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Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi 1869-1948. Short History. Great Britain had controlled India since the 1700’s. Britain made changes: Abolished slavery Built railway system. But Also they took advantage of India’s huge cotton industry.
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Short History • Great Britain had controlled India since the 1700’s. Britain made changes: • Abolished slavery • Built railway system
But Also they took advantage of India’s huge cotton industry. • Used India cotton, shipped it back to England & made cloth, then sold back to India. • Millions in India out of jobs. • Did not treat Indians as equals
Mahatma Gandhi was born in Western India, on October 2, 1869 of middle-class parents .
188617 years oldGandhi and his brother intypical Indian clothing
Late 1800’s ideas of Individual rights and self government were spreading around world. Gandhi went to England to study law and was learning about these ideas.
1890 As a student in law school When, as a 19-year-old, Gandhi arrived in London to study law, he wanted to dress like an Englishman, believing that English clothes were "more civilized," but he was embarrassed when he realized he was the only person on the dock wearing white flannels as they were "not worn in late September."
Nonviolence Ganshi read American Henry David Thoreau’s “Civil Disobedience” about nonviolent resistance Believed peace and love are more powerful than violence.
He arrived in South Africa dressed like a British barrister except for his turban. Very soon a magistrate in the Durbam court asked him to remove the turban, an act he found most humiliating. Although he stopped wearing a turban, he registered his protest with the press, and he began to experiment consciously with the symbolic power of his clothing. He worked as a lawyer in South Africa for twenty years trying to improve the lives of Indians living there.
1913Dressed for a protest in South Africa His 1913 clothing was a "sign of mourning," a symbolic way to identify with the suffering of the Indians who had been shot in South Africa.
1915Gandhi and his wife returning from South Africa, dressed like an Indian peasant By the time he returned to India in 1915, Gandhi knew that clothing could convey important messages, and he consciously chose to dress like an Indian peasant. The strong reactions his clothing elicited from the Indians who met him further convinced him of the symbolic importance of clothing.
In 1915 he returned to India at the age of 45 and several years later he began to work for Indian independence. Gandhi realized that many upper class, Western-educated Indians were committed to working for independence, but that one of the greatest challenges was to bring the rest of the country into the struggle. Many were very poor, illiterate, and divided by regional and religious differences.
1921 In September 1921 he decided to wear the Indian loincloth for at least six weeks, and it became his standard dress from that time forward. Gandhi debated for a long time whether he should wear a loincloth. He knew it could be taken as a sign of primitiveness or even indecency. On the other hand, it was a way of identifying with the poorest Indians. He insisted he was not trying to express "saintliness" even though many people identified it with the way Hindu ascetics dressed.
"In Gandhi's own perception, the loincloth was a sign of India's dire poverty and of the need to improve its wealth through swadeshi [things produced at home] and through a wholesale rejection of European civilization. It was a rejection not only of the material products of Europe, but also of the European value system with its criteria of decency. It was better for the poor to wear scanty loincloths than to clothe themselves in garments from abroad.
BoycottsForm of nonviolent resistance Gandhi stopped wearing western-style clothing or buying British-made cloth. Millions joined this boycott and British lost $$$ and changed their policies. Gandhi told Indians to spin their own cloth and to make their own clothes.
1930Salt Acts Another item Gandhi focused on were the British "Salt Acts". They made it a crime for anyone in India to purchase salt from anyone but the British Government. It was a monopoly on a substance needed to survive by both humans and animals in the hot climate. It was against the law to make salt. Gandhi planned to use intentional violation of that law to put pressure on the British.
The Trigger Gandhi sent a letter prior to any action to the British Viceroy Dear Friend, Before embarking on Civil Disobedience and taking the risk I have dreaded to take all these years I would fain approach you and find a way out. My personal faith is absolutely clear. I cannot intentionally hurt anything that lives . . . even though they may do the greatest wrong to me and mine... I hold the British rule to be a curse . . . It has reduced us politically to serfdom. It has sapped the foundations of our culture . . . it has degraded us spiritually. . . This non-violence will be expressed through civil disobedience . . . My ambition is no less than to convert the British people through non-violence, and thus make them see the wrong they have done to India. I do not seek to harm your people. I want to serve them even as I want to serve my own . . . If the Indian people join me as I expect they will, the suffering they will undergo . . . will be enough to melt the stoniest hearts.
The Reply The Viceroy only applied with a short note, "His Excellency . . . regrets to learn that you contemplate a course of action which is clearly bound to involve violation of the law and danger to the public peace." Gandhi's comment was, "On bended knee I asked for bread and I received a stone instead."
March To The Sea Gandhi and about 75 followers marched to the sea, about 250 miles in 24 days. They were welcomed in villages and Gandhi addressed the crowds. On April 5th, 1930, they reached the sea, Gandhi picked up some of the salt that had dried from the salt spray -- he had broken the law. This began an insurrection without arms, villagers everywhere went to the sea with a pan, and made salt. Within a month sixty thousand were behind bars -- there was no Indian violence, Gandhi was also arrested.
Dharasana Salt Works The movement made a "raid" on the Dharasana Salt Works. A line of marchers moved forward to approach the salt plains that were surrounded by 400 guards and barbed wire. The marchers silently approached the fence, they were ordered to leave. On command the police plunged into the marchers and began hitting them with clubs -- not one of the marchers raised a hand even in self defense. The cracking of skulls could be heard. As they fell, the marchers from behind quietly moved forward and they too were struck down. The police methodically continued to beat down the column. Over 300 were injured and hospitalized. Two men died. It became an embarrassment to the British Administration, their conscience was offended. The Indians neither cringed nor complained nor retreated, England was powerless and India invincible.
1932 Gandhi begins a "fast unto death" to protest the British government's treatment of India's lowest caste, the "untouchables" (whom Gandhi calls Harijians— God's children.) He urges a new boycott of British goods, and after 6 days of fasting, obtains a pact that improves the status of the "untouchables."
1942 All-India Congress passes Gandhi's "Quit India" resolution, and Gandhi begins another campaign of passive resistance against the British. Gandhi is arrested along with many other Indian leaders, and the demonstration is forcibly suppressed by the British government.
Although Gandhi practiced nonviolent resistance and urged everyone to do the same, some still practiced violence and 100’s were killed or hurt in violent demonstrations.
1944 Gandhi's wife, Kasturba, dies in detention at Aga Khan Palace at the age of 74.After a decline in his health, Gandhi is released unconditionally from detention, marking his final imprisonment; he spent 2,338 days (over 6 years) in jail in the course of his lifetime.
1947 World sympathy eventually forced Britain to give India their independence after 200 years of British rule. While this is a major victory for Gandhi's nonviolence movement, Gandhi opposes the Congress's decision to accept the partition of the country into India and Pakistan.
Happy ending? Gandhi is assassinated by a Hindu fanatic on his way to a prayer meeting on January 30, 1948.
For his dedication to the Indian Independence movement, Ghandi is often called the “Father of the Nation”.
Gandhi’s friend, Nuru, became the first president after Gandhi was killed.
