Mahatma Gandhi, whose full name was Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (Gujarati: મોહનદાસ કરમચંદ ગાંધી, Hindi: मोहनदास करमचंद गांधी; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), was an Indian political and spiritual leader who led the Indian independence movement against British imperial rule.
He is also regarded as a symbol of nonviolent resistance for developing and practicing Satyagraha—a philosophy centered on seeking truth and resisting evil through active but nonviolent resistance. This helped bring about India's independence and inspired human rights and freedom movements worldwide.
Gandhi was one of the most respected leaders of the twentieth century. In India and around the world, he is known as Mahatma Gandhi ("Mahatma" means "great soul" in Sanskrit, a title given to him by the poet Rabindranath Tagore). In India, he is also called Bapu ("father" in Gujarati). He is officially regarded as the Father of the Indian Nation, and his birthday, the second of October, is celebrated each year as the national holiday Gandhi Jayanti. On 15 June 2007, the United Nations General Assembly declared 2 October the International Day of Non-Violence.
Gandhi first practiced nonviolent civil disobedience in the Indian community's struggle for civil rights in South Africa. After returning to India, he organized poor farmers and workers to protest oppressive taxation and widespread discrimination. After becoming leader of the Indian National Congress, he led nationwide campaigns to alleviate poverty, liberate women, promote harmony between religions and ethnic groups, end caste discrimination—particularly against the "untouchables"—and secure India's economic independence. Above all, he fought for Swaraj—India's independence from foreign rule. Gandhi led the Indian nation in civil disobedience against the salt tax, undertaking the 400-kilometer Salt March in 1930. In 1942, he publicly called on the British to leave India. He spent many years in prison over several periods in South Africa and India.
Gandhi practiced and preached nonviolence and truth in all circumstances. He lived simply and established a financially self-sufficient ashram. He made his own clothes—the traditional Indian dhoti and shawl—from cloth he spun and wove himself using his spinning wheel. He ate simple vegetarian food and later followed a fruit-based diet. He undertook long fasts, sometimes lasting over a month, both for self-purification and as a form of protest.
Gandhi was assassinated on 30 January 1948 by a Hindu assassin who opposed his agreement to pay compensation to Pakistan, as recommended by the British, arguing that it would weaken Hindus. At his request, his body was cremated and his ashes were scattered in rivers around the world.
Teachings and Legacy
Gandhi was wholly committed to nonviolence, believing that force should never be used, even in response to force. In his teachings, he used the word "ahimsa," meaning both refraining from violence and actively opposing it. Gandhi himself defined ahimsa as avoiding harm to any living being, whether in thought or action. He believed all resistance should take the form of nonaggressive civil action, aimed at making the continued use of force more difficult.
Gandhi also believed in satyagraha—"holding firmly to truth." He associated this idea with "truth force" or "soul force," arising from the tolerant, peace-loving core of human nature. According to Gandhi, only embracing this force could help people achieve their goals, while every violent impulse was rooted in falsehood and destined to fail. Asked whether someone could kill a cobra to protect a child or themselves, he replied that he could not kill a cobra without breaking two of his vows: fearlessness and non-killing. "I would prefer to try to calm the snake with waves of love. I cannot lower my standards to suit the circumstances," he answered. Gandhi wrote an autobiography titled "My Experiments with Truth", presenting the two central ideas that guided his life: ahimsa and satyagraha.
Gandhi devoted his life to what he called "experiments with truth," imposing ever more restrictions on himself. In his pursuit of veganism, for example, he excluded more and more foods until his diet consisted only of fruit and nuts. He also practiced celibacy, abstaining from sexual relations as part of his search for moksha. Gandhi demanded that he himself live up to what he asked of others, and that others meet the standards they expected of those around them. He stressed that he was an ordinary person and insisted that any child could do everything he did. Asked how this was possible, he replied: "It is very simple. You must be the change you want to see in others." This approach embodied one of his most important principles: rejecting the idea of a moral hierarchy. In Gandhi's view, we should judge everyone, including ourselves, by the same standards. Treating others according to how different they are from us stems from pride, and pride is one source of violence. Before taking action, Gandhi required his followers to purify themselves to connect with their spiritual core. He sometimes refrained from actions for which he believed the public was not ready.
Gandhi studied many religions in depth. Jain scriptures, the New Testament, and Leo Tolstoy's social writings (The Kingdom of God Is Within You) were the three main sources of his ideas on nonviolence. His initial influences may have been entirely Eastern, with Western sources added later. Gandhi also corresponded with Tolstoy. He believed that the Hebrew Bible and the Quran were as divine as the Vedas. Alongside religious texts, he studied the writings of Western thinkers Henry Thoreau, John Ruskin, and Giuseppe Mazzini.
Gandhi remains an admired figure worldwide, including in Britain, against which he fought for independence. A statue commemorating him was erected there in 1969. He became a symbol of tolerance and nonviolent conflict resolution, and his struggle inspired freedom fighters, human rights advocates, and conscientious objection movements around the world. Gandhi himself never received the Nobel Peace Prize, but many who followed his path did, including Martin Luther King, Lech Wałęsa, Desmond Tutu, the Dalai Lama, Aung San Suu Kyi, Rigoberta Menchú, Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo, José Ramos-Horta, and others, for choosing the path of nonviolent struggle.
The film Nine Hours to Rama, about the last day of Gandhi's life, was produced in 1963.
In 1982, "Gandhi," starring Ben Kingsley and telling Gandhi's life story, won the Academy Award for Best Picture.
Gandhi and the Jews
Gandhi had close relationships with several Jewish figures during his early years in South Africa. In general, however, he was not sympathetic to Judaism, did not understand the Jewish connection to the Land of Israel, and opposed Zionism. During an extended visit in 1936, his friend Hermann Kallenbach persuaded him that Jewish identity was national as well as religious. Even so, Gandhi remained committed to his alliance with Muslims and did not publicly support Jews or Zionists, fearing damage to the Hindu-Muslim alliance in India, a cornerstone of his policy on the subcontinent.
Gandhi did not understand the nature of Germany's treatment of Jews under Nazi rule, particularly the Final Solution, and therefore urged Jews to practice nonviolence toward the German authorities. Prominent Brit Shalom members, including Judah Leon Magnes and Martin Buber, wrote to Gandhi to explain the difference between the situation of Jews under German rule and that of Indians in South Africa under British rule, but to no avail.
Gandhi opposed Zionism and rejected the establishment of the State of Israel. In contrast, Israel's first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, saw him as a model of national leadership and kept Gandhi's portrait in his bedroom at the Ben-Gurion Hut.