Who was Mahatma Gandhi?
Mohandas Gandhi was born in Porbandar, in what is now Gujarat, and trained as a lawyer in London. He moved to South Africa in 1893 and spent years campaigning there against laws that targeted Indians. It was in that fight that he worked out satyagraha, meaning truth force. He went back to India in 1915 and rose to the top of the Indian National Congress. Between the two world wars he led mass campaigns of peaceful protest against British rule. People called him Mahatma, or great soul. He was shot dead in January 1948, a few months after India became independent.
Political views
- Taught that unjust laws should be broken in the open, with the penalty accepted, and that nonviolence was a principle and not just a tactic.Source: nobelprize.org
- Held that soul-force was a stronger way to win rights than physical force.Source: mkgandhi.org
- Saw modern machinery as the leading symbol of modern civilization and held it responsible for India's poverty.Source: mkgandhi.org
- Promoted swadeshi, which meant buying Indian handmade cloth instead of imported goods, and asked rich Indians to pay for hand-looms.Source: mkgandhi.org
- Said India could not stop being one nation just because its people followed different religions.Source: mkgandhi.org
- Worked to bring Hindus, Muslims and Christians together, and campaigned to end the stigma of untouchability in Hindu society.Source: nobelprize.org
Legacy
In India Gandhi is honoured as the Father of the Nation. His methods influenced Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela and many other movements worldwide. The Nobel Committee considered him for the Peace Prize several times and never gave it, something it later said it regretted. His critics came from many sides. Some revolutionaries thought nonviolence too weak. Hindu nationalists disliked his outreach to Muslims. Dalit leaders, B. R. Ambedkar among them, rejected the way he handled caste. Historians also argue over what he wrote about Black Africans while in South Africa.
In their own words
“Machinery is the chief symbol of modern civilization; it represents a great sin.”