstoy (especially The Kingdom of God is Within You [1]), who in the 1880s had undergone a profound conversion to a personal form of Christian anarchism. Gandhi translated Tolstoy's "Letter to a Hindu," written in 1908 in response to aggressive Indian nationalists. The two corresponded until Tolstoy's death in 1910. The letter by Tolstoy applies Hindu philosophy from the Vedas and the sayings of Krishna to the growing Indian nationalism. Gandhi was also inspired by the American writer Henry David Thoreau's famous essay on “Civil Disobedience." Gandhi's years in South Africa as a socio-political activist were when the concepts and techniques of civil disobedience and non-violent resistance were developed. Upon the outbreak of World War I, Gandhi decided to return to India, bringing all that he had learned from his experiences in South Africa with him.

Movement for Indian independence (1914 - 1947)

As he had done in the South African War, Gandhi urged support of the British War effort in World War I and was active in recruiting Indians to serve in the military. He did speak out against specific incidents of British oppression and supported the peasantry of Bihar and Gujarat, but he did not entirely break with the British, remaining on the periphery of the Indian nationalist movement. This changed in February 1919, when the Rowlatt Act, empowering the government to imprison those accused of sedition without trial, was passed. Gandhi called for a satyagraha that soon led to violent outbreaks across the country, most notably the Amritsar Massacre of 379 Indians by the British army, and martial law. The violence led Gandhi to end the struggle, but he had succeeded in placing himself at the center of the Indian national movement.

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Gandhi in India

In April 1920, Gandhi was elected president of the All-India Home Rule League. He was invested with executive authority on behalf of the Indian National Congress in December 1921. Under Gandhi's leadership, the Congress was reorganized and given a new constitution, with the goal of swaraj (independence). Membership in the party was opened to anyone prepared to pay a token fee. A hierarchy of committees was set up to improve discipline and control over a hitherto amorphous and diffuse movement, transforming the party from an elite organization to one of mass national appeal. Gandhi expanded his non-violence platform to include the swadeshi policy – the boycott of foreign-made goods, especially British goods. Linked to this was his advocacy that khadi (homespun cloth) be worn by all Indians instead of British-made textiles. Gandhi exhorted Indian men and women, rich or poor, to spend time each day spinning khadi in support of the independence movement. This was a strategy to include women in the movement at a time when many thought that such activities were not 'respectable' for women. In addition to boycotting British products, Gandhi urged the people to boycott British educational institutions and law courts, to resign from government employment, to refuse to pay taxes, and to forsake British titles and honours. This new program enjoyed wide-spread appeal and success, empowering the Indian people as never before, yet just as the movement reached its apex, it ended abruptly as a result of a violent clash in the town of Chauri Chaura, Uttar Pradesh, in February 1922. Fearing that the movement was about to take a turn towards violence, and convinced that this would be the undoing of all his work, Gandhi called off the campaign of mass civil disobedience. Now vulnerable, Gandhi was arrested on March 10, 1922, tried for sedition, and sentenced to six years. This was not the first time he had been jailed, but it was to be his longest term of imprisonment. Beginning on March 18, 1922, he only served about two years of the sentence, being released in February 1924 after an operation for appendicitis.

Without Gandhi's forceful personality to keep his colleagues in check, the Indian National Congress began to splinter during his years in prison, splitting into two factions, one led by Chitta Ranjan Das and Motilal Nehru favoring party participation in the legislatures, and the other led by Chakravarti Rajagopalachari and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, opposing this move. Furthermore, cooperation among Hindus and Muslims, which had been strong at the height of the nonviolence campaign, was breaking down. Gandhi attempted to bridge these differences through many means, including a three-week fast in the autumn of 1924, but with limited success.

 
Gandhi during the Salt March (1930)

Gandhi stayed out of the limelight for most of the 1920s, taking little interest in politics, but returned to the fore in 1928. The year before, the British government appointed a new constitutional reform commission under Sir John Simon numbering not a single Indian in its ranks. The result was a boycott of the commission by Indian political parties. Gandhi pushed through a resolution at the Calcutta Congress in December 1928 calling on the British government to grant India dominion status within a year or face a new campaign of non-violence with complete independence for the country as its goal. Making good on his word in March 1930, he launched a new satyagraha against the tax on salt, highlighted by the famous Salt March to Dandi from March 21 to April 6, 1930, marching 400 kilometres (248 miles) from Ahmedabad to Dandi to make his own salt. Thousands of Indians joined him on this march to the sea. This campaign was one of his most successful, resulting in the imprisonment of over 60,000 people. The government, represented by Lord Irwin, decided to negotiate with Gandhi.

The Gandhi-Irwin pact was signed in March 1931. In it, the British Government agreed to set all political prisoners free in return for the suspension of the civil disobedience movement. Furthermore, Gandhi was invited to attend the Round Table Conference in London as the sole representative of the Indian National Congress. The conference was a disappointment to Gandhi and the nationalists as it focused on Indian minorities rather than the transfer of power. Furthermore, Lord Irwin's successor, Lord Willingdon, embarked on a new campaign of repression against the nationalists.

Gandhi was again arrested, and the government attempted to destroy his influence by completely isolating him from his followers. This tactic was not successful. In 1932, through the campaigning of the Dalit leader B. R. Ambedkar, the government granted untouchables separate electorates under the new constitution. In protest, Gandhi embarked on a six-day fast in September 1932, successfully forcing the government to adopt a more equitable arrangement via negotiations mediated by the Dalit cricketer turned political leader Palwankar Baloo. This began a new campaign by Gandhi to improve the lives of the untouchables, whom he named Harijans, the children of God. On May 8, 1933 Gandhi began a 21-day fast to protest British oppression in India. In the summer of 1934, three unsuccessful attempts were made on his life.

By 1934, Gandhi had become discouraged with his collegues in the Indian National Congress, believing that they only saw non-violence as an expediency rather than a way of life. Therefore, he resigned as party leader and left the party entirely. His chosen successor in Congress was Jawaharlal Nehru, who was to become Prime Minister. They disagreed openly over the path to an independent India, yet Gandhi trusted Nehru over his authoritarian rival Sardar Patel to build the institutions to guarantee the liberty of India's citizens. Gandhi devoted his efforts in these years to a new program to educate rural India. He continued his fight against untouchability, promoted handspinning and other cottage industries, and attempted to create a new system of education suited to the rural areas. He lived a simple life during these years at a village in central India called Sevagram. He staged another fast at the end of the decade in Bombay on March 3, 1939.

World War II

World War II broke out in 1939 when Nazi Germany invaded Poland. Gandhi was fully sympathetic with the victims of fascist aggression. After lengthy deliberations with colleagues in the Congress, he declared that India could not be party to a war ostensibly being fought for democratic freedom while that freedom was denied in India herself. He said he would support the British if they could show him how the war's aims would be implemented in India after the war. The British government's response was entirely negative. They began fomenting tension between Hindus and Muslims. As the war progressed, Gandhi increased his demands for independence, drafting a resolution calling for the British to Quit India. This sparked the largest movement for Indian independence to date, with mass arrests and violence on an unprecedented scale. Gandhi and his supporters made it clear they would not support the war effort unless India were granted immediate independence. He even hinted at an end for his otherwise unwavering support for non-violence, saying that the "ordered anarchy" around him was "worse than real anarchy". Following this, he was arrested in Bombay by British forces on August 9, 1942, and held for two years.

Partition of India and assassination (1947 - 1948)

 
Gandhi's Tomb in New Delhi.

Gandhi had great influence among the Hindu and Muslim communities of India. It is said that he ended riots through his mere presence. He was vehemently opposed to any plan that partitioned India into two separate countries. The Muslim league argued that the Muslim minority would be systematically oppressed by the Hindu majority in a united India, and that a separate Muslims homeland was the only just solution. However, many Muslims lived side by side with Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis, Christians, and Jews, and were in favor with a united India. Although the Muslim league was a minority group, they achieved the break up of India, carving out a third of Indian land into a separate Muslim homeland. This new Muslim homeland was created from areas on the east and west of India. It was originally called West and East Pakistan, which now correspond to Pakistan and Bangladesh, respectively. On the day of the power of transfer, Gandhi did not celebrate independence with the rest of India, but was alone in Calcutta, mourning the partition.

He was assassinated in Birla House, New Delhi, on January 30, 1948 by Nathuram Godse, a Hindu radical with alleged links to right-wing Hindu organisations, like the Rashtriya Swyamsevak Sangh, who held him responsible for weakening the new government by insisting upon a payment to Pakistan. Godse was later tried, convicted, and executed.

It is indicative of Gandhi's long struggle and search for God that his dying words were said to have been an homage to the Hindu conception of God, Rama: "He Ram!" (Oh God!). This is seen as an inspiring signal of his spirituality as well as his idealism regarding the possibility of a unifying peace. The words are inscribed upon his tomb in New Delhi. While some are sceptical of this, evidence from a number of witnesses supports the claim that he made this utterance (see External links). Some sources state that Gandhi's last words were "He Ram, He Ram" or "Rama, Rama". It has also been claimed that when Gandhi fell to the ground dying, he clasped his hands together in the form of the namaste.

Principles

Gandhi's principles and his ideas of satya and ahimsa were influenced by the Bhagavad Gita, Hinduism, Jainism and Christian anarchism.

Nonviolence

The concept of nonviolence (ahimsa) has a long history in Indian religious thought and has had many revivals in Hindu, Buddhist and Jain contexts. Gandhi explains his philosophy and way of life in his autobiography The Story of My Experiments with Truth. He was quoted with saying:

"What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty and democracy?"
"An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind".
"There are many causes that I am prepared to die for but no causes that I am prepared to kill for".

Truth

The embracing of nonviolence and nonresistance was part of his wider mission to seek truth (The Story of My Experiments with Truth). He tried to achieve this by learning from his own mistakes and conducting experiments on himself.

He found that uncovering the truth was not always popular as many people were resistant to change, preferring instead to maintain the existing status quo because of either inertia, self-interest or misguided beliefs. However he also discovered that once the truth was on the march nothing could stop it. All it took was time to achieve traction and gain momentum. As Gandhi said:

"The Truth is far more powerful than any weapon of mass destruction".

He said that the most important battle to fight was in overcoming his own demons, fears and insecurities. He thought it was all too easy to blame people, governing powers or enemies for his personal actions and wellbeing. He noted the solution to problems could normally be found just by looking in the mirror.

One of the greatest contributions of Mahatma Gandhi however, was in the realm of ontology and its association with truth. For Gandhi, "to be" did not mean to exist within the realm of time, as it has in the past with the Greek philosophers. But rather, "to exist" meant to exist within the realm of truth, or to use the term Gandhi did, "Satya." Gandhi summarized his beliefs first when he said "God is Truth," but as typical of Gandhi, he evolved, later to correct himself and state that "Truth is God." The first statement seemed insufficient to Gandhi, as the mistake could be made that Gandhi was using Truth as a description of God, as opposed to God as an aspect of "Satya." Satya (Truth) in Gandhi's philosophy IS God. It shares all the characteristics of the Hindu concept of God, or Brahman. It lives within us, that little voice that tells us what to do, but also guides the universe.

Vegetarianism

Although he experimented with eating meat in India when he was very young, he later became a strict vegetarian. He wrote books on the subject while in London, having met vegetarian campaigner Henry Salt at gatherings of the Vegetarian Society. The idea of vegetarianism is deeply ingrained in Hindu and Jain traditions in India, and, in his native land of Gujarat, most Hindus were vegetarian. He experimented with various diets and concluded that a vegetarian diet should be enough to satisfy the minimum requirements of the body. He abstained from eating for long periods, using fasting as a political weapon. He refused to eat until his death or his demands were met.

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Mahatma Gandhi

Celibacy

Gandhi gave up sexual intercourse at the age of 36, becoming totally celibate while still married. This decision was deeply influenced by the Hindu idea of brahmacharya—spiritual and practical purity—largely associated with celibacy. Gandhi did not however believe that this was something that everyone should take up. He felt it his personal obligation to remain celebate so that he could learn to love, rather than lust. Part of this may have been influenced by the fact that his father passed away while he was making love to his wife.

Silence

Gandhi spent one day of each week in silence. He believed that abstaining from speaking brought him inner peace. This influence was drawn from the Hindu principles of mouna (silence) and shanti (peace). On such days he communicated with others by writing on paper. For three and a half years, from the age of 37, Gandhi refused to read newspapers, claiming that the tumultuous state of world affairs caused him more confusion than his own inner unrest.

Clothing

Returning to India from South Africa, where he had enjoyed a successful legal practice, he gave up wearing Western-style clothing, which he associated with wealth and success. He dressed to be accepted by the poorest person in India. He advocated the use of homespun cloth (khadi). Gandhi and his followers adopted the practice of weaving their own clothes from thread they themselves spun, and encouraged others to do so. While Indian workers were often idle due to unemployment, they had often bought their clothing from industrial manufacturers owned by British interests. It was Gandhi's view that if Indians made their own clothes, it would deal an economic blow to the British establishment in India. Consequently, the spinning wheel was later incorporated into the flag of the Indian National Congress.

Religion

Gandhi questioned religious practices and doctrines regardless of traditions or beliefs. On the subject of Christianity he noted that:

"The only people on earth who do not see Christ and His teachings as nonviolent are Christians".

Although Gandhi was born a Hindu he was critical of most religions, including Hinduism. He wrote in his autobiography:

"Thus if I could not accept Christianity either as a perfect, or the greatest religion, neither was I then convinced of Hinduism being such. Hindu defects were pressingly visible to me. If untouchability could be a part of Hinduism, it could but be a rotten part or an excrescence. I could not understand the raison d'etre of a multitude of sects and castes. What was the meaning of saying that the Vedas were the inspired Word of God? If they were inspired, why not also the Bible and the Koran? As Christian friends were endeavouring to convert me, so were Muslim friends. Abdullah Sheth had kept on inducing me to study Islam, and of course he had always something to say regarding its beauty".

He then went on to say:

"As soon as we lose the moral basis, we cease to be religious. There is no such thing as religion over-riding morality. Man, for instance, cannot be untruthful, cruel or incontinent and claim to have God on his side".

Gandhi was critical of the hypocrisy in organised religion, rather than the principles on which they were based. He also said the following about Hinduism:

"Hinduism as I know it entirely satisfies my soul, fills my whole being ... When doubts haunt me, when disappointments stare me in the face, and when I see not one ray of light on the horizon, I turn to the Bhagavad Gita, and find a verse to comfort me; and I immediately begin to smile in the midst of overwhelming sorrow. My life has been full of tragedies and if they have not left any visible and indelible effect on me, I owe it to the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita".

The concept of Islamic Jihad can also be taken to mean a nonviolent struggle or Satyagraha, in the way Gandhi practiced it. On Islam he said:

"The sayings of Muhammad are a treasure of wisdom, not only for Muslims but for all of mankind".

Later in his life when he was asked whether he was a Hindu, he replied:

"Yes I am. I am also a Christian, a Muslim, a Buddhist and a Jew".

Gandhi believed that at the core of every religion was Truth (Satya) and Love/Non-violence (Ahimsa). He was deeply influenced by the Christian teaching of nonresistance and "turning the other cheek", once stating that if Christianity practised the Sermon on the Mount, he would indeed be a Christian. Gandhi felt that one should beware of worshiping the symbols and idols of the religion and not its teachings, such as worshipping the cross while ignoring its significance as a symbol of personal sacrifice, for example.

Faith

In spite of their deep reverence to each other, Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore got involved in protracted debates more than once. These debates exemplify the philosophical differences between the two most famous Indians at the time. On Januray 15, 1934, an earthquake hit Bihar and cause extensive damage and loss of life. Gandhi maintained this was because of the sin committed by upper caste Hindus by not letting untouchables in their temples (Gandhi was committed to the cause of improving the fate of untouchables, referring to them as Harijans, people of Krishna). Tagore vehemently opposed Gandhi's stance, maintaining that an earthquake can only be caused by natural forces, not moral reasons, however repugnant the practice of untouchability may be.

Gandhi as a Leader of Hindu Society

Mahatma Gandhi has made huge contributions to Hinduism and Hindu society, along the path marked by great saints like Kabir, Ramakrishna and Sai Baba but with a considerably wider impact.

Gandhi was the member of the third caste, but reverred by thousands of Brahmin priests as an expert on Hindu religion and a leader of Hindus. His ascetic lifestyle, stringent adherence to moral values despite any cost (He stopped a national civil disobedience campaign over the murder of a few policemen by a rowdy mob of agitators in 1922). His Ashram inspired the equality of all mankind and service to humanity, and he was always approachable. These qualities gave him the means to touch Hindu society in a way comparable only to the Avatara of the Supreme Lord Vishnu.

Gandhi struck out firmly against untouchability and caste discrimination. He brought uniformity, a sense of common identity and unity to millions of Congressmen and hundreds of millions of people who were divided by caste, religion, language and ethnicity. Gandhi was a champion of women's freedoms and rights (especially dowry, child marriage, the "purdah" or veil, and widow-burning, or Suttee), and helped Hindus develop a cleaner, healthier social relationship with Muslims and Christians. Gandhi succeeded in defending common Hindu traditions, customs and values against the attacks of Christian missionaries and the Westernized elite of England-educated Indians and Britishers in India, without being xenophobic or racist. Gandhi pressed for education as a mass weapon for salvation, freedom and success in life. Gandhi also struck out against Brahmin corruption and oppression of common people by corrupt priests and for villages and towns to work together to clean their neighborhoods, and ending the undignified isolation and discrimination of low caste and untouchable Hindus.

Adopting the call of the freedom struggle, tens of millions of orthodox Hindus invited untouchables to eat with them, and the Congress and social groups opened schools and hospitals by the dozen in different parts of the country. Thousands of prominent Hindus worked to destroy the evil practices within Hindu society, and Gandhi even inspired Hindu nationalist and reformist public organizations like the Rashtriya Swayemsevak Sangh.

Gandhi studied the Bhagavad Gita closely, as well as the epics of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Deeply inspired in life and work by the Gita's teachings, Gandhi's teachings and employ of truth, non-violence and devotion to win freedom and reform society made Hinduism a positive source of inspiration for modern Indians and millions of Westerners. Gandhi's efforts exposed the rich heritage, philosophy and deep mystery of Hinduism, over its more visible social traditions. It helped destroy the image of Hinduism as a backward, oppressive and pagan faith system, and liberate the consciousness of Hinduism as a system of religion, philosophy and knowledge more diverse and rich than possibly any other system in the world. With his study of the Bible and the Quran, Gandhi imbibed reforms that Islam and Christianity could bring to Hinduism, but also noted that neither faith had anything that Hinduism did not already inspire, and that Hinduism's boundaries extended far beyond any modern religion.

Much of the vast momentum in society to break with 1,000-year old "traditions" of discrimination, violence and ignorance were fueld by Gandhi's leadership and the freedom movement he cultivated and strengthened. Untouchability, widow-burning, dowry, child marriage, the purdah were outlawed in independent India and casteism was denied official recognition or use. Although a controversial figure due to the tragedy of partition for some fundamentalist Hindus, Gandhi did more for Hindu society than anyone in the last 500 years. Although discrimination still exists in many parts of the society, having the vast majority of society, clergy and government united behind the forces of freedom, education and justice is an advantage created simply by the inspiration of Gandhi.

Recognition

Gandhi never received the Nobel Peace Prize, though he was nominated for it five times between 1937 and 1948. Decades later however, the Nobel Committee publicly declared its regret for the omission, and admitted to deeply divided nationalistic opinion denying the award to Gandhi. When the Dalai Lama was awarded the Peace Prize in 1989, the chairman of the committee said that this was "in part a tribute to the memory of Mahatma Gandhi". The official Nobel e-museum has an article discussing the issue.[2]

The Time had named Gandhi as the runner-up in "Person of the Century" and had an article with write-ups on Dalai Lama, Lech Walesa, Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela titled "Children of Gandhi" to recognise his influence on the future generations of leaders.

The Government of India awards the Mahatma Gandhi Peace Prize to distinguished social workers, world leaders and citizen leaders. Nelson Mandela, the leader of South Africa's struggle to end racial discrimination and segregation, is a prominent non-Indian recipient of this honor.

The honorific title Mahatma

The word "Mahatma," while often mistaken for Gandhi's given name, is taken from the Sanskrit term of reverence "mahatman," meaning “Great Soul.” The title "Mahatma" was accorded Gandhi in 1915 by his admirer Rabindranath Tagore (the first Asian to win the Nobel Prize for Literature). It was given in response to Gandhi conferring the title of "Gurudev" (Great Teacher; Guru: Teacher Dev: God/Holy) upon Tagore. As stated in his autobiography, Gandhi never accepted the title because he found himself unworthy of it.

The wide acceptance of this title outside India may in part reflect the complexities of the relationship between India and Britain during Gandhi's lifetime. Such acceptance is consistent with the widespread perception of his deeply held religious beliefs and commitment to non-violence.

Artistic depictions

The best-known artistic depiction of his life is the film Gandhi (1982), directed by Richard Attenborough and starring Ben Kingsley (himself half-Gujarati) in the title role. However, the film has since been criticised by post-colonial scholars who argue that it depicts Gandhi as single-handedly bringing India to independence, and ignores other prominent figures (both elite and subaltern) in the anti-colonial struggle. The Making of the Mahatma, directed by Shyam Benegal and starring Rajat Kapur, is a film about Gandhi's 21 years of life in South Africa.

In the United Kingdom, there are several prominent statues of Gandhi, most notably in Tavistock Gardens, London, near University College London, where he studied law.

 
The centennial commemorative statue of Mahatma Gandhi in the center of downtown Pietermaritzburg, South Africa.

In the United States, there are statues of Gandhi outside the Ferry Building in San Francisco, in Herman Park, Houston Garden Center in Houston, in Union Square Park in New York City, at the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site in Atlanta, outside the Honolulu Zoo in Kapiolani Park, Hawaii, and near the Indian Embassy in the Dupont Circle neighbourhood of Washington, DC.

The city of Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, home to the infamous 1893 ejection of Gandhi from a first-class train, now hosts a commemorative statue of the Indian independence figure, installed a century after the incident.

There are statues in honour of Gandhi in other cities such as Moscow, Paris, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Lisbon, Canberra and San Fernando, Trinidad and Tobago. The government of India donated a statue to the City of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, to signify their support for the future Canadian Museum for Human Rights. [3]

There is also a large bust of Gandhi in front of the library at Laurentian University [4] in Sudbury, Ontario.

Miscellaneous

Throughout his lifetime, Gandhi's activities attracted a wide range of comment and opinion. For example, as a more than loyal subject of the British Empire, Winston Churchill once stated:

"It is...nauseating to see Mr. Gandhi, a seditious Middle Temple lawyer, now posing as a fakir of a type well-known in the East, striding half-naked up the steps of the Viceregal Palace".

Conversely, Albert Einstein said of Gandhi:

"Generations to come will scarcely believe that such a one as this ever walked upon this earth in flesh and blood".

Nobel Laureate and former Israel Premier Shimon Peres once commented that:

"Mahatma Gandhi belonged to the future, not to the past".

Mahatma Gandhi's work is not forgotten by his descendants. His grandsons, Arun Gandhi and Rajmohan Gandhi, and his great grandson, Tushar Gandhi, are also socio-political activists, promoting non-violence around the world.

See also

 
English Wikisource has original text related to this article:
 
Wikiquote has quotations related to Mahatma Gandhi.
 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Mohandas K. Gandhi.

Bibliography

References

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