Mahatma Gandhi is an activist nicknamed the "Great Spirit" who liberated India with the peaceful methods he developed and became a worldwide icon of freedom and human rights. His real name is Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.
“Mahatma” is a title that means great soul in Sanskrit, given after his deeds on behalf of humanity.
Gandhi is known as the pioneer of the satyagraha philosophy, which advocates non-violent resistance. This philosophy advises people to fight injustice by using actions that will only harm them (such as going to jail, being fired, etc.). Resistance methods include civil disobedience such as marches, non-cooperation, non-compliance with rules, boycotts, and strikes. Using these methods, Gandhi fought against social and economic inequalities and saved India from becoming a British colony.
Later, with these methods and discourses, he became a role model for freedom leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela.
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist and political ethicist who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful campaign for India's independence from British rule. He inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. The honorific Mahātmā (from Sanskrit 'great-souled, venerable'), first applied to him in South Africa in 1914, is now used throughout the world.
Although Gandhi was a civil rights and freedom activist, he was heavily criticized by some circles. There are serious accusations against him regarding racism and abuse of women. Even though he was the founder of India and its liberator from the British, he also had many dislikes in his country. Gandhi, a very religious Hindu, died at the age of 78 after being shot by a fanatic Hindu Indian in 1948. As you can see, there are those who love his words so much that they have them tattooed on their bodies, and there are those who hate him enough to establish a political party to exaggerate his policies from India.
In this article, we wanted to remind you again who Gandhi was, how he spent his life, and what he achieved, and on the other hand, we wanted to touch upon the criticism of those who did not like him.
Summary Information About Gandhi
Where is Gandhi from: India
Born: October 2, 1869, Porbandar, India
Death: January 30, 1948, Delhi
Cause of Death: Armed Assassination
Education: Studied Law in London
Religion: Hinduism
Marital Status: Married (Kasturba Gandhi) with Four Children
Gandhi was born into a middle-class family in India in 1869. His mother was a very religious Hindu. His father was the prime minister of one of the states in the country under British rule. It is said that his father insisted that he study law because he wanted him to become a manager like him. He was an ordinary student in his childhood. When he was 13, he was married to a partner arranged by his family. He returned to his education after a 1-year break. Gandhi, who became a father for the first time at the age of 20, had four children.
Education Life
He first attended university in India but decided not to continue and returned to his family. Afterward, with the encouragement of a Hindu priest who was a family friend and the financial support of his brother, who was a lawyer, he was sent back to England to study law. His mother and wife never wanted him to go. He also swore that he would not touch meat, alcohol, and women in England.
Being a vegetarian opens unexpected doors for him in England. In the London Vegetarian Society he joined, he gained an idealistic environment that would greatly contribute to his worldview and policies in the following years. His friends here are very different people who rebel against the capitalist and industrial order, who advocate the superiority of morality over commodities, living simply, and solving problems through cooperation rather than conflict.
Lawyer Career That Didn't Start Well
When he returned to India, he learned that his mother had passed away and that this had been hidden from him. He could not achieve success in his career for 2 years. It is even known that he fled the court in one of his cases and returned his client's money because he had such a hard time in confrontations that he could not interrogate the witnesses. After his successive failures, job opportunities became very limited for him. When he learned through an acquaintance that a company in South Africa, also a British colony, was looking for an Indian lawyer, he accepted the offer even though he did not want to leave the country.
Where Gandhi Was Cooked: 21 Years in South Africa Full of Discrimination
Gandhi, who went to South Africa for only one year in 1893 and stayed for 21 years, would develop, grow, and become a leader in the face of the discrimination he experienced there. When Gandhi arrives in South Africa, he finds himself in a world where non-whites are second-class citizens. Gandhi is thrown off the train because he did not give his seat to a white person (one of the turning points when he decided to fight racism and injustice), he is not allowed to practice law in court with his turban, the sidewalks are only available to white people, Indians cannot own property and cannot go out at night without special permission. During the year he spent here, he tried to inform Indians about their rights.
Just as his 1-year contract with his company has expired and he is about to return to India, he decides to stay and fight when he learns that a bill has been prepared that will take away the right of Indians to vote. He founded the Natal Indian Congress in 1894. The law was passed and Indians lost their right to vote, but during this struggle, Gandhi managed to organize Indians living in South Africa under a single roof and attract international attention to their cause. It reveals that all citizens of England are not equal and that there is discrimination in its colonies.
In 1897, he went to India to lobby for his case and to bring his wife and 2 children to South Africa (the other 2 would be born there). When he returns, an angry white mob tries to lynch Gandhi. Despite all the difficulties, he established a successful law firm here.
So far, Gandhi still sees himself as an Indian with a British identity. He even established a team of stretcher-bearers consisting of 1,100 Indian volunteers to support England in the Boar War (1899-1902), which broke out between England and European settlers. Likewise, he gathers volunteers and supports the war launched by the British to suppress the black Zulu tribe. In this way, he aims to prove to England that Indians are citizens who should be considered equal with both rights and duties. However, although the British emerged victorious from the war, there was no improvement in the situation of the Indians.
Satyagraha: The Beginning of Passive Resistance
In 1906, following a law that further restricted the rights of Indians, including articles such as the non-recognition of Hindu marriages, Gandhi launched his first civil disobedience campaign. He invites Indians to stand up for the equality they believe in, regardless of the consequences, without submitting to the laws that oppress them. He named it Satyagrahis (Satyagraha), which means "sticking to the truth". This is a brand new technique that does not resort to violence but only aims to solve problems by burning one's head, sacrificing oneself, and accepting suffering. At its core is non-cooperation and disobedience. For example: Gandhi defied the law by traveling without a permit and was imprisoned for this reason.
This passive resistance of the Indians lasted for 7 years. As a result of their disobedience, hundreds of people willingly go to prison, become unemployed, or even are shot to death. In this way, the cruelty of the South African administration became more talked about in the world, and eventually, due to intense pressure from England, the South African administration was forced to make an agreement with Gandhi. Thus, Hindu marriages were accepted again and some taxes imposed on Indians were abolished. However, years later it will be seen that Gandhi could not find a permanent solution to the situation. Therefore, it is said that South Africa transformed Gandhi, not Gandhi.
It is known that during this period, Gandhi's business was going well, he provided food to people with this money, corresponded with Tolstoy, was interested in labor, studied the Quran and sacred Hindu texts, and also established 2 communal farms.
Return to India
He left South Africa in 1914, just before World War I began. He first stays in London for a few months and then returns to India. Gandhi, who spent the first half of his life under the protective wing of his family and the second half abroad, encountered the realities of India for the first time when he returned to his country at the age of 45.
He rejects offers to enter politics. He established an ashram open to all castes in Ahmedabad. He spent the first 3 years in India in seclusion, fasting, abstaining from sexuality, and devoting himself to meditation and religious texts. He emerges from this process by receiving the title of Mahatma, that is, the great soul.
First Rebellion against the British
In 1919, when the British implemented the Rowlatt Act, which allowed people to be imprisoned without trial if they were suspected of inciting sedition, Gandhi appeared on the scene again and invited the country to Satyagrahis, that is, passive resistance, which had proven successful in South Africa.
The real event that broke Gandhi's allegiance to England was the massacre of 400 Indian protesters by British soldiers in Amritsar. He returns the medals given to him for his service in the war in South Africa and opposes the conscription of Indians to fight in the British army in World War I. Gandhi now became the leader of the independent India movement. Thanks to him, the Indian parliament, composed of Indian elites, turned into a platform where all religious communities, from bottom to top, fight for independence side by side.
Gandhi called on Indian rulers to stop working for England, students not to go to public schools, soldiers to abandon their duties, the public to massive protests and not to pay taxes to England and not to use British products. With the abandonment of British clothing and the return to traditional Indian clothing, the spinning wheel used in weaving became the symbol of the freedom movement.
When he stopped the movement after the events turned violent in a few villages, some of his followers were disappointed because they succumbed to their conscience.
He was arrested in 1922 and sent to prison for 6 years, but when he had appendicitis surgery, he was released in 1924, that is, 2 years later. When he comes out, he finds his country divided into Hindu-Muslim communities as a result of Britain's divide-and-rule tactics, and the National Indian Congress divided into groups under different leaders. Under Gandhi's unifying leadership, groups that had barely come together dispersed. He tries to reconcile Muslim and Hindu people by holding hunger fasts. He becomes the head of the party again, but leaves it within a year, unable to cope with the turbulent domestic politics.
After this, people had the impression that Gandhi's era was over, but in 1927, after the British established a reform board that did not include Indians, Gandhi came to the scene again and threatened the British with civil disobedience tactics to fight for full independence if they did not give semi-independence to India within 6 months. It does. Thus, he becomes the face of his party again. However, the British ignored their demands.
Salt Walk
In 1930, Gandhi organized a second civil disobedience campaign against the British to protest the law (Salt Act) that prohibited Indians from producing and selling salt and imposed heavy taxes, especially on low-income people. Wearing a white shawl woven on a spinning wheel in his home, wearing sandals and a staff in his hand, he goes on a 390-kilometer walk towards the Arabian Sea. His aim is to break the law and challenge the government by producing a symbolic amount of salt there.
When they arrive at the destination accompanied by a few dozen people after a 24-day walk, they boil seawater to obtain salt. Similar protests began to spread across the country. 60,000 Indians, including Gandhi, were imprisoned. The impact of the movement was so great that Time magazine named him Man of the Year.
When he was released from prison in 1931, he reached an agreement with the British. In exchange for ending the salt resistance, a handshake was made to release political prisoners and allow only those living by the sea to produce salt (no significant gains were achieved regarding the Salt Act). Following this, he went to England and attended a session representing the Indian Congress, but he did not get any results from there.
Fearing that Gandhi would cause another provocation, Britain's governor of India imprisoned Gandhi, who returned from London.
The British wanted to hold a separate election among the untouchables, the lowest class in the caste system, and give them the right to represent them for 70 years. Gandhi also agreed that untouchables should be liberated. However, he objects to the situation, saying that holding separate elections for them is an attempt by the British to rule India by deepening the class divide in society. It should be noted that according to Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, the leader of the untouchables, Gandhi was not sincere in his claim to protect the lower class.
Gandhi began a hunger strike in prison to protest the practice that giving separate voting rights to untouchables. Fearing that the people would revolt if Gandhi died, the British stepped back.
After being released from prison, he resigned from the leadership and membership of the Congress in 1934, convinced that the National Indian Congress did not sincerely believe in the principle of nonviolence, but used it because it was an effective method against the British. He settles in the countryside and starts working to restructure the country from bottom to top. Jawaharlal Nehru, whom Gandhi found close to him, became the leader of the Congress.
After England entered World War II, India, a British territory, found itself drawn into the war. Different voices are raised in India regarding participation in the war. The National Indian Congress advocates sending military support to England in exchange for full independence for India, while Gandhi advocates providing only moral support.
Realizing that the British administration, on the one hand, was stalling India with empty promises of independence, and on the other hand, was trying to strengthen the Muslim minority against the Hindi majority, Gandhi started the "Leave India" movement in 1942. Gandhi "Do or Die" With his slogan, he called on Indians to disobey to the death. 1,000 people lost their lives in the protests, which were harshly suppressed by the British in the following days.
Following Winston Churchill's statement, "I did not become the king's prime minister to liquidate the British Empire," Gandhi, his wife, and all National Indian Congress leaders were arrested. India rises up and rebellions grow. As a result of the British harsh suppression of the rebellions, India-England relations were irreparably damaged.
Gandhi's wife Kasturba dies while in prison. At the end of 19 months of imprisonment, when Gandhi's health deteriorated, the administration released Gandhi, fearing that his death in prison would cause even more chaos.
His Role in India's Independence and Partition
People had to migrate as a result of the division of the country into India and Pakistan. After Churchill and his party lost the elections in 1945, a new page opened in India-Britain relations. In 1947, the new government held tripartite meetings with the Indian Muslim League and the National Indian Congress.
The Indian Muslim League was established in 1906 to protect Muslim rights and is generally close to the British government. In 1913, he changed his views and defended India's independence. During the independence talks in 1945, the National Indian Congress wanted India's independence by preserving its territorial integrity, while the Indian Muslim Association advocated for Muslims to be a separate country.
Gandhi, who advocated the protection of territorial integrity, played an active role in the negotiation and tried to convince Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the leader of the Indian Muslim League and also his friend, that this is a British divide-and-rule tactic, that they are stronger together, and even offers him the administration of the country. , but even if Jinnah did not accept, he withdrew the offer because other separatist leaders in the society would continue the fight. Muslim-Hindu conflicts have already started within the society.
Despite the principle of nonviolence, Gandhi advocates not compromising the integrity of the country at the expense of civil war, but in the face of growing violence, he is persuaded to accept partition by the National Indian Congress. He hopes that the atmosphere will soften after the imperialist powers leave the region.
Unfortunately, the violence escalates even before the division occurs. Gandhi tried to bring the two communities together by touring these regions. However, it did not work and he angered the bigoted Hindus with his moderate attitude towards Muslims.
It is said that 1 million people died in the chaos caused by people trying to stay on the "right side" of the border of the country, which will be divided into two by the border drawn by the British, and 17 million people were affected by the deportation and were left homeless and propertyless.
Gandhi's Death
Gandhi advocated a secular India where all religions could coexist. Before the declaration of independence on August 15, 1947, he started a death fast and condemned those who provoked conflict between religious groups and invited people to tolerance. Thanks to his fast, a rebellion ended in Calcutta, and social peace was achieved in Delhi, but there were also Hindus in the country who rebelled against Gandhi's insistence on not responding to violence and chanted "Let Gandhi die" slogans.
Saying, "Death would be a glorious salvation for me rather than being a helpless witness to the collapse of India, Hinduism, Islam, and Sikhism," Gandhi started his last fast on January 13. A week later, on the 20th, Hindu fanatics attempted to assassinate Gandhi. This is not the first assassination attempt.
Gandhi, who made it a worldview and school to fight injustice not with violence but by self-sacrifice and self-sacrifice, awaits his assassination with open arms in order to complete his teaching. Despite repeated assassination attempts, he refused to take security measures, saying, "If I die by the bullet of a madman, I will leave smiling." God will be in my heart and on my lips. "And if this happens, do not shed a single tear."
On January 29, he was shot three times in the chest and killed by a fanatic Hindu named Nathuram Godse, who was anti-secular and defended that India was a Hindu country. The murderer, who aims to destroy Gandhi's influence by killing him, actually creates the perfect ending that glorifies Gandhi's principle of self-sacrifice.
After his body is cremated in accordance with Hindu belief, his ashes are distributed all over the country and allowed to meet with water there. However, some of them were smuggled abroad by some people. For example, today his family still requests that his ashes, which are kept in an ashram in Los Angeles, be scattered in water.