Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi...!!!

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born on October 2, 1869 in a middle class merchant(Bania/Vaishya) family at Porbandar in Kathiawar, Gujarat. His father was Karamchand Gandhi, a Dewan or Prime Minister of Porbandar. His mother,Putlibai, was a woman of a very pious nature. It was his mother whose personality and life influenced Gandhiji. She taught Gandhiji to speak the truth in every sphere of life.

After finishing high school, Gandhiji joined the Samaldas College in Bhavnagar. When his father died in 1885, he was only 18. It was then that someone advised Gandhiji that he should go to England and come back with a law degree if he was to improve his chance of getting his father's position in the state service in Porbandar. In 1891, he came back to India armed with the degree he set out to achieve in England. After an unsuccesful attempt to set up his own legal practice, Gandhiji received an offer from Dada Abdulla & Co. and set sail for South Africa on behalf of the company for a legal matter. It was in south Africa that Gandhiji became what he was destined to be. Deeply disturbed by the appalling treatment meted out to Indians by the

Britishers, Gandhiji decided to fight the discrimination against Indians. He started to practice the ideals of Ahimsa (non-violence), Brahmacharya (continence) and Satyagraha (fasting for a truthful cause).

In 1914, his struggle was rewarded when the South African Government entered into an agreement with him and the main demands of the Indians were granted. This success inspired Gandhiji to do something for his own nation. He came back to India and founded a place of religious retreat called Satyagraha Ashram in Ahmedabad. His first movement in India was in Champaran, Bihar, where he voiced the grievances of the many exploited poor peasants of that area. This compelled the British Government in India to set up a inquiry to gauge the state of the farmers and work for their betterment. The success in this campaign greatly increased Gandhiji's stature in the eyes of millions of exploited, neglected and impoverished Indians.

Soon Gandhiji began to be known as the "Mahatma" for his great ideals and his adherence to them as well as for his untiring campaign against the British. In 1921, Gandhji called his countrymen to take part in his famous Non-cooperation movement against the British. The movement met with a massive support from the Indian populace but a mob violence during this

campaign in Chauri Chaura shocked Gandhiji to the extent that he called it off. In 1930, he organised the famous "Dandi March" to oppose the British law that deprived Indians to make their own salt. It led to the historic "Civil Disobedience Movement" that saw thousands of Indian men and women defying the British Government and being put to jail.

In 1942, Gandhiji gave the call for the historic "Quit India Movement" to indicate that the time of the Britishers was up and they should leave India and the Indians for good. The great leader was repeatedly thrown into prison for his protests but it could not break his will. He also worked untiringly to unite Hindus and Muslims, abolish several superstitions and better the hygiene of the poor people in different regions of the country.

The drained resources of the British following the Second World War and the rising discontent of Indians prompted the British Government to give India back to her own sons. On 15th August, 1947, India was declared to be an independent nation but not before it was split up into two nations, India and Pakistan. Some Hindu fundamentalists felt that the Mahatma shirked his responsibility in stopping this division. One of them, Nathuram Godse, shot him dead when Gandhiji was going for his evening prayers. The last words on his lips were "Hey Ram".

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