Gandhi, Mohandas Karamchand

Gandhi, Mohandas Karamchand (1869-1948), Indian statesman.

Mohandas Gandhi was known as 'Mahatma' which means 'great soul'.

After studying in London he was, for a time, a lawyer in Bombay. Then he went to South Africa. The Indians there were trying to get fairer treatment from the white people and Gandhi worked hard to help them.

He went back to India during the First World War (1914-18). At this time India was part of the British Empire. Some Indians wanted India to rule itself and Gandhi became their leader.

He did not believe in fighting for freedom. Instead he told people to disobey certain laws. Twice he was sent to prison. The second time he refused to eat. He said he would starve to death, and he was set free.

Gandhi was a religious person. He lived a simple life and owned nothing. He dressed in a loin-cloth, a coarse homespun robe, and sandals.

To punish himself, he sometimes cleaned the streets and collected rubbish. The people of India loved him and called him 'bapu' (father).

In June 1947 India became free from Britain, being divided into India and Pakistan. Trouble broke out between the people of two different religious groups, Hindus and Muslims and Gandhi, a Hindu, said the two groups should not quarrel. He was warned that he would be killed but he carried on.

On 30 January, 1948, when he was seventy-seven, he arrived at a prayer meeting in a garden in New Delhi. A man with a pistol stepped out of the crowd. Three shots rang out and Mahatma Gandhi fell dying.

All India was saddened by his death and the rest of the world was shocked.

See Mohandas Karamchand (Mahatma) Gandhi Gandhi An Autobiography