Father of Indian Nation Gandhiji
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, called Mahatma, is the father of our nation.
He was born on 2 October 1869 at Porbandar in Gujarat as the son of Diwan Karamchand and his fourth wife ‘Putilibai’.
In 1883, at the age of 14, he married Kasthurba Later he went to England to study law.
In 1893 he went to South Africa to practice law.
After his studies in England Gandhiji began his practice as a lawyer in Bombay and Rajkot.
He was subjected to racial discrimination and organized Natal Indian Congress in 1894. There he started a weekly, Indian opinion 1904.
Gandhiji experimented the weapon Satyagraha for the first time in South Africa in September 1906 to protest against the Asiatic Ordinance issued against the Indians in Transvaal.
Gandhiji’s first imprisonment was in 1908 at Johannesburg in South Africa.
In 1899 during the Boer war, Gandhiji organized Indian Ambulance Corps for the British.
Gandhiji was humiliated and ousted from Peter Marits Burg Railway Station in South Africa.
Gandhiji became a Brahmachari in 1906.
Gandhiji started Tolstoy Farm South Africa in 1910.
Gandhiji started the Phoenix Settlement in Durban.
Gandhian Era in Indian politics is from 1915 -1948.
He returned to India on 9th January 1915, leaving South Africa forever. January 9 is observed as ‘Pravasi Bharatiya Divas’ to commemorate this.
Gandhiji’s first Satyagraha in India was for the right of Indigo workers in Champaran in 1917.
Gandhiji’s first fast was in 1918 in connection with the strike of mill workers in Ahmedabad.
He started the Satyagrahasrama on the banks of Sabarmati river in Ahmedabad in 1917.
In 1918 he started two weeklies – Young India in English and Navjeevan in Gujarati.
Gandhiji abandoned his title Kaiser -i-Hind in protest against Jallianwalabagh Massacre (1919)
Gandhiji’s first National Movement was organized against the Rowlat Act in 1919.
Gandhiji launched the Non-Co-operation Movement on August 1, 1920, which caused the violent incident at Chauri Chaura in UP. This incident initiated Gandhiji to suspend the movement in 1922.
Gandhiji renounced worldly pleasures and became a symbol of the half-naked villager in 1920.
The only Congress session presided over by Gandhiji was the one which held at Belgaum in 1924.
Gandhiji started his historic Dandi March on 12 March 1930 related to the Salt Satyagraha.
Gandhiji participates in the Second Round Table Conference in London in 1931 August.
With the aim of eradicating untouchability Gandhiji founded the All India Harijan Samaj in 1932.
Gandhiji started his journey for Harijan upliftment from the Wardha Ashram in Maharashtra.
Gandhiji called low-class people as ‘Harijan’ which means ‘sons of God’.
He started the weekly Harijan in 1933.
Gandhi-Irwin pact was signed on 5 March 1931.
Gandhiji was associated with the Vaikom and Guruvayur Sathyagraha in Kerala.
Gandhiji called the Temple Entry Proclamation a wonder of the Modern Age.
Pattabhi Sitaramayya Gandhiji’s candidate for the Presidentship of INC was defeated by Subash Chandra Bose.
Gandhiji called Subhash Chandra Bose the Patriots’, Patriot
Winston Churchill called Gandhiji a ‘‘Half naked Seditious Fakir.
The name ‘Gurudev’ was given to Tagore by Gandhiji
Tagore called Gandhiji ‘Mahatma’.
‘Wardha’ scheme of education was the basic education policy formulated by Gandhiji.
In 1940 Gandhiji started Individual Satyagraha and selected Vinoba Bhave and Nehru for that.
In 1942 August 9 Gandhiji started the Quit India Movement and gave the call ‘Do or Die’.
Gandhiji called the Cripps Mission (1942) ‘‘a postdated cheque on a drowning bank’’.
Gandhiji was assassinated by Raghuram Vinayak Godse on 30 January 1948 at the Birla house in Delhi. He died at 5: 17 pm. ‘He Ram, He Ram’ was his last words.
Godse used an Italian Beretta Pistol to shoot at Gandhiji.
Gandhiyum Godsey is a book written by N.K. Krishnavarier.
‘Mem Nadhuram Godse Bolthai’ is a play written by Pradeep Dalvi to humiliate Gandhi.
After the assassination, The R.S.S was banned in 1948 February 4.
Narayan Dathathrya Apte was hanged to death along with Godse on the Gandhi Assassination case.
French Novelist who wrote the biography of Gandhiji was Romain Rolland.
Medal Slaiduin a British woman became a follower Gandhi and came to be known as Meera Ben.
The original autobiography of Gandhiji written in the Gujarati language was ‘Sathya na Prayogo’.
Liberty or Death written by Patrick French deals with antagonism in Gandhi’s life.
Gandhiji called his hanging clock my little dictator.
‘Ente Gurunathan’ poem written by Vallathol Narayana Menon speaks about Gandhiji.
‘That’s my mother’ Gandhiji said these words about Bhagavatgita.
Gandhiji’s political guru was Gopalakrishna Gokhale.
Gandhi’s prisoner is a book written by Uma Dupfeli Mistri, daughter of Gandhi’s son, Manilal.
Harilal, Manilal, Ramdas, and Devdas were Gandhiji’s four sons.
‘I follow Mahatma’ is a book written by K.M.Munshi.
‘Unto This Last’ of John Ruskin greatly influenced Gandhiji
R.K. Narayan wrote ‘Waiting for the Mahatma’.
‘A week with Gandhi, ‘Gandhi and Stalin and Life of Mahatma Gandhi are the books written by Fischer.
Gandhiji grandson Thushar Gandhi led the second Dandi March from March 12 – April 17, 2005, on the 75th anniversary of Dandi March.
Gandhiji’s autobiography ‘‘My Experiments with Truth’ was written in 1922 while he was in Jail. It describes his life from 1869 to 1921.
It was translated into English by Mahadev Desai.
Leon Tolstoy is considered as the spiritual guru of Gandhiji.
One of the great dreams of Gandhiji was the establishment of Gram Swaraj. He said ‘‘India lives in villages’’. He started Sewagram Ashram on 30 April 1936.
Gandhiji said ‘‘ Nonviolence is not one form it is the only form of direct action’’.
Gandhiji once sarcastically (humorously) called jail ‘‘His Majesty’s Hotel’’.
”Generations to come it may scarce believe that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth”, Einstein said about Gandhiji.
‘‘Truth and Non-violence are my Gods’’ Gandhiji
Untouchability is a crime against God and Mankind Gandhiji.
‘‘Swaraj for me means freedom for the meanest of our countrymen’’ – Gandhiji
‘‘The light has gone out of our lives and there is darkness everywhere’’ Nehru on the death of Gandhiji.
‘‘Non-violence is the law of our species as violence is the law of the brute’’ Gandhiji
‘‘Indian culture is neither Hindu, Islam, nor any other wholly. It is a fusion of all’ – Gandhiji
‘‘ Non-Co-operation with evil is as much a duty as co-operation with good’’ – Gandhiji
‘‘My only hope lies in prayer and answer to prayer’’ – Gandhiji