One of the most fascinating personalities of the twentieth century, Gandhi impressed by the model that he set successfully implementing nonviolence in some of the most difficult situations: the struggle for independence and against discrimination. His life remains a model narrated in books and movies and every peaceworker should know at least a fragment of what Gandhi meant to the world.
Gandhi was born on the 2nd of October 1869 in India. He later on studied law in London. His non-violent struggle was motivated by the injustices of his time, injustices that he experimented himself both in South Africa and in India, where he worked and lived.
A few principles guided his life, principles that he decided to experiment on himself becoming a live example of his teachings.
- TRUTH (Satya). Gandhi stated that the most important struggle is towards one's own deamons. He later said that Satya is God and God is Satya.
- NONVIOLENCE. (Ahymsa) Although not the creator of the concept, Gandhi took it to a new strength through his usage of nonviolent struggle in order to gain the independence of his nation. His famous 'Salt March' remains a standing example in this sense.
- VEGETARIANISM. While he started out experimenting with meat, Gandhi became a vegetarian before going to university.
- BRAHMACHARYA. Spiritual and practical purity and asceism. Gandhi after feeling a sense of guilt because at his father's death he was not with him, being together with his wife, he decided to practice celibate at the age of 36.
- SIMPLICITY
- FAITH
A Timeline of Gandhi's Life:
1869 |
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Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi born in Porbandar in Gujarat State, India |
1893 |
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Gandhi leaves for Johannesburg for practicing law and is thrown out of a first class bogie because he is colored. |
1906 |
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Mohandas K. Gandhi, 37, speaks at a mass meeting in the Empire Theater, Johannesburg on September 11 and launches a campaign of nonviolent resistance (satyagraha) to protest discrimination against Indians. The British Government had just invalidated the Indian Marriage. |
1913 |
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Mohandas Gandhi in Transvaal, South Africa leads 2,500 Indians into the in defiance of a law, they are violently arrested, Gandhi refuses to pay a fine, he is jailed, his supporters demonstrate. On November 25, and Natal police fire into the crowd, killing two, injuring 20. |
1914 |
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Mohandas Gandhi returns to India at age 45 after 21 years of practicing law in South Africa where he organized a campaign of “passive resistance” to protest his mistreatment by whites for his defense of Asian immigrants. He attracts wide attention in India by conducting a fast --the first of 14 that he will stage as political demonstrations and that will inaugurate the idea of the political fasting. |
1930 |
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A civil disobedience campaign against the British in India begins March 12. The All-India Trade Congress has empowered Gandhi to begin the demonstrations (see 1914). Called Mahatma for the past decade, Gandhi leads a 165-mile march to the Gujarat coast of the Arabian Sea and produces salt by evaporation of sea water in violation of the law as a gesture of defiance against the British monopoly in salt production |
1932 |
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Gandhi begins a "fast unto death" to protest the British government's treatment of India's lowest caste "untouchables" whom Gandhi calls Harijans -- "God's children." Gandhi's campaign of civil disobedience has brought rioting and has landed him in prison, but he persists in his demands for social reform, he urges a new boycott of British goods, and after 6 days of fasting obtains a pact that improves the status of the "untouchables" (Dalits) |
1947 |
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India becomes free from 200 years of British Rule. A major victory for Gandhian principles and non-violence in general. |
1948 |
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Gandhi is assassinated by Nathuram Godse, a Hindu fanatic at a prayer meeting |
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"An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind."
" Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony."
"You must be the change you want to see in the world."
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