Mahatma Gandhi

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was a leader of India’s independence movement. He was born on October 2, 1869, in Porbandar, a town in the state of Gujarat, India.

Mohandas was the youngest child of Karamchand Gandhi, the local prime minster. His mother, Putlibai, was deeply religious. He was mediocre student, shy and easily scared. Mohandas was just thirteen years old when he was wed to Kasturbai, also thirteen in an arranged marriage.

In September 1888, at age 18, Gandhi left India, without his wife and newborn son, to study to become a barrister (lawyer) in London.

In 1893 Gandhi took a job in South Africa. At the time it was also a British colony. There he saw Europeans mistreating Indian settlers. He got into politics to fight for Indian right. Gandhi returned to India in 1915.

In 1921, Gandhi was made the leader of the INC. He began a series of programs to teach Indians discipline and national pride. He reorganized the constitution around some principle of Swaraj or the so called complete political independence from Britain.

In 1929, he convinced the INC to demand that the British government grant India its independence within one year. The British government responded by levying a high tax on salt. Gandhi organized what is now known as the Salt March, a protest against the salt tax.

On the 30th of January, 1948, Gandhi was on his way for a prayer meeting at Birla House, Delhi. As he rose to speak, a man who disagreed with his politics shot him. Gandhi died that day.
Mahatma Gandhi