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BIRTH
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi nació en Porbandar, una ciudad costera en Kathiawad (ahora parte del estado de Gujarat) el 2 de octubre de 1869. Era el hijo menor de sus padres, Karamchand y Putlibai.
Gandhi pertenecía a la comunidad de Modh Bania. -
CHILDHOOD
As a teenager he was a shy young man who went unnoticed. At the age of thirteen, he married a young Indian woman of the same age, Kasturba Makharji, with whom he had four children. This link was arranged since they were both children. -
STUDIES
In his youth, Gandhi was a mediocre student in Porbandar. Later in Rajkot, in 1887, he managed to barely pass the entrance examination of the University of Mumbai, enrolling in the School of Samaldas, in Bhavnagar. He was not there long, because he took advantage of the opportunity presented to him to study in England, a country he considered "the cradle of philosophers and poets, the center of civilization." He studied Law at University College London. -
SPECIALIZATION
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 discriminate against Indians in South Africa through passive resistance and civil disobedience. -
COMPUSE
He extended his stay in this country, founding the Natal Indian Congress Party 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 law. Indian Civil Rights and Evidence of British Discrimination in South Africa -
RACIAL PROBLEMS
Arriving in South Africa, on his way to Pretoria, he was forcibly removed from the train at Pietermaritzburg station because he refused to move from first class to third class, which was intended for black people. Later, while riding a stagecoach, he was beaten by the driver because a white-skinned passenger refused to access his seat. In addition, on this trip he suffered other humiliations as he was denied accommodation in various hotels due to his race. -
REVOCATION
In 1906 the Transvaal government enacted a law that required all Indians to register. This led to a massive protest in Johannesburg, where Gandhi first adopted the platform called satyagraha ('attachment or devotion to the truth') which consisted of a non-violent protest. Gandhi insisted that the Indians openly but without violence defy the enacted law, suffering whatever punishment the government wanted to impose. -
RETURN TO INDIA
His return to India came in 1915. The fight for the rights of the Indian community in South Africa was seen as an act of heroism. At once all of India knew who Mahatma Gandhi was.
The Gandhi who returned was a completely different one from the one who left. He abandoned Western clothing for that of his country. With this, he adopted the traditional Indian customs and lifestyle. -
SALT MARCH
April 6, 1930, he starred in an important non-violent protest, known as the salt march (salt satiagraha), which would inspire movements such as that of the American Martin Luther King. -
PILGRIMAGE
After 24 days of pilgrimage and more than 300 kilometers behind him, Gandhi reached the coastal town of Dandi. There, he scooped up salt water in his hands in a gesture of defiance of the salt monopoly. The Indians were forbidden to collect it themselves and had to pay a high price for it. -
WORLD WAR
In the world war, Ghandi, had given a contribution but in the policy of indifference, and not of violence against the British, but the leaders did not agree, so they decided to attack in masses. Gandhi decided that India could not be in a world war, but in a fight for freedom. -
INDEPENDENCE
With the end of World War II came the independence of India in 1947. India was divided into Hindus (India) and Muslims (Pakistan). There was a huge exodus and a great massacre in which hundreds of thousands of people died. -
DEATH
On January 30, 1948, Nathuram Godse, Hindu radical assaulted him and shot him down. The murderer and his accomplice were sentenced to death and executed in November 1949.6
