Mahatma Gandhi Online
Mahatma Gandhi Biography
in full Mahatma Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
( 1869 – 1948 )
Indian nationalist leader. Born Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi on October 2, 1869 in Poorbandar, Kathiawar, West India. He studied law in London, but in 1893 went to South Africa, where he spent 20 years opposing discriminatory legislation against Indians. As a pioneer of Satyagraha, or resistance through mass non-violent civil disobedience, he became one of the major political and spiritual leaders of his time. Satyagraha remains one of the most potent philosophies in freedom struggles throughout the world today.
In 1914, Gandhi returned to India, where he supported the Home Rule movement, and became leader of the Indian National Congress, advocating a policy of non-violent non-co-operation to achieve independence. His goal was to help poor farmers and laborers protest oppressive taxation and discrimination. He struggled to alleviate poverty, liberate women and put an end to caste discrimination, with the ultimate objective being self-rule for India.
Following his civil disobedience campaign (1919-22), he was jailed for conspiracy (1922-4). In 1930, he led a landmark 320 km/200 mi Salt March in symbolic defiance of the government monopoly. On his release from prison (1931), he attended the London Round Table Conference on Indian constitutional reform. In 1946, he negotiated with the Cabinet Mission which recommended the new constitutional structure. After independence (1947), he tried to stop the Hindu-Muslim conflict in Bengal, a policy which led to Gandhi's assassination in Delhi by Nathuram Godse, a Hindu fanatic.
Even after his death, Gandhi's commitment to non-violence and his belief in simple living--making his own clothes, eating a vegetarian diet, and using fasts for self-purification as well as a means of protest--have been a beacon of hope for oppressed and marginalized people throughout the world.
(Source: A&E Television)
Gandhi's Autobiography
Mohandas K. Gandhi is one of the most inspiring figures of our time. In his classic autobiography he recounts the story of his life and how he developed his concept of active nonviolent resistance, which propelled the Indian struggle for independence and countless other nonviolent struggles of the twentieth century.
In a new foreword, noted peace expert and teacher Sissela Bok urges us to adopt Gandhi's "attitude of experimenting, of tesing what will and will not bear close scrutiny, what can and cannot be adapted to new circumstances,"in order to bring about change in our own lives and communities.
All royalties earned on this book are paid to the Navajivan Trust, founded by Gandhi, for use in carrying on his work.
You can buy the book on Amazon for under $10 new or as little as $1 used.
Gandhi Facts
Basic Gandhi Facts for Kids
- He was born on October 2, 1869 in Porbandar, India
- When he was a child, he was afraid of the dark.
- He was married when he was 13 years old to Kasturbai Makanji.
- He had two children.
- He spent most of his time fighting for the independence of India.
- He led the Salt March to protest against the British.
- He went to Law School in London.
- He had a Law Office in South Africa.
- Gandhi was killed on January 30, 1948 by a Hindu extremist
- He influenced Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela and millions of other people.
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The Salt March
- The Salt March was probably Gandhi's single most famous action of non-violent resistance
- Protested the British Salt Tax which made it illegal for people to freely collect their own salt from the coasts of India, making them buy salt they couldn't really afford.
- A 241 mile march that lasted 23 days (March 12 – April 6, 1930)
- Gandhi, 61 years old at the time, and 78 followers completed the entire march. Thousands of others joined along the way.
- Brought worldwide attention for his cause and also also became a classic example of civil disobedience
- This launched a period of mass civil disobedience where millions broke the salt laws by making salt or buying illegal salt, promting over 60,000 arrests
- A month after Gandhi completed his march he was arrested prompting protests by hundreds of thousands of Indians
- Though the Salt March did not bring immediate change, it was a significant step towards showing the British that their occupation of India was not sustainable.
Gandi's Death
- Assassinated on January 30, 1948 by a Hindu nationalist named Nathuram Godse.
- Godse killed Gandhi because he as a hardline Hindu nationalist believed India only belongs to Hindus
- Why I Killed Gandhi is a publication that contains the original transcript of Nathuram Godse's defense in the trial.
- Gandhi's last words were Hey Raam., which translates to "Oh God"
- There had been four assasination attempts on Gandhi before he was killed
- New York Times headline after his death: " Gandhi Is Killed By A Hindu; India Shaken, World Mourns; 15 Die In Rioting In Bombay Three Shots Fired" Read and see the whole article here
- Gandhi quote about his death
If I am to die by the bullet of a mad man, I must do so smiling. There must be no anger within me. God must be in my heart and on my lips.
— Mohandas K. Gandhi, 28 January 1948, two days prior to his assassination.
(Source: wikipedia)
Little Known Facts about Mahatma Gandhi
- He had a set of false teeth, which he carried in a fold of his loin cloth. He put them in his mouth only when he wanted to eat. After his meal, he took them out, washed them and put them back in his loin cloth again.
- Mahatma Gandhi spoke English with an Irish accent, for one of his first teachers was an Irishman.
- During the freedom struggle, he wore nothing but a loin cloth, but for years he lived in London and used to wear a silk hat and spats and carried a cane.
- He was educated at London University and became an attorney. But the first time he attempted to make a speech in court, his knees trembled, and he was so frightened that he had to sit down in confusion and defeat.
- As a lawyer in London, he got nowhere at all. He was practically a failure there. Years before, when he first came to England, his Irish teacher made him copy the Sermon on the Mount, over and over again, purely as an exercise in English. Hour after hour, Gandhi wrote “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. . . . Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God,” and these words made a profound impression on him.
- Later, he was sent to South Africa to collect some huge debts; and he tried to apply there the philosophy of the Sermon on the Mount. And it worked. Clients flocked to Gandhi because he settled their claims peacefully out of court and saved them time and expense.
- His income during those days in South Africa touched fifteen thousand dollars a year! Something still a dream for most Indians !
- However, despite this worldly success he was not happy. On seeing the untold misery of millions of his fellow countrymen; on seeing thousand of them dying of starvation; the worldly success seemed cheap and unimportant to him. He gave up all his money and ‘took the vow of poverty, and since that time, he consecrated his life to helping the poor and the downtrodden.
- On seeing the hopeless condition of one tenth of India which was living in a hungry and half-starved state, Mahatma Gandhi pleaded with them to cease bringing children into a world filled with so much misery and want.
- Mahatma Gandhi experimented with diets to see how cheaply he could live and remain healthy. He started living principally on fruit and goats’ milk and olive oil.
- Mahatma Gandhi got inspiration of Civil Disobedience by reading a book of an American ! He had been greatly influenced by the teachings of an American by the name of David Thoreau. Thoreau was graduated from Harvard University ninety years ago, and then spent twenty-eight dollars building a cabin for himself on the lonely shores of Walden Pond, in Massachusetts. He lived there like a hermit, and refused to pay taxes; so he was thrown into jail. He then wrote a book on Civil Disobedience, saying that no one ought to pay taxes. People didn’t pay the slightest attention to his book then; but, seventy-five years later, Gandhi read that book, away out in India, and decided to use Thoreau’s tactics. He felt that England had not kept her promise to give India self-government; so, in order to punish England, Gandhi urged the people of India to go to jail rather than pay taxes, and he also urged his followers to boycott English goods. When the British placed a tax on salt, Gandhi led his follower to the sea and they made their own salt.
- Mahatma Gandhi never visited the US, but he had many American fans and followers. One of his more unusual admirers was Henry Ford. Gandhi sent him an autographed charkha (spinning wheel) through a journalist emissary. During the darkest days of the Second World War, Ford, who was struck by the charkha’s “mechanical simplicity and high moral purpose,” would often spin on “the symbol of economic independence that Gandhi had sent.
- Mahatma Gandhi inspired millions of people world over to take the path of non-violence and civil disobedience. 5 world leaders who got Noble Peace prize viz. Martin Luther King Jr. (USA), Dalai Lama (Tibet), Aung San Suu Kyi (Myanmar), Nelson Mandela (S. Africa) and Adolfo Perez Esquivel (Argentina) have acknowledged the fact that they were influenced by the philosophy of Gandhi. Yet, Mahatma Gandhi; the man who inspired these Nobel Peace Prize winners, never got a Noble Prize !
I think it is a loss for the Noble – the prize; not for Gandhi – the man who is above all prizes. - The great Scientist Albert Einstein once said about Gandhi :
“Generations to come will scarcely believe that such a one as this (Gandhi) walked the earth in flesh and blood.”
He also once said, "I believe that Gandhi’s views were the most enlightened of all the political men in our time. We should strive to do things in his spirit: not to use violence in fighting for our cause, but by non-participation in anything you believe is evil.”
(Source: theindianblogger.com)
Gandhi Quotes
“Be the change that you wish to see in the world.”
― Mahatma Gandhi
“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”
― Mahatma Gandhi
"Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony."
― Mahatma Gandhi
"First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, and then you win. "
― Mahatma Gandhi
"A 'No' uttered from the deepest conviction is better than a 'Yes' merely uttered to please, or worse, to avoid trouble."
― Mahatma Gandhi
"A coward is incapable of exhibiting love; it is the prerogative of the brave."
― Mahatma Gandhi
"A man is but the product of his thoughts; what he thinks, he becomes."
― Mahatma Gandhi
"A man who was completely innocent, offered himself as a sacrifice for the good of others, including his enemies, and became the ransom of the world. It was a perfect act."
― Mahatma Gandhi
"A nation's culture resides in the hearts and in the soul of its people."
― Mahatma Gandhi
"A policy is a temporary creed liable to be changed, but while it holds good it has got to be pursued with apostolic zeal."
― Mahatma Gandhi
"A principle is the expression of perfection, and as imperfect beings like us cannot practise perfection, we devise every moment limits of its compromise in practice."
― Mahatma Gandhi
"A religion that takes no account of practical affairs and does not help to solve them is no religion."
― Mahatma Gandhi
"A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history."
― Mahatma Gandhi
"When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it--always."
― Mahatma Gandhi
"Seven Deadly Sins:
Wealth without work
Pleasure without conscience
Science without humanity
Knowledge without character
Politics without principle
Commerce without morality
Worship without sacrifice."
― Mahatma Gandhi
"A vow is a purely religious act which cannot be taken in a fit of passion. It can be taken only with a mind purified and composed and with God as witness."
― Mahatma Gandhi
"A weak man is just by accident. A strong but non-violent man is unjust by accident."
― Mahatma Gandhi
"Action expresses priorities."
― Mahatma Gandhi
"Action is no less necessary than thought to the instinctive tendencies of the human frame."
― Mahatma Gandhi
"All compromise is based on give and take, but there can be no give and take on fundamentals. Any compromise on mere fundamentals is a surrender. For it is all give and no take."
― Mahatma Gandhi
“The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.”
― Mahatma Gandhi, An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth
"All the religions of the world, while they may differ in other respects, unitedly proclaim that nothing lives in this world but Truth."
― Mahatma Gandhi
"Always aim at complete harmony of thought and word and deed. Always aim at purifying your thoughts and everything will be well."
― Mahatma Gandhi
"Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the act depriving a whole nation of arms as the blackest."
― Mahatma Gandhi
"An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation, nor does truth become error because nobody sees it."
― Mahatma Gandhi
"An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind."
― Mahatma Gandhi
"An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching."
― Mahatma Gandhi
“I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”
― Mahatma Gandhi
Gandhi Movies
Gandhi the Movie
Gandhi is a 1982 biographical film based on the life of Mahatma Gandhi, who led the nonviolent resistance movement against British colonial rule in India during the first half of the 20th century. The film was directed by Richard Attenborough and stars Ben Kingsley as Gandhi. The film was also given the Academy Award for Best Picture and won eight Academy Awards in total.
Buy the DVD "Gandhi" on Amazon
MAHATMA - Life of Gandhi (abridged)
This is the abridged version (2hrs 15min) of a 5hrs 10min documentary biography of Mohandas Mahatma Gandhi. All events and principles of Gandhi's life and thought are viewed as integrated parts of his truth-intoxicated life depicting permanent and universal values.
The purpose of the film is to tell the present and the future generations "that such a man as Gandhi in flesh and blood walked upon this earth", to acquaint them with his life and work and to spread his message of peace and universal brotherhood to the war-weary and fear-stricken world. The film brings together a mass of visual record not only of 78-year life of Gandhi but also of an important period of India's history.
The aim of the film being education and not entertainment, there is no attempt at dramatization of those exciting times. The story is told with an eye to truthful documentation of the main events within the limits of available documentary visual material.
More information and script: http://streams.gandhiserve.org/mahatm...
Gandhi Pictures
Photos of Gandhi
Gandhi: Mohandas Gandhi was a leader of the Indian independence movement, and is revered the world over for his nonviolent philosophy of passive resistance. (Photo Credit: Getty Images)
Salt March: In the famous Salt March of April and May 1930, thousands of Indians followed Gandhi from Ahmadabad to the Arabian Sea to protest the British salt taxes. The march resulted in the arrest of nearly 60,000 people, including Gandhi himself.
Gandhi and Nehru: Jawaharlal Nehru worked with Gandhi as a leader of the Indian independence movement, and went on to become the first prime minister of the independent country.
Gandhi with a young Indira: Indira Gandhi was the daughter of of Jawaharlal Nehru, and like her father, became Prime Minister of India. She was not related to Mohandes Gandhi.
Gandhi in England: In 1931, Gandhi traveled to England to meet with the British government. While there, he traveled to the town of Darwen and met workers in a textile factory.
Gandhi's Funeral: On January 30, 1948, while on the way to a prayer meeting, Gandhi was shot. Roughly 1 million people followed the procession as Gandhi's body was carried through the streets and cremated on the banks of the holy Jumna River.
(Source: history.com)