Mahatma Gandhi: An inspiring hero

Do you know why October 2nd is a special day? Well October 2nd is Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday.

 Mahatma Gandhi is a  hero who fought against British rule in India without using violence and has inspired many others in the world.Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was an Indian lawyer and fought for Indian independence.

Mohandas was born in Porbandar, India on October 2, 1869.  His father was a leader in the local community. As was tradition Mohandas’ parents arranged a marriage for him at the age of 13. Both the arranged marriage and the young age may seem strange to some of us today, but it was the normal way of doing things where he grew up in those days. He was called “Mahatma” which means “Great soul”. He is often referred as “Bapu” or ‘father of the nation’ in India. 

Mohandas’ parents wanted him to become a barrister/lawyer. As a result, when he was 19 years old Mohandas traveled to England where he studied law at the University College in  London. Three years later he returned to India and started his own law practice. Unfortunately, Mohandas’ law practice wasn’t successful, so he took a job with an Indian Law firm and moved to South Africa. It was in South Africa where Gandhi experienced racial prejudice against Indians and began his work in civil rights.

After returning to India, Gandhi led the fight for Indian independence from the British Empire. He organized several non-violent civil disobedience campaigns. During these campaigns, large groups of the Indian population would do things like refusing to work, fasting for days sitting in the streets, discarding things made by British government and other peaceful measures.  Gandhi was put in prison several times for organizing these protests. He would often fast while in prison. The British government would eventually have to release him because the Indian people had started to follow  Gandhi. The British were scared what would happen if they let him die.

Gandhi started the quit India movement  in 1942  that led to independence of India from British in 1947.He also started a movement called a salt march  also known as the ‘Salt Satyagraha’, ‘Dandi March’ and the ‘Dandi Satyagraha’. It was an act of nonviolent civil disobedience in colonial India led by Gandhi where the freedom fighters made salt and discarded salt made by British government.

Gandhi was assassinated on January 30th 1948  while attending a prayer meeting. He was shot to death by Nathuram Godse.

Fun Facts about Gandhi

• The 1982 movie Gandhi won the Academy Award for best motion picture.
• His birthday is a national holiday in India. It is also the International Day of Non-Violence.
• He was the 1930 Time Magazine Man of the Year.
• Gandhi wrote a lot. The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi have 50,000 pages!
• He was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize five times.
• Gandhi’s non violence principle had inspired many other civil right movement leaders like Martin Luther King JR and Nelson Mandela.

We are living in a difficult time,when there is violence,injustice, discrimination and racism. We need to remember and follow Mahatma Gandhi’s lessons about peace. Violence is not the way to find a solution to the problems. Violence leads to more violence and destruction. 

Let’s remember Mahatma Gandhi and his wise words today.

“You must be the change you wish to see in the world”.

“In a gentle way, shake the world.”

Happy 151st birthday to a hero who fought for freedom and civil rights without weapons!