Gandhi, The Mahatma

In a different time, an aspiring student of age 19, left the shores of India to get his degree. He used the opportunity overseas to learn about our scriptures mainly the Gita. After his education, came back home. But at the age of 24 he again left the shores to work (sounds like the modern IT consultant). He had the opportunity to use his skills to support and assist Indians in the foreign land, to fight unjust laws and develop new tactics in his ongoing fight against the government. These tactics were unique and unprecedented.

After a long stay, came back to India with not much money. (No NRI tax benefits like modern times). Though some of his activities overseas had come to the attention of some people, he was largely unknown. He wanted to understand his country better with 'his ears open and mouth shut'. He gave his first public address at the opening ceremony of the Benares Hindu University. He shocked the present magnates and princes by expressing his 'deep humiliation and shame' at speaking in a language (English) that was foreign to him. He further shocked them by turning to the bejewelled princes and said "There is no salvation for India unless you strip yourselves of this jewellery and hold it in trust for your countrymen in India". Many princes walked out.

This man by the force of his tactics, principles, political skill and moral leadership, lack of personal political and monetary gain roused people's enthusiasm and passion never ever seen in 1000 years of Indian history and probably never again. His skill in outmaneuvering a colonial power which has till this date never seen defeat in any war (battles yes, war never) in its history, an empire over which the sun never set, can only be considered brilliant. A seemingly ordinary man who could have just pursued his professional career as millions do today, could have made himself and family well off. Instead he developed, based on his vision, principles, intelligence, moral character and ground experience, a vision and road map for his beloved nation, the tactics to achieve it and at the same time served as a general on the ground to implement his vision and eventually delivered to our nation what it had never fully articulated nor experienced in almost 1000 years of its history beginning from the the invasion of India by Mahmud of Ghazni.

Let us for a moment with joy - yes with joy as our nation or the world is unlikely to again see one of his kind, remember his 135 birth anniversary today. This person was named Mohandas by his parents - Indians know him as the Mahatma.

"Generations to come will find it difficult to believe that a man such as Gandhi ever walked the face of this earth" - Albert Einstein

Gandhi was the most inspirational leader of the 20th Century. His advocacy of civil disobedience and nonviolent mass protest as the most effective way of achieving social change has instructed freedom movements around the world, from Poland to the United States to Burma.

A Mini biography: Born on 2 October 1869 in Porbandar, the capital of a small principality in what is today the State of Gujarat in western India. His father is the prime minister of the principality. His mother is a deeply religious Hindu. The entire family follows a branch of Hinduism that advocates nonviolence and tolerance between religious groups.

1883 - At the age of 13 he marries Kasturba.

1888 - Gandhi sails to England to study law at University College, London.

1891 - He is admitted to the British bar but returns to India and starts a practice as a barrister in the Bombay High Court.

1893 - He is employed by an Indian firm with interests in South Africa to act as legal adviser in its office in Durban, beginning a 20-year residence in South Africa.

Indian workers had been brought to South Africa in the mid-19th Century to labour on the sugar estates. Many had stayed on to form a small but closely-knit community. Gandhi is appalled by the treatment they receive in the racist society of South Africa and begins a campaign for their civil rights. He advocates a policy of passive resistance to, and noncooperation with, the South African authorities.

1906 - Gandhi begins a passive resistance campaign against laws prohibiting black South Africans, "coloureds" and Indians from travelling without a pass. He leads Indians in demonstrations and organises stop-work protests that win the support of thousands of people.

1914 - The South Africa Government, under pressure from the governments of Britain and India, accepts a reform package negotiated by Gandhi and the South African statesman General Jan Christian Smuts. Gandhi returns to India in 1915.

1916 - Gandhi meets Jawaharlal Nehru for the first time at the annual meeting of the Indian National Congress Party in Lucknow.

1917 - The British Parliament announces that Indians will be allowed greater participation in the colonial administration and that self-governing institutions will be gradually developed.

1919 - The promise of self-governing institutions is realised with the passing of the Government of India Act by the British Parliament. The act introduces a dual administration in which both elected Indian legislators and appointed British officials share power, although the British retain control of critical portfolios like finance, taxation and law and order.

However, the goodwill created by the move is undermined in March by the passing of the Rowlatt Acts. These acts empower the Indian authorities to suppress sedition by censoring the press, detaining political activists without trial, and arresting suspects without a warrant.

Gandhi begins a campaign of passive resistance or 'satyagraha' (the devotion to truth or truth force) against the Rowlatt Acts and British rule. The satyagraha movement spreads through India, gaining millions of followers, though Gandhi pulls back when violence breaks out and martial law is declared.

On 13 April the movement comes to a halt when British troops fire at point-blank range into a crowd of 10,000 unarmed and unsuspecting Indians gathered at Amritsar in the Punjab to celebrate a Hindu festival. A total of 1,650 rounds are fired, killing 379 and wounding 1,137.

1920 - Gandhi proclaims an organised campaign of noncooperation. He urges Indians to boycott British institutions and products, to resign from public office, to withdraw their children from government schools, to refuse to pay taxes, and to forsake British titles and honours.

Gandhi is arrested, but the British are soon forced to release him. He refashions the Congress Party from an elite organisation into an effective political instrument with widespread grassroots support.

As well as satyagraha Gandhi advocates 'swaraj' (self-rule), particularly in the economic sphere. He encourages the revival of cottage industries and begins to use a spinning wheel as a symbol for the return to the simple life and the renewal of domestic industry.

He also advocates 'ahimsa' (nonviolence) and Hindu-Muslim unity. He leads his movement by example, rejecting earthly possessions and living an ascetic life of prayer, fasting, and meditation. Indians begin to call him Mahatma, or 'Great Soul'.

1921 - The Congress Party gives Gandhi complete executive authority, however after a series of violent confrontations between Indian demonstrators and the British authorities he ends the campaign of civil disobedience.

1922 - He is arrested and imprisoned by the British.

1924 - Gandhi is released from prison and withdraws from politics to set up an ashram (commune), establish a newspaper, and work to help the rural poor and the members of the 'Untouchable' caste.

1927 - The British establish a commission to recommend further constitutional steps towards greater self-rule but fail to appoint an Indian to the panel. In response, the Congress boycotts the commission throughout India and drafts its own constitution demanding full independence by 1930.

1930 - Gandhi proclaims a new campaign of civil disobedience and calls upon the Indian population to refuse to pay taxes, particularly the tax on salt. The campaign centres on a 400 km march to the sea between 12 March and 6 April.

Thousands follow Gandhi as he walks south from his commune at Ahmedabad (the capital of Gujarat) to Dandi (near Surat on the Gulf of Cambay). When they arrive they illegally make salt by evaporating seawater.

"Let the government then, to carry on its rules, use guns against us, send us to prison, hang us," Gandhi says during the march. "But how many can be given such punishment? Try and calculate how much time it will take of Britishers to hang 300 million of persons."

In May, Gandhi is arrested. He is held at Yerovila Jail in Poona for the rest of the year. About 30,000 other members of the independence movement are also held in jail.

Gandhi is named 'Time' magazine's man of the year for 1930.

1931 - Gandhi accepts a truce with the British, calls off the civil disobedience campaign , and travels to London to attend a 'Round Table Conference'. On his return to India he finds that the situation has deteriorated. Hopes that calm will prevail following the negotiations between the Indians and the British are dashed when Gandhi and Nehru are again arrested and imprisoned.

1932 - In September, while still in jail, Gandhi begins a "fast unto death" to improve the status of the Untouchable caste.

1934 - Gandhi formally resigns from politics and is replaced as leader of the Congress by Jawaharlal Nehru.

1935 - Limited self-rule is achieved when the British Parliament passes the Government of India Act. The act gives Indian provinces a system of democratic, autonomous government. However it is only implemented after Gandhi gives his approval.

1937 - In February, when the elections under the Government of India Act bring the Congress to power in a majority of the provinces, the party is faced with a dilemma. Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the leader of the defeated Muslim League, asks for the formation of coalition Congress-Muslim League governments in some of the provinces. His request is denied.

The subsequent clash between the Congress and the Muslim League hardens into a conflict between Hindus and Muslims that will ultimately lead to the partition of India and the creation of Pakistan.

During the year, Gandhi is nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. He is selected as a candidate for the shortlist but does not win the award. Further unsuccessful nominations follow in 1938, 1939, 1947 and 1948.

1939 - Gandhi again returns to active political life, beginning a fast to support the federation of Indian principalities with the rest of country. The colonial government intervenes and Gandhi's demands are granted.

When the Second World War breaks out in September Britain unilaterally declares India's involvement on the side of the Allies. In response, the Congress withdraws from government and decides it will not to support the British war effort unless India is granted complete and immediate independence. The Muslim League, meanwhile, supports the British during the war.

1940 - The Muslim League adopts the 'Pakistan Resolution' calling for the partition of India into two separate sovereign states, one Muslim, the other Hindu.

1942 - With Japanese forces reaching the eastern borders of India, the British attempt to negotiate with the Indians. However, Gandhi will accept nothing less than independence and calls on the British to leave India.

When the Congress Party passes its 'Quit India' resolution in Bombay on 8 August the entire Congress Working Committee, including Gandhi and Nehru, is arrested and imprisoned. Gandhi is interned by the British but released two years later because of failing health.

Also during 1942 Gandhi officially designates Nehru as his political heir.

1944 - The British Government agrees to independence for India on condition that the two contending nationalist groups, the Muslim League and the Congress Party, resolve their differences.

1946 - Nehru, with Gandhi's blessing, is invited by the British to form an interim government to organise the transition to independence. Fearing it will be excluded from power, the Muslim League declares 16 August 'Direct Action Day'. When communal rioting breaks out in the north partition comes to be seen as a valid alternative to the possibility of civil war.

1947 - On 3 June the British announce plans for the partition of the British Indian Empire into the separate nations of India and Pakistan. Pakistan is further divided into east and west states on either side of India. At midnight on 15 August India and Pakistan formally achieve their sovereignty. Nehru delivers a famous speech on India's "tryst with destiny", but the initial jubilation is soon tempered by violence.

Sectarian riots erupt as Muslims in India flee to Pakistan while Hindus in the Pakistan flee the other way. Hundreds of thousands die in north India, at least 12 million become refugees, and a limited war over the incorporation of Kashmir into India breaks out between the two nation states. Gandhi pleas for peace, using fasts to shame rioting mobs into order.

1948 - On 30 January Gandhi is assassinated in New Delhi while on his way to his evening prayer meeting. His assassin is a Hindu who felt that Gandhi was compromising the nation for the cesarean just born Pakistan.