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The Great Leader Series No.15 - Mohandas Karamchand Gandi
Gandi was a man who was known as “Bapu”, the Father of the Nation, by millions of people. He was also given the title of “Mahatma”, which means “Great Soul”. These titles alone indicate the love and respect he earned from the people on India.
As this is the sixtieth anniversary of the Independence of India, I felt a need to investigate Gandi further. Gandi was born into the Hindu Modh family in Porbandar on 2 October 1869. His parents were Karamchand Gandi and Putlibar. His father was prime minister of Porbandar.
His mother was a devout Hindu and Gandi was brought up surrounded by Jain influences. Jains believe in non-injury of humans, vegetarianism, fasting for self purification and mutual tolerance between different creeds and sects. These beliefs became the basis of Gandi’s ideals.
He was married to Kasturbai Makhanji at the tender age of 13. They had four sons between 1888 and 1900. 
He was said to be a “he was a mediocre student”. He was unhappy at college.
In 1888, Gandi went to London to train to be a barrister. He tried to accept English “customs” but found his childhood influences made it impossible. He was called to the bar in England and Wales but when he returned to India, he found it difficult to establish a law practice in Mumbai. So he returned to Rajkot and made a modest living drafting petitions for litigants. He had to close the business after a run in with a British officer. He accepted a contract from an Indian firm in Natal, South Africa, in 1914.
South Africa changed Gandi when he came across discrimination against Blacks and Indians. One day in court when asked to remove his turban, Gandi stormed out. He was thrown off a train in Pietermaritzberg because he refused to move from a first class coach to a third class one as he had a valid first class ticket. Once travelling on a coach he was beaten by a driver because he refused to travel on the foot plate to make room for a European person. He suffered many other hardships
on that journey and the incidents became the turning point of his life.
 It was these incidents in which he witnessed first hand racism, prejudice and justice against Indians in South Africa which made him question his people’s status and his own place in society. Oddly perhaps, these incidents don’t explain why he adopted a stance against aggressive protests.
He did, however, use his ideas of peaceful disobedience to help the Indian community’s struggle for civil rights in South Africa. He was imprisoned on numerous occasions.
Upon Gandi’s return to India in 1914 he organised poor farmers and labourers to protest against large taxes and widespread discrimination. He assumed leadership of the Indian National Congress. This became the turning point in the INC’s history due to his enormous following, his spiritual powers and his non-violent means of fighting. Gandi introduced the concept of Satyagraha. This roughly translated means “rightful demand”. Satyagraha appealed to Indians who were largely pious and religious.
Gandi’s ideas about non-violence were as follows:
“Can you tell us about ahimsa or non-violence?
Literally speaking, ahimsa means non-violence. But to me it has much higher, infinitely higher meaning. It means that you may not offend anybody; you may not harbour uncharitable thought, even in connection with those who consider your enemies. To one who follows this doctrine, there are no enemies. A man who believes in the efficacy of this doctrine finds in the ultimate stage, when he is about to reach the goal, the whole world at his feet. If you express your love- Ahimsa-in such a manner that it impresses itself indelibly upon your so called enemy, he must return that love.
This doctrine tells us that we may guard the honour of those under our charge by delivering our own lives into the hands of the man who would commit the sacrilege. And that requires far greater courage than delivering of blows.”
It is this belief which begins to show why Gandi was a great leader. Gandi believed in respect; respect for everyone’s feelings, beliefs and values. As leader of the INC he campaigned for the alleviation of poverty. the liberation of women, brotherhood among different religions and ethnicities, for an end to untouchability and caste discrimination, [To find out more about dalits [untouchables] go to dalits on Wikipedia], and for economic self sufficiency of the nation. But he mostly campaigned for Swaraj , that is the independence of India from foreign domination.
He championed unjust laws, supported poor people and helped them could clean up their villages, building schools and hospitals. He continued to reject violence and used fasting as a way of putting pressure on people who were against his campaigns.
 In the 1920s Gandi expanded his non-violent stance. It included the swadeshi movement. This was a boycott of foreign made goods, including British goods. He also felt that khadi [homespun cloth] should be worn by all Indians and suggested that everyone, no matter their social background, spent time each day spinning khadi. He himself made cloth for his own clothing and began to wear a dhoti and charka. The circle in the centre of the Indian flag represents a spinning wheel.
In addition to boycotting British products, Gandi urged people to boycott British schools and the law courts, to resign from government employment and forsake British titles and honours. This non-cooperation enjoyed widespread appeal and success. People from all backgrounds supported it.
Sadly, an incidence at Chaura Chauri in early February 1922 led to Gandi calling of the Non-cooperation Movement. A group of armed police attacked a few members of 2,000 strong national demonstration that was picketing an off licence. The police fired warning shots into the air. the demonstrators were angered by this and started to pelt stones at the armed police. As the situation seemed to be getting out of control the police sub inspector gave orders to the police to fire on the demonstrators. Three protestors [two Hindu and one Muslim] were killed. The angry demonstrators chased the policemen back to their station. They set fire to the station killing twenty three policemen.
After his call to the movement to give up the protest, Gandi went on a five day fast to absolve himself. He felt that he had not emphasised the non violence aspect strongly enough.
The response from the British government was not unexpected. It imposed martial law on Chaura Chauri. All areas were raided and hundreds of people were arrested. One hundred and seventy two people were charged. The High Court sentenced nineteen people to death and imprisonment for one hundred and thirteen. Thirty eight were acquitted and three died during the trial.
Gandi was arrested on 10 March 1922. He was tried for sedition and sentenced to six years in jail. He served only two years of his sentence, being released after an operation for appendicitis. The Indian National Congress began to splinter whilst Gandi was imprisoned. Cooperation between Hindus and Muslims broke down. Gandi tried to settle these differences, even, at one point, fasting for three weeks. He had only limited success.
For the next few years Gandi kept out of the limelight and concentrated on trying sort differences between the INC and the Swaraj Party. He was also working towards equality for the untouchables and women. This work included initiatives to against alcoholism, ignorance and poverty.
 He returned to the fore in 1928 when the British government appointed a new constitutional reform commission that did not have a single Indian in its ranks. All the Indian political parties boycotted the commission as a result. In December of that year Gandi pushed through a resolution at the Calcutta Congress which called on the British government to grant India dominion status or face a fresh campaign of non-violence with the aim of gaining complete independence. The British did not respond.
On 31 December 1929 the Indian flag was raised in Lahore. 26 January 1930 was celebrated as India’s Independence Day by the INC. Almost all Indian organisations commemorated the day.
In March 1930 Gandi launched a new satyagraha against the salt tax. Between 12 March and 6 April he led a march from Ahmedbad to Dandi, Gujarat, a distance of 248 miles, to make salt himself. Thousands of Indians accompanied him. The British responded by imprisoning over 60,000 people.
The British government at last decided to negotiate with Gandi. He and Lord Edward Irwin signed a pact in March 1931 which resulted with the British freeing all political prisoners in return for the suspension of the civil disobedience movement. Gandi was invited to attend the Round Table conference in London as the only representative of the INC. Gandi was greatly disappointed with the conference as it focused on the Indian princes and Indian minorities rather than the transfer of power. Lord Irwin’s successor, Lord Willingdon started a new campaign against the Nationalists. Again Gandi was arrested and the government tried to destroy his influence by keeping him completely isolated from his followers. This tactic failed.
In 1932 through the campaigning of the Dalit leader B. R. Ambedkar, The government granted separate elections for the Dalits. Gandi’s protest took the form of a six day fast which forced the government to adopt a more equitable plan through negotiations with Palwankar Baloo, a famous international Dalit cricketer. This was the start of a new campaign by Gandi to improve the lives of the untouchables, whom he renamed the Harijans, the children of God. In May 1933 Gandi fasted for twenty one days.
In 1934 there were three attempts on Gandi’s life.
Gandi resigned from the Congress Party as a protest to the party accepting help from the Raj.
In 1939 the Second World War started.
After lengthy deliberations Gandi decided that he could not support a war for democratic freedom when that same freedom was being denied to India itself. As the war progressed Gandi renewed his demands for independence, drafting a resolution calling for the British to Quit India. There was much criticism from both sides of the Congress party.
The criticism also came from other Indian political parties, both pro-British and anti-British. Some felt that opposing Britain in its struggle was immoral, and others felt that Gandi wasn’t doing enough. Quit India became an extremely forceful movement. There were mass arrests and unprecedented violence, with thousands killed or injured by police gunfire. Hundreds of thousands of people were arrested. Gandi and his supporters made it clear that they would not support the war effort unless India was given immediate independence. He even stated that this time the movement would not be stopped if individual acts of violence were committed. “the ordered anarchy around me is worse than real anarchy”. Gandi and the entire Congress Working Committee were arrested in Mumbai in August 1942. Gandi was imprisoned for two years in the Aga Khan Palace in Pune. During this time, his secretary Mahadev Desai died of a heart attack at the age of forty two. After eighteen months of imprisonment Gandi received a great personal blow when his wife died.
Six weeks later Gandi himself suffered a severe attack of malaria.
Gandi was released in May 1944. The authorities did not want him to die in prison and enrage the nation. At the end of the war, the British indicated that power would pass into Indian hands. Gandi called off the struggle and around one hundred thousand political prisoners were released.
Gandi still had one great struggle left. He advised that the British proposals for the “grouping” 9f Muslims be rejected. He was very concerned that it would lead to India being portioned. The two main groups of Muslims were 1,100 miles apart on opposite sides of the country. Congress did not agree with him. Nehru and Patel knew that if Congress did not approve the plan, the control of government would pass to the Muslim League.
 Between 1946 and 1948 over five thousand people died in violence. Gandi remained strongly against any plan to partition India into two countries but an overwhelming majority of Muslims were on favour and their leaders commanded huge support. The partition plan was approved by the Congress leadership as the only way to prevent wide scale Hindu/Muslim civil war. Gandi had still to be convinced. He was devastated but gave his assent as Congress felt that civil war must be avoided and it knew it could not go ahead without Gandi’s consent, because of the support he still commanded.
Gandi did not celebrate on the day power was handed over. He spent his time working to end the violence. He spent long hours talking to Muslim and Hindu leaders. There was a major problem concerning payments which had been promised to the Pakistan government. What ever the reasons, Gandi started his last fast until death. There were extensive debates with many people and the Government made the payments. Hindu. Muslim and Sikh community leaders assured him they would renounce violence and call for peace. Gandi ended his fast.
On 30 January 1948 Gandi was shot and killed during his nightly walk in New Delhi. His killer, Nathuram Godse, was a Hindu radical who blamed Gandi for weakening India by insisting that payment was made to Pakistan.
Gandi’s memorial in New Delhi bears the words, when translated, “Oh. God.”
Jawarharlal Nehru addressed the nation on the radio.
"Friends and comrades, the light has gone out of our lives, and there is darkness everywhere, and I do not quite know what to tell you or how to say it. Our beloved leader, Bapu as we called him, the father of the nation, is no more. Perhaps I am wrong to say that; nevertheless, we will not see him again, as we have seen him for these many years, we will not run to him for advice or seek solace from him, and that is a terrible blow, not only for me, but for millions and millions in this country."
There is no doubt that Gandi was capable of leading huge numbers of people. He treated everyone with respect, and this was the basis of his non-violent beliefs.
I am not sure that the Gandi I found was the man I expected to find. He was obviously charismatic. His respect for others bred respect for him. A man of high moral standards, he lived by his beliefs. Empowering the people of India to claim independence from the British Empire is surely a sign of great leader of men.
Sources.
www.indianchild.com
http://en.wikipedia.org
Story By: Anne Walker
Date : 23-08-2007
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