Mahatma Gandhi

Why is in news? Nation pays homage to Father of Nation, Mahatma Gandhi on his 154th birth anniversary

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born on October 2, 1869, at Porbandar in Gujarat and died on January 30, 1948, at Gandhi Smriti, New Delhi.

He was a lawyer, politician, social activist, writer and became the leader of the nationalist movement against the British rule of India.

He is considered the Father of the Nation.

Gandhi and his ideologies played an important role in liberating India from the British.

He earned a degree in law from England in 1891.

Before entering Indian politics in 1915, he was in South Africa from 1893 to 1914.

In the course of his struggle in South Africa, he developed his political philosophy based on non-violence and Satyagraha to give a new direction to the mass movement.

He founded Ashram settlement at Phoenix and Tolstoy farm towards leading a simple community life.

The emergence of Mahatma Gandhi in Indian politics marked the beginning of a new phase in the Indian national movement, the phase of mass movements. This made Gandhi become the most important figure in the history of the Indian freedom struggle.

Gandhi returned to India in January 1915. His efforts were well known in South Africa, not just among the educated but also among the common people.

Gandhiji spent a year travelling around British India, getting to know the land and its people on the advice of Gopal Krishna Gokhale.

In February 1916, he made his first major public appearance at the inauguration of the Banaras Hindu University (BHU).

Gandhiji’s speech at Banaras revealed that Indian nationalism was an elite phenomenon, and he wished to make Indian nationalism more properly representative of the Indian people as a whole.

Contribution to National Movement:Champaran Movement (1917), Kheda Movement (1918), Ahmedabad Mill Strike (1918), Khilafat Movement (1919), Non-cooperation Movement (1920), Dandi March (1929) or Satyagraha, Civil disobedience movement, Quit India Movement (1942), etc.

He was assassinated by Nathuram Godse in the Birla House during his evening prayers.

Nathuram Godse was a Chitpavan Brahmin from Pune, Maharashtra, and a Hindu nationalist.

The Mahatma Gandhi murder trial began in May 1948 in Delhi’s famed Red Fort, with Godse as the lead defendant and his accomplice Narayan Apte, as well as six additional people, being considered co-defendants.

On November 15, 1949, Nathuram Godse and Apte were executed at the Ambala prison.