AskBiography Logo   Latest News  Follow Us on Twitter  Follow Us on Google Buzz  Became Fan - Facebook  Subscribe to RSSRSS   Bookmark and Share

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
Personal information
Birth date2 October 1869
Place of birthPorbandar, Kathiawar Agency, British Indian Empire
Date of death30 January 1948(age 78)
Death placeNew Delhi, Union of India
Cause of deathAssassination by shooting
Resting placeRajghat, New Delhi, India
NationalityIndian
Other namesMahatma Gandhi, Bapu
Alma materUniversity College London, University of London
Known forProminent figure of Indian independence movement
Propounding the philosophy of Satyagraha and Ahimsa
Advocating non-violence
ReligionHinduism
SpouseKasturba Gandhi
ChildrenHarilal
Manilal
Ramdas
Devdas
child which died in infancy
ParentsPutlibai Gandhi (Mother)
Karamchand Gandhi (Father)

     Home | Person | Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi





Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi ( ; (Devnagari मोहनदास करमचंद गांधी), pronounced -hnsmoːɦənəd̪aːsə kərəmətɕənd̪ə ɡaːnd̪ʱiHi-Mohandas_Karamchand_Gandhi_pronunciation was the pre-eminent political and ideological leader of India during the Indian independence movement. A pioneer of satyagraha, or resistance to tyranny through mass civil disobedience—a philosophy firmly founded upon ahimsa, or total nonviolence—Gandhi led India to independence and inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. Gandhi is often referred to as Mahatma (-hnsməɦaːt̪maː; Sanskrit: महात्मा mahātmā or "Great Soul," an honorific first applied to him by Rabindranath Tagore). In India, he is also called Bapu ( , bāpu or "Father") and officially honoured as the Father of the Nation. His birthday, 2 October, is commemorated in India as Gandhi Jayanti, a national holiday, and worldwide as the International Day of Non-Violence.

Gandhi first employed non-violent 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 in protesting excessive land-tax and discrimination. Assuming leadership of the Indian National Congress in 1921, Gandhi led nationwide campaigns for easing poverty, expanding women's rights, building religious and ethnic amity, ending untouchability, increasing economic self-reliance, but above all for achieving Swaraj-the independence of India from foreign domination. Gandhi famously led Indians in protesting the British-imposed salt tax with the 400 km (248.5 mi) Dandi Salt March in 1930, and later in calling for the British to Quit India in 1942. He was imprisoned for many years, on many occasions, in both South Africa and India.

Gandhi strove to practice non-violence and truth in all situations, and advocated that others do the same. He lived modestly in a self-sufficient residential community and wore the traditional Indian dhoti and shawl, woven with yarn he had hand spun on a charkha. He ate simple vegetarian food, and also undertook long fasts as means of both self-purification and social protest.


Warning: simplexml_load_file(http://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/api/videos/-/Mohandas/Karamchand/Gandhi?orderby=viewCount&max-results=10) [function.simplexml-load-file]: failed to open stream: HTTP request failed! HTTP/1.0 410 Gone in /home/askbio/public_html/index_bio.php on line 257

Warning: simplexml_load_file() [function.simplexml-load-file]: I/O warning : failed to load external entity "http://gdata.youtube.com/feeds/api/videos/-/Mohandas/Karamchand/Gandhi?orderby=viewCount&max-results=10" in /home/askbio/public_html/index_bio.php on line 257

Fatal error: Call to a member function children() on a non-object in /home/askbio/public_html/index_bio.php on line 260