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Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
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was the most prominent leader of the Indian Independence Movement against the British Raj, for which he practiced non-violent civil disobedience, as well as pacifist, politician, thinker and Indian Hindu lawyer. Received from Rabindranath Tagore the honorary name of Mahatma
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Gandhi was a mediocre student in Porbandar. Later in Rajkot, in 1887, he barely passed the entrance examination of the University of Mumbai, enrolling in the School of Samaldas.
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in Bhavnagar. He did not spend much time there, because he took the opportunity presented to him to study in England, a country which he regarded as the cradle of philosophers and poets, the centre of civilization. He studied law at University College London. He returned to India after earning his bachelor’s degree to practice law in India.
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In 1893, young Gandhi moved to Durban (South Africa), where a company hired him as a lawyer. There he quickly became interested in the situation of his fellow Indians.
In the first years of the struggle for the civil rights of the Indians in the African country, Mahatma Gandhi founded the Indian Party of the Natal Congress to bring together the entire Indian community -
The struggle for the rights of the Indian community in South Africa was seen as an act of heroism. Soon all of India knew who Mahatma Gandhi was. The Gandhi who returned was a completely different one than the one who left. He gave up Western dress for the typical of his country. In doing so, he adopted traditional Indian customs and lifestyle.
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Gandhi launched a new civil disobedience campaign known as the March of Salt. The aim of this campaign was to declare India’s independence in a symbolic way.
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30 January 1948, a young Hindu radical assaulted him and shot him down. The murderer and his accomplice were sentenced to death and executed in November 1949. Mahatma Gandhi, although not without controversy, is the symbol of the non-violent struggle that inspired other leaders such as Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela.
