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Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born on Oct. 2, 1869, in Porbandar, near Bombay. His family belonged to the Hindu merchant caste Vaisya.
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Gandhi was unhappy at college, following his parent’s wishes to take the bar, and when he was offered the opportunity of furthering his studies overseas, at University College London, aged 18, he accepted with alacrity, starting there in September 1888.
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He had seen how they were treated as inferiors in India, in England, and then in South Africa. In 1894 he founded the Natal Indian Congress to agitate for Indian rights.
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Yet he remained loyal to the British Empire. In 1899, during the Boer War, he raised an ambulance corps and served the South African government.
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In 1919 he became a leader in the newly formed Indian National Congress political party. In 1920 he launched a noncooperation campaign against Britain, urging Indians to spin their own cotton and to boycott British goods, courts, and government
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In 1920 he launched a noncooperation campaign against Britain, urging Indians to spin their own cotton and to boycott British goods, courts, and government. This led to his imprisonment from 1922 to 1924.
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In 1930, in protest of a salt tax, Gandhi led thousands of Indians on a 200-mile march to the sea to collect their own salt. Once again he was jailed.
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In 1934 he retired as head of the party. Although he still remained its actual leader
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Gandhi’s victory came in 1947 when India won independence. The subcontinent split into two countries and brought Hindu-Muslim riots.
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On Jan. 30, 1948, while on his way to prayer in Delhi, Gandhi was killed by a Hindu who had been maddened by the Mahatma’s efforts to reconcile Hindus and Muslims.
