Tita ange biography of mahatma

Lord Irwin's successor, Lord Willingdon , took a hard line against India as an independent nation, began a new campaign of controlling and subduing the nationalist movement. Gandhi was again arrested, and the government tried and failed to negate his influence by completely isolating him from his followers. In Britain, Winston Churchill , a prominent Conservative politician who was then out of office but later became its prime minister, became a vigorous and articulate critic of Gandhi and opponent of his long-term plans.

Churchill often ridiculed Gandhi, saying in a widely reported speech:. It is alarming and also nauseating to see Mr Gandhi, a seditious Middle Temple lawyer, now posing as a fakir of a type well known in the East, striding half-naked up the steps of the Vice-regal palace Churchill's bitterness against Gandhi grew in the s. He called Gandhi as the one who was "seditious in aim" whose evil genius and multiform menace was attacking the British empire.

Churchill called him a dictator, a "Hindu Mussolini ", fomenting a race war, trying to replace the Raj with Brahmin cronies, playing on the ignorance of Indian masses, all for selfish gain. It gained Churchill sympathetic support, but it also increased support for Gandhi among Europeans. The developments heightened Churchill's anxiety that the "British themselves would give up out of pacifism and misplaced conscience.

During the discussions between Gandhi and the British government over —32 at the Round Table Conferences , Gandhi, now aged about 62, sought constitutional reforms as a preparation to the end of colonial British rule, and begin the self-rule by Indians. The British negotiators proposed constitutional reforms on a British Dominion model that established separate electorates based on religious and social divisions.

The British questioned the Congress party and Gandhi's authority to speak for all of India. Ambedkar as the representative leader of the untouchables. The Second Round Table conference was the only time Gandhi left India between and his death in Gandhi declined the government's offer of accommodation in an expensive West End hotel, preferring to stay in the East End , to live among working-class people, as he did in India.

After Gandhi returned from the Second Round Table conference, he started a new satyagraha. Gandhi was arrested and imprisoned at the Yerwada Jail , Pune. While he was in prison, the British government enacted a new law that granted untouchables a separate electorate. It came to be known as the Communal Award. In , Gandhi resigned from Congress party membership.

He did not disagree with the party's position, but felt that if he resigned, Gandhi's popularity with Indians would cease to stifle the party's membership, which actually varied, including communists, socialists, trade unionists, students, religious conservatives, and those with pro-business convictions, and that these various voices would get a chance to make themselves heard.

Gandhi also wanted to avoid being a target for Raj propaganda by leading a party that had temporarily accepted political accommodation with the Raj. In , Gandhi returned to active politics again with the Nehru presidency and the Lucknow session of the Congress. Although Gandhi wanted 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 Chandra Bose, who had been elected president in , and who had previously expressed a lack of faith in nonviolence as a means of protest. Gandhi declared that Sitaramayya's defeat was his defeat. Gandhi opposed providing any help to the British war effort and he campaigned against any Indian participation in World War II.

Gandhi's opposition to the Indian participation in World War II was motivated by his belief that India could not be party to a war ostensibly being fought for democratic freedom while that freedom was denied to India itself. As the war progressed, Gandhi intensified his demand for independence, calling for the British to Quit India in a speech in Mumbai.

In , Gandhi now nearing age 73, urged his people to completely stop co-operating with the imperial government. In this effort, Gandhi urged that they neither kill nor injure British people but be willing to suffer and die if violence is initiated by the British officials. Gandhi's arrest lasted two years, as he was held in the Aga Khan Palace in Pune.

During this period, Gandhi's longtime secretary Mahadev Desai died of a heart attack, his wife Kasturba died after 18 months' imprisonment on 22 February , and Gandhi suffered a severe malaria attack. Gelder then composed and released an interview summary, cabled it to the mainstream press, that announced sudden concessions Gandhi was willing to make, comments that shocked his countrymen, the Congress workers and even Gandhi.

The latter two claimed that it distorted what Gandhi actually said on a range of topics and falsely repudiated the Quit India movement. Gandhi was released before the end of the war on 6 May because of his failing health and necessary surgery; the Raj did not want him to die in prison and enrage the nation. Gandhi came out of detention to an altered political scene — the Muslim League for example, which a few years earlier had appeared marginal, "now occupied the centre of the political stage" [ ] and the topic of Jinnah's campaign for Pakistan was a major talking point.

Gandhi and Jinnah had extensive correspondence and the two men met several times over a period of two weeks in September at Jinnah's house in Bombay, where Gandhi insisted on a united religiously plural and independent India which included Muslims and non-Muslims of the Indian subcontinent coexisting. Jinnah rejected this proposal and insisted instead for partitioning the subcontinent on religious lines to create a separate Muslim homeland later Pakistan.

While the leaders of Congress languished in jail, the other parties supported the war and gained organisational strength. Underground publications flailed at the ruthless suppression of Congress, but it had little control over events. At this point, Gandhi called off the struggle, and around , political prisoners were released, including the Congress's leadership.

Gandhi opposed the partition of the Indian subcontinent along religious lines. Jinnah rejected Gandhi's proposal and called for Direct Action Day , on 16 August , to press Muslims to publicly gather in cities and support his proposal for the partition of the Indian subcontinent into a Muslim state and non-Muslim state. Thousands of Hindus and Muslims were murdered, and tens of thousands were injured in the cycle of violence in the days that followed.

Archibald Wavell , the Viceroy and Governor-General of British India for three years through February , had worked with Gandhi and Jinnah to find a common ground, before and after accepting Indian independence in principle. Wavell condemned Gandhi's character and motives as well as his ideas. Wavell accused Gandhi of harbouring the single-minded idea to "overthrow British rule and influence and to establish a Hindu raj", and called Gandhi a "malignant, malevolent, exceedingly shrewd" politician.

The British reluctantly agreed to grant independence to the people of the Indian subcontinent, but accepted Jinnah's proposal of partitioning the land into Pakistan and India. Gandhi was involved in the final negotiations, but Stanley Wolpert states the "plan to carve up British India was never approved of or accepted by Gandhi". The partition was controversial and violently disputed.

More than half a million were killed in religious riots as 10 million to 12 million non-Muslims Hindus and Sikhs mostly migrated from Pakistan into India, and Muslims migrated from India into Pakistan, across the newly created borders of India, West Pakistan and East Pakistan. Gandhi spent the day of independence not celebrating the end of the British rule, but appealing for peace among his countrymen by fasting and spinning in Calcutta on 15 August The partition had gripped the Indian subcontinent with religious violence and the streets were filled with corpses.

At p. There, he died about 30 minutes later as one of Gandhi's family members read verses from Hindu scriptures. 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 only for me, but for millions and millions in this country. Godse, a Hindu nationalist, [ ] [ ] [ ] with links to the Hindu Mahasabha and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh , [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] made no attempt to escape; several other conspirators were soon arrested as well.

The trial began on 27 May and ran for eight months before Justice Atma Charan passed his final order on 10 February The prosecution called witnesses, the defence none. Eight men were convicted for the murder conspiracy, and others were convicted for violation of the Explosive Substances Act. Savarkar was acquitted and set free. Nathuram Godse and Narayan Apte were sentenced to death by hanging [ ] while the remaining six including Godse's brother, Gopal were sentenced to life imprisonment.

Gandhi's death was mourned nationwide. The engine of the vehicle was not used; instead, four drag-ropes held by 50 people each pulled the vehicle. Gandhi was cremated in accordance with Hindu tradition. His ashes were poured into urns which were sent across India for memorial services. In , Tushar Gandhi immersed the contents of one urn, found in a bank vault and reclaimed through the courts, at the Sangam at Allahabad.

On 30 January , the contents of another urn were immersed at Girgaum Chowpatty. Another urn is at the palace of the Aga Khan in Pune where Gandhi was held as a political prisoner from to [ ] [ ] and another in the Self-Realization Fellowship Lake Shrine in Los Angeles. These are said to be Gandhi's last words after he was shot. Gandhi's spirituality was greatly based on his embracement of the five great vows of Jainism and Hindu Yoga philosophy, viz.

Satya truth , ahimsa nonviolence , brahmacharya celibacy , asteya non-stealing , and aparigraha non-attachment. Some writers present Gandhi as a paragon of ethical living and pacifism, while others present him as a more complex, contradictory and evolving character influenced by his culture and circumstances. Gandhi dedicated his life to discovering and pursuing truth, or Satya , and called his movement satyagraha , which means "appeal to, insistence on, or reliance on the Truth.

It was the satyagraha formulation and step, states Dennis Dalton, that deeply resonated with beliefs and culture of his people, embedded him into the popular consciousness, transforming him quickly into Mahatma. Gandhi based Satyagraha on the Vedantic ideal of self-realisation, ahimsa nonviolence , vegetarianism, and universal love. William Borman states that the key to his satyagraha is rooted in the Hindu Upanishadic texts.

Bruce Watson states that some of these ideas are found not only in traditions within Hinduism, but also in Jainism or Buddhism, particularly those about non-violence, vegetarianism and universal love, but Gandhi's synthesis was to politicise these ideas. Gandhi stated that the most important battle to fight was overcoming his own demons, fears, and insecurities.

Gandhi summarised his beliefs first when he said, "God is Truth. The essence of Satyagraha is "soul force" as a political means, refusing to use brute force against the oppressor, seeking to eliminate antagonisms between the oppressor and the oppressed, aiming to transform or "purify" the oppressor. It is not inaction but determined passive resistance and non-co-operation where, states Arthur Herman, "love conquers hate".

It arms the individual with moral power rather than physical power. Satyagraha is also termed a "universal force", as it essentially "makes no distinction between kinsmen and strangers, young and old, man and woman, friend and foe. Gandhi wrote: "There must be no impatience, no barbarity, no insolence, no undue pressure. If we want to cultivate a true spirit of democracy, we cannot afford to be intolerant.

Intolerance betrays want of faith in one's cause. This end usually implies a moral upliftment or progress of an individual or society. Therefore, non-co-operation in Satyagraha is in fact a means to secure the co-operation of the opponent consistently with truth and justice. While Gandhi's idea of satyagraha as a political means attracted a widespread following among Indians, the support was not universal.

For example, Muslim leaders such as Jinnah opposed the satyagraha idea, accused Gandhi to be reviving Hinduism through political activism, and began effort to counter Gandhi with Muslim nationalism and a demand for Muslim homeland. Although Gandhi was not the originator of the principle of nonviolence, he was the first to apply it in the political field on a large scale.

Although Gandhi considered non-violence to be "infinitely superior to violence", he preferred violence to cowardice. Gandhi was a prolific writer. His signature style was simple, precise, clear and as devoid of artificialities. The book was translated into English the next year, with a copyright legend that read "No Rights Reserved". Later, Navajivan was also published in Hindi.

Gandhi also wrote letters almost every day to individuals and newspapers. Gandhi also wrote extensively on vegetarianism, diet and health, religion, social reforms, etc. Gandhi usually wrote in Gujarati, though he also revised the Hindi and English translations of his books. Gandhi's complete works were published by the Indian government under the name The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi in the s.

The writings comprise about 50, pages published in about volumes. In , a revised edition of the complete works sparked a controversy, as it contained a large number of errors and omissions. Gandhi is noted as the greatest figure of the successful Indian independence movement against the British rule. He is also hailed as the greatest figure of modern India.

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. Innumerable streets, roads, and localities in India are named after Gandhi. These include M. As of , over countries have released stamps on Gandhi. Florian asteroid Gandhi was named in his honour in September Gandhi influenced important leaders and political movements.

In his early years, the former President of South Africa Nelson Mandela was a follower of the nonviolent resistance philosophy of Gandhi. This legacy connects him to Nelson Mandela Gandhi's life and teachings inspired many who specifically referred to Gandhi as their mentor or who dedicated their lives to spreading his ideas. In , physicist Albert Einstein exchanged letters with Gandhi and called him "a role model for the generations to come" in a letter writing about him.

Mahatma Gandhi's life achievement stands unique in political history. He has invented a completely new and humane means for the liberation war of an oppressed country, and practised it with greatest energy and devotion. The moral influence he had on the consciously thinking human being of the entire civilised world will probably be much more lasting than it seems in our time with its overestimation of brutal violent forces.

Because lasting will only be the work of such statesmen who wake up and strengthen the moral power of their people through their example and educational works. We may all be happy and grateful that destiny gifted us with such an enlightened contemporary, a role model for the generations to come. Generations to come will scarce believe that such a one as this walked the earth in flesh and blood.

Farah Omar , a political activist from Somaliland , visited India in , where he met Gandhi and was influenced by Gandhi's non-violent philosophy, which he adopted in his campaign in British Somaliland. Lanza del Vasto went to India in intending to live with Gandhi; he later returned to Europe to spread Gandhi's philosophy and founded the Community of the Ark in modelled after Gandhi's ashrams.

Madeleine Slade known as "Mirabehn" was the daughter of a British admiral who spent much of her adult life in India as a devotee of Gandhi. In addition, the British musician John Lennon referred to Gandhi when discussing his views on nonviolence. His reply was in response to the question: "Who was the one person, dead or live, that you would choose to dine with?

He inspired Dr. King with his message of nonviolence. He ended up doing so much and changed the world just by the power of his ethics. Gandhi's ideas had a significant influence on 20th-century philosophy. It began with his engagement with Romain Rolland and Martin Buber. Jean-Luc Nancy said that the French philosopher Maurice Blanchot engaged critically with Gandhi from the point of view of "European spirituality.

American political scientist Gene Sharp wrote an analytical text, Gandhi as a political strategist , on the significance of Gandhi's ideas, for creating nonviolent social change. Recently, in the light of climate change, Gandhi's views on technology are gaining importance in the fields of environmental philosophy and philosophy of technology.

Time magazine named Gandhi the Man of the Year in Nelson Mandela , the leader of South Africa's struggle to eradicate racial discrimination and segregation, was a prominent non-Indian recipient. In , Gandhi was posthumously awarded with the World Peace Prize. Gandhi did not receive the Nobel Peace Prize , although he was nominated five times between and , including the first-ever nomination by the American Friends Service Committee , [ ] though Gandhi made the short list only twice, in and That year, the committee chose not to award the peace prize stating that "there was no suitable living candidate", and later research shows that the possibility of awarding the prize posthumously to Gandhi was discussed and that the reference to no suitable living candidate was to Gandhi.

Gandhi could do without the Nobel Peace prize, whether Nobel committee can do without Gandhi is the question. Indians widely describe Gandhi as the Father of the Nation. India, with its rapid economic modernisation and urbanisation, has rejected Gandhi's economics [ ] but accepted much of his politics and continues to revere his memory.

Reporter Jim Yardley notes that "modern India is hardly a Gandhian nation, if it ever was one. His vision of a village-dominated economy was shunted aside during his lifetime as rural romanticism, and his call for a national ethos of personal austerity and nonviolence has proved antithetical to the goals of an aspiring economic and military power.

Gandhi's birthday, 2 October, is a national holiday in India , Gandhi Jayanti. His image also appears on paper currency of all denominations issued by Reserve Bank of India , except for the one rupee note. There are three temples in India dedicated to Gandhi. Gandhi's children and grandchildren live in India and other countries. Grandson Rajmohan Gandhi is a professor in Illinois and an author of Gandhi's biography titled Mohandas , [ ] while another, Tarun Gandhi, has authored several authoritative books on his grandfather.

Another grandson, Kanu Ramdas Gandhi the son of Gandhi's third son Ramdas , was found living at an old age home in Delhi despite having taught earlier in the United States. Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk. Read View source View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. Indian independence activist — For other uses, see Gandhi disambiguation.

New Delhi , Dominion of India. British Raj until Dominion of India from Leadership of the campaign for India's independence from British rule Nonviolent resistance. Kasturba Gandhi. Harilal Manilal Ramdas Devdas. Karamchand Gandhi Putlibai Gandhi. Mahatma Gandhi's voice. Early life and background. Vegetarianism and committee work.

Civil rights activist in South Africa — Europeans, Indians and Africans. Struggle for Indian independence — See also: Indian independence movement. Main article: Champaran Satyagraha. Main article: Kheda Satyagraha. Main article: Khilafat Movement. Main article: Non-co-operation movement. Main article: Salt Satyagraha. Main article: Quit India Movement.

Partition and independence. See also: Indian independence movement and Partition of India. Main article: Assassination of Mahatma Gandhi. Principles, practices, and beliefs. Main article: Practices and beliefs of Mahatma Gandhi. See also: Gandhism. Followers and international influence. Global days that celebrate Gandhi. Film, theatre, and literature.

Current impact within India. Not to be confused with the Indian political family Nehru—Gandhi family. Retrieved 24 January P Mahatma Gandhi A Chronology. Publications Division. ISBN The Floating Press. Archived from the original on 29 March Retrieved 29 March Archived from the original on 21 July Retrieved 21 July Identity and Religion: Foundations of anti-Islamism in India.

Sage Publications. Mohandas Gandhi. Infobase Publishing. The name Gandhi means "grocer", although Mohandas's father and grandfather were politicians not grocers. The Indian Express. Archived from the original on 7 October Retrieved 15 July The Ways and Power of Love: types, factors, and techniques of moral transformation. Templeton Foundation Press.

Gandhi: The Traditional Roots of Charisma. University of Chicago Press. Retrieved 19 March Responses to Questions on Hinduism. Paulist Press. Retrieved 16 August Gandhi: A Spiritual Biography. Yale University Press. John Zavos; et al. Public Hinduisms. Orissa Review January : 45— Archived from the original PDF on 1 January Retrieved 23 February The Story of My Experiments with Truth.

Archived from the original on 7 March Retrieved 20 February Gandhi, his life and message for the world. New American Library. Retrieved 4 June Gandhi Before India. Alfred A. Archived from the original on 2 July Nanda Archived from the original on 13 May Retrieved 3 June India Currents. Archived from the original on 16 January Retrieved 16 January Gandhi as Disciple and Mentor.

Cambridge University Press. Archived from the original on 15 May Mahatma: Tendulkar, Mahatma; life of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. Archived from the original on 8 June Retrieved 11 August Gandhi — ". Archived from the original on 5 December But this was not the only hurdle for him to go to London; another issue was money as his dad died soon; they were out of money, but one of his elder brothers Laxmidas a lawyer , helped him with money, and he started his journey.

While he was going to college in Bombay , where he stayed for some time, people warned him that he could be asked to leave his religion and follow their culture and food in England. Mahatma Gandhi ignored this and went to London after saying bye to his brother who was with him to see off him. At University College, he started studying to become a barrister, his shyness didn't leave him there, but after he started practicing and meeting the public, He overcame his shyness.

He focused on his career only there, but he struggled a lot with the food and clothes of western culture and mostly because of his vegetarianism. Later, he joined the London Vegetarian Society and attended their conferences and other activities. There he read the Bible and English translation version of " Bhagwat Geeta ", but his shyness came to an end when Gandhi came forward when Hill came against LVS member Allison's "Birth Control Methods" by describing " dangers of Birth Control " but also on the other hand by defended Allison Right to differ, but this doesn't create any hatred among them as Hill threw a Farewell dinner for him when he announced to go to India.

In June , as a Barrister, he returned to India. Still, he found a sad surprise or shock when he came to know his mom died when he was in London and news was told to him and later he came to Know that his Barrister degree wasn't enough for his successful career as there were too much Law professionals in the country. Still, he had his first case in Bombay High court , but it wasn't good, and he couldn't be focused on his work, so he left his part-time job as a teacher and headed back to Rajkot but here, a British Officer Sam Sunny stopped him.

So even without choice, he accepted a work offer from an Indian Firm in Natal, South Africa, and a new journey in his life began from there. Gandhi went to South Africa at the age of 23 in and went there for 21 years and came back to India. In , His two youngest children of four were born there, and he faced many challenges there. In his starting days there, he faced differences because of his color, and once even he was thrown into the mud because he refused to go out of first class.

He had two choices: he could return to India or Protest against discrimination , and he gladly chose to stay there and protest. Later in a Durban court , he was asked to remove his turban, he refused and left Courtroom, but the struggle didn't stop there on a street. A policeman kicked him from the footpath without warning as He was an Indian, and Indians were not allowed to walk on a footpath.

For the first time, these things triggered Gandhi, and he gave an aggressive reaction that was unexpected by his nature. He tried to teach all the fellow Indians in Pretoria about their rights and duties, but till then, he had no intention to stay there, but an incident there in Natal made him stay there for a long while when they announced to deny the right to vote for the Indians.

Gandhi and his fellows opposed the bill and asked Joseph Chamberlain , who was the British Colonial Secretary , to take a second thought on the bill and fight on their behalf. Although he wasn't able to make any big change in the bill, he got enough attention for the positions of Indians in South Africa. Neither as a student nor a barrister, he was interested in politics, but when he was only 25, he was a very well-known political campaigner.

In , when he went back to India to bring his wife and children to South Africa, he tried to get the political support of big politicians there, which was, unfortunately, a cause of the issue among European politicians, and in , a group of white mob attacked him when he landed in Durban. Somehow he survived that situation and refused to take any mob name in a press conference as he didn't want to bring any personal issue to court.

In , when the war of Boer took place, Gandhi asked Indians to defend Natal British Colony as they called themselves citizens, and that's their duty; he raised Natal Indian ambulance Crop who were medical certified and trained to give medical help. In, the Transvaal Government announced a new act of humiliating registrations of his Indian and Chinese population.

A huge mass protest meeting was organized in Johannesburg, and Gandhi was the leader of the meeting in which they all took a pledge of not accepting the law and facing all the penalties or punishment as a result. This is from where the Idea of Satyagrah 'devotion of truth' was born: they will face all the sufferings without showing any violence and keep walking on the path of truth.

The struggle of the Indian community kept going for 7 years, and in , many Indians, including females, went to Jail. Many Indians scarify their livelihood in this process. However, not only for Indians but for the South African Government, it was a hard time, and under the pressure of Governments, compromise happened between Indians and Government.

This was his last Protest as a leader, and Gandhi left South Africa, but still, the protests kept going. After lots of suffering in , finally, Indians got the right to vote in South Africa, and even after his death, Gandhi was known as National Hero with many monuments. Gandhi left South Africa and went to London because he received an invitation from Gopal Krishna Gokhle to come back to India because, at that time, he was a reputed Indian nationalist and leader all over the world.

In , he went to India back, and for three years, he didn't join any political activity and supported British Army. Still, on the other hand, he criticized British Government for their actions in Gujarat and Bihar. He announced SatyaGrah and started a huge non-violent war against British Government. In , when Gandhi went to the War Conference in New Delhi and accepted the offer of recruiting Indians for British Soldiers, and till , he even recruited them.

Still, in , Gandhi refused to support any kind of harm or killing to anybody. When he started recruiting the soldiers, his principle of nonviolence and kindness were questioned.

Tita ange biography of mahatma

Still, he stopped helping the Government after an awful law by Government. In , Bihar Farmers when to the ashram of Gandhi and asked him for help against the Government as they were forced to grow the crop of Indigofera used as a dye and sell their Crops to Government at a fixed price which wasn't enough for their life living. Gandhi supported them, and with the idea of Non-violence, they got the victory as the authority accepted their demands.

In , Kheda at Gujarat was influenced by the flood but still didn't have any relief from Government and asked for the taxes when Gandhi came to know about this. He started a non-violent protest he picked up new young volunteers for this. Vallabh Bhai Patel was the leader of farmers in this and this Protest; he used a non-co-operation trick where he and the farmers signed a non-payment of income even when the Government threatened them for seizing the land, they didn't agree.

After struggling for a long while for Five months in the end, the Government agreed and relaxed the taxes also freed the farmer they jailed, and gave relief to Gujarat. When the British Government announced Rowlett Act, Gandhi warned Government that he would ask the public to disobey them if they applied that Act, but the Government ignored him and applied it.

Still, British Law officers fired on the people who had any armors, which made the Indian public angry and started riots. Still, Mahatma Gandhi gathered them at a Hindu Festival and asked them to show their anger in a peaceful manner by not using British goods and burning their British clothes. Although more than a million Indians fought for the British Empire during the First World War , the colonial government tightened repressive laws against nationalist movements and against anyone suspected of conspiring against the colonial regime.

This led Gandhi to lead large protests. In the Amritsar massacre in northern India in More than four hundred Indians were killed by British troops This fact prompted Gandhi to rethink his political tactics and from onwards He launched a campaign of non-violence and non-collaboration with the British authorities. A crowd imitated this gesture and Nearly 60, people were imprisoned including Gandhi.

The Indians did not resist the arrests and the poor population continued to evaporate the water. The colonial authorities had no choice but to legally allow access to salt since they considered that an intensification of repression would have damaged their image among the Indian elites who contributed to maintaining the stability of the colonial order.

This is considered The first victory of the philosophy of non-violence of Gandhi against British rule. During the interwar period, Gandhi continued to participate in the anti-colonial struggle and was imprisoned several times. However, Gandhi opposed this position. He continued to campaign for Indian independence, which led to him and thousands of followers being imprisoned by the British between and British weakness after the Second World War and the rise to power of the Labour Party, led by Clement Attlee, in accelerated the process of independence.

Under pressure, the South African government accepted a compromise negotiated by Gandhi and General Jan Christian Smuts that included recognition of Hindu marriages and the abolition of a poll tax for Indians. In Gandhi founded an ashram in Ahmedabad, India, that was open to all castes. Wearing a simple loincloth and shawl, Gandhi lived an austere life devoted to prayer, fasting and meditation.

In , with India still under the firm control of the British, Gandhi had a political reawakening when the newly enacted Rowlatt Act authorized British authorities to imprison people suspected of sedition without trial. In response, Gandhi called for a Satyagraha campaign of peaceful protests and strikes. Violence broke out instead, which culminated on April 13, , in the Massacre of Amritsar.

Troops led by British Brigadier General Reginald Dyer fired machine guns into a crowd of unarmed demonstrators and killed nearly people. Gandhi became a leading figure in the Indian home-rule movement. Calling for mass boycotts, he urged government officials to stop working for the Crown, students to stop attending government schools, soldiers to leave their posts and citizens to stop paying taxes and purchasing British goods.

Rather than buy British-manufactured clothes, he began to use a portable spinning wheel to produce his own cloth. The spinning wheel soon became a symbol of Indian independence and self-reliance. Gandhi assumed the leadership of the Indian National Congress and advocated a policy of non-violence and non-cooperation to achieve home rule. After British authorities arrested Gandhi in , he pleaded guilty to three counts of sedition.

Although sentenced to a six-year imprisonment, Gandhi was released in February after appendicitis surgery. When violence between the two religious groups flared again, Gandhi began a three-week fast in the autumn of to urge unity. He remained away from active politics during much of the latter s. Wearing a homespun white shawl and sandals and carrying a walking stick, Gandhi set out from his religious retreat in Sabarmati on March 12, , with a few dozen followers.

By the time he arrived 24 days later in the coastal town of Dandi, the ranks of the marchers swelled, and Gandhi broke the law by making salt from evaporated seawater. The Salt March sparked similar protests, and mass civil disobedience swept across India. Approximately 60, Indians were jailed for breaking the Salt Acts, including Gandhi, who was imprisoned in May Still, the protests against the Salt Acts elevated Gandhi into a transcendent figure around the world.

Gandhi was released from prison in January , and two months later he made an agreement with Lord Irwin to end the Salt Satyagraha in exchange for concessions that included the release of thousands of political prisoners.