Biography of Mahatma Gandhi, the father of our nation

MOHANDAS KARAMCHAND GANDHI. The man who led we Indians to independence from Great Britain. He was fondly addressed as Mahatma, 'the great soul', and people around the world consider him one of the greatest men of all times.

Gandhi was born on October 2, 1869, at Porbandar, on the western coast of India. According to the Indian custom of the time, he was married when a boy of 13. At 19 he went to study law in London, where he became a barrister. Before crossing the seas he promised his mother that he would never eat meat or drink alcohol or smoke tobacco, and all his life he avoided not only these but other luxuries also.

Gandhi practised law in Bombay till 1893, when an Indian firm in South Africa sent for him in a law suit. He was also distressed at the way Indian settlers were treated by the white people in South Africa that he stayed in the country to fight their cause for the next 21 years. He was imprisoned many times by the government. One occasion was in 1913, when he led more than 2000 Indians across the border between the Transvaal and Natal in defiance of a South African law which forbade Indians to move from one province to another.

Back in his native land, Gandhi became the fearless champion of all whom he regarded as the weak and oppressed. He tried to make men have a greater respect for women, to free people from their drinking and drug taking habits and generally to lift the Indian people out of poverty and ignorance and give them more self-respect. In particular he fought against the evils of the Hindu caste system, under which millions of Indians were doomed to a life of poverty because their parents were members of the lowest caste, or class, of society. These people were called untouchables and other Hindus would not go near them but Gandhi used to sit among them deliberately, calling them instead the 'Sons of God'. -harijan

The Mahatma used to wear the same simple dress as the poorest village peasants and travel about urging them to use the charka, or spinning wheel, and to make a little cloth everyday as he did himself, so that they do not depend upon shoddy town-made goods.

By the end of the World War 1 he was the real leader of the great National Congress. the party which was working to free India from the British control. He and his followers encouraged the people to practise 'passive resistance' against the government, which meant that they were to oppose the government without using force. For example, he wanted to protest against the law which forbade anybody but the government to produce salt and so led his followers on a long march to the coast in order to obtain salt from the sea water. This kind of demonstration often lead him and his followers into trouble with the police and sometimes blood was shed.

From time to time Gandhi announced that he would fast until the Government or the Hindus themselves changed their minds on some matter, and this fasting gave great anxiety to all concerned, for there was sometimes a risk that he would not survive. However, although he trained himself for the struggle for India's independence, he never lost his sense of humour and affection towards children. He was quite firm about not using violence, but in 1942 he started a 'Quit India' movement against the British. There was disorder and bloodshed and Gandhi was again imprisoned. He was not released until 1944.

Mahatma Gandhi's final resting place