Mahatma Ghandi the Great Soul - Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869-1948)
Mahatma Ghandi was an Indian political leader who played a leading role in India's struggle to achieve independence from British rule. The title Mahatama means "Great Soul" and the name was first used for him in 1915 by Rabindranath Tagore, a famed Indian poet.
In his early twenties, Ghandi travelled to South Africa to work as a Lawyer. He quickly became a champion against discrimination of the Indian community around the Cape region. During this time Ghandi adopted a strict personal lifestyle called brahmacharya which demanded a huge degree of self-denial.
This lifestyle ultimately became a strand of his personal belief in non-violent resistance to colonial rule which he labelled as satyagraha which translates as "truth force".
It was more than twenty years before Ghandi returned to India and he was quickly recognized as the leader of the Indian National Congress which would continue the struggle to gain India's independence.
While frequently attacking the British Government as a colonial power, Ghandi made a point of voicing his respect for the British people. Whether by cunning or design, this focused criticism on the political leadership - rather than the race they represented - earned Ghandi a lot of admiration among the British despite his struggle against them.
He eventually adopted the loin-cloth as his mode of dress and his now trademark spectacles were one of only a few personal possessions he allowed himself. He famously toured India promoting the use of spinning wheels to free Indians from dependence on the cotton mills in Great Britain. The authorities eventually imprisoned Ghandi in 1922 for two years on the grounds that he was the leader of a "mass campaign of civil disobedience".
Gandhi went on to publish newspapers and leaflets and allied himself with the low-caste Hindus known as the "untouchables". His humanitarian work included teaching hygiene and setting up first aid help for remote communities.
Eventually Gandhi's patience wore thin due to the slow progress being made toward India's independence and he stepped up his harassment of the British earning himself frequent further spells in prison until 1942 when Gandhi announced that the British could only expect support for the World War 2 Allies from a free India.
Following the defeat of Germany and Japan Gandhi agreed to the formation of Pakistan to become a free Muslim State as a condition of independence for India.
For most of his later life his efforts to lower tension between Muslims and Hindus largely failed. His fourteenth fast began with Gandhi swearing that he would starve himself to death if the bloodshed between Muslims and Hindus didn't cease. For a brief time his threat succeeded and fighting abated until, shortly after Gandhi ended his protest fast, a Hindu fanatic assasinated him by shooting him dead on January 30th, 1948.
Now recognized by history as one of the greatest leaders the world has ever known, Gandhi's life has been immortalized in print and film the world over. It is perhaps a measure of the respect the British have for Gandhi that they honoured him with a special Royal Mail stamp issue to mark the Centenary of his birth in 1969.
20.07.2010. 14:44
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