Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi(pronounced[ˈmoːɦənd̪aːs ˈkərəmtʃənd̪ ˈɡaːnd̪ʱi](
listen); 2 October 1869 30 January 1948) was the preeminent leader ofIndian nationalisminBritish-ruled India. Employingnonviolentcivil disobedience, Gandhi led India to independence and inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. ThehonorificMahatma(Sanskrit: "high-souled", "venerable"[2])—applied to him first in 1914 in South Africa,[3]—is now used worldwide. He is also calledBapu(Gujarati: endearment for "father",[4]"papa"[4][5]) in India.
Born and raised in a Hindumerchant castefamily in coastalGujarat,western India, and trained in law at theInner Temple, London, Gandhi first employed nonviolent civil disobedience as an expatriate lawyer in South Africa, in the resident Indian community's struggle for civil rights. After his return to India in 1915, he set about organising peasants, farmers, and urban labourers to protest against excessive land-tax and discrimination. Assuming leadership of theIndian National Congressin 1921, Gandhi led nationwide campaigns for easing poverty, expanding women's rights, building religious and ethnic amity, endinguntouchability, but above all for achievingSwarajor self-rule.
Gandhi famously led Indians in challenging the British-imposed salt tax with the 400km (250mi)Dandi Salt Marchin 1930, and later in calling for the British toQuit Indiain 1942. He was imprisoned for many years, upon many occasions, in both South Africa and India. Gandhi attempted to practise nonviolence and truth in all situations, and advocated that others do the same. He lived modestly in aself-sufficient residential communityand wore the traditional Indiandhotiand shawl, woven with yarn hand spun on acharkha. He ate simple vegetarian food, and alsoundertook long fastsas the means to both self-purification and social protest.
Gandhi's vision of a free India based onreligious pluralism, however, was challenged in the early 1940s by a new Muslim nationalism which was demanding a separate Muslim homeland carved out of India.[6]Eventually, in August 1947, Britain granted independence, but the British Indian Empire[6]waspartitionedinto twodominions, a Hindu-majorityIndiaand MuslimPakistan.[7]As many displaced Hindus, Muslims, andSikhsmade their way to their new lands, religious violence broke out, especially in thePunjabandBengal. Eschewing theofficial celebration of independencein Delhi, Gandhi visited the affected areas, attempting to provide solace. In the months following, he undertook severalfasts unto deathto promote religious harmony. The last of these, undertaken on 12 January 1948 at age 78,[8]also had the indirect goal of pressuring India to pay out some cash assets owed to Pakistan.[8]Some Indians thought Gandhi was too accommodating.[8][9]Among them wasNathuram Godse, aHindu nationalist, whoassassinated Gandhion 30 January 1948 by firing three bullets into his chest at point-blank range.[9]
Gandhi is commonly, though not officially,[10]considered theFather of the Nation[11]in India. His birthday, 2 October, is commemorated there asGandhi Jayanti, anational holiday, and world-wide as theInternational Day of Nonviolence.
