World History: The Modern Era
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Mohandas Gandhi
The leader of modern Indian nationalism, Mohandas Gandhi infused the movement with Hindu
spirituality. To Gandhi, moral values always superseded material ones, and the improvement of
human souls was a necessary precursor to the improvement of India. He was an apostle of
nonviolence and civil disobedience, proving that these ideals could unite diverse peoples and
accomplish great progress.
Gandhi was born on October 2, 1869 at Porbandar, a city in British-ruled western India. His father,
Karamachand Gandhi, worked as an administrator for the local chief minister. His mother, Putlibai,
followed a devout religious life noted for fasting; at a later date, Gandhi claimed his mother's
religiosity was the biggest influence on his life. Gandhi learned as a boy to worship the Hindu god
Vishnu and to abide by the Jainist teaching of nonviolence. His family's religious beliefs included respect for all living
things and required strict vegetarianism.
As a youngster, Gandhi was not a good student. He did not show enthusiasm for either his studies or sports.
Furthermore, his schooling suffered disruption when in 1882, at age 13, he was married by arrangement. Like many
adolescents, Gandhi went through a rebellious period during which he adopted Western ways, ate meat, smoked, and
told lies. Each time he did these things he suffered great guilt, and he soon returned to his Hindu teachings and
renounced his irreligious behavior.
In 1887, Gandhi barely passed a matriculation exam and began studying at Samaldas College in Bhavnagar. His family
felt he should study law, and although he had some desire to become a doctor, he agreed, partly as a way to get away
from Samaldas, which he did not like. Legal studies required that he journey to England, and he did this with dreams that
he would live amid a culture of great poets and philosophers. He was dismayed by the prejudice against his Indian
background that he found instead.
In 1888, Gandhi entered the Inner Temple, a law college in London. He felt awkward with Western food and practices and
focused more on the social issues confronting him than on legal obscurities. His vegetarianism, often criticized, became a
source of strength for him in maintaining his Hinduism. He even joined the London Vegetarian Society and wrote articles
for its journal. He also began reading the Hindu Bhagavadgita, which had an increasing influence on him.
Gandhi returned to India and obtained admission to the bar in 1891. He had no enthusiasm for the law, however, and
made a miserable appearance in the courtroom. As a result, he scratched out a living by preparing petitions for litigants.
The next year, he agreed to journey to Natal in South Africa to work as a lawyer for a firm there.
Gandhi's South African experience proved momentous in his personal development and, by extension, in India's history.
This British-ruled colony discriminated severely against its Indian residents (as well as its African ones), and as Gandhi
traveled, he found his movements restricted. Yet he resisted segregation, refusing in one instance to give up his seat on a
stagecoach to a European, a decision that resulted in his being beaten by the white driver. These experiences made
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Gandhi determined to fight social injustice. Almost overnight he became a dynamic leader, and in 1894, he petitioned the
British government to reject a bill that would deny Indians the right to vote. Although his effort failed, he organized the
Natal Indian Congress and initiated Indian resistance to injustices. His frequent petitions drew world attention to the
discrimination in South Africa. He lived a life of great self-discipline, residing in a self-supporting settlement called Tolstoy
Farm.
In 1906, the South African government proposed legislation, enacted the following year, requiring that Indians register
and be fingerprinted with the authorities so that their movements could be controlled. Gandhi and most Indians
considered that insulting, and he organized an opposition drive that focused on satyagraha, meaning "truth force." That
strategy stressed weaning the oppressor from his unjust practices through nonviolent protest that would make him see
the error of his ways. In this instance, Gandhi did not win the repeal of required registration. In continued protests, Gandhi
was arrested, and while in jail, he read Henry David Thoreau's "Civil Disobedience," which influenced him greatly.
In 1914, Gandhi won a compromise settlement for Indians in South Africa. It included an end to the tax on formerly
indentured Indian workers, the recognition of Hindu and Muslim marriages as legal, and a prohibition against importing
indentured Indian labor. Gandhi then returned to India in 1915, enlightened by the many lessons he had learned in South
Africa.
During World War I, Gandhi refrained from any verbal attacks on British rule in India. He even helped Britain recruit Indian
soldiers, though he disagreed with British actions injurious to his compatriots. By this time, his Hindu philosophy had
developed further, assisted by a spiritual adviser. Gandhi embraced aparigraha, requiring a rejection of material
possessions that hindered spiritual development (an extension of his belief developed at Tolstoy Farm that life close to
the earth was best); and he embraced samabhava, requiring that he work his deeds without emotion, without any desire
to defeat an enemy. In fact, Gandhi always preferred winning over an opponent to his side rather than conquering one.
Furthermore, he adopted a celibate life; sex, he believed, interfered with discovering God, and sexual restraint must be
included with restraints in diet, speech, and emotions. He may have been acting from a more practical consideration, too,
as his wife, having born him four sons, developed physical problems that impaired sexual activity.
When Britain announced new legislation after the war that provided for imprisoning Indians suspected of sedition, Gandhi
announced a satyagraha. His efforts soon produced alarm when protesters engaged in violence in 1919, and the British
retaliated by slaughtering 400 Indians meeting at Amritsar in Punjab state. Gandhi called off the satyagraha
demonstration, but he soon entered a more activist political phase. In 1920, he entered the Indian National Congress, a
political organization with a secular, all-India orientation that had developed a cooperative effort between Hindus and
Muslims to get concessions from Britain. Gandhi completely reorganized the group, making it stronger and less elitist. A
mass organization evolved, wedded to his methods of satyagraha. He called for widespread boycotts of British goods with
a turn to self-reliance and material simplicity. Once again, though, he was forced to suspend his efforts when
demonstrators turned to violence, this time in 1922. The British arrested Gandhi for his activities, and he served two years
in prison until his release in 1924 for poor health.
After his prison term, Gandhi focused on a satyagraha to help the untouchable caste. Long despised in India as the
lowest group in the caste system, the untouchables appeared to Gandhi as children of God like all human beings, who
deserved the same rights as everyone else. Through Gandhi's efforts, they won the right to use a temple road in a
southern state, which enlisted their support for the Congress. Meanwhile, the Congress splintered as Muslims and Hindus
went their own separate ways with one faction led by Chitta Ranjan Das, a Muslim, and another led by Motilala Nehru, a
Hindu. The political situation heated again when in 1928, Britain announced the formation of a commission to study
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reforms. The commission did not have a single Indian representative, and at that point, Congress, under Gandhi's
direction, demanded Indian independence. To support this, Gandhi promoted a satyagraha in 1930 that sought to
eliminate the tax on salt—a tax that especially harmed India's poor. His efforts led to new discussions with Britain, but
these produced only modest results, and the Salt March he led earned him another term in jail.
In 1934, Gandhi resigned completely from Congress, as leader and member. He claimed that the party had abandoned
his strategy by supporting nonviolence only as a means rather than a principle. He refocused his efforts to uplift India by
encouraging his countrymen to live simply, reject manufactured goods, and develop their own handicrafts. He lived as he
preached, residing at Sevagram, a small central Indian village, where he spun cotton and reduced his material
possessions to the minimum.
In the mid-1930s, Britain accelerated reforms that Indianized the government. A limited franchise that had been granted
Indians years earlier was expanded slightly, and more Indians were brought into the bureaucracy. The Congress won
elections in eight out of 11 states, among both Hindus and Muslims. Yet the power they gained upon election was limited.
To many Indians, the British concessions seemed too slow and too meager, leaving Indians as second-class citizens in
their own country.
Gandhi raised considerable controversy during World War II, when during Britain's fight against Germany he demanded
that the British withdraw and grant his country its complete independence—the Quit India movement. Critics accused him
of hampering the war effort, but Gandhi was reacting to British delays in transferring power to Indians and British efforts to
inflame the differences between Hindus and Muslims. The British reacted harshly; in 1942, they jailed Gandhi and the
entire Congress leadership. Gandhi remained in prison until 1944.
The following year, the British Labour Party came to power in Britain and changed the policy toward India. Henceforth,
steps would be taken to grant the country its independence. Much to the horror of Gandhi and other Congress leaders,
however, the procedure adopted by the British provided for two separate states, with Pakistan to be given its own
autonomy as a predominantly Muslim state.
With independence promised for no later than June 1948, Gandhi toured India in 1947 and again the following year,
attempting to end the religious fighting. Having always been a figure whose personal convictions could bring unity to the
Indian population, he began a fast to convince Hindus they should be nonviolent, even when provoked by Muslims, and
declared that he would not end his protest until the violence ceased. The rioting, centered in Delhi, came to an end, but
his efforts won him the animosity of many Hindus and Muslim extremists. On January 30, 1948, as Gandhi walked to a
platform from which he was to address a prayer meeting, a Hindu fanatic, Nathuram Godse, shot him. Gandhi said, "Oh,
God," and died instantly.
In his time, Gandhi had obtained the name "mahatma," meaning great soul. He was the leader of Indian nationalism, but
his efforts clearly transcended the political realm. He envisioned a better society, founded on compassion and respect for
all, a new moral order for his people and the world.
Further Reading
Erikson, Erik H., Gandhi's Truth: On the Origins of Militant Nonviolence, 1969; Fischer, Louis, Gandhi: His Life and
Message for the World, 1954; Fischer, Louis, The Life of Mahatma Gandhi, 1983; Gandhi, Mohandas, The Story of My
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Experiments with Truth, 1983; Green, Martin B., Tolstoy and Gandhi: Men of Peace, 1983; Nanda, Bal R., Majhatma
Gandhi: A Biography, 1968; Payne, Robert, The Life and Death of Mahatma Gandhi, 1969.
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"Mohandas Gandhi." World History: The Modern Era. ABC-CLIO, 2014. Web. 3 June 2014.
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