The most well-known part of his campaign was the kilometre Salt March to the shores of the Arabian Sea, where he collected salt in symbolic and open defiance of the government monopoly. But there was little in the way of progress and relations with Britain remained strained. Once again, he was arrested and jailed - this time along with fellow leaders of the Indian National Congress and his wife. A change of government in Britain after the end of the war saw more willingness to discuss independence for India.
But the negotiations that followed led to the partition of the country into India and Pakistan. On August 15, , India gained its independence, Pakistan was born and millions of people were displaced and relocated, leading to waves of violence and killings.
The following year, on 30 January, , Mahatma Gandhi was shot three times and killed by a Hindu extremist. Gandhi's dedication to nonviolent, anti-colonial protest has made him an inspirational figure for millions of people to this day.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum. In this new era, India will prioritize economic expansion and sustainability to sustain its growth and influence on the world stage. Diwali is celebrated by Hindus, Sikhs and Jains. The festival lasts five days and the story behind the festival differs for each of the three religions.
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A frail Gandhi was released from prison in , and Britain at last began to make plans to withdraw from the Indian subcontinent. It was bittersweet for Gandhi, who opposed the partition of India and attempted to quell Hindu-Muslim animosity and deadly riots in India finally gained its independence in August But Gandhi only saw it for a few months; a Hindu extremist assassinated him on January 30, Over 1. Ascetic and unflinching, Gandhi changed the face of civil disobedience around the world.
Martin Luther King, Jr. But though his legacy still resonates, others wonder whether Gandhi should be revered. Among some Indian Hindus, he remains controversial for his embrace of Muslims. Others question whether he did enough to challenge the Indian caste system. He has also been criticized for supporting racial segregation between black and white South Africans and making derogatory remarks about black people.
Mohandas Gandhi the man was complex and flawed. However, Mahatma Gandhi the public figure left an indelible mark on the history of India and on the exercise of civil disobedience worldwide. If each puts the cause first and himself last, the vacuum will to a large extent be filled. All rights reserved. Culture Explainer. How Mahatma Gandhi changed political protest His non-violent resistance helped end British rule in India and has influenced modern civil disobedience movements across the globe.
Widely referred to as Mahatma, meaning great soul or saint in Sanskrit, Gandhi helped India reach independence through a philosophy of non-violent non-cooperation.
Editor's Note: This story originally misstated how long Gandhi lived after India gained its independence. It is hard to imagine the thin, robed Gandhi working in the rough and tumble world of law, but Gandhi did get his start in politics as a lawyer in South Africa, where he supported the local Indian community's struggle for civil rights. Returning to India in , he carried over his desire to improve the station of the lower classes.
Gandhi quickly became a leader within the Indian National Congress, a growing political party supporting independence, and traveled widely with the party to learn about the local struggles of various Indian communities. Finding extreme poverty and famine in his own Gujarat province, Gandhi led an initiative to clean up the area, install new schools and build hospitals.
He was ultimately arrested by British-appointed landlords for causing unrest, but talked his way out of jail and negotiated better conditions for the Indian farmers. When news about this sneaky feat spread through India, he earned the nickname "Bapu" — or Father. Troops led by British Brigadier General Reginald Dyer fired machine guns into a crowd of unarmed demonstrators and killed nearly people. Gandhi became a leading figure in the Indian home-rule movement. Calling for mass boycotts, he urged government officials to stop working for the Crown, students to stop attending government schools, soldiers to leave their posts and citizens to stop paying taxes and purchasing British goods.
Rather than buy British-manufactured clothes, he began to use a portable spinning wheel to produce his own cloth. The spinning wheel soon became a symbol of Indian independence and self-reliance. Gandhi assumed the leadership of the Indian National Congress and advocated a policy of non-violence and non-cooperation to achieve home rule. After British authorities arrested Gandhi in , he pleaded guilty to three counts of sedition. Although sentenced to a six-year imprisonment, Gandhi was released in February after appendicitis surgery.
When violence between the two religious groups flared again, Gandhi began a three-week fast in the autumn of to urge unity. He remained away from active politics during much of the latter s. Wearing a homespun white shawl and sandals and carrying a walking stick, Gandhi set out from his religious retreat in Sabarmati on March 12, , with a few dozen followers.
By the time he arrived 24 days later in the coastal town of Dandi, the ranks of the marchers swelled, and Gandhi broke the law by making salt from evaporated seawater. The Salt March sparked similar protests, and mass civil disobedience swept across India. Approximately 60, Indians were jailed for breaking the Salt Acts, including Gandhi, who was imprisoned in May Still, the protests against the Salt Acts elevated Gandhi into a transcendent figure around the world.
Gandhi was released from prison in January , and two months later he made an agreement with Lord Irwin to end the Salt Satyagraha in exchange for concessions that included the release of thousands of political prisoners. The agreement, however, largely kept the Salt Acts intact. But it did give those who lived on the coasts the right to harvest salt from the sea.
Hoping that the agreement would be a stepping-stone to home rule, Gandhi attended the London Round Table Conference on Indian constitutional reform in August as the sole representative of the Indian National Congress. The conference, however, proved fruitless. The public outcry forced the British to amend the proposal. Gandhi played an active role in the negotiations, but he could not prevail in his hope for a unified India.
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