Gandhi, Mohandas Karamchand

Gandhi, Mohandas Karamchand (1869–1948), the ‘Mahatma’ or Great Soul. Born in an Indian princely state, he read for the bar in London. In 1893 he took up practice in Natal but rapidly turned to politics. He unified opposition among the disparate Indian community to the passing of racially discriminatory laws and pioneered the techniques of satyagraha (non-violent resistance), which later were to make him famous. In 1915, he returned to India and, following the 1919 Amritsar massacre, organized protest on a national scale. In 1920, he won the Indian National Congress over to policies rejecting the Montagu-Chelmsford constitutional reforms and offering ‘non-cooperation’ to the British Raj. From the 1920s to early 1940s, he led a series of passive resistance campaigns in pursuit of Swaraj (self-rule), which redefined the character of Indian nationalism. As much a religious teacher and social reformer as a politician, he rejected western modernity and demanded a return to the simplicities of the self-sufficient village community. He sought tolerance between Hindus and Muslims and the eradication of caste untouchability. After his final release from gaol in 1944, he became disillusioned at the rise of Hindu–Muslim violence. He refused to celebrate independence in 1947 and rejected the Pakistan partition. In January 1948 he was assassinated by a Hindu fanatic for his pro-Muslim sympathies.

David Anthony Washbrook