Who is Mahatma Gandhi ?

Known as Mahatma Gandhi, and the word Mahatma means the great spirit, so Gandhi is considered the spiritual father of the Indian independence movement. Mahatma Gandhi spent 20 years in South Africa working to combat discrimination and intolerance in treatment, and he also founded his own movement against the rule of the British that he called Satyagraha, but it was A non-violent movement protesting injustice, while he was in India, Gandhi's life was full of simplicity and virtues that made him loved by the people and his simple way of dressing made him close to them.

Mahatma Gandhi spent most of the remaining years of his life working hard to remove British rule from India and to improve the lives of the poor classes in India. own fighter.

Mahatma Gandhi's childhood:

Mahatma Gandhi was the last child of his father (Karmchand Gandhi), and his mother (Putilbay) was the fourth wife of his father. Growing up, Gandhi was shy, soft-spoken, and was just an ordinary student at school. Although he was an obedient child, he tried to eat meat. , smoking, and stole in small quantities, but he later regretted it, and at the age of 13, Mahatma Gandhi married Kasturba, Kasturba gave birth to Gandhi four children, and continued to support him in his life until she died in 1944.

His trip to London:

In September 1888, at the age of 18, Mahatma Gandhi left India and traveled to London, without his wife and newborn son. Both of them were left in India, in order to study, in order to become a lawyer in London. Gandhi tried to Fit with English society, Mahatma Gandhi spent his first three months in London trying to make himself look like an English man by buying new suits, and he was able to master the English language, and he learned the French language, and he also took violin lessons and dance lessons.

After three months of these costly efforts, Mahatma Gandhi decided that all this was a waste of time and money, and therefore canceled all these lessons. He also took a frugal lifestyle, and although most other Indian students in England ate meat, Mahatma Gandhi was determined not to do so, promising his mother that he would remain a vegetarian.

While Gandhi was looking for restaurants that served vegetarian food, Gandhi found the London Vegetarian Society and joined it immediately, and this association consisted of intellectual authors such as Henry David Thoreau and Leo Tolstoy, and this intellectual crowd helped Gandhi a lot, and made him read a lot, and among his readings was the Gita poem The Gita is an epic poem and is considered the sacred text of the Hindus. All these new ideas and concepts that he gained from reading laid the foundation for many of his later beliefs.

Mahatma Gandhi obtained his degree and graduated in 1891, and sailed back to India, to fulfill his life's dream and practice law in India for the next two years, but Ali did not have a keen knowledge of Indian law and did not possess self-confidence in court, and when he was offered a position for a year in South Africa, agreed immediately.

Mahatma Gandhi arrives in South Africa:

At the age of 23, Gandhi left again, leaving his family behind again, and set off for South Africa, in May 1893. Mahatma Gandhi hoped to earn a little money, and he wanted to learn more about law. In South Africa, Gandhi transformed from a man Very quiet and shy to a strong leader who fights discrimination and intolerance in treatment, and the beginning of this transformation came during a business trip undertaken by Mahatma Gandhi after his arrival in South Africa.

Not only a week had passed since the presence of Mahatma Gandhi in South Africa, until he was asked to travel on a long journey from Natal to the capital of the Dutch Transvaal Province located in South Africa. The trip would have taken several days, including transportation by train and carriage.

When Mahatma Gandhi boarded the first train on his journey, Gandhi was carrying first-class tickets, but railway officials refused his presence in the first class and asked him to move to the third-class carriage. When he refused, they forcefully threw him out of the train.

This was not the only injustice that occurred to Mahatma Gandhi during this trip. When Gandhi spoke to a group of other Indians in South Africa called Collies, he found that such incidents as those that happened to him on the train were very common. After he was thrown out of the train, He kept sitting in the cold and thinking of returning to India to fight this intolerance, and decided that he would not allow this discrimination to continue any longer, and that he was going to fight against this racism and would work hard to change it.

Mahatma Gandhi and his reformist role:

Mahatma Gandhi spent the next twenty years working to bring about the rights of Indians in South Africa. During the first three years, Gandhi worked to learn more about Indian grievances. He also studied law, wrote many letters to officials, and worked to send organized petitions.

On May 22, 1894, Mahatma Gandhi established the Natal Indian Congress (NIC), and although this conference began as an organization of wealthy Indians, with time Gandhi worked hard to expand the membership of the organization to all classes and castes.

Mahatma Gandhi became a well-known person because of his many activities, and newspapers in England and India were very interested in his work. Within a few years, Gandhi became the pioneer of the Indian community in South Africa. In 1896, after Gandhi lived three years in South Africa, Mahatma Gandhi sailed to India in order to bring his wife and two of his children and bring them back again, and at that time the plague disease was rampant in India due to poor sanitation.

His return and independence of India:

After Mahatma Gandhi spent twenty years in South Africa and helped a lot in the fight against discrimination, Gandhi decided it was time to return to India in July 1914. On his way home, World War I broke out during his trip, so Gandhi decided to stay in England to help the British. With other Indian rescue teams, he set sail for India in January 1915.

When the First World War came to an end, it was time for Gandhi to focus on the struggle for self-rule for India, so he set up many strikes and protests on a large scale.

India's independence did not come quickly or out of a vacuum. After the success of the protest march, Mahatma Gandhi took on the image of the holy, noble man. At the age of 64, Gandhi retired from political work, but he returned again after five years when Britain declared with the utmost insolence India's participation with it during the World War The second without consulting the leaders of India, which angered many, including the leader Mahatma Gandhi, many in the British parliament realized at the time that they were once again facing widespread protests in India that could not be controlled.

And the British announced in March 1941 that it would release India at the end of World War II, but Mahatma Gandhi was not satisfied with this proposal, as he wanted a quick independence for his country. Gandhi organized a campaign called "Leave India" in 1942, and in response to this protest, the British imprisoned Gandhi .

In August 1947, when the British left India, they divided it and created many acts of violence between Hindus and Muslims, and violence continued between Hindus and Muslims, and Mahatma Gandhi tried to create peace between them, and he was also enthusiastically opposed to the idea of dividing India, and he did his best to persuade all parties together, but he He did not succeed in that.

Assassination of Mahatma Gandhi:

Unfortunately, not everyone was happy with Gandhi's peace plan. There were some extremist Hindu groups who believed that India should never be divided. They also blamed Gandhi for doing so. On January 30, 1948, the aged Gandhi died. 78 years old, his last day, when he was meeting with some individuals, and it was time for his prayers, and Gandhi got up and started walking to his house, and he was surrounded by a large crowd, and a young Hindu shot Mahatma Gandhi and wounded him with three bullets, although Gandhi had survived 5 assassination attempts in advance, but this time he died and fell to the ground dead.