MAHATMA GANDHI

Known as "Mahatma" (great soul) Gandhi was the leader of the Indian nationalist movement against British rule, and is considered the father of the nation. His doctrine of nonviolent protest to achieve political and social progress has been very influential.Gandhi was born October 2, 1869 in Porbandar in Gujarat. After graduation, he went to London to study a lawyer. He returned to India in 1891 and in 1893 accepted a position in the Indian cabinet in Durban, South Africa. Gandhi was shocked by the treatment of Indian immigrants there, and joined the fight for the rights to them. More than 20 years in South Africa, was sent to prison several times. Mainly influenced by Hinduism, but also elements of Jainism and Christianity as well as writers including Tolstoy and Thoreau, Gandhi developed the satyagraha (devotion to the truth "), a new non-violent way to correct an injustice. In 1914, the South African government has given numerous commands Gandhi.Gandhi returned to India shortly after. In 1919, British aircraft suspected of sedition trainees - Rowlatt Acts - prompted Gandhi to announce a new satyagraha which attracted millions of followers. Protest against the action of the massacre of British troops Amritsar. In 1920, Gandhi was a dominant figure in Indian politics. He transformed the Indian National Congress, and its program of non-cooperation with peace in Colombia, including the boycott of British goods and institutions, leading to the arrest of thousands of people.In 1922, Gandhi himself was sentenced to six years in prison. He was released after two years away from politics, devoting himself to try to improve relations between Hindus and Muslims deteriorated. In 1930, Gandhi proclaimed a new campaign of civil disobedience to protest against the tax on salt, which attracts thousands of people to "march to the sea" to symbolically their salt seawaterIn 1931, Gandhi attended the Round Table Conference in London as the sole representative of the Indian National Congress, but left the party in 1934 in protest against the use of violence as a political opportunity. He was replaced at the head of Jawaharlal Nehru.In 1945, the British government began negotiations which culminated in the Mountbatten Plan of June 1947, and the formation of two new independent states of India and Pakistan, divided along religious lines. Massive communal violence ruined the months before and after independence. Gandhi was against partition, and now fasted in an attempt to restore calm in Calcutta and Delhi. January 30, 1948, was killed by a Hindu fanatic in New Delhi.