Mahatma Gandhi Biography
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Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (Devanagari:
मोहनदास करमचन्द गांधी; Gujarati: મોહનદાસ કરમચંદ ગાંધી; October 2, 1869 –
January 30, 1948) was a prominent political leader of India and its
struggle for independence from the British Empire. He was the pioneer
and perfector of Satyagraha - the resistance of tyranny through mass
civil disobedience strongly founded upon ahimsa (total non-violence) -
which led India to independence, and has inspired movements for civil
rights and freedom across the world. Gandhi is commonly known and
addressed in India and across the world as Mahatma Gandhi (from
Sanskrit, Mahatma: Great Soul) and as Bapu (in many Indian languages,
Father).
Beginning as an unobtrusive lawyer in South
Africa, Gandhi organised the Indian community there in protests and
demonstrations against oppressive laws and racial discrimination without
any resort to violence. Successful in repealing the oppressive laws,
Gandhi again employed the technique in organizing poor farmers in India
to protest oppressive taxation and extensive discrimination, and carried
it forward on the national stage to protest oppressive laws made by a
foreign government. Becoming the leader of the Indian National Congress,
Gandhi led a nationwide campaign for the alleviation of the poor,
liberation of Indian women, for brotherhood amongst communities of
differing religions and ethnicity, and for an end to untouchability and
caste discrimination, but above all for Swaraj - the independence of
India from foreign domination. Gandhi famously led Indians in the
disobedience of the salt tax through the 400 kilometre (248 miles) Dandi
Salt March in 1931, and in an open call for the British to Quit India in
1942. He was imprisoned for many years on numerous occasions in South
Africa and India.
Throughout his life, Gandhi remained
committed to non-violence and truth even in the most extreme situations.
Gandhi was a student of Hindu philosophy and lived simply, organizing an
ashram that was self-sufficient in its needs. He made his own clothes -
the traditional Indian dhoti and shawl, woven with a charkha and lived
on a simple vegetarian diet. He used rigorous fasts - abstaining from
food and water for long periods - for self-purification as well as a
means for protest. Gandhi's life and teachings inspired Dr. Martin
Luther King Jr., Steve Biko and Aung San Suu Kyi and respectively the
American civil rights movement and the freedom struggles in South Africa
and Myanmar. In India, Gandhi was recognized as the Father of the Nation
by Subhas Bose, and later by the whole nation. October 2nd, his birthday
is each year commemorated as Gandhi Jayanti, and is a national holiday.
****
Early Life
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born into a
Hindu Modh family in Porbandar, Gujarat, India in 1869. He was the son
of Karamchand Gandhi, the diwan (Chief Minister) of Porbandar, and
Putlibai, Karamchand's fourth wife (his previous three wives had died in
childbirth), a Hindu of the Vaishnava order. Growing up with a devout
mother and surrounded by the Jain influences of Gujarat, Gandhi learned
from an early age the tenets of non-injury to living beings,
vegetarianism, fasting for self-purification, and mutual tolerance
between members of various creeds and sects. He was born into the
vaishya, or business, caste. In May 1883, at the age of 13, Gandhi was
married through his parents' arrangement to Kasturbha Makhanji (also
spelled "Kasturbhai" or known as "Ba"), who was the same age as he. They
had four sons: Harilal Gandhi, born in 1888; Manilal Gandhi, born in
1892; Ramdas Gandhi, born in 1897; and Devdas Gandhi, born in 1900.
Gandhi was a mediocre student in his youth at Porbandar and later
Rajkot. He barely passed the matriculation exam for the University of
Bombay in 1887, where he joined Samaldas College in Bhavnagar. His
family wanting him to become a barrister, he was also unhappy at the
college. He leapt at the opportunity to study in England, which he
viewed as "a land of philosophers and poets, the very centre of
civilization."
At the age of 19 on September 4 1889,
Gandhi went to University College London to train as a barrister. His
time in London, the Imperial capital, was influenced by a vow he had
made to his mother in the presence of a Jain monk Becharji, upon leaving
India to observe the Hindu precepts of abstinence from meat, alcohol,
and promiscuity. Although Gandhi experimented with adopting "English"
customs - taking dancing lessons for example - he could not stomach his
landlady's mutton and cabbage. She pointed him towards one of London's
few vegetarian restaurants. Rather than simply go along with his
mother's wishes, he read about, and intellectually embraced
vegetarianism. He joined the Vegetarian Society, was elected to its
executive committee, and founded a local chapter. He later credited this
with giving him valuable experience in organizing institutions. Some of
the vegetarians he met were members of the Theosophical Society, which
had been founded in 1875 to further universal brotherhood and devoted to
the study of Buddhist and Hindu Brahmanistic literature. They encouraged
Gandhi to read the Bhagavad Gita. Not having shown a particular interest
in religion before, he read works of and about Hinduism, Christianity,
Buddhism and other religions. He returned to India after being admitted
to the British bar. He had limited success trying to establish a law
practise in Bombay. He applied for a part-time job as a teacher at a
Bombay high school but was turned down. He ended up returning to Rajkot
to make a modest living drafting petitions for litigants but was forced
to close down that business as well when he ran afoul of a British
officer. In his autobiography, he describes this incident as a kind of
unsuccessful lobbying attempt on behalf of his older brother. It was in
this climate that (in 1893) he accepted a year-long contract from an
Indian firm to a post in Natal, South Africa.
Civil rights movement in South Africa
(1893–1914)
At this point in his life, Gandhi was a
mild-mannered, diffident and politically indifferent individual. He had
read his first newspaper at the age of 18, and was prone to stage fright
while speaking in court. South Africa changed him dramatically, as he
faced the discrimination that was commonly directed at blacks and
Indians in that country. One day in court in the city of Durban, the
magistrate asked him to remove his turban. Gandhi refused to do so, and
stormed out of the courtroom. In another incident, he was thrown off a
train at Pietermaritzburg, after refusing to move from the first class
coach to a third class compartment, normally used by coloured peoples,
while holding a valid first class ticket. Later, travelling further on
by stagecoach, he was beaten by a driver for refusing to travel on the
footboard to make room for an European passenger. He suffered other
hardships on the journey as well, including being barred from many
hotels on account of his race. This incident has been acknowledged by
several biographers as a turning point in his life that would serve as
the catalyst for his activism later in life. It was through witnessing
first-hand the racism, prejudice and injustice against Indians in South
Africa that Gandhi started to question his people's status, and his own
place in society.
At the end of his contract, Gandhi prepared
to return to India. However, at a farewell party in his honour in
Durban, he happened to glance at a newspaper and learned that a bill was
being considered by the Natal Legislative Assembly to deny the right to
vote to Indians. When he brought this up with his hosts, they lamented
that they did not have the expertise necessary to oppose the bill, and
implored Gandhi to stay and help them. He circulated several petitions
to both the Natal Legislature and the British Government in opposition
to the bill. Though unable to halt the bill's passage, his campaign was
successful in drawing attention to the grievances of Indians in South
Africa. Supporters convinced him to remain in Durban to continue
fighting against the injustices levied against Indians in South Africa.
He founded the Natal Indian Congress in 1894, with himself as the
Secretary. Through this organization, he moulded the Indian community of
South Africa into a heterogeneous political force, publishing documents
detailing Indian grievances and evidence of British discrimination in
South Africa. Gandhi returned briefly to India in 1896 to bring his wife
and children to live with him in South Africa. When he returned in
January 1897, a white mob attacked and tried to lynch him. In an early
indication of the personal values that would shape his later campaigns,
he refused to press charges on any member of the mob, stating it was one
of his principles not to seek redress for a personal wrong in a court of
law.
At the onset of the South African War,
Gandhi argued that Indians must support the war effort in order to
legitimize their claims to full citizenship, organising a volunteer
ambulance corps of 300 free Indians and 800 indentured labourers called
the Indian Ambulance Corps, one of the few medical units to serve
wounded black South Africans. He himself was a stretcher-bearer at the
Battle of Spion Kop, and was decorated. At the conclusion of the war,
however, the situation for the Indians did not improve, but continued to
deteriorate. In 1906, the Transvaal government promulgated a new Act
compelling registration of the colony's Indian population. At a mass
protest meeting held in Johannesburg that September, Gandhi adopted his
methodology of satyagraha (devotion to the truth), or non-violent
protest, for the first time, calling on his fellow Indians to defy the
new law and suffer the punishments for doing so, rather than resist
through violent means. This plan was adopted, leading to a seven-year
struggle in which thousands of Indians were jailed (including Gandhi
himself on many occasions), flogged, or even shot, for striking,
refusing to register, burning their registration cards, or engaging in
other forms of non-violent resistance. While the government was
successful in repressing the Indian protesters, the public outcry
stemming from the harsh methods employed by the South African government
in the face of peaceful Indian protesters finally forced South African
General Jan Christian Smuts to negotiate a compromise with Gandhi. In
May 1915, Gandhi founded an ashram on the outskirts of Ahmedabad and
called it Satyagrah Ashram. There lodged twenty five men and women who
tooks vows of truth, celibacy, ahimsa, nonpossession, control of the
palate, and service of the Indian people.
Fighting for Indian independence
(1916–1945)
As he had done in the South African War,
Gandhi urged support of the British in World War I and was active in
encouraging Indians to join the army. His rationale, opposed by many
others, was that if he desired the full citizenship, freedoms and rights
in the Empire, it would be wrong not to help in its defence. He spoke at
the conventions of the Indian National Congress, but was primarily
introduced to Indian issues, politics and the Indian people by Gopal
Krishna Gokhale, at the time the one of most respected leaders of the
Congress Party.
Champaran and Kheda
Main article: Champaran and Kheda
Satyagraha
Gandhi's first major achievements came in
1918 with the Champaran agitation and Kheda Satyagraha, although in the
latter he was involved at par with Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, who acted
as his right-hand and leader of the rebels. In Champaran, a district in
the state of Bihar, he organized civil resistance on the part of tens of
thousands of landless farmers and serfs, and poor farmers with small
lands, who were forced to grow indigo and other cash crops instead of
the food crops necessary for their survival. Suppressed by the militias
of the landlords (mostly British), they were given measly compensation,
leaving them mired in extreme poverty. The villages were kept extremely
dirty and unhygienic, and alcoholism, untouchability and purdah were
rampant. Now in the throes of a devastating famine, the British levied
an oppressive tax which they insisted on increasing in rate. The
situation was desperate. In Kheda in Gujarat, the problem was the same.
Gandhi established an ashram there, organizing scores of his veteran
supporters and fresh volunteers from the region. He organized a detailed
study and survey of the villages, accounting the atrocities and terrible
episodes of suffering, including the general state of degenerate living.
Building on the confidence of villagers, he began leading the clean-up
of villages, building of schools and hospitals and encouraging the
village leadership to undo and condemn many social evils, as accounted
above.
But his main assault came as he was
arrested by police on the charge of creating unrest and was ordered to
leave the province. Hundreds of thousands of people protested and
rallied outside the jail, police stations and courts demanding his
release, which the court unwillingly did. Gandhi led organized protests
and strikes against the landlords, who with the guidance of the British
government, signed an agreement granting more compensation and control
over farming for the poor farmers of the region, and cancellation of
revenue hikes and collection until the famine ended. It was during this
agitation, that Gandhi was addressed by the people as Bapu (Father) and
Mahatma (Great Soul). In Kheda, Patel represented the farmers in
negotiations with the British, who suspended revenue collection and
granted relief. All prisoners were released. Gandhi's resulting fame
spread all over the nation.
Non-Cooperation
The Rowlatt Act of 1919, which empowered
the government to imprison those accused of sedition without trial, was
passed. In Punjab, the Amritsar massacre of 379 civilians by British
troops caused deep trauma to the nation, and increased public anger and
acts of violence. Gandhi criticized both the actions of the British, and
the retaliatory violence of Indians. He authored the resolution offering
condolences to British civilian victims and condemning the riots, which
after initial opposition in the party, was accepted after Gandhi made an
emotional speech pushing forth his principle that all violence was evil
and could not be justified. But it was after the massacre and violence
that Gandhi's mind focused upon obtaining complete self-government and
control of all Indian government institutions, maturing soon into Swaraj
or complete individual, spiritual, political independence. Gandhi was
invested with executive authority on behalf of the Indian National
Congress in December 1921. Under Gandhi's leadership, the Congress was
reorganized with a new constitution, with the goal of Swaraj. Membership
in the party was opened to anyone prepared to pay a token fee. A
hierarchy of committees was set up to improve discipline, transforming
the party from an elite organization to one of mass national appeal.
Gandhi expanded his non-violence platform to include the swadeshi policy
– the boycott of foreign-made goods, especially British goods. Linked to
this was his advocacy that khadi (homespun cloth) be worn by all Indians
instead of British-made textiles. Gandhi exhorted Indian men and women,
rich or poor, to spend time each day spinning khadi in support of the
independence movement. This was a strategy to inculcate discipline and
dedication to weed out the unwilling and ambitious, and include women in
the movement at a time when many thought that such activities were not
'respectable' for women. In addition to boycotting British products,
Gandhi urged the people to boycott British educational institutions and
law courts, to resign from government employment, and to forsake British
titles and honours.
"Non-cooperation" enjoyed wide-spread
appeal and success, increasing excitement and participation from all
strata of Indian society, yet just as the movement reached its apex, it
ended abruptly as a result of a violent clash in the town of Chauri
Chaura, Uttar Pradesh, in February 1922. Fearing that the movement was
about to take a turn towards violence, and convinced that this would be
the undoing of all his work, Gandhi called off the campaign of mass
civil disobedience. Gandhi was arrested on March 10, 1922, tried for
sedition, and sentenced to six years. Beginning on March 18, 1922, he
only served about two years of the sentence, being released in February
1924 after an operation for appendicitis. Without Gandhi's uniting
personality, the Indian National Congress began to splinter during his
years in prison, splitting into two factions, one led by Chitta Ranjan
Das and Motilal Nehru favouring party participation in the legislatures,
and the other led by Chakravarti Rajagopalachari and Sardar Vallabhbhai
Patel, opposing this move. Furthermore, cooperation among Hindus and
Muslims, which had been strong at the height of the nonviolence
campaign, was breaking down. Gandhi attempted to bridge these
differences through many means, including a three-week fast in the
autumn of 1924, but with limited success.
Swaraj and the Salt Satyagraha
Gandhi stayed out of the limelight for most
of the 1920s, preferring to resolve the wedge between the Swaraj Party
and the Indian National Congress, and expanding initiatives against
untouchability, alcoholism, ignorance and poverty. He returned to the
fore in 1928. The year before, the British government appointed a new
constitutional reform commission under Sir John Simon numbering not a
single Indian in its ranks. The result was a boycott of the commission
by Indian political parties. Gandhi pushed through a resolution at the
Calcutta Congress in December 1928 calling on the British government to
grant India dominion status or face a new campaign of non-violence with
complete independence for the country as its goal. Gandhi had moderated
the views of younger men like Subhas Chandra Bose and Jawaharlal Nehru,
who sought a demand for immediate independence, but also modified his
own call to a one year wait, instead of two. The British did not
respond. On December 31, 1929, the flag of India was unfurled in Lahore.
January 26, 1930 was celebrated by the Indian National Congress, meeting
in Lahore as India's Independence Day. This day was commemorated by
almost every other Indian organization. Making good on his word in March
1930, he launched a new satyagraha against the tax on salt, highlighted
by the famous Salt March to Dandi from March 21 to April 6 1930,
marching 400 kilometres (248 miles) from Ahmedabad to Dandi, Gujarat to
make his own salt. Thousands of Indians joined him on this march to the
sea. This campaign was one of his most successful, resulting in the
imprisonment of over 60,000 people.
The government, represented by Lord Irwin,
decided to negotiate with Gandhi. The Gandhi-Irwin Pact was signed in
March 1931. In it, the British Government agreed to set all political
prisoners free in return for the suspension of the civil disobedience
movement. Furthermore, Gandhi was invited to attend the Round Table
Conference in London as the sole representative of the Indian National
Congress. The conference was a disappointment to Gandhi and the
nationalists as it focused on the Indian princes and Indian minorities
rather than the transfer of power. Furthermore, Lord Irwin's successor,
Lord Willingdon, embarked on a new campaign of repression against the
nationalists. Gandhi was again arrested, and the government attempted to
destroy his influence by completely isolating him from his followers.
This tactic was not successful. In 1932, through the campaigning of the
Dalit leader B. R. Ambedkar, the government granted untouchables
separate electorates under the new constitution. In protest, Gandhi
embarked on a six-day fast in September 1932, successfully forcing the
government to adopt a more equitable arrangement via negotiations
mediated by the Dalit cricketer turned political leader Palwankar Baloo.
This began a new campaign by Gandhi to improve the lives of the
untouchables, whom he named Harijans, the children of God. On May 8,
1933 Gandhi began a 21-day fast of self-purification to help the Harijan
movement. In the summer of 1934, three unsuccessful attempts were made
on his life.
When the Congress Party chose to contest
elections and accept power under the Federation scheme, Gandhi decided
to resign from party membership. He did not at all disagree with the
party's move, but felt that if he resigned, his popularity with Indians
would cease to stifle the party's membership, that actually varied from
communists, socialists, trade unionists, students, religious
conservatives, pro-business convictions. Gandhi also did not want to
prove a target for Raj propaganda by leading a party that had
temporarily accepted political accommodation with the Raj. Gandhi
returned to the head in 1936, with the Nehru presidency and the Lucknow
session of the Congress. Although Gandhi desired a total focus on the
task of winning independence and not speculation about India's future,
he did not restrain the Congress from adopting socialism as its goal.
Gandhi had a clash with Subhas Bose, who had been elected to the
presidency in 1938. Gandhi's main issues with Bose were his lack of
commitment to democracy, and lack of faith in non-violence. Bose won his
second term despite Gandhi's criticism, but left the Congress when the
All-India leaders resigned en masse in protest of his abandonment of
principles introduced by Gandhi.
World War II and Quit India
World War II broke out in 1939 when Nazi
Germany invaded Poland. Initially, Gandhi had favored offering
"non-violent moral support" to the British effort, but other Congress
leaders were offended by the unilateral inclusion of India into the war,
without consultation of the people's representatives. All Congressmen
elected to office resigned en masse. After lengthy deliberations, Gandhi
declared that India could not be party to a war ostensibly being fought
for democratic freedom, while that freedom was denied in India herself.
As the war progressed, Gandhi increased his demands for independence,
drafting a resolution calling for the British to Quit India. This was
Gandhi's and the Congress Party's most definitive revolt aimed at
securing the British exit from Indian shores.
Gandhi was criticized by some Congressmen
and other Indian political groups, both pro-British and anti-British.
Some felt that opposing Britain in its life-death struggle was immoral,
and others felt that Gandhi wasn't doing enough. Quit India became the
most forceful movement in the history of the struggle, with mass arrests
and violence on an unprecedented scale. Thousands of freedom fighters
were killed or injured in police firing, and hundreds of thousands were
arrested. Gandhi and his supporters made it clear they would not support
the war effort unless India were granted immediate independence. He even
clarified that this time the movement would not be stopped if individual
acts of violence were committed, saying that the "ordered anarchy"
around him was "worse than real anarchy". He called on all Congressmen
and Indians to maintain discipline in ahimsa, and Karo Ya Maro (Do or
Die) in the cause of ultimate freedom. Gandhi and the entire Congress
Working Committee were arrested in Mumbai by the British on August 9,
1942. Gandhi was held for two years in the Aga Khan Palace in Pune. It
was here that Gandhi suffered two terrible blows in his personal life -
his wife Kasturba passed away, just a few months after Mahadev Desai,
his 42-year old secretary died of a heart attack. He was released before
the end of the war because of his failing health and necessary surgery;
the Raj did not want him to die in prison and enrage the entire nation
beyond control. Although the ruthless suppression of the movement by
British forces brought relative order to India by the end of 1943, Quit
India succeeded in its objective. At the end of the war, the British
gave clear indications that power would be transferred to Indian hands,
and Gandhi called off the struggle, and the Congress leadership and
around 100,000 political prisoners were released. In February 1944
Kasturbai Gandhi died in prison and six weeks later Gandhi suffered a
severe malaria attack. During this time Gandhi's health continually
detoriated to the point that the government on May 6 1944 decided to
release him.
Freedom and partition of India
Gandhi advised the Congress to reject the
proposals the British Cabinet Mission offered in 1946, as he was deeply
suspicious of the grouping proposed for Muslim-majority states - Gandhi
viewed this as a precursor to partition. However, this became one of the
few times the Congress broke from Gandhi's advice (not his leadership
though), as Nehru and Patel knew that if the Congress did not approve
the plan, the control of government would pass to the Muslim League.
Between 1946 and 1947, over 5,000 people were killed in violence. Gandhi
was vehemently opposed to any plan that partitioned India into two
separate countries. Many Muslims in India lived side by side with Hindus
and Sikhs, and were in favour of a united India. But Jinnah commanded
widespread support in West Punjab, Sindh, NWFP and East Bengal. The
partition plan was approved by the Congress leadership as the only way
to prevent a wide-scale Hindu-Muslim civil war. Congress leaders knew
that Gandhi would viscerally oppose partition, and it was impossible for
the Congress to go ahead without his agreement, for Gandhi's support in
the party and throughout India was strong. Gandhi's closest colleagues
had accepted partition as the best way out, and Sardar Patel endeavoured
to convince Gandhi that it was the only way to avoid civil war. A
devastated Gandhi gave his assent.
On the day of the transfer of power, Gandhi
did not celebrate independence with the rest of India, but was alone in
Calcutta, mourning the partition and working to end the violence. After
India's independence, Gandhi focused on Hindu-Muslim peace and unity. He
conducted extensive dialogue with Muslim and Hindu community leaders,
working to cool passions in northern India, as well as in Bengal.
Despite the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947, he was troubled when the
Government decided to deny Pakistan the Rs. 55 crores due as per
agreements made by the Partition Council. Leaders like Sardar Patel
feared that Pakistan would use the money to bankroll the war against
India. Gandhi was also devastated when demands resurged for all Muslims
to be deported to Pakistan, and when Muslim and Hindu leaders expressed
frustration and an inability to come to terms with one another. He
launched his last fast-unto-death in Delhi, asking that all communal
violence be ended once and for all, and that the payment of Rs. 55
crores be made to Pakistan. Gandhi feared that instability and
insecurity in Pakistan would increase their anger against India, and
violence would spread across the borders. He further feared that Hindus
and Muslims would renew their enmity and precipitate into an open civil
war. After emotional debates with his life-long colleagues, Gandhi
refused to budge, and the Government rescinded its policy and made the
payment to Pakistan. Hindu, Muslim and Sikh community leaders, including
the RSS and Hindu Mahasabha assured him that they would renounce
violence and call for peace. Gandhi thus broke his fast by sipping
orange juice.
Assassination
On January 30, 1948, on his way to a prayer
meeting, Gandhi was shot dead in Birla House, New Delhi, by Nathuram
Godse. Godse was a Hindu radical with links to the extremist Hindu
Mahasabha, who held Gandhi responsible for weakening India by insisting
upon a payment to Pakistan. Godse and his co-conspirator Narayan Apte
were later tried and convicted, and on 15 November 1949, were executed.
A prominent revolutionary and Hindu extremist, the president of the
Mahasabha, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar was accused of being the architect
of the plot, but was acquitted due to lack of evidence. Gandhi's
memorial (or Samādhi) at Rāj Ghāt, New Delhi, bears the epigraph,
(Devanagiri: हे ! राम or, Hé Rām), which may be translated as "Oh God".
These are widely believed to be Gandhi's last words after he was shot
at, though the veracity of this statement has been disputed by many.
Jawaharlal Nehru addressed the nation through radio:
"Friends and comrades, the light has gone
out of our lives, and there is darkness everywhere, and I do not quite
know what to tell you or how to say it. Our beloved leader, Bapu as we
called him, the father of the nation, is no more. Perhaps I am wrong to
say that; nevertheless, we will not see him again, as we have seen him
for these many years, we will not run to him for advice or seek solace
from him, and that is a terrible blow, not for me only, but for millions
and millions in this country."
Gandhi's principles
Truth
Gandhi dedicated his life to the wider
purpose of discovering truth, or Satya. He tried to achieve this by
learning from his own mistakes and conducting experiments on himself. He
named his autobiography The Story of My Experiments with Truth. Gandhi
found that uncovering the truth was not always popular as many people
were resistant to change, preferring instead to maintain the existing
status quo because of either inertia, self-interest or misguided
beliefs. However he also discovered that once the truth was on the march
nothing could stop it. All it took was time to achieve traction and gain
momentum. As Gandhi said:
"The Truth is far more powerful than any
weapon of mass destruction".
Gandhi said that the most important battle
to fight was in overcoming his own demons, fears and insecurities. He
thought it was all too easy to blame people, governing powers or enemies
for his personal actions and well-being. He noted the solution to
problems could normally be found just by looking in the mirror. One of
the greatest contributions of Mahatma Gandhi was in the realm of
ontology and its association with truth. For Gandhi, "to be" did not
mean to exist within the realm of time, as it has in the past with the
Greek philosophers. But rather, "to exist" meant to exist within the
realm of truth, or to use the term Gandhi did, satya. Gandhi summarized
his beliefs first when he said "God is Truth," but as typical of Gandhi,
he evolved, later to correct himself and state that "Truth is God." The
first statement seemed insufficient to Gandhi, as the mistake could be
made that Gandhi was using Truth as a description of God, rather than
the summative definition of the entire essence of God. Satya (Truth) in
Gandhi's philosophy IS God. It shares all the characteristics of the
Hindu concept of God, or Brahman. It lives within us, that little voice
that tells us what to do, but also guides the universe.
Nonviolence
The concept of nonviolence (ahimsa) and
nonresistance has a long history in Indian religious thought and has had
many revivals in Hindu, Buddhist, Jain and Christian contexts. Gandhi
explains his philosophy and way of life in his autobiography The Story
of My Experiments with Truth. He was quoted as saying:
"When I despair, I remember that all
through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have
been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible, but in
the end, they always fall -- think of it, ALWAYS."
"What difference does it make to the dead,
the orphans, and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought
under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty and
democracy?"
"An eye for an eye makes the whole world
blind".
"There are many causes that I am prepared
to die for but no causes that I am prepared to kill for".
In applying these principles, Gandhi did
not balk from taking them to their most logical extremes. In 1940, when
invasion of the British Isles by Nazi Germany looked imminent, Gandhi
offered the following advice to the British people (Non-Violence in
Peace and War):
"I would like you to lay down the arms you
have as being useless for saving you or humanity. You will invite Herr
Hitler and Signor Mussolini to take what they want of the countries you
call your possessions.... If these gentlemen choose to occupy your
homes, you will vacate them. If they do not give you free passage out,
you will allow yourselves, man, woman, and child, to be slaughtered, but
you will refuse to owe allegiance to them".
However, Gandhi was aware that this level
of nonviolence required incredible faith and courage, which he realized
everyone did not possess. He therefore advised that everyone need not
keep to nonviolence, especially if it was used as a cover for cowardice:
"Gandhi guarded against attracting to his
satyagraha movement those who feared to take up arms or felt themselves
incapable of resistance. 'I do believe,' he wrote, 'that where there is
only a choice between cowardice and violence, I would advise violence.'
" (Bondurant 28)
"At every meeting I repeated the warning
that unless they felt that in non-violence they had come into possession
of a force infinitely superior to the one they had and in the use of
which they were adept, they should have nothing to do with non-violence
and resume the arms they possessed before. It must never be said of the
Khudai Khidmatgars that once so brave, they had become or been made
cowards under Badshah Khan's influence. Their bravery consisted not in
being good marksmen but in defying death and being ever ready to bear
their breasts to the bullets." (Bondurant 139)
Vegetarianism
Although he experimented with eating meat
in India when he was very young, he later became a strict vegetarian. He
wrote books on the subject while in London, having met vegetarian
campaigner Henry Stephens Salt at gatherings of the Vegetarian Society.
The idea of vegetarianism is deeply ingrained in Hindu and Jain
traditions in India, and, in his native land of Gujarat, most Hindus
were vegetarian. He experimented with various diets and concluded that a
vegetarian diet would satisfy the requirements of the body. However he
was flexible for his time and had little reservations on eating table
eggs as seen in his 1948 article Key to Health. He abstained from eating
for long periods, using fasting as a political weapon. He refused to eat
until his death or his demands were met.
Brahmacharya
Gandhi gave up sexual intercourse at the
age of 36, becoming totally celibate while still married. This decision
was deeply influenced by the philosophy of brahmacharya—spiritual and
practical purity—largely associated with celibacy and asceticism. Gandhi
saw brahmacharya as a means of going close to God and as a primary
foundation for self realisation. In his autobiography he tells of his
battle against lustful urges and fits of jealousy with his childhood
bride, Kasturba. He felt it his personal obligation to remain celibate
so that he could learn to love, rather than lust. For Gandhi
brahmacharya meant control of the senses in thought, word and deed.
Simplicity
Gandhi earnestly believed that a person
involved in social service should lead a simple life. His simplicity
began by renouncing the western lifestyle he was leading in South
Africa. Gandhi reduced his expenditure by embracing a simple living
lifestyle, which included washing his own clothes. On one occasion he
returned the gifts bestowed to him from the natals for his diligent
service to the community.
Gandhi spent one day of each week in
silence. He believed that abstaining from speaking brought him inner
peace. This influence was drawn from the Hindu principles of mouna
(silence) and shanti (peace). On such days he communicated with others
by writing on paper. For three and a half years, from the age of 37,
Gandhi refused to read newspapers, claiming that the tumultuous state of
world affairs caused him more confusion than his own inner unrest.
Returning to India from South Africa, where he had enjoyed a successful
legal practice, he gave up wearing Western-style clothing, which he
associated with wealth and success. He dressed to be accepted by the
poorest person in India, advocating the use of homespun cloth (khadi).
Gandhi and his followers adopted the practice of weaving their own
clothes from thread they themselves spun, and encouraged others to do
so. While Indian workers were often idle due to unemployment, they had
often bought their clothing from industrial manufacturers owned by
British interests. It was Gandhi's view that if Indians made their own
clothes, it would deal an economic blow to the British establishment in
India. Consequently, the spinning wheel was later incorporated into the
flag of the Indian National Congress.
Faith
Gandhi was born a Hindu and was a
practicing Hindu all his life, deriving most of his principles from
Hinduism. As a common Hindu, he believed all religions to be equal, and
rejected all efforts to convert him to a different faith. He was an
excellent theologist and read extensively about all major religions. He
had the following to say about Hinduism.
"Hinduism as I know it entirely satisfies
my soul, fills my whole being ... When doubts haunt me, when
disappointments stare me in the face, and when I see not one ray of
light on the horizon, I turn to the Bhagavad Gita, and find a verse to
comfort me; and I immediately begin to smile in the midst of
overwhelming sorrow. My life has been full of tragedies and if they have
not left any visible and indelible effect on me, I owe it to the
teachings of the Bhagavad Gita".
Gandhi believed that at the core of every
religion was Truth and Love (compassion, nonviolence and the Golden
Rule). He also questioned hypocrisy, malpractices and dogma in all
religions and was a tireless social reformer. Some of his comments on
various religions are:
"Thus if I could not accept Christianity
either as a perfect, or the greatest religion, neither was I then
convinced of Hinduism being such. Hindu defects were pressingly visible
to me. If untouchability could be a part of Hinduism, it could but be a
rotten part or an excrescence. I could not understand the raison d'etre
of a multitude of sects and castes. What was the meaning of saying that
the Vedas were the inspired Word of God? If they were inspired, why not
also the Bible and the Koran? As Christian friends were endeavouring to
convert me, so were Muslim friends. Abdullah Sheth had kept on inducing
me to study Islam, and of course he had always something to say
regarding its beauty". (source: his autobiography)
"As soon as we lose the moral basis, we
cease to be religious. There is no such thing as religion over-riding
morality. Man, for instance, cannot be untruthful, cruel or incontinent
and claim to have God on his side".
"The sayings of Muhammad are a treasure of
wisdom, not only for Muslims but for all of mankind". The concept of
Islamic jihad can also be taken to mean a nonviolent struggle or
satyagraha, in the way Gandhi practiced it.
Later in his life when he was asked whether
he was a Hindu, he replied:
"Yes I am. I am also a Christian, a Muslim,
a Buddhist and a Jew".
In spite of their deep reverence to each
other, Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore got involved in protracted debates
more than once. These debates exemplify the philosophical differences
between the two most famous Indians at the time. On January 15, 1934, an
earthquake hit Bihar and caused extensive damage and loss of life.
Gandhi maintained this was because of the sin committed by upper caste
Hindus by not letting untouchables in their temples (Gandhi was
committed to the cause of improving the fate of untouchables, referring
to them as Harijans, people of Krishna). Tagore vehemently opposed
Gandhi's stance, maintaining that an earthquake can only be caused by
natural forces, not moral reasons, however repugnant the practice of
untouchability may be.
Criticism
Throughout his life and after his death,
Gandhi has evoked serious criticism. B. R. Ambedkar, the Dalit political
leader condemned Gandhi's terming the untouchable community as Harijans,
which he found condescending. Ambedkar and his allies also felt Gandhi
was undermining Dalit political rights. Muhammad Ali Jinnah and
contemporary Pakistanis often condemn Gandhi for undermining Muslim
political rights. Vinayak Damodar Savarkar condemned Gandhi for
appeasing Muslims politically - Savarkar and his allies blamed Gandhi
for thus facilitating the creation of Pakistan and increasing the
influence of the Muslim community in politics beyond proportion.
Savarkar himself was implicated in the trial following Gandhi's murder,
as he was the mentor of the assassin Nathuram Godse and an important
Hindu Mahasabha leader. In contemporary times, historians like Ayesha
Jalal blame Gandhi and the Congress for being unwilling to share power
with Muslims and thus hastening partition. Hindu political extremists
like Pravin Togadia and Narendra Modi have been known to criticize
Gandhi's leadership and actions.
Gandhi believed that the mind of an
oppressor or a bigot could be changed by love and non-violent rejection
of wrong actions, while accepting full responsibility for the
consequences of the actions. However, Penn and Teller, in an episode of
their Showtime program Bullshit! ("Holier than Thou"), attacked Gandhi
for, amongst other things, hypocrisy for perceived inconsistent stands
on nonviolence, alleged inappropriate behaviour with women and apparent
racist statements against Africans. The last allegation is based on an
incident in Bombay in 1896. On addressing a public meeting in Bombay on
September 26, 1896 (cf. Collected Works Volume II, page 74) following
his return from South Africa, Gandhi said:
Ours is one continued struggle against
degradation sought to be inflicted upon us by the European, who desire
to degrade us to the level of the raw kaffir, whose occupation is
hunting and whose sole ambition is to collect a certain number of cattle
to buy a wife with, and then pass his life in indolence and nakedness.
Gandhi has also been criticized by various
historians and commentators for his attitudes regarding Hitler and
Nazism. Gandhi apparently believed that Hitler's hatred could be
transformed by the application of non-violent resistance. Gandhi has
come under fire in particular for statements to the effect that the Jews
would win God's love if they willingly went to their deaths as martyrs.
Sometimes his prescription of extreme
non-violence was severely at odds with the prevailing view of a
situation. In 1940, he wrote an open letter to the British people in
which he offered them the following plan of action for the second world
war:
"I want you to lay down the arms you have
as being useless for saving you or humanity. You will invite Herr Hitler
and Signor Mussolini to take what they want of the countries you call
your possessions. Let them take possession of your beautiful island with
your many beautiful buildings... If these gentlemen choose to occupy
your homes, you will vacate them. If they do not give you free passage
out, you will allow yourself, man, woman and child to be slaughtered...
I am telling His Excellency the Viceroy that my services are at the
disposal of His Majesty's government, should they consider them of any
practical use in enhancing my appeal." (From Stanley Wolpert's "Jinnah
of Pakistan.")
Recognition
Gandhi never received the Nobel Peace
Prize, though he was nominated for it five times between 1937 and 1948.
Decades later however, the Nobel Committee publicly declared its regret
for the omission, and admitted to deeply divided nationalistic opinion
denying the award to Gandhi. The Prize was not awarded in 1948, the year
of Gandhi's death, on the grounds that "there was no suitable living
candidate" that year, and when the Dalai Lama was awarded the Prize in
1989, the chairman of the committee said that this was "in part a
tribute to the memory of Mahatma Gandhi". After Gandhi's death, Albert
Einstein said of Gandhi: "Generations to come will scarcely believe that
such a one as this walked the earth in flesh and blood."
Time Magazine named Gandhi as the runner-up
to Albert Einstein as "Person of the Century" at the end of 1999, and
named The Dalai Lama, Lech Wałęsa, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Cesar
Chavez, Aung San Suu Kyi, Benigno Aquino Jr., Desmond Tutu, and Nelson
Mandela as Children of Gandhi and his spiritual heirs to the tradition
of non-violence. The Government of India awards the annual Mahatma
Gandhi Peace Prize to distinguished social workers, world leaders and
citizens. Nelson Mandela, the leader of South Africa's struggle to
eradicate racial discrimination and segregation, is a prominent
non-Indian recipient of this honour. In 1996, the Government of India
introduced the Mahatma Gandhi series of currency notes in Rupees 5, 10,
20, 50, 100, 500 and 1000 denomination.
Mahatma
The word Mahatma, while often mistaken for
Gandhi's given name in the West, is taken from the Sanskrit words maha
meaning Great and atma meaning Soul. The title "Mahatma" was first
accorded to Gandhi on January 21, 1915 by his pioneer supporter
Nautamlal Bhagavanji Mehta at the Kamribai School in Jetpur, Gujarat,
India (in the erstwhile princely state of Kathiawad). In his
autobiography, Gandhi nevertheless explains that he never felt worthy of
the honor. According to the manpatra, the name Mahatma was given in
response to Gandhi's admirable sacrifice in manifesting justice and
truth. The wide acceptance of this title outside India may in part
reflect the complexities of the relationship between India and Britain
during Gandhi's lifetime. Such acceptance is consistent with the
widespread perception of his deeply held religious beliefs and
commitment to non-violence.
Artistic depictions
The best-known artistic depiction of his
life is the film Gandhi (1982), directed by Richard Attenborough, and
starring Ben Kingsley (himself of Gujarati parentage from his father's
side) in the title role. However, the film has since been criticised by
some post-colonial scholars, who argue that it depicts Gandhi as
single-handedly bringing India to independence, and ignores other
prominent figures (both elite and subaltern) in the anti-colonial
struggle. The Making of the Mahatma, directed by Shyam Benegal, and
starring Rajat Kapur, is a film about Gandhi's 21 years of life in South
Africa. Gandhi's character, played by veteran actor Anu Kapoor, is also
prominently depicted in the film Sardar (1993) about the life of Sardar
Vallabhbhai Patel.
The 1998 film Hey Ram, made by Kamal Hasan
portrays a would-be assassin of Gandhi and the dilemma faced by the
would be assassins in the turmoil of post-partition India. Gandhi's
character is played by veteran actor Naseeruddin Shah. There are several
works explorative of different aspects of Gandhi's life and his
controversial actions: the play Mahatma vs. Gandhi explores his troubled
relationship with his eldest son Harilal Gandhi, and Me Nathuram Godse
Boltoy (Marathi: I am Nathuram Godsé speaking) explores the rationale
and circumstances in which Gandhi's murder was plotted and carried out.
The opera Satyāgraha , composed by Philip Glass (in 1980), with a
libretto by himself and Constance De Jong is based on the life of
Gandhi.
Across the world
In the
United Kingdom, there are several prominent statues of Gandhi, most
notably in Tavistock Square, London (near University College London),
where he studied law. January 30 is commemorated in the United Kingdom
as National Gandhi Remembrance Day. In the United States, there are
statues of Gandhi outside the Ferry Building in San Francisco, Union
Square Park in New York City, the Martin Luther King, Jr. National
Historic Site in Atlanta and near the Indian Embassy in the Dupont
Circle neighbourhood of Washington, DC. The city of Pietermaritzburg,
South Africa, where Gandhi was ejected in 1893 from a first-class train,
now hosts a commemorative statue. The Government of India donated a
statue to the city of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, to signify their
support for the future Canadian Museum for Human Rights. There are wax
statues of Gandhi at the Madame Tussaud's wax museums in New York and
London, and other cities around the world, including Moscow, Paris,
Amsterdam, Barcelona, Lisbon, Canberra, Santiago de Chile and San
Fernando, Trinidad and Tobago.
****
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