National Symbols Of India

Father Of The Nation

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi- Father of the Nation

Famous as Mahatma Gandhi, India’s freedom fighter leader, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born on October 2, 1869. He died on January 30, 1948. He was a great leader to propagate nationalism during the colonial rule of India under British. Using non-violent civil disobedience concept as prime philosophy, Gandhi motivated whole India to gear up for independence with the aim to keep non-violence and civil rights movements as bases for freedom which rest parts of world adopted later.

Gandhi took birth in a family of Hindu Bania community of West Indian coastal Gujarat state. His father was senior government employee who ensured his Law study to complete in London. His key concepts which he developed through auguring non-violent civil disobedience to fight civil rights cases for Hindu and Muslim Indian in South Africa brought ample popularity for him. Upon arriving India in 1915, Gandhi took new initiative to bring farmers together to fight against excessive land tax which was his early steps for revolution. He defied communalism for the whole life so preferred politics on religion. It smoothened his way to become popular amongst all religious groups in the country. Take for example his leadership role for the Muslim community for the issue of Caliphate status declination. His campaigns throughout the country strengthened soon after him being the leader of Indian National Congress in 1921. The focus of such campaigns were poverty eradication, fight for women's rights, developing religious harmony and steps to end untouchable concepts from society but most notable step was increasing the economic self-reliance of India which became an important revolution later to let India become independent from the British rules through it achieving Swaraj.

It was in 1931 that Gandhi took another important initiative by leading Indians to protest for national salt tax for which he had historic 400 km (250 mi) Dandi Salt March. Biggest one to remember was revolution to demand from the British to leave India through Quit India movement few years later in 1942 which coincided with World War II and impacted a lot in country’s freedom struggle. He was imprisoned for that as well as previous political offenses he did over the period. Gandhi ensured truth and non-violence must remain basic philosophy in each and every stage of his life so he promoted both as a leader. His eagerness to explore rural India to evaluate and prepare country for total freedom and self-sufficiency worked. He was against his disciple Jawaharlal Nehru whose focus mainly remained on industrialization programs. His preference to reside in a modest independent residence and by wearing truly Indian dhoti and shawl that he wove with yarn hand spun on charkha he operated describes his modest life. Winston Churchill of Britain was his key political opponent who would often denote Gandhi with the term "half-naked fakir." As a committed vegetarian, Gandhi often commenced several long fasts for dual purposes of political mobilization and self-purification.

Gandhi was unhappy in the last years of his life due to the partition of the country. He took concrete step to stop genocide of different Indian communities especially Muslims, Sikhs and Hindus that causes due to border disputes between newly created Pakistan and India as two independent countries. A Hindu nationalist assassinated him on January 30, 1948. His killer had developed impression that Gandhi was too much sympathetic to Muslim community of India. His death anniversary on January 30 is treated as Martyrs' Day. It was in 1914 that he was conferred with Honorific Mahatma or Great Soul title. This great leader is also denoted with the term Bapu or Father in India to show him respect, so is he assumed the Father of the Nation in the country. His birthday on October 02 is observed in the country and worldwide as Gandhi Jayanti considered India’s national holiday and International Day of Non-Violence in the world respectively. Pragmatism was important component of Gandhi's philosophy rather than the theoretical aspects which he never adopted in life. He adopted such philosophies and brought them into practice to translate into reality. He once said upon being asked what message he had for humanity that "his own life was a message" for everybody.

Early life

The doctrines for not injuring the living beings and preferring vegetarian food for living and maintaining regular fasting for purification of self. It all happened because of his nourishment under the guidance of a devout Hindu mother. He joined the University College London at the age of 18 on September 4, 1888 to study law for a barrister career. Although he lived in imperial London during his adolescent period but his commitment to month not to eat meat, drink alcohol and complete abstinence from women proved a fulfilled view. A bar had called him to join in India’s the then Bombay city but he failed to attain desired success. As he was not success here he accepted the one-year contract offer from an Indian firm to join in Natal, South Africa in 1893 for better prospects.

Civil Rights Movement in South Africa (1893-1914)

The period during which Gandhi stayed in South Africa changed his perspective for life while seeing the condition of Indian and blacks who were often discriminated. A magistrate forced him to remove turban in a Durban based court. He disobeyed such nonsense order and came out of the courtroom thereafter. He was once thrown out of a train at Pietermaritzburg when he refused to accommodate in a third class coach he was forced to seat even though he had valid first class ticket and had the right to travel. A driver beat him while he traveled further by the stagecoach because he didn’t agree to travel on the foot board to facilitate space to an European passenger in that journey.
Such hardships continued and Gandhi suffered them all while travelling like barred from entering into hotels he wanted to visit. Many biographers define such unfortunate incidents crossroads in his life that gave hue to his social activism roles later. Gandhi developed the nature to question his own society and the place and its status after firsthand witnessing of racism, biases and injustices against the Indians.

Champaran and Kheda

It was in 1918 that Gandhi's first important achievement came into limelight. His initiative was through bringing together all poor farmers and laborers suffering from oppressive  taxation and large scale discriminations. They were encouraged to start protesting against such oppressions. Authoritarian landlords representing the British would usually suppress the villagers. Poor villagers were hardly given their due compensation for the hard work they would do hence their pays would be meager. Gandhi got all sorts of details from thorough observation of the dilapidated condition of villagers and by studying their actual status on the basis of studying their sufferings and worst lifestyle they had.

Police arrested him on the charge of creating unrest in the state through violating law and order and was told to leave the province thereafter. But the chronology of such events finally impacted and gave air to this movement. It could be seen in the form of public unrest and protest by large chunk of people who started rallying outside the jail where he had been kept and the police station where he was arrested to pressurize the government to release him immediately. The court finally released Gandhi but he once again led the protesters to show the original face of landlords through new set of protests.

Non-Cooperation

Fight against injustice and discrimination wasn’t possible without non-cooperation or peaceful resistance which Gandhi considered his weapons.

Indian National Congress gave executive authority to Gandhi in December 1921 to take new initiatives. He used this avenue to expand non-violence concept to strengthen Swadeshi policy and for that foreign-made particularly British items were boycotted for further pressurization. Equally did he encourage the Indians to prefer homemade khadi or homespun cloths on the textiles prepared from British looms. He further encouraged young generation which included both men and women from all societies and economic backgrounds that they involve in khadi spinning for the sake of support to the independence movement he started.

Success of “non-cooperation" movement was possible due to it appealing large number of people that excited the masses so was their participation from all social sections. Gandhi got arrested on March 10, 1922 with the charges of treason and therefore he was imprisoned for six years.

Swaraj and the Salt Satyagraha (Salt March)

Gandhi perused for resolution at Calcutta Congress in December 1928 that British should be compelled to give India the protectorate status and if it fails to do so then renewed non-violence campaigns would be ready which they would face with this aim to further stress for total independence. British hardly gave an air to it and even didn’t reply. He therefore started the new Satyagarha in March 1930 to keep his words. It was solely aimed at agitating the tax on salt issues that became the prominent Salt March to Dandi starting from Ahmedabad to march 400 kilometers till Dandi and then he prepared salt by his own. This march to the sea had participation of hundreds of thousands of people and was an important campaign from Indians to upset the British rulers from India. Britain government imprisoned more than 60,000 people in reaction.

World War II

Invasion of Poland by the Nazi Germany in 1939 caused breaking out of World War II. Gandhi thought of offering non-violent moral support to the efforts of British on that matter. Debates and discussions continued and Gandhi finally gave Indian opinion that this country couldn’t join the war cause that too when its issues were more severe and it couldn’t fight for democratic freedom when this country hardly had that right. This war advanced over the time and Gandhi focused more on India’s total independence.

British Government arrested Gandhi and all members of the working committee of Congress in Bombay on August 9, 1942. It was in the Pune based Aga Khan palace where Gandhi was kept in confinement for two years. As he required immediate surgery while his health started deteriorating before the end of war on May 6, 1944, he was released from the jail. The British had clearly indicated for the transfer of power to the Indian leaders by the time the war ended. Gandhi called off struggle at that point of time when approximately 100,000 such political prisoners especially Congress leaders were released.

Partition of India

Idea of partitioning India into two separate countries was opposed strongly by Gandhi. Majority of Muslims who inhabited with Hindus and Sikhs had favored the idea of partition. The Congress leadership approved the idea of country’s partition after observing the situation and to stop a civil war between the Hindu and Muslim communities respectively. Gandhi was shocked but finally agreed for partition.

Gandhi did his best till the last moment through initiating dialogues with both Muslim and Hindu leaders to understand the fact and think of living in religious affinity. To stop all sorts of communal violence he went on the last fast-unto-death in Delhi as an ultimate solution. He still had the fear that perhaps the civil war between the two communities might arise due to increased instability and insecurity once enmity renews.

Assassination

Gandhi was assassinated on January 30, 1948 on t