Mahatma Gandhi Jayanti

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born on October 2, 1869, in the coastal town of Porbandar (also known as *Sudamapuri*), located in the Kathiawar Agency of the Bombay Presidency in British India.

He belonged to the Modh Bania community within the Vaishya varna. His paternal grandfather was Olibhai Gandhi, who served as the diwan (prime minister) of Porbandar state.

His father, Karamchand Uttamchand Gandhi (1822–1885), served as the diwan of Porbandar, and later held administrative offices in Rajkot and Bikaner states. His mother, Putlibai, was Karamchand’s fourth wife and exercised a profound moral influence on young Mohandas through her deep piety, fasting vows, and adherence to Pranami Vaishnavism and Jain-influenced traditions of ahimsa.

Mohandas received his primary education in Porbandar and later in Rajkot, where his family relocated. He was married at the age of thirteen in 1883 to Kasturba Makhanji (later known as Kasturba Gandhi) through an arranged child marriage, with whom he raised four sons: Harilal, Manilal, Ramdas, and Devdev.

In September 1888, Gandhi sailed from Bombay to London to pursue higher legal studies. He enrolled at Inner Temple, one of the four historic Inns of Court in London, with the aspiration of becoming a barrister.

During his stay in London (1888–1891), he actively immersed himself in vegetarian societies, studied diverse religious texts including the Bhagavad Gita (via Sir Edwin Arnold’s translation *The Song Celestial*), the Sermon on the Mount, and the works of Leo Tolstoy, Henry David Thoreau, and John Ruskin.

He was called to the English Bar on June 10, 1891, and formally admitted to the High Court of England before returning to India to establish a legal practice in Rajkot and Bombay, which met with limited initial success.

In April 1893, Gandhi accepted a year-long legal contract from Dada Abdulla & Co. to represent them in Natal, South Africa, which marked a transformative turning point in his life as he personally experienced severe racial discrimination, including being ejected from a train compartment at Pietermaritzburg.

In 1894, he founded the Natal Indian Congress (NIC) to unite the Indian diaspora against discriminatory legislation and systematic disenfranchisement by the colonial authorities.

In 1906, during the campaign against the draconian Transvaal Asiatic Law Amendment Ordinance (Registration Act), Gandhi formally deployed Satyagraha (soul force or truth force) as a mass political resistance strategy for the first time.

Returning permanently to India in January 1915, Gandhi established Kocharab Ashram in Ahmedabad in 1915, which later relocated to the banks of the Sabarmati River as the Sabarmati Ashram in 1917.

His initial localized agrarian and industrial satyagrahas in India established his mass leadership: the Champaran Satyagraha (1917) addressing indigo cultivators' grievances in Bihar, the Kheda Satyagraha (1918) against oppressive land revenue demands during crop failure, and the Ahmedabad Mill Strike (1918) securing fair wages for textile workers.

He led nationwide mass mobilizations under the Indian National Congress (INC), notably the Non-Cooperation Movement (1920–1922), the historic Salt March (Dandi March) (1930) breaking the salt monopoly, the Civil Disobedience Movement, and the definitive Quit India Movement (*Bharat Chhodo Andolan*) launched on August 8, 1942, at the Bombay session of the All-India Congress Committee.

Following decades of incarceration across British prisons—including Yerwada Central Jail and Aga Khan Palace—and intense negotiations leading to Indian independence and partition, Gandhi was assassinated on January 30, 1948, by Nathuram Godse at Birla House in New Delhi.

Gandhi was a prolific writer, editor, and communicator, utilizing journalism as a primary instrument for moral and social transformation. In 1903, while in South Africa, he founded the weekly journal Indian Opinion, which disseminated news and advocated for civil rights until 1915.

Upon returning to India, he assumed editorial control of two prominent weeklies: Young India (English) and Navajivan (Gujarati), utilizing them to articulate his political philosophy and socio-economic vision from 1919 to 1931.

In 1933, he launched Harijan (published in English), alongside Harijan Bandhu (Gujarati) and Harijan Sevak (Hindi), dedicated exclusively to the upliftment of the depressed classes and the eradication of untouchability.

His seminal autobiographical and philosophical texts include An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth (*Satya Na Prayatho Athwa Atmakatha*, serialized between 1925–1929), Hind Swaraj or Indian Home Rule (1909), Satyagraha in South Africa (1928), and his extensive commentaries on the Bhagavad Gita (*Anasaktiyoga*).

He established several enduring institutions for nation-building and social reform, including the Phoenix Settlement (1904) and Tolstoy Farm (1910) in South Africa; and in India, the Satyagrahashram (Sabarmati), All-India Spinners Association (1923), All-India Village Industries Association (1934), and the Harijan Sevak Sangh (1932).

The philosophical architecture of Gandhian thought rests upon the twin pillars of Satya (Truth) and Ahimsa (Non-violence). For Gandhi, truth was the ultimate reality (*Satya is God*), and non-violence was the sole active method to realize and attain that truth.

Satyagraha was conceptualized not as passive submission or weakness, but as the active, vigorous application of moral force by individuals possessing supreme spiritual courage. It encompassed techniques such as non-cooperation, civil disobedience, fasting, and constructive programs.

His socio-economic vision emphasized Sarvodaya (the progress and upliftment of all) and Swaraj (self-rule and self-reliance). Central to this economic model was Khadi and the revitalization of village industries (*Gram Swaraj*), rejecting hyper-industrialization and Western materialistic models of unchecked consumption in favor of decentralization and trusteeship.

Gandhi fiercely combated structural inequities, championing the eradication of untouchability (*Harijan upliftment*), Hindu-Muslim unity, women's emancipation, and communal harmony. His ideology of Trusteeship urged wealthy industrialists and landowners to view their wealth not as private property, but as a trust held on behalf of society.

His intellectual dialogues and profound debates with contemporary leaders—such as Rabindranath Tagore on nationalism and traditional education, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar on caste annihilation and political safeguards, and Muhammad Ali Jinnah on constitutional frameworks—shaped the intellectual contours of modern Indian political philosophy.

The mortal remains of Mahatma Gandhi were cremated at Raj Ghat on the banks of the Yamuna River in New Delhi, which stands as the solemn national memorial and cenotaph visited by global dignitaries.

On June 15, 2007, the United Nations General Assembly unanimously adopted a resolution declaring October 2—his birth anniversary—as the International Day of Non-Violence, serving to disseminate his message globally through education and public awareness.

International landmarks honor his legacy on a monumental scale, including the permanent bronze statue of Gandhi unveiled in the North Lawn of the United Nations Headquarters in New York (2014), and numerous memorials across London (Parliament Square), Washington D.C., and Johannesburg.

The Government of India instituted the prestigious Gandhi Peace Prize in 1995 on his 125th birth anniversary, awarded annually to individuals and institutions for social, economic, and political transformation through non-violent methods.

His timeless maxims, including the Gandhi Talisman—which urges policy makers to recall the face of the poorest and weakest person encountered when in doubt—continue to serve as a foundational moral compass for international human rights jurisprudence, environmental movements, and global peace advocacy.