|
Mohandas Gandhi is perhaps the greatest of all Indian leaders. Mohandas was born in Porbandar, a small town along the western coast of India (1869). It was actually a tiny principality in Kathiawar. This was a microcosm of the patchwork construction that made up the British Raj. His middle-class family was part of the Raj. They were of the Vaishya caste. His grandfather was the Dewan (Prime Minister) of Porbandar and Mohandas' father essentially inherited the post. His mother, Putlibai, was by all accounts a loving, gentle, almost saintly person. Mohandas attended the local primary school, but did not particularly impress his teachers. He was not good at math. At age 7 years, the family moved to Rajkot. This was another principality in Kathiawar. His father was appointed Dewan. There Mohandas continued his primary education and continued on in the local secondary school. Despite working hard he was still a rather mediocre student. He was also a very shy and timid youth. It was from this not very auspicious beginning that Gandhi went on to become the genius of the independence movement, developing a tactic of non-violence. He is today the most beloved of all India's leaders.
Mohandas was born into a middle-class family was part of the Raj. They were of the Vaishya caste. His grandfather was the Dewan (Prime Minister) of Porbandar and Mohandas' father essentially inherited the post. His mother, Putlibai, was by all accounts a loving, gentle, almost saintly person.
Mohandas was born in Porbandar, a small town along the western coast of India (1869). It was actually a tiny principality in Kathiawar. This was a microcosm of the path work construction that made up the British Raj.
Mohandas attended the local primary school, but did not particularly impress his teachers. He was not good at math. At age 7 years, the family moved to Rajkot. This was another principality in Kathiawar. His father was appointed Dewan. There Mohandas continued his primary education and continued on in the local secondary school. Despite working hard he was still a rather mediocre student. He was also a very shy and timid youth, but perhaps a little on the stubborn side. One school incident has impressed biographers. During a spelling test set by a British school inspector, his teacher saw a mistake on his slate copy book and tried to get him to copy from the boy next to him. Mohandas refused. His teacher later referred to his 'stupidity'. He completed his education in London.
Mohandas from an early age acquired the need to reform others. His first at temp was to reform a friend of his brother, a youth named Sheikh Mehtab. Monandas was concerned about his lack of religious commitment. The only problem was that Sheikh reformed Mohandas. He convinced him that eating meat gave the British an advantage. So for a while Mohandas took to secretly eating meat.
Mohandas married as a young teenager in an arranged affair according to Hindu tradition (1882). He was only 13 years old. His wife was Kasturbai who was the same age. Marriages were not commonly consummated at that age. Rather for the young people involved it meant feasts and fancy new clothes. Also it meant that Mohandas had a new rather docile companion. As an adult he would repeatedly condemned the custom , referring to it as a 'cruel custom'. In his autobiography he tells about the turmoil it brought to his life. 【Gandhi】 He described the instructions he and his wife had received to consummate the marriage on their wedding night, and the thoughts that distracted him even while he was in class, as he waited to be with his new wife.
Gandhi was admitted to the bar (1899). He made a name for himself fighting for the civil rights of Indians in South Afrika where the Apartheid system was developing. His action there was noted in India. The British in South africa were very pleased to finally rid themselves of him.
Gandhi returned to India during World War I to assist with the colony's fledgling independence movement (1915). Here he decided to first under cut the hold that Britain had on middle-class Indians. He did this by rejecting Western culture. He began ton lead an aesthetic life. This was embracing Indian Hindu culture and ethical system which greatly valued aestheticism.
He advocated the revival of cottage industry, especially weaving which he practiced himself. He was not, however, a Hindu religious leader. He saw the religious division of India as threat to independence and later a threat to independent India. He sought to promote religious thought fusing India's different religious traditions. He began to preach Christian, Muslim, and Hindu teachings that supported the unity of man under one god. He also rejected one important Hindu tradition--untouchibility. He became a force within the Indian National Congress, elected leader several times. The British did not at first take him seriously, but this began to change as his tactics began to cause problems. He adopted a strategy of non-violence which he referred in Sanskrit as "truth force". Other leaders, such as Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, would later adopt a military approach to achieving independence. Gandhi's first major effort was to attack the British fiscal position--the salt monopoly. In a well publicized march to the sea to collect sea salt, Gandhi publicized the boycott. He was arrested for this (1930). The British released him to attend an Imperial conference on India in London (1931). He caused a sensation, appearing dressed in his home-spun loin cloths. By this time he had become a revered figure in India, transcending political and religious boundaries. He used this to stage fasts to extract political concessions.
India played an important part in the British war effort. In was the source of raw materials. Indian troops also played a key role in the Middle East, both in Iraq and the Western Desert. Gandhi offered to cooperate with the British if India was granted independence. The British refused and arrested him (1942-44). He was held under genteel circumstances.
The victory of the Labor Party in the British General Election replaced Churchill with Clement Atlee (1945). This meant that Britain would grant independence. Atlee chose Lord Mountbatten as the last viceroy to oversee the transition to independence. Gandhi was a major figure in the conferences that planned independence. The major question was no longer independence itself, but the future of India as an independent state. Many Muslims leaders were concerned about life n a majority Hindu state. Gandhi did his best to address those concerns. He even convinced Nehru and other Congress leaders to offer major concessions. The Muslim League led by Muhammed Ali Jinnah demanded partition and an independent Muslim majority state--Pakistan. Gandhi was deeply disappointed, but finally resigned himself to it. Terrible sectarian rioting followed and one of the greatest movement of populations in history was Muslims in India moving into Pakistan and Hindus in Pakistam moving to India. Only a fast by Gandhi managed to stop the wide-spread rioting and killing.
Gandhi was assassinated by a Hindu nationalist who blamed him for partition (1947).
Gandhi's message, like his life, must be understood within the context of Indian history. He was born into a wealthy Hindu family and went through all the customs of the time. His marriage at age 13 was merely the most striking example of this. I n his autobiography, he writes that he was lustful back then, spending a great deal of time fantasizing about the moment he would have consumated his marriage with his young wife. While he was living through it, however, those things seemed normal to him. His judgment is formed after a long personal journey of engagement with many other experiences: his years of study in Britain, the period when he practiced law in South Africa, and his exposure to many different realities. When Gandhi was assassinated, India was not the country it is today, but it had changed enormously from the one he had known as a child -- and he played a major role in the changes that took place. We think what is missing in many discussions of Gandhi is that while he has a very important moral message some of his other ideas are questionable. His message worked in British India with its developing democratic institutions. It would not have worked against 20th century totalitarians (the Japanese militarists, NAZIs, or Communists. He was also badly wrong about economics. We think the interesting question about the modern India that Gandhi helped create can become a modern high income country like Europe, America, and Japan.
Gandhi, Mohandas Karamchand. The Story of My Experiments with Truth.
Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing Web Site:
[Return to the Main biography G-L page]
[Return to the Main Indian history page]
[Introduction]
[Activities]
[Biographies]
[Chronology]
[Clothing styles]
[Countries]
[Bibliographies]
[Contributions]
[FAQs]
[Glossary]
[Images]
[Links]
[Registration]
[Tools]
[Boys' Clothing Home]
