Gandhi assassinated 1948
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, the political and spiritual leader
of the Indian independence movement, is assassinated in New Delhi by a
Hindu fanatic.
Born the son of an Indian official in 1869, Gandhi’s Vaishnava mother
was deeply religious and early on exposed her son to Jainism, a morally
rigorous Indian religion that advocated nonviolence. Gandhi was an
unremarkable student but in 1888 was given an opportunity to study law
in England. In 1891, he returned to India, but failing to find regular
legal work he accepted in 1893 a one-year contract in South Africa.
Settling in Natal, he was subjected to racism and South African laws
that restricted the rights of Indian laborers. Gandhi later recalled one
such incident, in which he was removed from a first-class railway
compartment and thrown off a train, as his moment of truth. From
thereon, he decided to fight injustice and defend his rights as an
Indian and a man. When his contract expired, he spontaneously decided to
remain in South Africa and launched a campaign against legislation that
would deprive Indians of the right to vote. He formed the Natal Indian
Congress and drew international attention to the plight of Indians in
South Africa. In 1906, the Transvaal government sought to further
restrict the rights of Indians, and Gandhi organized his first campaign
of satyagraha, or mass civil disobedience. After seven years of
protest, he negotiated a compromise agreement with the South African
government.
In 1914, Gandhi returned to India and lived a life of abstinence and
spirituality on the periphery of Indian politics. He supported Britain
in the First World War but in 1919 launched a new satyagraha in protest
of Britain’s mandatory military draft of Indians. Hundreds of thousands
answered his call to protest, and by 1920 he was leader of the Indian
movement for independence. He reorganized the Indian National Congress
as a political force and launched a massive boycott of British goods,
services, and institutions in India. Then, in 1922, he abruptly called
off the satyagraha when violence erupted. One month later, he was
arrested by the British authorities for sedition, found guilty, and
imprisoned.
After his release in 1924, he led an extended fast in protest of
Hindu-Muslim violence. In 1928, he returned to national politics when he
demanded dominion status for India and in 1930 launched a mass protest
against the British salt tax, which hurt India’s poor. In his most
famous campaign of civil disobedience, Gandhi and his followers marched
to the Arabian Sea, where they made their own salt by evaporating sea
water. The march, which resulted in the arrest of Gandhi and 60,000
others, earned new international respect and support for the leader and
his movement.
In 1931, Gandhi was released to attend the Round Table Conference on
India in London as the sole representative of the Indian National
Congress. The meeting was a great disappointment, and after his return
to India he was again imprisoned. While in jail, he led another fast in
protest of the British government’s treatment of the “untouchables”–the
impoverished and degraded Indians who occupied the lowest tiers of the
caste system. In 1934, he left the Indian Congress Party to work for the
economic development of India’s many poor. His protege, Jawaharlal
Nehru, was named leader of the party in his place.
With the outbreak of World War II, Gandhi returned to politics and
called for Indian cooperation with the British war effort in exchange
for independence. Britain refused and sought to divide India by
supporting conservative Hindu and Muslim groups. In response, Gandhi
launched the “Quit India” movement it 1942, which called for a total
British withdrawal. Gandhi and other nationalist leaders were imprisoned
until 1944.
In 1945, a new government came to power in Britain, and negotiations
for India’s independence began. Gandhi sought a unified India, but the
Muslim League, which had grown in influence during the war, disagreed.
After protracted talks, Britain agreed to create the two new independent
states of India and Pakistan on August 15, 1947. Gandhi was greatly
distressed by the partition, and bloody violence soon broke out between
Hindus and Muslims in India.
In an effort to end India’s religious strife, he resorted to fasts
and visits to the troubled areas. He was on one such vigil in New Delhi
when Nathuram Godse, a Hindu extremist who objected to Gandhi’s
tolerance for the Muslims, fatally shot him. Known as Mahatma,
or “the great soul,” during his lifetime, Gandhi’s persuasive methods of
civil disobedience influenced leaders of civil rights movements around
the world, especially Martin Luther King Jr. in the United States.
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