Mahatma Gandhi biography, History, Movements, Quotes, UPSC
Mahatma Gandhi Introduction
Whenever we talk about the history of India, there is talk of freedom struggle in it and we start discussing about those who contributed to the freedom struggle. Perhaps you also know that there were two types of freedom fighters in the freedom struggle.
The first type -: Aggressive people who preferred to answer every atrocity committed by the British in their own language, and among them, the leading aggressive people were: – Chandra Shekhar Azad, Bhagat Singh, etc.
The second type -: Those who wanted to liberate the country by walking on the path of peace without shedding anyone’s blood, the most prominent names among those peace-loving people is: Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. People used to call him ‘Mahatma Gandhi’ because of Gandhi’s attitude towards peace, truth, and non-violence.
Mahatma Gandhi information
| Nationality | Indian |
| Full name | Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi |
| Mother’s name | Putlibai Gandhi |
| Father’s name | Karamchand Gandhi |
| DOB | 2 October 1869 |
| Place of birth | Gujarat |
| Education | Barrister |
| Wife | Kasturba Gandhi |
| Children | Harilal Gandhi, Manilal Gandhi, Devdas Gandhi, Ramdas Gandhi |
| Assassinated | 30 January 1948 |
| Murderer | Nathuram Godse |
Early Life
Mahatma Gandhi was born in the Porbandar region of the Indian state, Gujarat. His father Karamchand Gandhi used to be the Diwan of Porbandar and his mother Putlibai was also a religious woman. He was highly influenced by his mother. And at that time child marriage was very common, so Gandhi has also married at the age of 13, and at that time his wife was elder than him, She was 14 years old.
In November 1887, Gandhi had passed his matriculation examination and in the month of January of 1888, he was admitted to Samaldas College, Bhavnagar, and then received a degree from there. After this, he went to London and from there he came to India as a barrister.
Mahatma Gandhi south Africa
As we all know that he was a lawyer by profession, in 1894 Gandhi had gone to South Africa because of the relationship of some legal dispute and he had also started the ‘disobedience movement against the injustice happening there and after completing that movement he was Returned to India.
Participation in Freedom Struggle
Gandhi returned to India from South Africa in the year 1916 and after that, he took the first step towards India’s independence. In the year 1920, he guided the Congress after the death of Congress leader Bal Gangadhar Tilak.
In the First World War which lasted from 1914 to 1919, Mahatma Gandhi had fully supported the British government, and he did so thinking that the British would leave India after doing so. But when the British did not leave India, then Gandhi had launched many important movements in order to take freedom from Britishers. And some of these movements are as follows:
- 1920 [Non-Co-operation Movement]
- 1930 [Civil Disobedience Movement]
- 1942 [Quit India Movement]
However, Gandhi has spent his entire life like a movement. But the main movements he conducted were only 5, out of which 3 movements were organized all over the nation and were successful, so people are also aware of these movements. The movements run by Gandhi can be classified as follows
| Main Movements | Minor movements |
| Non-Co-operation Movement | Champaran Satyagraha Movement |
| Civil Disobedience Movement | Kheda Satyagraha Movement |
| Quit India Movement | Khilafat Movement |
Let’s know about all these movements.
Champaran Satyagraha of 1917
In the year 1918, Mahatma Gandhi launched ‘Champaran and Kheda Satyagraha‘, this was the beginning of Gandhi’s movements in India in which he was also successful. Gandhi had launched the Satyagraha movement against the British landlord.
Because the British landlords were forcing Indian farmers to produce indigo, and also, the farmers were being forced by the Britishers to sell the indigo at a fixed price, whereas the Indian farmers did not want to do so at any cost. Therefore Indian farmers sought help from Mahatma Gandhi. So, Gandhi had launched a non-violent movement and he was successful in this and finally, the British had to listen to them.
first president of India; Rajendra Prasad
Kheda Satyagraha of 1918
In 1918 a village named Kheda, which is situated in the state of Gujarat caused terrible floods and hence the farmers of Kheda could not pay the tax imposed by the British government because they were financially weak. Then the farmers again took help from Gandhi and again Gandhi started a movement called Non-cooperation and this movement was started by Gandhi to provide tax exemption to the farmers.
That’s why the general public also supported him a lot and in the month of May 1918, the British government had to give relief to the farmers in the tax-related rules.
Khilafat Movement of 1919
In the year 1919, Mahatma Gandhi realized that the Congress was weakening, so he encouraged Hindu-Muslim unity to save the Congress because he wanted the British Government to get out of India by doing so.
To fulfill those objectives, he went to the people of Muslim society. At that time, the Khilafat movement was being run on a global scale, which was against the Caliph of Muslims. Mahatma Gandhi held a conference of [all Indian Muslims Conference] and Gandhi was the main person of that conference.
This movement was very much supported by the Muslims and Gandhi’s effort made him a national leader and also get a special place in the Congress.
But in the year 1922, the Khilafat movement had to be completely stopped and after this Mahatma Gandhi had been fighting for the whole life of ‘Hindu Muslim unity, but hatred between Hindus and Muslims was increasing.
Non-Cooperation Movement of 1920 to 1922
The Rowlatt Act was passed by the British government in 1919 to deal with various types of movements. At the same time, Mahatma Gandhi also held many meetings in different areas.
A meeting was convened at Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar, Punjab, and that peaceful meeting was ruthlessly trampled by the British, and Gandhi started the Non-Cooperation Movement in 1920 in protest against it. Under this non-cooperation movement, the Indian people did not help the British government in any way nor did they commit any kind of violence.
Non-Cooperation Movement in details
This movement started in September 1920 and the movement lasted till February 1922. This was the first of the 3 major movements of Mahatma Gandhi. And before starting this movement, Mahatma Gandhi used to think that the Britishers in India are able to rule only because they are supported by the Indian people, if the Britishers will stop getting support, then they will leave India. Because it will be difficult to rule.
Therefore, Mahatma Gandhi had appealed to the people not to cooperate in any work of the British Government, but that movement should not involve any kind of violent activity. People also understood the talk of Mahatma Gandhi. So people also joined the movement at the nationwide level and stopped supporting the British government.
For this, people had left government jobs, factories, offices, etc. And had taken their children out of government school and colleges. That is, people did everything that the British would not get any kind of help.
Its bad effect was that many people had reached the state of poverty and illiterate, but still, people were doing all this for the freedom of India. During that time there was such an atmosphere as if India would become independent. But when the movement was at its peak, Mahatma Gandhi ended this movement due to the incident at a place called ‘Chaura-Chauri’.
First vice president of India; Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
Chaura Chauri incident
Because the Non-Cooperation Movement was at its peak in the whole country, during that time some people were peacefully rallying at a place called Chaura Chauri in Uttar Pradesh, then they were attacked with bullets by British soldiers in which many people have died
Then people were so angry that they set fire to the police station and killed 22 soldiers present there. At that time Mahatma Gandhi had said that “We don’t have to do any kind of violent acts during the entire movement, perhaps we still have not been able to get freedom” and due to the same violent activity, he withdrew the Non-Cooperation Movement.
Civil Disobedience Movement / Salt Satyagrah Movement / Dandi March of 1930
In the year 1930, Mahatma Gandhi started another movement against the Britishers, which we know as the Civil Disobedience Movement. The aim of this movement was not to abide by whatever rules were made by the British.
For example, This law was made by the British government that no one would produce salt, then on March 12, 1930, people performed ‘Dandi Yatra’ to break this law.
After this people reached the place called Dandi, and salt was produced by them and this movement was also conducted in a peaceful manner. During this movement, many leaders were arrested by the British government.
Salt Movement n Details
Mahatma Gandhi started the Salt Satyagraha on March 12, 1930, from the Sabarmati Ashram located near the Ahmedabad city of Gujarat and the Dandi Yatra lasted till April 5, 1930, at a place called Dandi, located in Gujarat.
Mahatma Gandhi started producing salt there and broke British law and thus the nationwide disobedience movement started.
It was an important phase in India’s freedom struggle. This was a direct attack on the monopoly made by the British Government and soon after this incident the movement spread all over India, ‘Purna Swaraj‘ this announcement was made by the Indian National Congress on 26 January 1930.
Mahatma Gandhi completed the Dandi Yatra in 24 days and he covered a distance of about 390 km from Sabarmati to Dandi. During that time he produced salt without paying any tax. At the beginning of this journey, there were only 78 volunteers but by the end of the Dandi journey, the number of volunteers had increased to thousands. Mahatma Gandhi reached there on April 5, 1930, and after reaching Dandi he broke the law of the British Government by making salt at 6.30 am on the same day but in a non-violent manner
Even after producing salt there, Mahatma Gandhi continued his journey and he went towards the beaches on the south side. His aim behind this was to make salt on these beaches as well and also to address several meetings. There, Mahatma Gandhi also broke the British law by making salt at a place called Dharasana.
Mahatma Gandhi was arrested at midnight on May 4-5 of 1930, his arrest and that Satyagraha attracted the attention of the entire world towards India’s freedom struggle. The Satyagraha continued throughout the year and ended only after Mahatma Gandhi was released from prison.
The Salt Satyagraha, run by Mahatma Gandhi, was based on the principle of ‘non-violent protest’. It means – Truth urges Satyagraha.
The Congress had made Satyagraha a major weapon for India’s independence and appointed Mahatma Gandhi as its chief for this. After this, thousands of people were killed by British soldiers in the Satyagraha that took place in Dharasana, but Mahatma Gandhi’s Satyagraha policy was proved effective in it and the British government had to give up.
This satyagraha also had a profound impact on the well-known activists of America, Martin Luther, and James Bevel, etc., who were fighting for apartheid policy and the rights of minorities in the 1960s. Just as this satyagraha and disobedience movement was spread, it was entrusted to the right to guide Rajagopalachari in Madras and Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan in North India.
Quit India Movement of 1942
Till the 1940s, there was enthusiasm and anger in every child and old man for the independence of India.
At that time Mahatma Gandhi used that enthusiasm of the people in the right direction and started Quit India Movement on a very large scale in 1942, this movement was the most influential of all the movements of that time and a very big challenge for the British Government too.
Quit India Movement in details
The third “Quit India Movement” was launched by Mahatma Gandhi in the year 1942 from the month of August. But due to some mistakes, this movement soon went awry, however, it was failed and there were many reasons behind its failure.
For example, Students and farmers have participated in that movement and they were also very keen about this movement but the Quit India movement could not be started on a fixed date all over India.
The movement was started on different dates. And due to this, its impact was less, besides many Indian people felt that this was the peak of the freedom struggle, this thinking weakened the movement.
But the best part of this movement was that the British rulers had realized from this that they could no longer run their rule in India, they would have to leave India soon.
So in this way, all the movements run by Mahatma Gandhi played an important role in the independence of India.
Characteristics of Mahatma Gandhi’s movements
- All the movements made by Mahatma Gandhi had some things common, which are as follows.
- All the movements were always conducted peacefully by Mahatma Gandhi
- Mahatma Gandhi was such a great priest of non-violence that if there was any kind of violent activity during any movement, then he used to cancel that movement, and that was another big reason due to which India got freedom a little late.
- He always used the movement on the foundation of truth and non-violence.
The social life of Mahatma Gandhi
There is no doubt that he was a great leader, but apart from this, he was awesome in social life too, he used to believe in ‘simple living high thoughts’. Due to his good nature, Indian people used to call him ‘Mahatma’. He used to support democracy.
His two biggest weapons were: ‘Truth and non-violence’. On the strength of these two of his weapons, Mahatma Gandhi liberated India from the British.
Mahatma Gandhi’s personality was such that after meeting him, everyone used to get influenced by him.
Mahatma Gandhi on untouchability
Since childhood, Mahatma Gandhi used to believe in untouchability but when he grew up, he made many efforts to remove the feeling of untouchability spread in society. Mahatma Gandhi gave a new name to the backward castes in the name of God and that name was ‘Hari-Jan‘, besides he was striving for his upliftment throughout his life.
How did Mahatma Gandhi die
In 1948, on the 30th of January, Mahatma Gandhi was shot dead by a person named Nathuram Godse. Nathuram Godse had shot him three bullets and the last word that came out of Gandhi’s mouth at the time of death was: ‘Hey Ram’. After his death, his mausoleum was built at Raj Ghat in Delhi, which is still there.
Amazing facts about Mahatma Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was not given the title of Father of the Nation by the Government of India, but Subhash Chandra Bose called him the Father of the Nation.
After his death, it was said by an English officer that “We Britishers haven’t done anything to Mahatma Gandhi because we were thinking if we do something with Mahatma Gandhi so the Indian people will get more annoyed but unfortunately, people of India could not keep him alive for a year”.
In the Swadeshi movement that he had started, he appealed to all Indians to boycott foreign clothes and also used spinning wheel for indigenous clothes and also made cloth.
Although many ashrams were built by Mahatma Gandhi, among them, Tolstoy Ashram and Sabarmati Ashram of India are the most famous.
He always used to fast for spiritual purification.
Gandhi had made a lot of efforts for Hindu-Muslim unity throughout his life.
Gandhi’s birthday is celebrated on 2 October all over India.
Conclusion
Thus we learned why Gandhi was a great man. He did many important things in life and had two powerful weapons ‘truth and non-violence and even today if we follow the principles laid down by him, we can bring many important changes to society.
Mahatma Gandhi Quotes
Mahatma Gandhi essay
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