History

Introduction
Mohandas Karamchad Gandhi was born on October 2, 1869 in Porbandar, India. He was one of the most respected political and spiritual leaders of the time. He helped in the freeing the Indian people from the oppressive hands of the British through the use of nonviolent resistance. India recognized the contributions he made to the country and named him the father of the nation. Gandhi was named Mahatma by the people of India meaning great soul (Rosenberg, 2009).

The life of Mahatma Gandhi
Gandhi married his wife Kasturba at the age of 13 years. He studied law in London and returned to India in the year 1891. In London Gandhi had decided to mould himself into an English gentleman but later realized it was all waste of time and money. He therefore decided to live a simple life and take on his studies seriously. The simple kind of life he decided to live made him discover that he was a vegetarian. He joined the London vegetarian community in his search for vegetarian hotels. The society consisted of a large group of intellectuals who introduced him to very many authors. Through this society, Gandhi started to read the Bhagavad-Gita, a poem that was considered sacred by Hindus and a series of many other books. He learned new ideas and concepts from the different types of books that he read and with these and developed the foundation of his beliefs (Rosenberg, 2009).

In the year 1893, he took a 1 year contract to do legal work in South Africa so as to improve his self confidence at trials. Gandhi stayed in South Africa for 21 years, suffering at the hands of the British who were the colonizers of South Africa. His stay in South Africa saw him transform from a silent and shy man to a strong and resilient leader against discrimination. Gandhi experienced his first form of discrimination in South Africa after he was thrown out of a train while he was on his journey to Transvaal for his first case. At that cold night, Gandhi decided to fight against the injustices. The tribulations faced by others and which he was later to face encouraged him to develop a method of nonviolence fight for justice based on courage and truth called Satyagraha. In his life, Gandhi believed that the way people behave is more important than what they think. As a way of obtaining political and social targets, Satyagraha promoted the use of civil disobedience and nonviolence. Gandhi opted to use fasting to show others the need of nonviolent means in their struggle. He learned more about the grievances faced by other Indians, studied law organized petitions and wrote letters to the officials, all in the process of fighting against injustice (Rosenberg, 2009).

Gandhi became a leader of the Indian community in South Africa. He joined the National Indian Congress, an organization for the wealthy Indians and expanded it such that it accommodated Indians from every class. In the year 1896, he went back to India to take his wife and his son with him to South Africa. Bubonic plague outbreak occurred then and he offered to inspect the latrines of the rich and the poor as the disease was associated with poor hygiene. Gandhi went back to India in 1915 and within 15 years, he became the leader of the Indian nationalist movement. He used the same principle of Satyagraha to lead Indians in the campaign for independence from British. In the process of fighting for justice, Gandhi was arrested many times by the British colonialists both in South Africa and in India (Fischer, 1983). He was sentenced for seven years for inciting people against the British. He believed that going to jail for a just cause was an honor.  His simple lifestyle and minimal dressing earned him envy from the people. He spent his life in fighting for the rights of the poor people and advocated for the removal of British colonialists from India. Gandhi’s way of fighting for justice using nonviolent tactics was emulated by other human rights activists in the world such as Martin Luther King Jnr. Gandhi worked very hard to preserve the Hindu-Muslim relation (Easwaran, 1997). He had observed a 21 day fast in his cell when a Muslim-Hindu war broke out at kohat. Gandhi suffered humiliations from the leaders of the Indian untouchables.

Achievements of Mahatma Gandhi
Gandhi initiated a constructive program for social reforms. He introduced the concept of ahimsa and Satyagraha. He led the Indians to break the salt laws which deprived the poor Indians from owning salt when the British failed to give into their pleas. British had exercised monopoly in the production and sale of salt. Gandhi was arrested with many other demonstrators. Irwin agreed to hold a round table conference with Gandhi in London so as to negotiate for possible conditions of Indian independence. Before the involvement of Gandhi in Indian politics, the struggle for independence in India was very minimal (Easwaran, 1997).

Gandhi was mainly engaged in the constructive reform of the Indian community. He decided to live at a remote village in India that had no electricity and running water and vowed to return to Ahmedabad after India was granted independence. Gandhi had a very great influence on the functionong of the Indian Congress working committee. In the year 1942, Gandhi delivered a speech urging all Indians to lay down their lives for the cause of Indian freedom and at the same time asked the colonialists to leave the country (Fischer, 1983).

Gandhi distanced himself from politics when he realized that leaders were craving for power rather than the interest of the Indian population. After war, the conflicts between Hindu and the Muslims took place; Gandhi undertook a major duty of nursing those who were wounded and consoled those whose people had died. Gandhi constituted a one–man boundary force between the Muslims and the Hindus in the prominent words of his last viceroy.  Gandhi’s efforts to unite the two religious communities brought the fighting in Calcutta to a stop. His critics referred to it as ‘the Gandhi’s miracle of Calcutta’. India finally gained independence in the year 1947 after a rigorous process and tribulations faced by Gandhi and other Indians. Gandhi therefore played a key role in winning independence for his country. Later on, a war broke out between the Muslims and the Hindu in Pakistan; it led to death of one million people and scores of others displaced. In order to advocate for ceasefire, Gandhi started his last fast unto the death of his life. He terminated the fast after the leaders of both societies signed a treaty saying that they were then prepared to live in harmony and safeguard the lives, property and faith of the Muslims (Easwaran, 1997).

Gandhi devoted all his life out of politics to promote peace between Hindus and Muslims. This angered the Hindu fundamentalists and in January 30, 1948 he was shot by a Hindu radical while he was attending his usual evening prayers. The last words he said before he died were Hey Ram.
Conclusion

The contribution of Mahatma Gandhi to bringing independence to India and peace between the Muslims and Hindus will be remembered by many generations to come. His role for a just society is not only of great magnitude in India, but in the entire world.