Gandhi, Mahatma
INDIAN RELIGIOUS LEADER
1869–1948
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, the world-renowned leader of India's struggle for independence from Great Britain, is best remembered for his doctrine of peaceful resistance. Gandhi's traditional title, Mahatma (Great soul), refers to this philosophy.
Gandhi was born into a middle-caste political family. His grandfather and father were prime ministers of Porbandar, a minor princely state. After studying law in Britain, Gandhi returned to India but was unable to establish a successful legal practice. In 1893 he emigrated to the wealthy British colony of Natal, South Africa. There, as a prosperous lawyer, Gandhi became a leading figure in the Indian community's pursuit of equal rights. In 1914 Gandhi returned to India, where he soon assumed a leadership role in the Indian National Congress (INC), an organization advocating self-rule.
Gandhi's pacifist philosophy was grounded in the Hindu principle of nonviolence. It also was inspired by the New Testament, Buddhist writings, and the work of the English essayist John Ruskin (1819–1900). The essence of Gandhi's philosophy is that God is universally present and is identical to love. This inner love exists in everyone, even the worst oppressors. Gandhi argued that one must appeal to the oppressor through a combination of persuasion and noncooperation (satyagraha). Justice and peace then can be achieved by nonviolent means (ahimsa). Although India has never been a particularly nonviolent society, Gandhi succeeded in reducing dramatically the level of bloodshed required to win India's independence. When bloody riots broke out at independence in 1947, fueled by long-standing antagonism between Hindus and Sikhs on the one hand and Muslims on the other, his influence was a key factor in preventing hostilities from spreading to Bengal.
Gandhi's influence, first in India and later worldwide, has promoted the peaceful settlement of otherwise bloody conflicts. He has served as the model for other activist groups, most notably the American civil rights movement led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968). In practice Gandhi's philosophy is restricted to societies, for example, the United States and Great Britain, where the "oppressor" has a strong tradition of peaceful conflict resolution and is open to moral suasion. The limitation of Gandhi's doctrine was illustrated in 1938 when he counseled German Jews to "offer satyagraha" to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, which he predicted would convert the Nazis "to an appreciation of human dignity" (Chadha 1997, p. 367).
Although traditionally portrayed as an idealist, Gandhi was a skillful politician who accepted the necessity of military conflict. He supported the British in the Boer War (1899–1902), recruited British Indian forces during World War I (1914–1918), and, after independence, supported India's use of force against Pakistan. Gandhi was, however, a consistent opponent of all forms of violence and discrimination against innocent civilians. It was his pleas on behalf of India's Muslims, Christians, and lower castes that provoked a Hindu extremist to assassinate him on January 30, 1948.
MAHATMA GHANDI (LEFT) DURING THE HISTORIC SALT MARCH IN 1930 WITH INDIAN POET AND POLITICIAN SAROJINI NAIDU. Powerful for its message of Indian independence to the British government, Mahatma Gandhi's "Salt March" in 1930 symbolized the peaceful resistance movement of the Indian leader. (SOURCE: HULTON ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES)Gandhi's Life: a Timeline
October 2, 1869: Born in minor princely state of Porbandar, India.
September 1888: Departs to Great Britain for legal education.
July 1891: Returns to India from England.
August 1893: Departs for South Africa.
July 1914: Returns to India from South Africa.
February 1919: Opposes British rule and soon becomes leader of Nationalist movement.
Summer 1942: Demands immediate British withdrawal from India and is imprisoned.
May 1944: Released near end of World War II.
August 1947: India is partitioned between independent India and Pakistan; widespread violence breaks out.
January 30, 1948: Assassinated by Hindu extremist in Delhi, India.
India; King Jr., Martin Luther.
Bibliography
Chadha, Yogesh. Gandhi. New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1997.
Duvall, Jack, and Peter Ackerman. A Force More Powerful. A Century of Non-Violent Conflict. New York: St Martin's Press, 2001.
Gandhi, Mohandas Karamchad. An Autobiography, the Story of My Experiments with Truth, trans. Mahadev Desai. Boston: Beacon, 1957.
Holmes, Robert L. Nonviolence in Theory and Practice. Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press, 2001.
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