Mahatma Ghandi

Posted October 7, 2008, 6:32 am


Mahatma Gandhi
Born: Oct. 2, 1869
Died: Jan. 30, 1948

Gandhi was the pioner of Satyagraha — resistance to tyranny through mass civil disobedience. He led India to independence and inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. He is officially honoured in India as the Father of the Nation.  He lived a spiritual and ascetic life of prayer, fasting, and meditation. Refusing earthly possessions, he wore the loincloth and shawl of the lowliest Indian and subsisted on vegetables, fruit juices, and goat's milk.

• At age 61 (1930),  he proclaimed a new campaign of civil disobedience, calling upon the Indian population to refuse to pay taxes, particularly the tax on salt.
• At age 62(1931), he represented the Indian National Congress at a conference in London.
• At age 63 (1932),  he began new civil-disobedience campaigns against the British. Arrested twice, he undertook a "fast unto death" to improve the status of the Hindu Untouchables
• At age 65 (1934), he formally resigned from politics, and traveled through India demanding eradication of "untouchability."

After the Age of Seventy

• At age 70 (1939), he returned to active political life with a fast designed to force the ruler of the state of Rajkot to modify his autocratic rule. Public unrest caused by the fast was so great that the colonial government intervened and the demands were granted. The Mahatma again became the most important political figure in India.
• At age 76 (1947), the British granted India its independence. During the riots that followed the partition of India, Gandhi pleaded with Hindus and Muslims to live together peacefully. Riots engulfed Calcutta and the Mahatma fasted until disturbances ceased.
• At age 77 (1948), on January 30, 12 days after the termination of a fast for peace, as he was on his way to his evening prayer meeting, he was assassinated by a fanatic Hindu.

Quotes

• "A man is but the product of his thoughts what he thinks, he becomes."
• "An eye for eye only ends up making the whole world blind."
  
• "All the religions of the world, while they may differ in other respects, unitedly proclaim that nothing lives in this world but Truth."
  
• "A man who was completely innocent, offered himself as a sacrifice for the good of others, including his enemies, and became the ransom of the world. It was a perfect act."
• "A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history."
• "Nearly everything you do is of no importance, but it is important that you do it."
  

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