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Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Mahatma Gandhi

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi( 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948)in his ancestral home, now known as ''Kirti Mandir'' in Porbandar to Karamchand Gandhi (1822–1885) and Putlibai.

In May 1883, the 13-year-old Mohandas was married to 14-year-old Kasturbai Makhanji  in an arranged child marriage according to the custom of the region.

In 1885, when Gandhi was 15, the couple's first child was born, but survived only a few days.
Mohandas and Kasturba had 4 children, all sons -
Harilal(1888);Manilal(1892);Ramdas(1897) and Devdas(1900)
In 1888, Gandhi went to London, England, to study law at University College London  where he studied Indian law and jurisprudence and to train as a barrister.
In June 1891 Gandhi left London for India.
Gandhi's attempts at establishing a law practice in Bombay failed and, later, after applying and being turned down for a part-time job as a high school teacher, he ended up returning to Rajkot  to make a modest living drafting petitions for litigants.
In April 1893 Gandhi accepted a a year-long contract from Dada Abdulla & Co., an Indian firm in the 'Colony of Natal' in South Africa.
Gandhi in South Africa(1893-1914)
Gandhi faced the discrimination directed at Indians. He was thrown off a train at Pietermaritzburg after refusing to move from the first-class to a third-class coach while holding a valid first-class ticket.
Travelling farther on by stagecoach, he was beaten by a driver for refusing to move to make room for a European passenger.
He suffered other hardships on the journey as well, including being barred from several hotels.
In another incident, the magistrate of a Durban Court ordered Gandhi to remove his Turban  which he refused to do.
Gandhi extended his original period of stay in South Africa to assist Indians in opposing a bill to deny them the right to vote. Though unable to halt the bill's passage, his campaign was successful in drawing attention to the grievances of Indians in South Africa. He helped found the Natal Indian Congress in 1894 and through this organisation, he moulded the Indian community of South Africa into a unified political force.
In January 1897, when Gandhi landed in Durban, a mob of white settlers attacked him and he escaped only through the efforts of the wife of the police superintendent. He, however, refused to press charges against any member of the mob, stating it was one of his principles not to seek redress for a personal wrong in a court of law.
In 1906, the Transvaal government promulgated a new Act compelling registration of the colony's Indian population. At a mass protest meeting held in Johannesburg on 11 September that year, Gandhi adopted his still evolving methodology of satyagraha  or non-violent protest, for the first time. He urged Indians to defy the new law and to suffer the punishments for doing so.
Gandhi Returns to India
In 1915, Gandhi returned from South Africa to live in India. He spoke at the conventions of the Indian National Congress(INC)  but was introduced to Indian issues, politics and the Indian people primarily by Gopal Krishna Gokhale, a respected leader of the Congress Party at the time.
In April 1918, during the latter part of World War I, the Viceroy  invited Gandhi to a War Conference in Delhi Perhaps to show his support for the Empire and help his case for India's independence, Gandhi agreed to actively recruit Indians for the war effort.He did, however, stipulate in a letter to the Viceroy's Private Secretary  that he "personally will not kill or injure anybody, friend or foe.In a June 1918 leaflet entitled "Appeal for Enlistment", Gandhi wrote "To bring about such a state of things we should have the ability to defend ourselves, that is, the ability to bear arms and to use them...If we want to learn the use of arms with the greatest possible despatch, it is our duty to enlist ourselves in the army."

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