Mahatma Gandhi’s
campaign of nonviolent civil resistance to British rule of India led
to India’s independence in 1947. A member of the merchant caste,
Mohandas K. Gandhi, later called Mahatma (Sanskrit for
"great soul"), studied law in London. As a lawyer, and
later as a political activist, he effectively fought discrimination
with his principles of truth, nonviolence, and courage.
Young Mohandas Gandhi
Mohandas Gandhi was educated in Great Britain and received a law
degree from University College, London. After he was admitted to the
British bar, he practised law in Bombay (now Mumbai), India, and
later in Durban, South Africa. While in South Africa, he was treated
as a member of an inferior race, which spurred him into his lifelong
quest to achieve civil rights for all races.
Mohandas Gandhi
Indian nationalist
leader Mohandas Gandhi spent his life campaigning for human rights
in India. His strategy was to use a combination of passive
resistance to and non-cooperation with the British, who ruled India.
Gandhi said his techniques were inspired by the Russian writer Leo
Tolstoy, the American writer Henry David Thoreau, and the teachings
of Jesus Christ. In 1947 Gandhi’s pacifist efforts helped bring an
end to British rule in India.
GANDHIJI
AND THE FIRST PRIME MINISTER OF INDIA JAWAHARLAL NEHRU SITTING
TOGETHER
