Mahatma Gandhi

NAME: Mahatma Gandhi
DATE AND PLACE OF BIRTH: 2nd October 1869, Porbandar
OCCUPATION: lawyer, philosopher, politician, medic
ACHIEVEMENTS: he contributed to peaceful regaining of India independence
DATE OF DEATH: 30th January 1948

Fig.1

Fact file

Mahatma Gandhi (Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi) was born on 2nd October 1869 in Porbandar, India. He was a lawyer, philosopher, politician and medic.
From his early years he learned principles of respecting every living being, vegetarianism, fasting and tolerance between followers of different religions.
As a child he was a shy and unremarkable student. As a teenager he was rebellious (he was smoking and stealing). But he grew up to be an amazing adult who changed the world.
He wanted to become a doctor, but his father wanted him to become a government minister. In 1888 he sailed England to study the law. In London Mahatma joined London Vegetarian Society. When he returned home, he learned that his mother had passed away a few weeks earlier. In his first courtroom case he was so nervous that he blanked away, and after he wake up he run away. He was struggling to find work as a lawyer in India but he managed to find job in Durban, South Africa.
In Durban he was appalled by discrimination and racism. On one appearance in courtroom he was asked to remove his turban. He was so angry that he refused and left. Once, during his trip to Pretoria he was thrown away from a train (because white man objected to Gandhi’s presence in the first-class railway compartment although Mahatma had a ticket). Later he was beaten by driver during travelling by a stagecoach (because there weren't enough place for European passengers and he refused to travel on footrest). He discovered that Hindus were threaten bad because of their skin color. So during Zulu’s rise he arranged a hospital, where rebels were healed (white doctors didn’t want to help).

Biography

Mahatma Gandhi (Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi) was born on 2nd October 1869 in Porbandar, India. He was a lawyer, philosopher, politician and medic.
From his early years he learned principles of respecting every living being, vegetarianism, fasting and tolerance between followers of different religions.
As a child he was a shy and unremarkable student. As a teenager he was rebellious (he was smoking and stealing). But he grew up to be an amazing adult who changed the world.
He wanted to become a doctor, but his father wanted him to become a government minister. In 1888 he sailed England to study the law. In London Mahatma joined London Vegetarian Society. When he returned home, he learned that his mother had passed away a few weeks earlier. In his first courtroom case he was so nervous that he blanked away, and after he wake up he run away. He was struggling to find work as a lawyer in India but he managed to find job in Durban, South Africa.
In Durban he was appalled by discrimination and racism. On one appearance in courtroom he was asked to remove his turban. He was so angry that he refused and left. Once, during his trip to Pretoria he was thrown away from a train (because white man objected to Gandhi’s presence in the first-class railway compartment although Mahatma had a ticket). Later he was beaten by driver during travelling by a stagecoach (because there weren't enough place for European passengers and he refused to travel on footrest). He discovered that Hindus were threaten bad because of their skin color. So during Zulu’s rise he arranged a hospital, where rebels were healed (white doctors didn’t want to help).

Loading...

When he started preparing for coming back, he heard that the Natal’s government want to deprive Indians of the right to vote and decided to stay in Africa and continue the fight for injustice. In 1894 he formed the Natal Indian Congress to fight for Indian rights. In 1896 he returned to India just to take his wife (he got married at the age of 13) and children to Africa. In Natal he was attacked by a group of white people, by he didn’t want to put charges on attackers.
In 1906 he organized campaign called “Satyagraha” in reaction to the South African Transvaal government’s new restrictions on the rights of Indians. After years of protests the government imprisoned many Indian people, including Gandhi.
In 1915 he left the prison and come back to India, where he encouraged people to fight for independence.
In 1919, with India still under control of England, he had a political awakening when British government started imprisoning people again, he called for a Satyagraha campaign of peaceful protests and strikes.
Violence broke out instead, which culminated on April 13, 1919, in the Massacre of Amritsar. Troops led by British Brigadier General Reginald Dyer fired machine guns into a crowd of unarmed demonstrators and killed nearly 400 people.
Mahatma returned his medals, which he earned for his military service in South Africa and opposed Britain’s mandatory military draft of Indians to serve in World War I.
In 1922 British government arrested Gandhi, but he was released in 1924 after appendicitis surgery. He remained away from active politics during much of the latter 1920s.
Gandhi returned to active politics in 1930 to protest Britain’s Salt Acts (which prohibited Indians from collecting or selling salt and imposed a heavy tax that hit the country’s poorest very hard). He planned The Salt March.

Loading...

After regaining independence he stopped his political activity and focused on restoring Hindu-Muslim unity.
Before the war with Pakistan he was embarrassed by the attitude of the Indian government, which refused to return part of the national property that was to be allocated to Pakistan.
Gandhi was criticized for his mild attitude towards Islamists and for persuading the government to return money to Pakistan, which he later used to arm himself against India.
He was murdered on 30th January 1948 by Nathuram Godse, who was upset at Gandhi’s tolerance of Muslims.

Loading...

After regaining independence he stopped his political activity and focused on restoring Hindu-Muslim unity.
Before the war with Pakistan he was embarrassed by the attitude of the Indian government, which refused to return part of the national property that was to be allocated to Pakistan.
Gandhi was criticized for his mild attitude towards Islamists and for persuading the government to return money to Pakistan, which he later used to arm himself against India.
He was murdered on 30th January 1948 by Nathuram Godse, who was upset at Gandhi’s tolerance of Muslims.

Loading...

Fig. 2

Loading...

Loading...

Mahatma Gandhi

Loading...

His wife - Kasturba Gandhi

Loading...

Famous quotation

“See the good in people and help them.”

Fig. 4

Fig. 3

Fig. 5

“You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.”

Famous quotation

Fig. 4

“Be the change that you wish to see in the world.”

“An ounce of patience is worth more than a tone of preaching.”

Fig. 6

Video

Janusz Kusociński Primary School No. 5 in Świdnik

Sources:
Cover - link
Fig.1 - link
Fig. 2 - link
Fig. 3 - link
Fig. 4 - link
Fig. 5 - link
Fig. 6 - link
Fig. 7 - link

This book was created by Urszula Łopucka

Fig. 7

Janusz Kusociński Primary School No. 5 in Świdnik

The European Commission’s support for the production, of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the content, which reflect the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.