Gandhi Photos, Quotes and Brief Biography

Today is the birthday of the greatest mass mover of India, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi who is known to the world for his spirituality and non-violence. 2nd October, his birthday is commemorated as Gandhi Jayanti, a national holiday in India and as the Day of Non-Violence throughout the world. He is commonly known as Mahatma Gandhi around the world. Mahatma means a great soul in Sanskrit and is a honorific first applied by Rabindranath Tagore. He is also popularly known as Bapu (Father) in India and is called the Father of the Nation.

Brief Biography of Mahatma Gandhi

He was born on 2nd October, 1869 in Porbandar, a coastal town Gujarat, India. Karamchand Gandhi, his father was a reputable person in that area. His mother’s name was Putlibai. He was married to 14 year old Kasturba Makhanji when he was 13 years old. He was an average student academically. His family wanted him to become a barrister, so he went to study law at University College London at the age of 19 after passing matriculation exam. After returning to India in 1891, he started law practicing in Mumbai but did not succeed much. In 1893, he got a year long contract to a post in the Colony of Natal, South Africa, then part of the British Empire.

In South Africa, Gandhi faced discrimination directed at Indians. There he faced some events which were a turning point in his life, awakening him to social injustice and influencing his subsequent social activism. He helped found the Natal Indian Congress in 1894 in South Africa. In 1906, after the British introduced a new poll-tax, Zulus in South Africa killed two British officers. In response, the British declared a war against the Zulus. Gandhi played a significant role to improve the position of Indians in that war.

Gandhi with kasturbai

In 1915, Gandhi returned from South Africa to live in India. He was introduced to Indian issues and politics in the Indian National Congress Party. Gandhi’s first major achievements came in 1918 with the Champaran agitation and Kheda Satyagraha, although in the latter it was indigo and other cash crops instead of the food crops necessary for their survival.

Gandhi employed non-cooperation, non-violence and peaceful resistance as his “weapons” in the struggle against British. After the Jallianwala Bagh massacre and subsequent violence that Gandhi’s mind focused upon obtaining complete self-government and control of all Indian government institutions, maturing soon into Swaraj or complete individual, spiritual, political independence.

Gandhi in Salt March

Gandhi launched new satyagraha in March 1930 against Salt taxation which is famous as Salt March to Dandi marching 400 kilometers from Ahmedabad to Dandi to make salt himself.

Gandhi and Mahadev Desai

On 30 January 1948, Gandhi was shot while having his nightly public walk on the grounds of the Birla Bhavan (Birla House) in New Delhi. The assassin, Nathuram Godse, was a Hindu nationalist with links to the extremist Hindu Mahasabha, who held Gandhi responsible for weakening India by insisting upon a payment to Pakistan. Godse and his co-conspirator Narayan Apte were later tried and convicted; they were executed on 15 November 1949.

Quotes of Mahatma Gandhi

“An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.”

“There are many causes that I am prepared to die for but no causes that I am prepared to kill for.”

“The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.”

“If one has no affection for a person or a system, one should feel free to give the fullest expression to his disaffection so long as he does not contemplate, promote, or incite violence.”

“The ideally non-violent state will be an ordered anarchy. That State is the best governed which is governed the least.”

Later in his life when he was asked whether he was a Hindu, he replied:

“Yes I am. I am also a Christian, a Muslim, a Buddhist and a Jew.”

“Religions are different roads converging to the same point. What does it matter that we take different road, so long as we reach the same goal. Wherein is the cause for quarrelling?”

Pictures of Mahatma Gandhi

Gandhi In South Africa

Khan and gandhi