Mahatma Gandhi was born in Gujarat, India, in 1869, in an era dominated by extraordinary events, undreamed of discoveries and the men who made them possible.
Even among all these he became a determined emissary of truth and peace. With the strength of his will, Gandhi managed to free India from British domination using Non Violence Principle.
His life is the story of an ordinary man. As a child, Mahatma was shy and timid, but strong feelings of right and wrong were evident from boyhood. So was a latent desire to see his country free.
When his father died, Mahatma went to England to study law. Asked by an English friend to explain the Hindu Bible, Bhagvad Gita, Gandhi found to his chagrin that he could not do so. He had not read it. He did so and it became one of his favorite books. His spirituality kept growing.
When he returned to India to set up his law practice he quickly felt unconvertible. The chance to go to South Africa came when Dada Abdullah & Co. offered him a lawyer position. When he arrived in South Africa, racial prejudice was a reality. Indians were a targeted group. Mahatma had to contend with regular humiliations. It was there that Gandhi felt that Non Violence Principle, as a positive force of love, could be turned into a form of mass resistance, a moral equivalent of war.
Led by Gandhi, the Indian community used Non Violence Principle to fight the injustices of several Acts of government. The British government tried repression, but in the end, General Smuts did what all governments that opposed Gandhi had to do, he yielded.
He demonstrated a rare ability to love his opponents. He was always there to help them when they were in distress - for which he won their reluctant admiration. He gradually gave up the standard of living that he had worked so hard to achieve. As the desire to serve others increased and his commitment to causes grew, personal possessions became meaningless burdens. Leaving South Africa, Gandhi presented General Smuts with a pair of sandals he had made himself.
Penniless and relatively unknown in his country, he returned to India in 1915, determined to serve it. He began his work, addressing audiences, advocating hygiene, education and the importance of people's rights and obligations. He crusaded for equal rights and respect for women and the removal of untouchability.
He touched the lives of all those who came into close contact with him. He swayed the diverse mass of India, teaching them Non-Violence Principle and adherence to the truth. It was Gandhi who taught the meaning of self-governance to the Indian people by showing them what they could do. His confidence gave them confidence, his courage gave them courage and his dignity gave dignity to India's cause. The government that he opposed in India respected the half-naked fakir even as it scoffed at him. His compatriots were often exasperated by the spirituality he brought into politics.
Gandhi has been repeatedly acknowledged as a brilliant strategist. The March he undertook to break the salt law, shows his talent for symbolic action. But his genius lay in his instinctive grasp of people and matters, and the restraint that he constantly advocated, whether it was for achieving personal or public goals.
Gandhi altered the course of Indian History through Non Violence Principle. The title given to him, Father of the Nation, was apt.
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