Mahatma Gandhi Biography

Mahatma Gandhi (1869 – 1948) - Ideological Leader of India.

A pre-eminent political and ideological leader of India, Mohan Das Karam Chand Gandhi played a vital role during the movement for Indian independence. Satyagraha was pioneered by him. Satyagraha means, resisting tyranny through mass civil resistance. This was a very popular term which was used by Mahatma Gandhi in many of his statements and writings. Ahimsa or non-violence was the tenet on which his philosophy was firmly founded upon. Mahatma Gandhi is often referred to as Bapu as he was lovingly called by children whom he loved very much. Father of our nation, Gandhiji is fondly remembered even today.

Born: October 2, 1869, Porbandar, India
Assassinated: January 30, 1948, New Delhi, India
Education: Alfred High School, Rajkot (1877), University College London, Samaldas Arts College
Children: Harilal Gandhi, Manilal Gandhi, Devdas Gandhi, Ramdas Gandhi
Awards: Time's Person of the Year

Birth Details

Mahatma Gandhi was born on 2nd October 1869 in Porbandar, a coastal town which was then part of the Bombay Presidency, British India. His father, Karamchand Gandhi (1822–1885), who belonged to the Hindu Modh community, served as the diwan (a high official) of Porbander state which was a small princely state in the Kathiawar Agency of British India.

Personal Biography

In May 1883, the 13-year old Mahatma Gandhi was married to 14-year old Kasturbai Makhanji in an arranged child marriage, according to the custom of the region. In 1885, when Mahatma Gandhi was 15, the couple's first child was born, but survived only a few days, and Gandhi's father, Karamchand Gandhi, had died earlier that year. Mahatma Gandhi had four sons: Harilal, Manilal, Ramdas, and Devdas. Gandhiji was an average student and he did his studies at a middle school in Porbandar and high school in Rajkot. From Samaldas College at Bhavnagar, he passed the matriculation exam. Gandhi traveled to London, England, to study law at University College London and to train as a barrister on 4 September 1888.

Career

Gandhi was called to the bar on 10 June 1891 and left London for India on 12 June 1891, His attempts at establishing a law practice in Bombay failed and, later, after applying and being turned down for a part-time job as a high school teacher, he ended up returning to Rajkot to make a modest living drafting petitions for litigants. He accepted one year contract from Dada Abdulla & Co., an Indian firm, to a post in the Colony of Natal, South Africa, then part of the British Empire in April 1893.

Achievements and Awards

Time magazine named Mahatma Gandhi the Man of the Year in 1930. Gandhi was also the runner-up to Albert Einstein as "Person of the Century” at the end of 1999.
Time Magazine named The 14th Dalai Lama, Lech Wałesa, Martin Luther King, Cesar Chavez, Aung San Suu Kyi, Benigno Aquino, Jr., Desmond Tutu, and Nelson Mandela as Children of Gandhi and his spiritual heirs to non-violence. Distinguished social workers, world leaders and citizens are awarded Gandhi Peace Prize annually by the Government of India. Time magazine named Gandhi as one of the top 25 political icons of all time in the year 2011.

Mahatma Gandhi never received the Nobel Peace Prize, although he was nominated five times between 1937 and 1948, Decades later, the Nobel Committee publicly declared its regret for the omission, and admitted to deeply divide nationalistic opinion denying the award. In 1948, Mahatma Gandhi was nominated but unfortunately he was assassinated before nominations closed. The committee chose not to award the peace prize that year stating that "there was no suitable living candidate".

Quotes

“A coward is incapable of exhibiting love; it is the prerogative of the brave.”
- Mahatma Gandhi

“All crime is a kind of disease and should be treated as such”
- Mahatma Gandhi

“Almost everything you do will seem insignificant, but it is important that you do it”
- Mahatma Gandhi

“An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation, nor does truth become error because nobody sees it.”
- Mahatma Gandhi

“An eye for eye only ends up making the whole world blind.”
- Mahatma Gandhi

“Be the change you want to see in the world.”
- Mahatma Gandhi

“Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed”
- Mahatma Gandhi

“Faith... Must be enforced by reason...When faith becomes blind it dies.”
- Mahatma Gandhi

“God has no religion”
- Mahatma Gandhi

“I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”
- Mahatma Gandhi

“If I have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning.”
- Mahatma Gandhi

“Intolerance betrays want of faith in one's cause”
- Mahatma Gandhi

“Just as the body cannot exist without blood, so the soul needs the matchless and pure strength of faith”
- Mahatma Gandhi

“My imperfections and failures are as much a blessing from God as my successes and my talents and I lay them both at his feet.”
- Mahatma Gandhi

“Nearly everything you do is of no importance, but it is important that you do it”
- Mahatma Gandhi

“Nobody can hurt me without my permission.”
- Mahatma Gandhi

“Nonviolence is a weapon of the strong”
- Mahatma Gandhi

“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.”
- Mahatma Gandhi

“The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world's problems”
- Mahatma Gandhi

“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated”
- Mahatma Gandhi

“The law an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.”
- Mahatma Gandhi

“The law of love could be best understood and learned through little children”
- Mahatma Gandhi

“The most heinous and the most cruel crimes of which history has record have been committed under the cover of religion or equally noble motives”
- Mahatma Gandhi

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

“There is nothing that wastes the body like worry, and one who has any faith in God should be ashamed to worry about anything whatsoever”
- Mahatma Gandhi

“They cannot take away our self-respect if we do not give it to them.”
- Mahatma Gandhi

“We must always seek to ally ourselves with that part of the enemy that knows what is right”
- Mahatma Gandhi

“We must become the change we want to see.”
- Mahatma Gandhi

“What do I think of Western civilisation? I think it would be a very good idea.”
- Mahatma Gandhi

“Whatever you do may seem insignificant, but it is most important that you do it”
- Mahatma Gandhi

“When I admire the wonder of a sunset or the beauty of the moon, my soul expands in worship of the Creator”
- Mahatma Gandhi

“Whenever you are confronted with an opponent. Conquer him with love.”
- Mahatma Gandhi

“Whenever you have truth it must be given with love, or the message and the messenger will be rejected”
- Mahatma Gandhi

“You can chain me, you can torture me, you can even destroy this body, but you will never imprison my mind.”
- Mahatma Gandhi

“You may never know what results come of your action, but if you do nothing there will be no result”
- Mahatma Gandhi