Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was his full name.
He was born on 2nd October 1869 in
Porbandar state. He died in 30 January 1948 in New Delhi. He was active for 78 years. His
other names were Bapu(father), Rashtrapati (father of the nation). He was an Indian lawyer, anti
colonial nationalist and political atheist, who employed non violent resistant to lead a successful
campaign for India's independence from British rule. He inspired moments for civil rights and
freedom across the world. The honorific word 'Mahatma' is from Sanskrit which means 'great
salute or venerable'. The cause of death of Mahatma Gandhi was assassinations. His studied in
samaldars arts college, University College in London and Inns of Court School of Law. His wife
name was Kasturba Gandhi. He children name were Harilal, Manilal, Ramdas and Devdas. His
parents name were Karamchand Gandhi and Putlibai Gandhi. He was born in Hindu family in
coastal Gujarat.
At the 22 he trained in Inns Court School of Law . After two uncertain years in India where he
was unable to start a successful law practice, he move to South Africa 1893 to represent an
India merchant in a law. He went on to live in South Africa for 21 years. Here, Gandhi raised a
family and first employed nonviolent resistance in a campaign for civil rights. In 1915, aged 45,
he returned to India and soon set about organising peasants, farmers, and urban labourers to
protest against discrimination and excessive land tax.
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, and, above all, achieving swaraj or self-rule. Gandhi adopted the short
dhoti woven with hand-spun yarn as a mark of identification with India's rural poor. He began to
live in a self-sufficient residential community, to eat simple food, and undertake long fasts as a
means of both introspection and political protest. Bringing anti-colonial nationalism to the
common Indians, Gandhi led them in challenging the British-imposed salt tax with the 400 km
(250 mi) Dandi Salt March in 1930 and in calling for the British to quit India in 1942. He was
imprisoned many times and for many years in both South Africa and India.
Gandhi's vision of an independent India based on religious pluralism was challenged in the early
1940s by a Muslim nationalism which demanded a separate homeland for Muslims within British
India. In August 1947, Britain granted independence, but the British Indian Empire was
partitioned into two dominions, a Hindu-majority India and a 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. Abstaining from the official celebration of
independence, Gandhi visited the affected areas, attempting to alleviate distress. In the months
following, he undertook several hunger strikes to stop the religious violence. The last of these
was begun in Delhi on 12 January 1948, when Gandhi was 78. The belief that Gandhi had been
too resolute in his defence of both Pakistan and Indian Muslims spread among some Hindus in
India. Among these was Nathuram Godse, a militant Hindu nationalist from Pune, western India,
who assassinated Gandhi by firing three bullets into his chest at an interfaith prayer meeting in
Delhi on 30 January 1948.
Gandhi's birthday, 2 October, is commemorated in India as Gandhi Jayanti, a national holiday,
and worldwide as the International Day of Nonviolence. Gandhi is considered to be the Father of
the Nation in post-colonial India. During India's nationalist movement and in several decades
immediately after, he was also commonly called Bapu, an endearment roughly meaning "father".
