Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

Born 2 October 1869

Porbandar, Kathiawar Agency,British

Indian Empire [1]

Died 30 January 1948 (aged 78)

New Delhi, Dominion of India

Cause of

death

Assassination by shooting

Resting place Cremated at Rajghat, Delhi.

28.6415°N 77.2483°E

Nationality Indian

Other names Mahatma Gandhi, Bapu, Gandhiji

Ethnicity Indo-Aryan (Gujarati)

Alma mater Alfred High School, Rajkot,

Samaldas College, Bhavnagar,

Inner Temple, London

Known for Prominent figure of Indian

independence movement,

propounding the philosophy

ofSatyagraha and Ahimsa

advocating non-violence,

pacifism

Religion Hinduism, with Jain influences

Spouse(s) Kasturba Gandhi

Children Harilal

Manilal

Ramdas

Devdas

Parents Putlibai Gandhi (Mother)

Karamchand Gandhi (Father)

Signature

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (October 1869[1] – 30 January 1948), commonly known

as Mahatma Gandhi, was the preeminent leader of Indian Nationalism in British-Ruled India.

Employing non-violentcivil disobedience, Gandhi led India to independence and inspired

movements for non-violence, civil rights and freedom across the world.

The son of a senior government official, Gandhi was born and raised in a Hindu

Bania community in coastal Gujarat, and trained in law in London. Gandhi became famous by

fighting for the civil rights of Muslim and Hindu Indians in South Africa, using new techniques of

non-violent civil disobedience that he developed. Returning to India in 1915, he set about

organising peasants to protest excessive land-taxes. A lifelong opponent of "comunalism"

basing politics on religion) he reached out widely to all religious groups. He became a leader of

Muslims protesting the declining status of the Caliphate. Assuming leadership of the Indian

National Congress in 1921, Gandhi led nationwide campaigns for easing poverty, expanding

women's rights, building religious and ethnic amity, ending untouchability, increasing economic

self-reliance, and above all for achieving Swaraj—the independence of India from British

domination.

Gandhi led Indians in protesting the national salt tax with the 400 km (250 mi) Dandi Salt

March in 1930, and later in demanding the British to immediately Quit India in 1942,

during World War II. He was imprisoned for that and for numerous other political offenses over

the years. Gandhi sought to practice non-violence and truth in all situations, and advocated that

others do the same. He saw the villages as the core of the true India and promoted self-

sufficiency; he did not support the industrialization programs of his disciple Jawaharlal Nehru.

He lived modestly in a self-sufficient residential community and wore the traditional

Indian dhoti and shawl, woven with yarn he had hand spun on a charka. His chief political

enemy in Britain was Winston Churchill who ridiculed him as a "half-naked fakir. He was a

dedicated vegetarian, and undertook long fasts as means of both self-purification and political

mobilization.

In his last year, unhappy at the partition of India. Gandhi worked to stop the carnage between

Muslims and Hindus and Sikhs that raged in the border area between India and Pakistan. He

was assassinated on 30 January 1948 by a Hindu nationalist who thought Gandhi was too

sympathetic to India's Muslims. 30 January is observed as Martyrs Day in India. The

honorific “Mahatma ("Great Soul"), was applied to him by 1914. In India he was also

called Bapu ("Father"). He is known in India as the Father of The Nation, his birthday, 2

October, is commemorated there as Gandhi Jayanti, anational holiday, and world-wide as

the International Day of Non-Violence. Gandhi's philosophy was not theoretical but one of

pragmatism, that is, practicing his principles in real time. Asked to give a message to the

people, he would respond, "My life is my message.”

Early life and background

Gandhi in his earliest known photo, aged 7, c. 1876

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born on 2 October 1869 in Porbandar, a coastal

town which was then part of the Bombay Presidency, British India. He was born in his

ancestral home, now known as Kirti Mandir. His father, Karamchand Gandhi (1822–

1885), who belonged to the Hindu Modh community, served as the diwan (a high

official) of Porbander State, a small princely state in the Kathiawar Agency of

British India. His grandfather was Uttamchand Gandhi, also called Utta Gandhi. His

mother, Putlibai, who came from the Pranami Vaishnava community, was

Karamchand's fourth wife, the first three wives having apparently died in childbirth.

The Indian classics, especially the stories of Shravana and king Harish Chandra, had

a great impact on Gandhi in his childhood. In his autobiography, he admits that they left

an indelible impression on his mind. He writes: "It haunted me and I must have acted

Harishchandra to myself times without number." Gandhi's early self-identification with

truth and love as supreme values is traceable to these epic characters.

In May 1883, the 13-year-old Mohandas was married to 14-year-old Kasturbai

Makhanji (her first name was usually shortened to "Kasturba", and affectionately to

"Ba") in an arranged child marriage, according to the custom of the region. In the

process, he lost a year at school. Recalling the day of their marriage, he once said, "As

we didn't know much about marriage, for us it meant only wearing new clothes, eating

sweets and playing with relatives." However, as was prevailing tradition, the adolescent

bride was to spend much time at her parents' house, and away from her husband. In

1885, when Gandhi was 15, the couple's first child was born, but survived only a few

days. Gandhi's father, Karamchand Gandhi, had also died earlier that year.

Mohandas and Kasturba had four more children, all sons: Harilal, born in 1888; Manilal

born in 1892; Ramdas, born in 1897; and Devdas, born in 1900. At his middle school in

Porbandar and high school in Rajkot, Gandhi remained a mediocre student. He shone

neither in the classroom nor on the playing field. One of the terminal reports rated him

as "good at English, fair in Arithmetic and weak in Geography; conduct very good, bad

handwriting." He passed the matriculation exam at Samaldas College in Bhavnagar,

Gujarat, with some difficulty. Gandhi's family wanted him to be a barrister as it would

increase the prospects of succeeding to his father's post.

English barrister

Gandhi and his wife Kasturba (1902)

In 1888, Gandhi travelled to London, England, to study law at University College

London, where he studied Indian law and jurisprudence and to train as a barrister at

the Inner Temple. His time in London was influenced by a vow he had made to his

mother upon leaving India, in the presence of a Jain monk, to observe the Hindu

precepts of abstinence from meat and alcohol as well as of promiscuity.[21] Gandhi tried

to adopt "English" customs, including taking dancing lessons for example. However, he

could not appreciate the bland vegetarian food offered by his landlady and was

frequently hungry until he found one of London's few vegetarian restaurants. Influenced

by Henry Salt's writing, he joined the Vegetarian Society, was elected to its executive

committee,[22] and started a local Bayswater chapter.[13] Some of the vegetarians he met

were members of the Theosophical Society, which had been founded in 1875 to further

universal brotherhood, and which was devoted to the study

of Buddhist andHindu literature. They encouraged Gandhi to join them in reading

the Bhagavad Gita both in translation as well as in the original.[22] Not having shown

interest in religion before, he became interested in religious thought.

Gandhi was called to the bar in June 1891 and then left London for India, where he

learned that his mother had died while he was in London and that his family had kept

the news from him.[22] His attempts at establishing a law practice in Bombay failed

because he was too shy to speak up in court. He returned to Rajkot to make a modest

living drafting petitions for litigants, but he was forced to close it when he ran afoul of a

British officer.[13][22] In 1893, he accepted a year-long contract from Dada Abdulla & Co.,

an Indian firm, to a post in the Colony of Natal, South Africa, then part of the British

Empire.[13]

Civil rights movement in South Africa (1893–1914)

Purported photograph of Gandhi in South Africa (1895)

Gandhi was 24 when he arrived in South Africa [23]  to work as a legal representative for

the Muslim Indian Traders based in the city of Pretoria.[24]He spent 21 years in South

Africa, where he developed his political views, ethics and political leadership skills.

Indians in South Africa were led by wealthy Muslims, who employed Gandhi as a

lawyer, and by impoverished Hindu indentured laborers with very limited rights. Gandhi

considered them all to be Indians, taking a lifetime view that "Indianness" transcended

religion and caste. He believed he could bridge historic differences, especially regarding

religion, and he took that belief back to India where he tried to implement it. The South

African experience exposed handicaps to Gandhi that he had not known about. He

realised he was out of contact with the enormous complexities of religious and cultural

life in India, and believed he understood India by getting to know and leading Indians in

South Africa.[25]

In South Africa, Gandhi faced the discrimination directed at all coloured people. He was

thrown off a train at Pietermaritzburg after refusing to move from the first-class. He

protested and was allowed on first class the next day.[26] Travelling farther on by

stagecoach, he was beaten by a driver for refusing to move to make room for a

European passenger.[27] He suffered other hardships on the journey as well, including

being barred from several hotels. In another incident, the magistrate of a Durban court

ordered Gandhi to remove his turban, which he refused to do.[28]

These events were a turning point in Gandhi's life and shaped his social activism and

awakened him to social injustice. After witnessing racism,prejudice and injustice against

Indians in South Africa, Gandhi began to question his place in society and his people's

standing in the British Empire.[29]

Gandhi extended his original period of stay in South Africa to assist Indians in opposing

a bill to deny them the right to vote. In regards to this bill Gandhi sent out a memorial to

Joseph Chamberlin, British Colonial Secretary, asking him to reconsider his position on

this bill.[24] Though unable to halt the bill's passage, his campaign was successful in

drawing attention to the grievances of Indians in South Africa. He helped found

the Natal Indian Congress in 1894,[13][26] and through this organisation, he moulded the

Indian community of South Africa into a unified political force. In January 1897, when

Gandhi landed in Durban, a mob of white settlers attacked him[30] and he escaped only

through the efforts of the wife of the police superintendent. He, however, refused to

press charges against any member of the mob, stating it was one of his principles not to

seek redress for a personal wrong in a court of law.[13]

In 1906, the Transvaal government promulgated a new Act compelling registration of

the colony's Indian population. At a mass protest meeting held in Johannesburg on 11

September that year, Gandhi adopted his still evolving methodology

of Satyagraha (devotion to the truth), or non-violent protest, for the first time.[31] He

urged Indians to defy the new law and to suffer the punishments for doing so. The

community adopted this plan, and during the ensuing seven-year struggle, thousands of

Indians were jailed, flogged, or shot for striking, refusing to register, for burning their

registration cards or engaging in other forms of non-violent resistance. The government

successfully repressed the Indian protesters, but the public outcry over the harsh

treatment of peaceful Indian protesters by the South African government forced South

African leader Jan Christiaan Smuts, himself a philosopher, to negotiate a compromise

with Gandhi. Gandhi's ideas took shape, and the concept of Satyagraha matured during

this struggle.

Gandhi and the Africans

Gandhi in South Africa (1909)

Gandhi focused his attention on Indians while in South Africa and opposed the idea that

Indians should be treated at the same level as native Africans while in South Africa.[32][33]

[34] After several treatments he received from Whites in South Africa, Gandhi began to

change his thinking and apparently increased his interest in politics.[35] White rule

enforced strict segregation among all races and generated conflict between these

communities. Bhana and Vahed argue that Gandhi, at first, shared racial notions

prevalent of the times and that his experiences in jail sensitized him to the plight of

blacks.

In 1906, the British declared war against the Zulu Kingdom in Natal, Gandhi encouraged

the British to recruit Indians.[36] He argued that Indians should support the war efforts in

order to legitimise their claims to full citizenship.[36] The British accepted Gandhi's offer

to let a detachment of 20 Indians volunteer as a stretcher-bearer corps to treat wounded

British soldiers. This corps was commanded by Gandhi and operated for less than two

months.[37] The experience taught him it was hopeless to directly challenge the

overwhelming military power of the British army—he decided it could only be resisted in

non-violent fashion by the pure of heart.[38]

After the black majority came to power in South Africa, Gandhi was proclaimed a

national hero with numerous monuments.[39]

Struggle for Indian Independence (1915–47)

See also: Indian independence movement

In 1915, Gandhi returned to India permanently. He brought an international reputation

as a leading Indian nationalist, theorist and organizer. He joined the Indian National

Congress and was introduced to Indian issues, politics and the Indian people primarily

by Gopal Krishna Gokhale. Gokhale was a key leader of the Congress Party best

known for his restraint and moderation, and his insistence on working inside the system.

Gandhi took Gokhale's liberal approach based on British Whiggish traditions and

transformed it to make it look wholly Indian.[40]

Gandhi took leadership of Congress in 1920 and began a steady escalation of demands

(with Intermittent compromises or pauses) until on 26 January 1930 the Indian National

Congress declared the independence of India. The British did not recognize that and

more negotiations ensued, with Congress taking a role in provincial government in the

late 1930s. Gandhi and Congress withdrew their support of the Raj when the Viceroy

declared war on Germany in September 1939 without consulting anyone. Tensions

escalated until Gandhi demanded immediate independence in 1942 and the British

responded by imprisoning him and tens of thousands of Congress leaders for the

duration. Meanwhile the Muslim League did cooperate with Britain and moved, against

Gandhi's strong opposition, to demands for a totally separate Muslim state of Pakistan.

In August 1947 the British partitioned the land, with India and Pakistan each achieving

independence on terms Gandhi disapproved.[41]

Role in World War I

See also: The role of India in World War I

In April 1918, during the latter part of World War I, the Viceroy invited Gandhi to a War

Conference in Delhi.[42] Perhaps to show his support for the Empire and help his case for

India's independence,[43] Gandhi agreed to actively recruit Indians for the war effort.[44] In

contrast to the Zulu War of 1906 and the outbreak of World War I in 1914, when he

recruited volunteers for the Ambulance Corps, this time Gandhi attempted to recruit

combatants. In a June 1918 leaflet entitled "Appeal for Enlistment", Gandhi wrote "To

bring about such a state of things we should have the ability to defend ourselves, that is,

the ability to bear arms and to use them...If we want to learn the use of arms with the

greatest possible despatch, it is our duty to enlist ourselves in the army."[45] He did,

however, stipulate in a letter to the Viceroy's private secretary that he "personally will

not kill or injure anybody, friend or foe."[46]

Gandhi's war recruitment campaign brought into question his consistency on

nonviolence as his friend Charlie Andrews confirms, "Personally I have never been able

to reconcile this with his own conduct in other respects, and it is one of the points where

I have found myself in painful disagreement."[47] Gandhi's private secretary also had

acknowledged that "The question of the consistency between his creed of 'Ahimsa'

(non-violence) and his recruiting campaign was raised not only then but has been

discussed ever since."[44]

Champaran and Kheda

Main article: Champaran and Kheda Satyagraha

Gandhi in 1918, at the time of the Kheda and Champaran Satyagrahas

Gandhi's first major achievements came in 1918 with the Champaran and Kheda

agitations of Bihar and Gujarat. The Champaran agitation pitted the local peasantry

against their largely British landlords who were backed by the local administration. The

peasantry was forced to grow Indigo, a cash crop whose demand had been declining

over two decades, and were forced to sell their crops to the planters at a fixed price.

Unhappy wIth this, the peasantry appealed to Gandhi at his ashram in Ahmedabad.

Pursuing a strategy of non-violent protest, Gandhi took the administration by surprise

and won concessions from the authorities.[48]

In 1918, Kheda was hit by floods and famine and the peasantry was demanding relief

from taxes. Gandhi moved his headquarters to Nadiad,[49] organising scores of

supporters and fresh volunteers from the region, the most notable being Vallabhbhai

Patel.[50] Using non-cooperation as a technique, Gandhi initiated a signature campaign

where peasants pledged non-payment of revenue even under the threat of confiscation

of land. A social boycott of mamlatdars and talatdars(revenue officials within the district)

accompanied the agitation. Gandhi worked hard to win public support for the agitation

across the country. For five months, the administration refused but finally in end-May

1918, the Government gave way on important provisions and relaxed the conditions of

payment of revenue tax until the famine ended. In Kheda, Vallabhbhai Patel

represented the farmers in negotiations with the British, who suspended revenue

collection and released all the prisoners.[51]

Khilafat movement

In 1919 Gandhi, with his weak position in Congress, decided to broaden his base by

increasing his appeal to Muslims. The opportunity came from the Khilafat movement, a

worldwide protest by Muslims against the collapsing status of the Caliph, the leader of

their religion. The Ottoman Empire had lost the World War and was dismembered, as

Muslims feared for the safety of the holy places and the prestige of their religion.[52] Although Gandhi did not originate the All-India Muslim Conference,[53] which directed

the movement in India, he soon became its most prominent spokesman and attracted a

strong base of Muslim support with local chapters in all Muslim centers in India.[54] His

success made him India's first national leader with a multicultural base and facilitated

his rise to power within Congress, which had previously been unable to reach many

Muslims. In 1920 Gandhi became a major leader in Congress.[55][56] By the end of 1922

the Khilafat movement had collapsed.[57]

Gandhi always fought against "communalism", which pitted Muslims against Hindus in

politics, but he could not reverse the rapid growth of communalism after 1922. Deadly

religious riots broke out in numerous cities, including 91 in U.P. (Uttar Pradesh) alone.[58]

[59] At the leadership level, the proportion of Muslims among delegates to Congress fell

sharply, from 11% in 1921 to under 4% in 1923.[60]

Non-cooperation

Main article: Non-cooperation movement

Mahatma Gandhi spinning yarn, in the late 1920s

With Congress now behind him in 1920, Gandhi had the base to employ non-

cooperation, non-violence and peaceful resistance as his "weapons" in the struggle

against the British Raj. His wide popularity among both Hindus and Muslims made his

leadership possible; he even convinced the extreme faction of Muslims to support

peaceful non-cooperation.[61] The spark that ignited a national protest was overwhelming

anger at the Jallianwala Bagh massacre (or Amritsar massacre) of hundreds of peaceful

civilians by British troops in Punjab. Many Britons celebrated the action as needed to

prevent another Mutiny like 1857, an attitude that caused many Indian leaders to decide

the Raj was controlled by their enemies, and was more an obstacle than a pathway.

Gandhi criticised both the actions of the British Raj and the retaliatory violence of

Indians. He authored the resolution offering condolences to British civilian victims and

condemning the riots which, after initial opposition in the party, was accepted following

Gandhi's emotional speech advocating his principle that all violence was evil and could

not be justified.[62]

After the massacre and subsequent violence, Gandhi began to focus on winning

complete self-government and control of all Indian government institutions, maturing

soon into Swaraj or complete individual, spiritual, political independence.[63] During this

period, Gandhi claimed to be a "highly orthodox Hindu" and in January 1921 during a

speech at a temple in Vadtal, he spoke of the relevance of non-cooperation to Hindu

Dharma, "At this holy place, I declare, if you want to protect your 'Hindu Dharma', non-

cooperation is first as well as the last lesson you must learn up.".[64]

Sabarmati Ashram, Gandhi's home in Gujarat

In December 1921, Gandhi was invested with executive authority on behalf of the Indian

National Congress. Under his leadership, the Congress was reorganised with a new

constitution, with the goal of Swaraj. Membership in the party was opened to anyone

prepared to pay a token fee. A hierarchy of committees was set up to improve

discipline, transforming the party from an elite organisation to one of mass national

appeal. Gandhi expanded his non-violence platform to include the swadeshi   policy —the

boycott of foreign-made goods, especially British goods. Linked to this was his

advocacy thatkhadi (homespun cloth) be worn by all Indians instead of British-made

textiles. Gandhi exhorted Indian men and women, rich or poor, to spend time each day

spinning khadi in support of the independence movement.[65]

Gandhi even invented a small, portable spinning wheel that could be folded into the size

of a small typewriter.[66] This was a strategy to inculcate discipline and dedication to

weeding out the unwilling and ambitious and to include women in the movement at a

time when many thought that such activities were not respectable activities for women.

In addition to boycotting British products, Gandhi urged the people to boycott British

educational institutions and law courts, to resign from government employment, and to

forsake British titles and honours.[67]

"Non-cooperation" enjoyed widespread appeal and success, increasing excitement and

participation from all strata of Indian society. Yet, just as the movement reached its

apex, it ended abruptly as a result of a violent clash in the town of Chauri Chaura, Uttar

Pradesh, in February 1922. Fearing that the movement was about to take a turn

towards violence, and convinced that this would be the undoing of all his work, Gandhi

called off the campaign of mass civil disobedience.[68] This was the third time that

Gandhi had called off a major campaign.[69] Gandhi was arrested on 10 March 1922,

tried for sedition, and sentenced to six years' imprisonment. He began his sentence on

18 March 1922. He was released in February 1924 for an appendicitisoperation, having

served only 2 years.[70]

Without Gandhi's unifying personality, the Indian National Congress began to splinter

during his years in prison, splitting into two factions, one led by Chitta Ranjan

Das and Motilal Nehru favouring party participation in the legislatures, and the other led

by Chakravarti Rajagopalachari and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, opposing this move.

Furthermore, cooperation among Hindus and Muslims, which had been strong at the

height of the non-violence campaign, was breaking down. Gandhi attempted to bridge

these differences through many means, including a three-week fast in the autumn of

1924, but with limited success.[71] In this year, Gandhi was persuaded to preside over

the Congress session to be held in Belgaum. Gandhi agreed to become president of the

session on one condition that Congressmen should take to wearing khadi (made of

homespun cloth). In his long political career, this was the only time when he presided

over a Congress session.[72]

Salt Satyagraha (Salt March)

Main article: Salt Satyagraha

Original footage of Gandhi and his followers marching to Dandi in the Salt Satyagraha

Gandhi stayed out of active politics and, as such, the limelight for most of the 1920s. He

focused instead on resolving the wedge between the Swaraj Party and the Indian

National Congress, and expanding initiatives against untouchability, alcoholism,

ignorance and poverty. He returned to the fore in 1928. In the preceding year, the

British government had appointed a new constitutional reform commission under Sir

John Simon, which did not include any Indian as its member. The result was a boycott

of the commission by Indian political parties. Gandhi pushed through a resolution at the

Calcutta Congress in December 1928 calling on the British government to grant

India dominion status or face a new campaign of non-cooperation with complete

independence for the country as its goal. Gandhi had not only moderated the views of

younger men like Subhas Chandra Bose and Jawaharlal Nehru, who sought a demand

for immediate independence, but also reduced his own call to a one year wait, instead

of two.[73]

The British did not respond. On 31 December 1929, the flag of India was unfurled

in Lahore. 26 January 1930 was celebrated as India's Independence Day by the Indian

National Congress meeting in Lahore. This day was commemorated by almost every

other Indian organisation. Gandhi then launched a new Satyagraha against the tax on

salt in March 1930. This was highlighted by the famous Salt March to Dandi from 12

March to 6 April, where he marched 388 kilometres (241 mi) from Ahmedabad to Dandi,

Gujarat to make salt himself. Thousands of Indians joined him on this march to the sea.

This campaign was one of his most successful at upsetting British hold on India; Britain

responded by imprisoning over 60,000 people.[74]

Women

Salt as a household necessity was of special interest to women. Gandhi strongly

favoured the emancipation of women, and he went so far as to say that "the women

have come to look upon me as one of themselves." He opposed purdah, child

marriage, untouchability, and the extreme oppression of Hindu widows, up to and

including sati. He especially recruited women to participate in the salt tax campaigns

and the boycott of foreign products.[75] Sarma concludes that Gandhi's success in

enlisting women in his campaigns, including the salt tax campaign, anti-untouchability

campaign and the peasant movement, gave many women a new self-confidence and

dignity in the mainstream of Indian public life.[76]

Gandhi as folk hero

Congress in the 1920s appealed to peasants by portraying Gandhi as a sort of messiah

(the long-awaited savior of an entire people), a strategy that succeeded in incorporating

radical forces within the peasantry into the nonviolent resistance movement. In

thousands of villages plays were performed that presented Gandhi as the reincarnation

of earlier Indian nationalist leaders, or even as a demigod. The plays built support

among illiterate peasants steeped in traditional Hindu culture. Similar messianic imagery

appeared in popular songs and poems, and in Congress-sponsored religious pageants

and celebrations. The result was that Gandhi became not only a folk hero but the

Congress was widely seen in the villages as his sacred instrument.[77]

Negotiations

Mahadev Desai (left) reading out a letter to Gandhi from the viceroy at Birla House, Bombay, 7 April

1939

The government, represented by Lord Edward Irwin, decided to negotiate with Gandhi.

The Gandhi–Irwin Pact was signed in March 1931. The British Government agreed to

free all political prisoners, in return for the suspension of the civil disobedience

movement. Also as a result of the pact, Gandhi was invited to attend the Round Table

Conference in London as the sole representative of the Indian National Congress. The

conference was a disappointment to Gandhi and the nationalists, because it focused on

the Indian princes and Indian minorities rather than on a transfer of power. Lord Irwin's

successor, Lord Willingdon, taking a hard line against nationalism, began a new

campaign of controlling and subduing the nationalist movement. Gandhi was again

arrested, and the government tried and failed to negate his influence by completely

isolating him from his followers

Struggle for Indian Independence (1915–47)

See also: Indian independence movement

In 1915, Gandhi returned to India permanently. He brought an international reputation

as a leading Indian nationalist, theorist and organizer. He joined the Indian National

Congress and was introduced to Indian issues, politics and the Indian people primarily

by Gopal Krishna Gokhale. Gokhale was a key leader of the Congress Party best

known for his restraint and moderation, and his insistence on working inside the system.

Gandhi took Gokhale's liberal approach based on British Whiggish traditions and

transformed it to make it look wholly Indian.[40]

Gandhi took leadership of Congress in 1920 and began a steady escalation of demands

(with Intermittent compromises or pauses) until on 26 January 1930 the Indian National

Congress declared the independence of India. The British did not recognize that and

more negotiations ensued, with Congress taking a role in provincial government in the

late 1930s. Gandhi and Congress withdrew their support of the Raj when the Viceroy

declared war on Germany in September 1939 without consulting anyone. Tensions

escalated until Gandhi demanded immediate independence in 1942 and the British

responded by imprisoning him and tens of thousands of Congress leaders for the

duration. Meanwhile the Muslim League did cooperate with Britain and moved, against

Gandhi's strong opposition, to demands for a totally separate Muslim state of Pakistan.

In August 1947 the British partitioned the land, with India and Pakistan each achieving

independence on terms Gandhi disapproved.[41]

Role in World War I

See also: The role of India in World War I

In April 1918, during the latter part of World War I, the Viceroy invited Gandhi to a War

Conference in Delhi.[42] Perhaps to show his support for the Empire and help his case for

India's independence,[43] Gandhi agreed to actively recruit Indians for the war effort.[44] In

contrast to the Zulu War of 1906 and the outbreak of World War I in 1914, when he

recruited volunteers for the Ambulance Corps, this time Gandhi attempted to recruit

combatants. In a June 1918 leaflet entitled "Appeal for Enlistment", Gandhi wrote "To

bring about such a state of things we should have the ability to defend ourselves, that is,

the ability to bear arms and to use them...If we want to learn the use of arms with the

greatest possible despatch, it is our duty to enlist ourselves in the army."[45] He did,

however, stipulate in a letter to the Viceroy's private secretary that he "personally will

not kill or injure anybody, friend or foe."[46]

Gandhi's war recruitment campaign brought into question his consistency on

nonviolence as his friend Charlie Andrews confirms, "Personally I have never been able

to reconcile this with his own conduct in other respects, and it is one of the points where

I have found myself in painful disagreement."[47] Gandhi's private secretary also had

acknowledged that "The question of the consistency between his creed of 'Ahimsa'

(non-violence) and his recruiting campaign was raised not only then but has been

discussed ever since.