Mahatma Gandhi
BASIC INTRODUCTION OF MAHATMA GANDHI
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, also known as Bapu (the father of the nation) and Mahatma (the great soul) was born at Porbandar on 2nd October 1869. Karamchand was his father and putlibai was his mother. His father was a hereditary diwan of a petty princely state in Kathiawar. His mother was pious, God-fearing, and devout, and had religious practices such as prayers, reciting God’s names, counting rosary beads, etc. They belonged to the caste of Vaishya. Gandhi's father came to Rajkot from Porbandar when Gandhi was only seven years old. Gandhi was married at the early age of 13 to Kasturba. He passed matriculation at the age of 17 and then studied for some time in a college in Bhavnagar.
YOUNG LIFE OF MAHATMA GANDHI
When quite young, he tried eating meat and smoking but instantly he was overcome with deep remorse, repentance, and revulsion. Similarly, when his father was dying, he was busy enjoying sex with his wife Kasturba Gandhi. When he came to know about the death of his father he was overwhelmed with a sense of shock and remorse. These petty misadventures and experiments of his formative years left an indelible impression on his young mind and later we see him taking _ a strict vow of celibacy, non-injury, and compassion towards all living beings. Thus, he developed sharp and strong ideas about a number of important things in life. After his father’s death, he sailed from Bombay to London to study law so that he could become the diwan of a princely State in Gujarat. The voyage was nothing short of a revolutionary step for him because for the traditional family of Gandhi it was a sort of Sacrilege. The whole vaishya community to which he belonged, fey Outraged and so declared him an outcast. His voyage across to London was regarded as a flagrant violation of the orthodox ap, traditional Hindu tenets been in practice for many thousand years Before his departure to London, he took a solemn vow to abstain from, meat, wine, and sex.
GANDHI IN LONDON
In London, he had a very unhappy and restless life as he felt like, a square peg in a round hole in the so sophisticated English Society and milieu. He remained almost an outcast although he tried to ap. the English youth. All his attempts to become a fashionable English gentleman again proved a misadventure as his attempts to smoke and eat meat had proved earlier in India. Therefore, he gave up these attempts of becoming a gentleman and decided to follow his own nature, There he read Barnard Shaw's “Plea for Vegetarianism”: and declared, “From the day of reading this book, I may claim to have become a vegetarian by choice the. spread of which became my mission.” He also set up a vegetarian club there and one day invited Sir Edwin Amold to become the club’s Vice-president. In 1891, he passed his Bar-atLaw examination and in the summer of the -same year returned to India, to his great relief, and he was called to the Bar at Bombay but again as a practitioner of law, he proved a miserable failure. His self-consciousness was too great a stumbling block to overcome. Then he went to South Africa in April 1893 to help a distant relation in legal matters. His long stay in Africa proved a blessing in disguise and really a turning point.
GANDHI IN SOUTH AFRICA
In South Africa, Gandhi was subjected to too much humiliation, indignities, and apartheid. He was even thrown out off a train because he dared to travel in the first class with a white man. These trials, tribulations, and travails helped him a lot to ponder hard on the matter to turn towards God for light, guidance, and help. This process of deep introspection and prayer soon transformed him into a determined vocal, analytical and committed person. Spiritually, he grew in stature rapidly and found his self-confidence and moorings: During these great formative days, he studied Gita besides Ruskin’s “Unto This Last”. It was just a chance that a friend had given a hit. Ruskin’s book to browse as he traveled on a board to Dublin from Johannesburg in 1904. He resolved to renounce wealth and materialistic possessions to become a true Karma Yogi. “Work is worship” because most cherished motto and ideal and he began to do all his work with his own hands in spite of the fact that he was now in a very comfortable position financially. He then took a vow of strict celibacy with the due knowledge and consent of his wife Kasturba.
He set up Phoenix Farm near Durban and continued his experiments with truth and soul-searching. He studied the Bible. Henry Thoreau's essay.on Civil Disobedience and the works of Tolstoy. These studies strengthened further his convictions, resolves, and vows regarding non-violence, brahmacharya, non-possession, devotion to God, and service to humanity at large. He had his first practice session in non-violence, civil disobedience, and service on a very small scale. He led the Indian community against very discriminatory and prejudicial laws which required them to be registered and fingerprinted and carry special identity cards. Similarly, he organized Indian Ambulance Corps in the Boar War and worked as a stretcher-bearer. It was an object lesson in how to serve mankind which earned him the appreciation and admiration of many in the government and the public
GANDI RETURNED TO INDIA
He returned to India in 1915 and was accorded a very warm ‘reception on his return to his country on January 9. He established an ashram on the bank of river Sabarmati, near Ahmedabad on the same lines and principles on which had done so in South Africa. He came under the influence of moderate Congress leader Gopal Krishna Gokhle and began to regard himself as his follower. He championed the cause of the indigo farmers of Champaran in Bihar against their exploitation. In 1918 he began the Kheda peasant satyagraha and then a movement against Rowlatt Act by giving a nationwide call for hartal for a day. His identification with the poor and downtrodden masses of India was natural, spontaneous, and complete. His utter simplicity, sincerity, and deep faith in the noble cause of freedom and the welfare of the people helped him to turn the freedom struggle into a mass movement. Soon he became synonymous with Congress and the freedom movement. He inspired the masses with confidence, courage, and hope. He introduced Khadi and popularised the spinning wheel tO mitigate the sufferings of the rural poor. The wheel and Khadi soon became powerful weapons and symbols of national unity, integration, social renaissance, and a kind of economical revolution among the masses. He traveled extensively, met people, exchanged ideas with them, won their hearts and minds, and converted them to his faith. Crowds rushed to see him, to know his views, and to seek his guidance On various issues. They became an integral part of his crusade against Slavery, exploitation, injustice, suppression, hatred, and violence. It was Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore who for the first time called him “Mahatma™. a great soul in recognition of his many great qualities of heart and soul. He was imprisoned on several occasions on false and fabricated charges but his spirit of devotion to the cause of liberty, remained ever undaunted, nay emerged stronger, nobler, and more determined after every such imprisonment.
In December 1929, at the annual session of the Congress in Lahore, he made the party pass a unanimous resolution of Swaraj, Complete freedom. On March 12, 1930, he undertook the famous Dandi March, On April 6, he reached the seashore and lifted a lump of salt in a. symbolic violation of the monopolistic and cruel law of the British government. He was arrested and so were thousands of other leaders and his followers. It was a historic event and an-unprecedented example of mass civil disobedience. He was released in January and invited to attend the Second Round Table Conference in London. After his return from London, he was again arrested and the Congress banned. Following the failure and rejection of Cripps Mission, he began his ‘famous “Quit India Movement”, a final mass civil disobedience movement. He and other leaders were again arrested and there were - widespread protests and demonstrations. At last, the British cabinet in London decided to withdraw the British government from India, and Lord Mountbatten was given the charge for the final withdrawal. He was against the partition but Jinnah was adamant and so the partition became. imminent. Finally, India became free on 15th August 1947, but at once the whole country was in communal flames and there were large-scale - arson, violence, murders, slaughters, and brutal attacks on convoys of migrating people. Gandhi was shocked; shattered and disillusioned.
Gandhi was desperately busy containing the carnage and slaughter in Bengal. Delhi itself was engulfed in a sort of civil war. He reached Delhi to quell the communal violence and addressed a large gathering of people in his prayer meetings urging them not to shed blood but violence and hatred. He also contemplated a peace mission to Pakistan, but soon he was shot dead while going to the prayer meeting by a fanatic named Nathuram Godse. The whole country was flung -M. a great Crisis, turmoil, and mourning. Then addressing the nation, Pt. Nehru said, “The light has gone out of our lives and there is darkness everywhere...the father of the nation is no more. The best prayer we can offer him to his memory is to dedicate ourselves to truth and the cause for which this great countryman of ours lived and for which he died.”
GANDI'S DEATH
His death marked the culmination of a great soul and his illustrious career. He had grown into a living legend during his lifetime. His legend continues to grow as happens in the case of great men of all times like Buddha and Christ. He led us to freedom and independence and we in our tum rewarded him with a cross. No doubt history repeats and so exactly.
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