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Birth
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born on October 2, 1869, in Porbandar, Rajkot in Gujarat. His parents were Karamchand Gandhi, Prime Minister of the city, and his wife Putlibai Gandhi. His mother was one of the greatest influences in his life, teaching him the advantages of vegetarianism, respect for others, and tolerance for different ways of thinking and other religions from the rest of the world. -
Entry to Primary School
When his father left Porbanda to become a member of the Rajasthanik Court, he was put into primary school at age 7. He was not a very good student. -
School
When he was 12 he entered suburban school and then high school. Being in school and going home as soon as it closed was his daily life. He used to run as he was afraid of being mocked. -
Marriage
He got married when he was only 13 years old, after 2 other marriages planned by his parents of which he had no idea.
His father before the marriage had an accident that left him very injured, even so the wedding happened. Despite being so young, he quickly assumed the role of husband. -
High school
He studied at the same school with his brothers. The marriage caused him to lose a year and even the brother who was married at the same time he dropped out of school.
Despite this he was a very good student in high school, even receiving awards and scholarships. -
Carrer
At eighteen he moved to London to study law at University College. Upon graduation, he went to Bombay, where he intended to work as a lawyer, but the little success of that profession and his lack of experience, made him unable to practice. In 1899 he was hired by an Indian firm as legal adviser in South Africa, where he lived for twenty years. -
In South-Africa
In 1893 he accepted a one-year employment contract with an Indian company operating in Natal, South Africa. He was interested in the situation of the 150,000 compatriots who resided there, fighting against the laws that discriminated against Indians in South Africa through passive resistance and civil disobedience. -
Indian Party of the Natal Congress
He extended his stay in this country, founding the Indian Congress Party of Natal in 1894. Through this organization he was able to unite the Indian community in South Africa into a homogeneous political force, flooding the press and the government with allegations of violations of the Indian civil rights and evidence of discrimination by British in South Africa. -
A Bad Welcome
Gandhi returned to India for a brief period to take his wife and children to South Africa. Upon his return, in January 1897, a group of white men attacked him and tried to lynch him. As a clear indication of the values that he would uphold throughout his life, he refused to bring his attackers to justice, stating that one of his principles was not to seek compensation in court for the damages inflicted on his person. -
Return to India
Gandhi returned to India in 1915. At this time he had already changed his habits and lifestyle adopting the more traditional ones of India. At first he tried to launch a new newspaper and practice law, but was dissuaded by Gopal Krishna Gokhale, who convinced him to pursue work of greater national importance. -
Indian Nationalist Movement
From 1919 he openly belonged to the front of the Indian nationalist movement. It established methods of social struggle such as the hunger strike and in its programs it rejected armed struggle (non-violence) as a means to resist British rule. He widely defended and promoted total fidelity to the dictates of conscience, even reaching civil disobedience if necessary; In addition, he fought for the return to the old Hindu traditions -
March of Salt
From March 12 to April 6, 1930, he starred in an important non-violent protest, known as the salt march (salt satiagraha), which would serve as inspiration for movements such as that of the American Martin Luther King. -
London Conference
He participated in the London Conference, where he claimed the independence of India. He leaned in favor of the right of the Congress party and had conflicts with his disciple Nehru, who represented the left. -
Second World War
At the party congress in 1942, Gandhi was criticized by some party members and by other Indian political groups, favorable to the British and opposed to Mohandas' position. They believed that not supporting Great Britain in his life and death struggle against Nazism was immoral. -
A very painful year
The British arrested Gandhi and the entire congressional working committee in Bombay on August 9, 1942. They held Gandhi for two years in the Aga Khan palace in Pune. It was then that Gandhi suffered two terrible blows in his life. His secretary Mahadev Desai died of a heart attack six days later and his wife Kasturbá died after 18 months of imprisonment, in February 1944; Gandhi suffered a severe attack of malaria six weeks later. They released him before the end of the war. -
Death
On January 30, 1948, as Gandhi was on his way to a prayer meeting, he was assassinated at Birla Bhavan (Birla House) in New Delhi by Nathuram Godse, a Hindu radical apparently related to far-right groups in India, such as the Hindu Hahasabha party. , who accused him of weakening the new government by insisting that the money promised to Pakistan be paid.