Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi or M.K. Gandhi is also known as Mahatma, a great soul, this title is given to Gandhi by Rabindranath Tagore himself. Mahatma Gandhi is also known as the father of nation for his great contribution to the freedom struggle of India.
Gandhi, a great hero, a great spiritual and political leader inspired our national struggle for freedom through the swords of Satyagraha and Ahimsa.
Gandhi was born on 2nd Oct,1869 in Porbandar, Kathiawar district of Gujarat. This day is celebrated as Gandhi Jayanti every year. This day, every year there is a national holiday in India to pay tribute to the father of nation.
His father Karamchand Gandhi was a Dewan in Porbandar. Gandhiji was deeply influenced by his mother Putlibai who taught him moral and spiritual values. He started working as a Barrister after attaining a degree in law from London.
Gandhiji's journey of becoming a national hero started in 1893 when he went to South Africa for a legal case. He started a Satyagraha (a non-violent peaceful movement) against inhuman treatment given to Indians living there. This movement was widely covered by media all over the world and made Gandhi a household name.
Gandhi returned to India on 9th Jan,1914. This day is celebrated as Pravasi Bhartiya Diwas every year. He launched Champaran and Kheda Satyagrahas in Bihar and Gujarat respectively wherein he used peaceful methods of persuasion such as Fasting to make his opponents accept his demands. He asked his followers to hate the sin, not the sinner.
"The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong”, M.K. Gandhi.
The most important qualities of Gandhi were leadership and simplicity. He always stood to the principle of simple living and his thinking and inspired others to do the same. Gandhi in his autobiography says, "You must be the change you wish to see in the world". He worked immensely for poor and downtrodden. He called the untouchables as 'Harijans'-children of God. Gandhi also strongly supported the ideal of equality of gender, caste and religion. He criticised the evil practices of Sati, Purdah and female infanticide and suggested to curb these evils from its bud through women's education.
Gandhi started two newspapers-Harijan and Young India, through which he expressed his views. His autobiography is named as 'My experiments with Truth'. He also wrote the book 'Hind Swaraj' in 1909.
First all India mass movement towards freedom struggle was led by Gandhiji himself. In 1920's ,he started Non-cooperation movement wherein he pursuaded Indians to boycott foreign clothes and institutions. Khadi and Charkha became a symbol of this movement. In 1930's Gandhi led civil disobedience movement wherein the well known Dandi March was done when Gandhiji broke the salt laws.In 1940's Quit India Movement was a final nail in the corpse, herein Gandhi gave the slogan of 'Do or Die' to his fellow Indians.
All his efforts resulted in India finally making itself free from the fetters of British Raj on 15th August,1947. But a heavy price of partition had to be paid ,along with Hindu Muslim riots. A fanatic Hindu Nathu Ram Godse blaming Gandhi for all the bloodshed, shot him three bullets in his chest on 30 Jan,1948 and Gandhi left for the heavenly abode. This news shocked everyone, not only India but the entire world mourned his death.
Some interesting facts about M.K. Gandhi:
1.The Title 'Bapu' to Gandhiji is given by none other than S.C. Bose
2.Gandhiji's favourite prayer song was 'Vaishnav Jan ko' by Narsingh Mehta.
3.Gandhi was greatly influenced by Ruskin's 'Unto this last' ,Charles Dicken's 'A tale of two cities' and Tolstoy's 'Kingdom of God is Within You'.
4.He presided only one session of Indian National Congress in 1924 at Belgaum.
5.Times Magazine named Gandhi 'The Man of the Year' in 1930.
6.Gandhi was nominated for Nobel Peace Prize five times between 1937 to 1948 but was never awarded the prize. Nobel Community publicly declared its regret for the ommission decades later.
7.Apple co-founder Steve Jobs was a fan of Gandhi and wore circular glasses as a tribute to Bapu.
8.He was declared Times runner-up to Einstein as Person of century.
Reviewed by Abhishek Jain
on
May 25, 2022
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