Art, obsession, and identity
Born October 2, 1869, Mahatma Gandhi was an Indian lawyer, politician, social activist, and writer who became the leader of the nationalist movement against the British rule of India. Employing a policy of nonviolent resistance, he successfully campaigned for the country's independence. In turn, he inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. He lived to see India granted the right to govern itself. He also witnessed the partition of the country, an event that led indirectly to his assassination on January 30, 1948.
Click through the gallery and relive the key moments that shaped the life and work of the man they called the Mahatma, or "Great Soul."
Gandhi trained in law at the Inner Temple in London, and was called to the bar at age 22 in June 1891.
The young lawyer was already a husband, having married Kasturbai Makhanji Kapadia (her first name was usually shortened to "Kasturba") in 1883 when he was just 13 years old.
Just a few weeks after being called to the bar in London, Gandhi returned to India after learning that his mother had died. He attempted to establish a law practice in Bombay (modern-day Mumbai) but ended up making a modest living drafting petitions for litigants in Rajkot.
The need by a distant cousin for a qualified lawyer in Johannesburg led Gandhi to travel to South Africa in 1893, where he eventually opened his own law practice (pictured). He spent a total of 21 years in the country during which he developed his political views, ethics, and politics—and where he faced discrimination because of his skin color and heritage, like all people of color.
During the Boer War (1899–1902), Gandhi volunteered to form a group of stretcher-bearers as the Natal Indian Ambulance Corps. He eventually raised 1,100 Indian volunteers to support British combat troops against the Boers. He's pictured here with colleagues (middle row, fifth from left) in 1900.
Further discrimination and bullying encouraged Gandhi to enter politics by forming the Natal Indian Congress and seeking voting rights for Indians. In 1910, Gandhi initiated and organized his first ashram, Tolstoy Farm (pictured), named after Russian writer and philosopher Leo Tolstoy, whose 1894 book, 'The Kingdom of God Is Within You,' greatly influenced Gandhi's science of nonviolence. Gandhi is seen in the middle, second row fifth from the right.
In 1915 Gandhi returned to India and joined the Indian National Congress. By 1920 he was leading it. As a noted Indian nationalist, theorist, and community organizer, he galvanized the call for the independence of India. He'd said as much in his 1909 book 'Hind Swaraj,' which means "Indian Home Rule." The book was banned in 1910 by the British government in India as a seditious text.
Gandhi's first major political achievement came in 1917 with the Champaran agitation in Bihar, which pitted local peasantry against their British landlords. Gandhi eventually won concessions from the authorities.
The Khilafat movement was an agitation by Indian Muslims, allied with Indian nationalists, to pressure the British government to preserve the authority of the Ottoman Sultan as Caliph of Islam after the First World War. Gandhi sought political co-operation from Muslims in his fight against British imperialism by supporting the Ottoman Empire. This helped stop the increasing Hindu-Muslim violence that was spreading across the nation. However, by the end of 1922 the Khilafat movement had collapsed and deadly religious riots reappeared in numerous cities.
Gandhi is photographed upon his release from prison in Poona, walking with some of his followers in 1918. Gandhi had by now adopted the loin-cloth as a symbol of his identification with India's poor. The following year, British authorities passed the Rowlatt Act, which gave powers to the police to arrest any person without any reason whatsoever. Gandhi responded by appealing to Indians to start civil disobedience.
On April 13, 1919, people (including women with children) gathered at Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar to celebrate the festival of Baisakhi and to protest the arrest and deportation of two nationalists. Troops of the British Indian Army opened fire on the crowd for 10 minutes, killing an estimated 1,000 people and injuring up to 1,500. Pictured is the park a few months after the massacre.
In the wake of the passing of the Rowlatt Act and the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, Gandhi launched the non-cooperation movement on September 5, 1920, with the aim of self-governance and independence.
Gandhi also expanded his nonviolent non-co-operation platform to include the "swadeshi" policy—the boycott of foreign-made goods, especially those from Britain. He urged Indian men and women, rich or poor, to spend time each day spinning khadi (homespun cotton) in support of the independence movement. The image of Gandhi making kadhi, by using a spinning wheel called a chakra, came to symbolize the man and the movement.
From March 12 to April 6, 1930, Gandhi, together with 78 volunteers, marched 388 km (241 miles) from Ahmedabad to Dandi, Gujarat, in protest at the tax of salt imposed by the British earlier that year. His intention was to start making salt himself.
Gandhi spoke to often huge crowds along the way. After arriving in Dandi, he was interned. A wave of beatings by police soon followed, resulting in 300 or so protesters seriously injured. Peaceful resistance had again turned ugly, but at no time did the marchers offer any resistance.
Gandhi visited England in 1931 to begin negotiations with the British government to end the political impasse strangling India. He's seen here arriving with personal secretary Mahadev Desai at Canning Town in London's East End.
Gandhi eschewed the comforts of a hotel stay offered by the government and instead stayed at Kingsley Hall with Labour Party member and social reformer George Lansbury. Both are pictured meeting local children.
Gandhi took time out to meet Charlie Chaplin, though he professed to not having previously heard of the "Little Tramp." Associates assured him of the comedian's popularity and a meeting was arranged.
The conference ended with a settlement being reached between Gandhi and Viceroy Lord Irwin known as the Gandhi-Irwin Pact. The British Government agreed to free all political prisoners, in return for the suspension of the civil disobedience movement. For his part, Conservative politician Winston Churchill remained critical of Gandhi, accusing him of playing on the ignorance of the Indian masses and even describing him as a dictator.
In a now famous image, Gandhi is photographed on the steps of 10 Downing Street, the Prime Minister's residence, while attending the conference in London.
Gandhi was arrested and detained on numerous occasions throughout his lifetime. Invariably, thousands would gather in protest. This procession took place in Bombay when the Indian National Congress working committee organized a demonstration protesting the detention yet again of their leader.
Launched at the Bombay session of the All-India Congress Committee by Gandhi in August 1942, the Quit India Movement demanded an end to British rule in India. After Gandhi's speech calling for an "orderly British withdrawal," almost the entire Congress leadership were imprisoned, and remained behind bars for the duration of the Second World War. Gandhi is pictured with Jawaharlal Nehru (1889–1964).
The Congress leadership was cut off from the rest of the world for over three years. Large protests took place across India; the British responded with mass detentions. Gandhi himself went on a 21-day fast and maintained his resolve to continuous resistance. Meanwhile his wife, Kasturba, had died, and Gandhi's health was declining.
Gandhi had always opposed the partition of the Indian subcontinent along religious lines. However, the Muslim League led by Muhammad Ali Jinnah (the future founder of Pakistan), demanded "Divide and Quit India." The Direct Action Day of August 16, 1946, called for by Jinnah led to a mass cycle of violence against Hindus and retaliatory action against Muslims. The threat of civil war across the Indian subcontinent was palpable. Pictured is Gandhi with Muhammad Ali Jinnah.
Archibald Wavell, the Viceroy and Governor-General of British India, worked with Gandhi and Jinnah to find a common ground. Eventually the British reluctantly agreed to grant independence to the people of the Indian subcontinent, but also accepted Jinnah's proposal of partitioning the land into Pakistan and India. After Wavell retired, Lord Louis Mountbatten became Britain's last Viceroy of India and the first governor-general of independent India (1947–1948). He's pictured here with his wife, Edwina, and Gandhi in 1947.
The Partition of India of 1947 was the division of British India into two independent dominion states, India and Pakistan. The partition displaced between 10–12 million people along religious lines, and created an overwhelming refugee crisis. Large-scale violence ensued, with several hundred thousand people losing their lives. Pictured is a crowded refugee train on its way to Punjab, Pakistan. Many Hindi nationalists held Gandhi responsible for the frenzy of violence and sufferings during the subcontinent's partition, and pointed towards his perceived compliance towards Muslims.
On January 30, 1948, Gandhi was with his grandnieces in the garden of Birla House (now Gandhi Smriti) on his way to address a prayer meeting. He was approached by Nathuram Godse, a Hindu nationalist, who shot the 78-year-old three times from close range, killing him almost instantly. Godse, along with several other conspirators, was executed the following year.
Gandhi's funeral in New Delhi was marked by millions, and his death mourned worldwide. He was cremated in accordance with Hindu tradition. Jawaharlal Nehru became his political heir, and the first Prime Minister of India.
Gandhi Smriti in New Delhi, formerly known as Birla House, is a museum dedicated to Gandhi, and where he spent the last 144 days of his life. Within the grounds is a memorial, the "Martyr's Column," which marks the spot where he was killed. It's one of the city's most popular visitor attractions.
Gandhi Smriti in New Delhi, formerly known as Birla House, is a museum dedicated to Gandhi, and where he spent the last 144 days of his life. Within the grounds is a memorial, the "Martyr's Column," which marks the spot where he was killed. It's one of the city's most popular visitor attractions.
Seed also: Famous protests and riots that changed the course of history
Mahatma Gandhi: Remembering the life and work of the "Great Soul"
Social activist, anti-colonial nationalist, and man of peace
LIFESTYLE Peace
Born October 2, 1869, Mahatma Gandhi was an Indian lawyer, politician, social activist, and writer who became the leader of the nationalist movement against the British rule of India. Employing a policy of nonviolent resistance, he successfully campaigned for the country's independence. In turn, he inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. He lived to see India granted the right to govern itself. He also witnessed the partition of the country, an event that led indirectly to his assassination on January 30, 1948.
Click through the gallery and relive the key moments that shaped the life and work of the man they called the Mahatma, or "Great Soul."