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Native name
મોહનદાસ કરમચંદ ગાંધી
Born
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
2 October 1869
Porbandar, Porbandar State, Kathiawar Agency, Bombay Presidency, British India[1]
(present-day Gujarat, India)
Died
30 January 1948 (aged 78)
New Delhi, Delhi, Dominion of India (present-day India)
Cause of death
Assassination
Resting place
Raj Ghat, Delhi, India
Nationality
Indian
Other names
Mahatma Gandhi, Bapu ji, Gandhi ji
Alma mater
University College London
Inner Temple
Occupation
LawyerPoliticianActivistWriter
Known for
Indian Independence Movement,
Peace movement,
Nonviolent resistance,
Civil resistance,
Gandhism
Political party
Indian National Congress
Movement
Indian independence movement
Spouse
Kasturba Gandhi (m. 1883; d. 1944)
Children
HarilalManilalRamdasDevdas
Parents
Karamchand Gandhi (father)
Putlibai Gandhi (mother)
Signature
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (/ˈɡɑːndi, ˈɡæn Hindustani: [ˈmoːɦənd̪aːs ˈkərəmtʃənd̪ ˈɡaːnd̪ʱi] ( listen); 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was an Indian activist who was the leader of the Indian independence movement against British rule. Employing nonviolent civil disobedience, Gandhi led India to independence and inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. The honorific Mahātmā (Sanskrit: "high-souled", "venerable")—applied to him first in 1914 in South Africa]—is now used worldwide. In India, he is also called Bapu (Gujarati: endearment for father, papa and Gandhi ji, and known as the Father of the Nation.
Born and raised in a Hindu merchant caste family in coastal Gujarat, India, and trained in law at the Inner Temple, London, Gandhi first employed nonviolent civil disobedience as an expatriate lawyer in South Africa, in the resident Indian community's struggle for civil rights. After his return to India in 1915, he set about organising peasants, farmers, and urban labourers to protest against excessive land-tax and discrimination. Assuming leadership of the Indian National Congress in 1921, Gandhi led nationwide campaigns for various social causes and for achieving Swaraj or self-rule.
Gandhi famously led Indians in challenging the British-imposed salt tax with the 400 km (250 mi) Dandi Salt March in 1930, and later in calling for the British to Quit India in 1942. He was imprisoned for many years, upon many occasions, in both South Africa and India. He lived modestly in a self-sufficient residential community and wore the traditional Indian dhoti and shawl, woven with yarn hand-spun on a charkha. He ate simple vegetarian food, and also undertook long fasts as a means of both self-purification and political protest.
Gandhi's vision of an independent India based on religious pluralism, however, was challenged in the early 1940s by a new Muslim nationalism which was demanding a separate Muslim homeland carved out of India. Eventually, in August 1947, Britain granted independence, but the British Indian Empire was partitioned into two dominions, a Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan.As many displaced Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs made their way to their new lands, religious violence broke out, especially in the Punjab and Bengal. Eschewing the official celebration of independence in Delhi, Gandhi visited the affected areas, attempting to provide solace. In the months following, he undertook several fasts unto death to stop religious violence. The last of these, undertaken on 12 January 1948 when he was 78,also had the indirect goal of pressuring India to pay out some cash assets owed to Pakistan.Some Indians thought Gandhi was too accommodating.Among them was Nathuram Godse, a Hindu nationalist, who assassinated Gandhi on 30 January 1948 by firing three bullets into his chest.Captured along with many of his co-conspirators and collaborators, Godse and his co-conspirator Narayan Apte were tried, convicted and executed while many of their other accomplices were given prison sentences.
Gandhi's birthday 2 oct commemorated in India as Gandhi Jayanti,a national holiday and world wide as the International Day Of Non-violence..