Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (/'g??ndi, 'gn-/;[2] Hindustani: ['mo???nd?a?s 'k?r?

mt
??nd? 'ga?nd??i] ( listen); 2 October 1869
30 January 1948) was the preeminent l
eader of the Indian independence movement in British-ruled India. Employing nonv
iolent civil disobedience, Gandhi led India to independence and inspired movemen
ts for civil rights and freedom across the world. The honorific Mahatma (Sanskri
t: "high-souled", "venerable")[3] applied to him first in 1914 in South Africa,[4] i
s now used worldwide. He is also called Bapu (Gujarati: endearment for "father",
[5] "papa"[5][6]) in India. In common parlance in India he is often called Gandh
iji. He is unofficially called the Father of the Nation.[7][8]
Born and raised in a Hindu merchant caste family in coastal Gujarat, western Ind
ia, and trained in law at the Inner Temple, London, Gandhi first employed nonvio
lent civil disobedience as an expatriate lawyer in South Africa, in the resident
Indian community's struggle for civil rights. After his return to India in 1915
, he set about organising peasants, farmers, and urban labourers to protest agai
nst excessive land-tax and discrimination. Assuming leadership of the Indian Nat
ional Congress in 1921, Gandhi led nationwide campaigns for easing poverty, expa
nding women's rights, building religious and ethnic amity, ending untouchability
, but above all for achieving Swaraj or self-rule.
Gandhi famously led Indians in challenging the British-imposed salt tax with the
400 km (250 mi) Dandi Salt March in 1930, and later in calling for the British
to Quit India in 1942. He was imprisoned for many years, upon many occasions, in
both South Africa and India. Gandhi attempted to practise nonviolence and truth
in all situations, and advocated that others do the same. He lived modestly in
a self-sufficient residential community and wore the traditional Indian dhoti an
d shawl, woven with yarn hand-spun on a charkha. He ate simple vegetarian food,
and also undertook long fasts as a means of both self-purification and social pr
otest.
Gandhi's vision of an independent India based on religious pluralism, however, w
as challenged in the early 1940s by a new Muslim nationalism which was demanding
a separate Muslim homeland carved out of India.[9] Eventually, in August 1947,
Britain granted independence, but the British Indian Empire[9] was partitioned i
nto two dominions, a Hindu-majority India and Muslim Pakistan.[10] As many displ
aced Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs made their way to their new lands, religious vio
lence broke out, especially in the Punjab and Bengal. Eschewing the official cel
ebration of independence in Delhi, Gandhi visited the affected areas, attempting
to provide solace. In the months following, he undertook several fasts unto dea
th to promote religious harmony. The last of these, undertaken on 12 January 194
8 at age 78,[11] also had the indirect goal of pressuring India to pay out some
cash assets owed to Pakistan.[11] Some Indians thought Gandhi was too accommodat
ing.[11][12] Nathuram Godse, a Hindu nationalist, assassinated Gandhi on 30 Janu
ary 1948 by firing three bullets into his chest at point-blank range.[12]
His birthday, 2 October, is commemorated as Gandhi Jayanti, a national holiday,
and world-wide as the International Day of Nonviolence.
Early life and background
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi in his earliest known photo, aged 7, c. 1876[citation
needed]
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi[13] was born on 2 October 1869[1] to a Hindu Modh Ban
iya family[14] in Porbandar (also known as Sudamapuri), a coastal town on the Ka
thiawar Peninsula and then part of the small princely state of Porbandar in the
Kathiawar Agency of the Indian Empire. His father, Karamchand Uttamchand Gandhi
(1822 1885), served as the diwan (chief minister) of Porbandar state.[citation nee
ded]
The Gandhi family originated from the village of Kutiana in what was then Junaga

dh State.[15] In the late 17th or early 18th century, one Lalji Gandhi moved to
Porbandar and entered the service of its ruler, the Rana. Successive generations
of the family served as civil servants in the state administration before Uttam
chand, Mohandas's grandfather, became diwan in the early 19th century under the
then Rana of Porbandar, Khimojiraji.[15][16] In 1831, Rana Khimojiraji died sudd
enly and was succeeded by his 12-year-old only son, Vikmatji.[16] As a result, R
ana Khimojirajji's widow, Rani Rupaliba, became regent for her son. She soon fel
l out with Uttamchand and forced him to return to his ancestral village in Junag
adh. While in Junagadh, Uttamchand appeared before its Nawab and saluted him wit
h his left hand instead of his right, replying that his right hand was pledged t
o Porbandar's service.[15] In 1841, Vikmatji assumed the throne and reinstated U
ttamchand as his diwan.[citation needed]
In 1847, Rana Vikmatji appointed Uttamchand's son, Karamchand, as diwan after di
sagreeing with Uttamchand over the state's maintenance of a British garrison.[15
] Although he only had an elementary education and had previously been a clerk i
n the state administration, Karamchand proved a capable chief minister.[17] Duri
ng his tenure, Karamchand married four times. His first two wives died young, af
ter each had given birth to a daughter, and his third marriage was childless. In
1857, Karamchand sought his third wife's permission to remarry; that year, he m
arried Putlibai (1844 1891), who also came from Junagadh,[15] and was from a Prana
mi Vaishnava family.[18][19][20][21] Karamchand and Putlibai had three children
over the ensuing decade, a son, Laxmidas (c. 1860
March 1914), a daughter, Ralia
tbehn (1862 1960) and another son, Karsandas (c. 1866 1913).[22][23]
On 2 October 1869, Putlibai gave birth to her last child, Mohandas, in a dark, w
indowless ground-floor room of the Gandhi family residence in Porbandar city. As
a child, Gandhi was described by his sister Raliat as "restless as mercury, eit
her playing or roaming about. One of his favourite pastimes was twisting dogs' e
ars."[24] The Indian classics, especially the stories of Shravana and king Haris
hchandra, had a great impact on Gandhi in his childhood. In his autobiography, h
e admits that they left an indelible impression on his mind. He writes: "It haun
ted me and I must have acted Harishchandra to myself times without number." Gand
hi's early self-identification with truth and love as supreme values is traceabl
e to these epic characters.[25][26]
The family's religious background was eclectic. Gandhi's father was Hindu[27] an
d his mother was from a Pranami Vaishnava family. Religious figures were frequen
t visitors to the home.[28] Gandhi was deeply influenced by his mother Putlibai,
an extremely pious lady who "would not think of taking her meals without her da
ily prayers...she would take the hardest vows and keep them without flinching. T
o keep two or three consecutive fasts was nothing to her."[29]
In the year of Mohandas's birth, Rana Vikmatji was exiled, stripped of direct ad
ministrative power and demoted in rank by the British political agent, after hav
ing ordered the brutal executions of a slave and an Arab bodyguard. Possibly as
a result, in 1874 Karamchand left Porbandar for the smaller state of Rajkot, whe
re he became a counsellor to its ruler, the Thakur Sahib; though Rajkot was a le
ss prestigious state than Porbandar, the British regional political agency was l
ocated there, which gave the state's diwan a measure of security.[30] In 1876, K
aramchand became diwan of Rajkot and was succeeded as diwan of Porbandar by his
brother Tulsidas. His family then rejoined him in Rajkot.[31]
On 21 January 1879, Mohandas entered the local taluk (district) school in Rajkot
, not far from his home. At school, he was taught the rudiments of arithmetic, h
istory, the Gujarati language and geography.[31] Despite being only an average s
tudent in his year there, in October 1880 he sat the entrance examinations for K
athiawar High School, also in Rajkot. He passed the examinations with a creditab
le average of 64 percent and was enrolled the following year.[32] During his yea
rs at the high school, Mohandas intensively studied the English language for the

first time, along with continuing his lessons in arithmetic, Gujarati, history
and geography.[32] His attendance and marks remained mediocre to average, possib
ly due to Karamchand falling ill in 1882 and Mohandas spending more time at home
as a result.[32] Gandhi shone neither in the classroom nor on the playing field
. One of the terminal reports rated him as "good at English, fair in Arithmetic
and weak in Geography; conduct very good, bad handwriting".
While at high school, Mohandas came into contact with students of other castes a
nd faiths, including several Parsis and Muslims. A Muslim friend of his elder br
other Karsandas, named Sheikh Mehtab, befriended Mohandas and encouraged the str
ictly vegetarian boy to try eating meat to improve his stamina. He also took Moh
andas to a brothel one day, though Mohandas "was struck blind and dumb in this d
en of vice," rebuffed the prostitutes' advances and was promptly sent out of the
brothel. As experimenting with meat-eating and carnal pleasures only brought Mo
handas mental anguish, he abandoned both and the company of Mehtab, though they
would maintain their association for many years afterwards.[33]
In May 1883, the 13-year-old Mohandas was married to 14-year-old Kasturbai Makha
nji Kapadia (her first name was usually shortened to "Kasturba", and affectionat
ely to "Ba") in an arranged child marriage, according to the custom of the regio
n at that time.[34] In the process, he lost a year at school.[35] Recalling the
day of their marriage, he once said, "As we didn't know much about marriage, for
us it meant only wearing new clothes, eating sweets and playing with relatives.
" However, as was prevailing tradition, the adolescent bride was to spend much t
ime at her parents' house, and away from her husband.[36] Writing many years lat
er, Mohandas described with regret the lustful feelings he felt for his young br
ide, "even at school I used to think of her, and the thought of nightfall and ou
r subsequent meeting was ever haunting me."[37]
In late 1885, Karamchand died, on a night when Mohandas had just left his father
to sleep with his wife, despite the fact she was pregnant.[38] The couple's fir
st child was born shortly after, but survived only a few days. The double traged
y haunted Mohandas throughout his life, "the shame, to which I have referred in
a foregoing chapter, was this of my carnal desire even at the critical hour of m
y father's death, which demanded wakeful service. It is a blot I have never been
able to efface or forget...I was weighed and found unpardonably wanting because
my mind was at the same moment in the grip of lust.[38][39] Mohandas and Kastur
ba had four more children, all sons: Harilal, born in 1888; Manilal, born in 189
2; Ramdas, born in 1897; and Devdas, born in 1900.[34]
In November 1887, he sat the regional matriculation exams in Ahmedabad, writing
exams in arithmetic, history, geography, natural science, English and Gujarati.
He passed with an overall average of 40 percent, ranking 404th of 823 successful
matriculates.[40] In January 1888, he enrolled at Samaldas College in Bhavnagar
State, then the sole degree-granting institution of higher education in the reg
ion. During his first and only term there, he suffered from headaches and strong
feelings of homesickness, did very poorly in his exams in April and withdrew fr
om the college at the end of the term, returning to Porbandar.[41]