Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was born on October 2, 1869, at Porbandar in Gujarat. He was an Indian lawyer, politician, social activist, and writer who led the independence movement against British rule. And during this process, people started to call him the father of the nation (Bapu). Mahatma Gandhi died on January 30, 1948.
Regarded as the Father of Nation, Gandhi was a social reformist and leader of Indian Independence Movement who introduced the idea of non-violent resistance called Satyagrah. After organising a civil disobedience movement for Indians living in South Africa, he returned to India in 1915. In India, he set out on a train journey to different parts of the country trying to understand problems of farmers, peasants and urban labourers and organising protests for them.
He assumbed the leadership of Indian National Congress in 1921 and rose to become its most prominent leader and an iconic figure in Indian politics. He organised the Dandi Salt March in 1930 and Quit India Movement in 1942.
He also worked for the upliftment of untouchables and have them a new name ‘Harijan’ meaning the children of God. Gandhi also wrote extensively for various newspapers and his symbol of self-reliance – the spinning wheel – became a popular symbol of Indian Independence Movement. Gandhi played a key role in pacifying people and averting the Hindu-Muslim riots as tensions rose before and during the partition of the country. He was shot dead by Nathuram Godse on January 31, 1948.
Gandhi was a warrior leader, with a vision of free India, who conceived a shrewd strategy of using peace and non-violence, as the chief weapons, to achieve the objective of liberating India from the clutches of the most powerful colonial power of the time. Training his weapons of non-violence and non-cooperation at the enemy’s mind, with a view to disinfecting it from its unjust rule, he declared that he loved the English people but abhorred their despicable way of governance.
He could throw the British into the shade in argument, in tactics and, the most important of all, to make them feel embarrassed in the cherished field of morality. He galvanized the Indian public to rally behind him to fight the war of freedom, with the superior non-war weapons of peace, thus rousing the enemy’s conscience and the world opinion in favor of the Indian cause, which ultimately forced the enemy to quit the battlefield. According to a historian, “Gandhi’s mystique consisted of a union of original ideas, with remarkable knack for tactics and the uncanny insight into the mass mind.”
Gandhi had indeed read the pulse of his age right, had the vision of selecting the best suited plan of action and was able to realize the dream of his people. True to the Hindu principle of avatar (Incarnation), “When religion declines and the evil doers are to be destroyed, I shall be born, from time to time,” (Gita), Gandhi came as the divinely inspired leader to inject a spark of nationalism, and the will to fight against foreign oppression and social evils, that had infected the society. His army came from all sections of the society – the majority came from its lower strata. In his personal code of conduct of high ethics, and the burning passion for universal well-being, he was an incarnation of Rama, which gave him ready acceptability as a leader. His belief in human rights often led him into collision, not only with the British and South Africa but also with the attitude of several Hindus towards the untouchables.
Gandhi advocated and effectively employed the superior weapons of resistance with peace and ‘non-cooperation’ against the enemy’s unrighteous ways. Hard to believe that Gandhi’s school of resistance could generate such a moral strength in his teeming unarmed soldiery, who fell with their cracked skulls, but got up and surged forward repeatedly, with wounded bodies, fighting the white terror, “Kill us, but we shall not quit.” That he could inspire and elevate his followers to such a degree of physical, mental and spiritual strength will remain a wonder of human race for times to come.
The turning point came on April 13, 1919, when Brigadier General Dyer (British) ordered firing on a peaceful rally in which 1,650 rounds were fired, killing 1,516 peaceful protestors at Jallianwala Bagh (Amritsar). Gandhi said, “I love the British people but henceforth, I am the deadliest enemy of the wrong form of government that the British may impose upon India.” It is erroneous to call Gandhi’s strategy of non-violence as passive or inactive. Gandhi was a strong-willed realist, who adopted a strategy of proactive non-violence against the British, because he had no wherewithal to fight the colonial power.
As a national leader, a number of commendable leadership traits were found in Gandhi, but two innate soldierly attributes for which he stands apart, were: One, his strength of courage lay both in the physical and moral planes. Two, forever he led from the front. In Gandhi, Indians saw a ray of hope to alleviate them from the age-old political and social suffering. The intrinsic nobility of his cause, the grand vision of a free India and the will to sacrifice all for the fulfillment of this dream, despite myriad problems, raised him to the stature of a prophet, and a successful one. It was the grandeur of Gandhi’s dream, which galvanized Indians. For centuries, no one had talked of a liberated and united India. The fantasy of freedom caught every Indian’s aspiration and dream, for which one was prepared to pay any price. After all, he was talking of the Indian nation, which had almost relapsed from the Indian mind. As the momentum of the Independence Movement gained strength, his dream seemed to be a winning vision, which drew to his following columns even the fence sitters. Soon the common person started perceiving the nation’s vision as tall as the Himalayas and as deep as the ocean. Where the centuries-old resistance and revolts had failed, the crown of ultimate victory to win freedom was to adorn Gandhi’s head. What truly characterizes this saint leader is the leadership trait firmly rooted in spirituality. Spirituality entails belief in universal goodwill and sensibility to a common thread running through the entire humankind. It was Gandhi’s Himalayan determination and Ganga-like purity of purpose, which shook the British Empire. Natural faith in the Hindu Dharma had inspired in him the spirit of fighting for the righteous cause, and that tolerating injustice was as much a sin as inflicting it. In his fight for the national cause, Gandhi transformed non-violence into his main weapon to resist injustice and violence. Gandhi had rightly symbolized India’s love for freedom and its inherent guts to fight to win, and indeed was one of the most amazing paradoxes of history. “Coming generations will scarce believe that such a man, in flesh and blood, lived upon this earth,” said Einstein about Gandhi.