Mahatma Gandhi: Epic of Nonviolence That Humiliated English Cannons

Mahatma Gandhi, also known as Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, politician, social activist, and writer who rose to prominence as the leader of the nationalist struggle against British rule in India. As a result, he came to be known as the father of his country. Gandhi is worldwide renowned for his peaceful protest (satyagraha) ideology for achieving political and social development.

Gandhi was known as the Mahatma ("Great Soul") by millions of Indians. The mindless devotion of the massive crowds who flocked to see him all along the way of his tours made them a rough experience; he couldn't work during the day or sleep at night. "The woes of the Mahatmas are known only to the Mahatmas," he wrote. His renown spread around the world throughout his lifetime and further grew after his death. Mahatma Gandhi's name is now one of the most well-known in the world.

Emergence as a political and social activist

In 1896, Gandhi traveled to India to retrieve his wife, Kasturba (or Kasturbai), and their two eldest children, as well as to solicit international support for Indians. He spoke with important leaders and convinced them to speak at public gatherings in the country's major cities. Regrettably for him, distorted accounts of his deeds and comments reached Natal and infuriated the country's European community. A white mob beat and almost lynched him upon his arrival in Durban in January 1897. The colonial secretary in the British Cabinet, Joseph Chamberlain, cabled the Natal government to bring the guilty individuals to justice, but Gandhi refused to pursue his assailants. He stated that it was a personal principle of his not to seek redress of a personal wrong in a court of law.

Emergence as a nationalist leader

By the autumn of 1920, Gandhi had established himself as the dominating figure on the national scene, wielding power never previously wielded by any political leader in India, or maybe any other country. He transformed the 35-year-old Indian National Congress (Congress Party) into an effective political instrument of Indian nationalism, transforming it from a three-day Christmas-week picnic of India's upper middle class in one of the country's major cities to a mass organization with roots in small towns and villages. Gandhi's message was straightforward: it was not British bullets but the flaws of Indians themselves that held their nation hostage.

His peaceful noncooperation movement against the British government comprised boycotts not just of British goods but also of institutions run or assisted by the British in India, including parliament, courts, offices, and schools. The campaign galvanized the country, broke the spell of fear of foreign rule, and resulted in the arrest of thousands of satyagrahis who defied laws and cheerfully lined up for prison. The campaign appeared to be on the crest of a rising wave in February 1922, but Gandhi chose to put off major civil disobedience due to a violent outburst in Chauri Chaura, a rural hamlet in eastern India.

In his absence, the political scene had shifted. The Congress Party had split into two factions, one supporting the party's admission into legislatures and the other opposing it, with Chitta Ranjan Das and Motilal Nehru (the father of Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first prime minister) leading the way. Worse, the solidarity that existed between Hindus and Muslims during the peak of the noncooperation movement in 1920-22 had vanished. Gandhi attempted to reason and persuaded the warring communities to abandon their distrust and extremism. Finally, in the fall of 1924, following a significant outbreak of community strife, he embarked on a three-week fast to awaken the people to pursue the path of nonviolence.