Who is Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi?

While it may come as a surprise to many, Gandhi (as he is called) was neither the father of Indian nationalism nor particularly politically influential in the early days of the independence movement. On the contrary: well-educated and a lawyer, he was very English in his Indian ways. And he used his time in England, a country that he considered to be the center of modern civilization at the time, to study more than the law. More, as he experimented with English ways, he also became a citizen of the world.

In fact, the great Gandhi was not radicalized until he moved to South Africa and tried to practice law amid the extremes of apartheid and white supremacy. Once he returned to India, he became an advocate of nonviolence and noncooperation, and almost immediately had the opportunity to implement those ideals when he began to play center stage in the political and economic life of India and the Raj. In his autobiography, The Story of My Experiments with Truth, (50 plus one Great Books You Should Have Read, Encouragement Press, 2006) he clearly states his position on nonviolence: “There are many causes I am prepared to die for but no causes I am prepared to kill for.”

What made him Gandhi?

Born in 1869 in a rural area of India untouched by foreign intervention, he was taught by his mother the Hindu doctrine of ahisma (to do well, not harm). This belief may have been the kernel around which his ideas about nonviolence grew, and was undoubtedly at the heart of his many nonviolent acts in the face of oppression. As was customary at the time, he was married at a very early age (13) to Kasturba Makhanji, and together they had four sons.

“Interestingly, Gandhi was a lackluster student; he barely made it into the University of Bombay.”

His university career seems also to have been uninspired, with the exception of his excitement about going to London to study for the bar-even though it seems that he did not want to be a barrister! Nevertheless, after receiving a law degree from University College, London, he returned to India and attempted unsuccessfully to set up a law practice in Bombay. His failures continued-he was turned down for a part-time teaching position-but ultimately he was able to find a job drafting legal petitions for litigants at court. At this point in his life, no one could have guessed that he had the stuff of greatness in him. However, a great transformation was just around the corner.

In 1893, he was retained by an Indian firm with offices in Durban, South Africa, and moved to South Africa. His experiences there shaped his future. Horrified by the blatant disregard for the civil and political rights of Indians, he actively struggled against the oppression by demanding basic rights for them. He stayed in South Africa until 1914, all the while suffering personal and professional humiliation at the hands of the legal establishment and the general white community, which had complete contempt for blacks and Indians. What galvanized Gandhi the most, it seems, was an effort to deny Indians in South Africa the right to vote by the Natal Assembly. While unable to affect the end result, his and others’ efforts did bring attention to the political and social plight of Indians, and in 1894 he organized the Natal Indian Congress.

Following the Boer War, harsher restrictions were placed on nonwhites in South Africa. By 1906, Gandhi was supporting a resistance movement on the part of Indians against the government. It was here that the first direct use of nonviolence was advocated. This resulted in his being imprisoned many times. The teachings of Christ, the writings of Henry David Thoreau (especially his essay Civil Disobedience (50plus one Great Books You Should Have Read, Encouragement Press, 2006)) and the Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy strongly influenced him. As a result of his efforts, the South African government recognized Indian marriages and eliminated an Indian poll tax in 1914.

But it was not until he returned home to India that he began to develop renown and stature. It began when he became involved in the Indian resistance and independence movement in Bihar. There he helped organize poor farmers to resist British agricultural policy, including a heavy tax that was imposed even during years of famine. His reputation spread throughout India, especially after the famous Amritsar massacre of civilians by British troops-his response was to call for nonviolence in the face of violence and non-cooperation in the face of brutal retaliation.

Now active in the leadership of the Indian National Congress, he advocated the boycott of British goods, urging Indians to wear homespun, rather than foreign-made cloth. Eventually arrested and jailed, one of his greatest concerns was the growing split in the Congress between Hindus and Moslems (a problem never fully resolved, though greater India was later split into the states of India and Pakistan). As religious violence increased, he embarked upon his famous 3-week fast as an attempt to force reconciliation. The effort was a failure, despite his reputation.

Independence did not bring joy or celebration, but anxiety and utter frustration at partition and religious strife. Gandhi would not support his own Congress Party’s acceptance of the conditions for independence (and partition). In fact, after independence, Gandhi again resorted to another maneuver that brought him near death when he protested the partition of the country and took a stand on the terrible religious rioting that was wracking the entire country. It was a great and terrible irony that Gandhi, a man of absolute peace and total dedication to religious principles, should be assassinated on January 30, 1948.

The Legacy of the Gandhi

In his influential autobiography, The Story of My Experiments with Truth, Gandhi covered more than 50 years of his life from childhood to adulthood. Although his fights against racism, colonialism and violence established his reputation internationally, the underlying reason for his actions was often overlooked. A very religious man, he attributed his successes to the will of God. He was inspired by a desire to grow closer to God through the purity of his deeds-that is, his simple living, vegetarian diet, celibacy, and ahimsa. Gandhi, who had been subject to much pain in his life, found many answers in Hinduism.

“Hinduism as I know it entirely satisfies my soul fills my whole being.” Each chapter of his autobiography reveals important lessons that he felt brought him a little closer to truth and his need to purge himself of the demons within himself. “What I want to achieve-what I have been striving and pining to achieve these thirty years-is self-realization, to see God face to face, to attain moksha (salvation). I live and move and have my being in pursuit of this goal.”

His legacy is one of peace, cooperation, charity and piety. In the years since his death, dozens of political and social movements have been based on or have otherwise adapted his principles and concepts, including the American civil rights movement of the 1960s. He is the model of human integrity amidst the chaos, violence and materialism of modern society.

Courtesy

No source about Gandhi is better than what the man himself wrote-^n Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth, Beacon Press, 1993. The 1982 movie Gandhi, starring Ben Kingsley and directed by Richard Attenborough, was well received at the time of its release and is generally considered an accurate and inspiring account of his life.