Mahathma Gandhi: Difference between revisions

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{{Short description|Pre-eminent leader of Indian nationalism during British-ruled India}}
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{{Use Indian English|date=August 2019}}
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{{Infobox person
| honorific_prefix  = '''[[Mahātmā]]'''
| name              = Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
| office            = [[List of Presidents of the Indian National Congress|President of the Indian National Congress]]
| term              = 1924–1925
| nationality        = [[Indian people|Indian]]
| native_name        =
| native_name_lang  =
| image              = Mahatma-Gandhi, studio, 1931.jpg
| alt                = Studio photograph of Mohandas K. Gandhi, London, 1931.
| birth_name        = Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
| birth_date        = {{Birth date|df=yes|1869|10|2}}
| birth_place        = [[Porbandar]], [[Kathiawar Agency]], [[British Raj|British-ruled India]]
| death_date        = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1948|1|30|1869|10|2}}
| death_place        = [[New Delhi]], [[Delhi]], [[Dominion of India]] (present-day India)
| death_cause        = [[Assassination of Mahatma Gandhi|Assassination]]
| monuments          = [[Raj Ghat and associated memorials|Raj Ghat]], <br /> [[Gandhi Smriti]]
| other_names        = [[Honorary titles of Indian leaders|Mahatma]] Gandhi, Bapu ji, Gandhi ji
| known_for          = [[Indian Independence Movement]],<br />[[Nonviolent resistance]]
| notable_works      = ''[[The Story of My Experiments with Truth]]''
| height_m          =
| party              = [[Indian National Congress]]
| movement          = [[Indian independence movement]]
| education          = [[Bachelor of Laws]]
| alma_mater        = [[University College London]]<ref>{{cite book|author1=Jeffrey M. Shaw |author2=Timothy J. Demy |title=War and Religion: An Encyclopedia of Faith and Conflict |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KDlFDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA309|year=2017|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-61069-517-6|pages=309 }}</ref><br />[[Inner Temple]]
| occupation        = {{hlist|[[Lawyer]]|[[Politician]]|[[Activist]]|[[Writer]]}}
| years_active      = 1919–1948
| era                = [[British Raj]]
| spouse            = {{marriage|[[Kasturba Gandhi]]|1883|1944|end=died}}
| children          = {{hlist|[[Harilal Gandhi|Harilal]]|[[Manilal Gandhi|Manilal]]|[[Ramdas Gandhi|Ramdas]]|[[Devdas Gandhi|Devdas]]}}
| mother            = Putlibai Gandhi
| father            = [[Karamchand Uttamchand Gandhi|Karamchand Gandhi]]
| relatives          =
| awards            =
| signature          = Mohandas K. Gandhi signature.svg
| signature_alt      = Signature of Gandhi
}}


'''Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|ɡ|ɑː|n|d|i|,_|ˈ|ɡ|æ|n|d|i}};<ref>[http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/gandhi "Gandhi"]. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150114041417/http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/gandhi |date=14 January 2015 }} ''[[Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary]]''.</ref> 2 October 1869&nbsp;– 30 January 1948) was an [[Indian people|Indian]] [[lawyer]],<ref>{{citation|title=Mahatma Gandhi|author=B. R. Nanda|year = 2019|publisher = Encyclopaedia Britannica|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Mahatma-Gandhi}} Quote: "Mahatma Gandhi, byname of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, (born October 2, 1869, Porbandar, India—died January 30, 1948, Delhi), Indian lawyer, politician, ..."</ref> [[Anti-colonial nationalism|anti-colonial nationalist]],<ref name="GangulyDocker2008">{{citation|last1=Ganguly|first1=Debjani|last2=Docker|first2=John|title=Rethinking Gandhi and Nonviolent Relationality: Global Perspectives|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cId9AgAAQBAJ&pg=PA4|date=25 March 2008|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-134-07431-0|pages=4–}} Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti-colonial nationalist politics in the twentieth-century in ways that neither indigenous nor westernized Indian nationalists could."</ref> and [[political ethics|political ethicist]],<ref name="Parel2016">{{citation|last=Parel|first=Anthony J|title=Pax Gandhiana: The Political Philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bMGSDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA202|year=2016|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-049146-8|pages=202–}} Quote: "Gandhi staked his reputation as an original political thinker on this specific issue. Hitherto, violence had been used in the name of political rights, such as in street riots, regicide, or armed revolutions. Gandhi believes there is a better way of securing political rights, that of nonviolence, and that this new way marks an advance in political ethics."</ref> who employed [[nonviolent resistance]] to lead the successful [[Indian independence movement|campaign for India's independence]] from [[British Raj|British Rule]],<ref name="Stein2010">{{citation|last=Stein|first=Burton|authorlink=Burton Stein|title=A History of India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QY4zdTDwMAQC&pg=GBS.PA289|year=2010|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=978-1-4443-2351-1|pages=289–}} Quote: "Gandhi was the leading genius of the later, and ultimately successful, campaign for India’s independence.</ref> and in turn inspire movements for [[Civil rights movements|civil rights]] and freedom across the world. The [[honorific]] '''[[Mahātmā]]''' ([[Sanskrit]]: "high-souled", "venerable"),<ref name="McGregor1993">{{Cite book|last=McGregor|first=Ronald Stuart|title=The Oxford Hindi-English Dictionary|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MILAQgAACAAJ&pg=PA799|access-date=31 August 2013|year=1993|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-864339-5|page=799|deadurl=no|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20131012220431/http://books.google.com/books?id=MILAQgAACAAJ&pg=PA799|archivedate=12 October 2013}} Quote: (''mahā-'' (S. "great, mighty, large, ..., eminent") + ''[[Ātman (Hinduism)|ātmā]]'' (S. "'''1.'''soul, spirit; the self, the individual; the mind, the heart; '''2.''' the ultimate being."): "high-souled, of noble nature; a noble or venerable man."</ref> first applied to him in 1914 in South Africa,<ref name=rajmohan_gandhi_p172>[[#Rajmohan|Gandhi, Rajmohan (2006)]] [https://books.google.com/?id=FauJL7LKXmkC&pg=PA172 p. 172]: "...&nbsp;Kasturba would accompany Gandhi on his departure from Cape Town for England in July 1914 ''en route'' to India. ... In different South African towns ([[Pretoria]], [[Cape Town]], [[Bloemfontein]], [[Johannesburg]], and the [[KwaZulu-Natal|Natal]] cities of [[Durban]] and [[Verulam, KwaZulu-Natal|Verulam]]), the struggle's martyrs were honoured and the Gandhi's bade farewell. Addresses in [[Durban]] and Verulam referred to Gandhi as a 'Mahatma', 'great soul'. He was seen as a great soul because he had taken up the poor's cause. The whites too said good things about Gandhi, who predicted a future for the Empire if it respected justice." (p. 172).</ref> is now used throughout the world.
Born and raised in a [[Hindu]] family in coastal [[Gujarat]], [[western India]], and trained in law at the [[Inner Temple]], London, Gandhi first employed nonviolent civil disobedience as an expatriate lawyer in South Africa, in the resident Indian community's struggle for civil rights. After his return to India in 1915, he set about organising peasants, farmers, and urban labourers to protest against excessive land-tax and discrimination. Assuming leadership of the [[Indian National Congress]] in 1921, Gandhi led nationwide campaigns for various social causes and for achieving ''[[Swaraj]]'' or self-rule.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Maeleine Slade |first1=Mirabehn |title=Gleanings Gathered at Bapu's Feet |publisher=Navjivan publications |location=Ahmedabad |url=http://gandhiserve.org/e/information/questions_and_answers/faq5/faq5.htm |accessdate=4 March 2019}}</ref>
Gandhi led Indians in challenging the British-imposed salt tax with the {{convert|400|km|mi|abbr=on}} [[Salt March|Dandi Salt March]] in 1930, and later in calling for the British to [[Quit India Movement|Quit India]] in 1942. He was imprisoned for many years, upon many occasions, in both South Africa and India. He lived modestly in a [[Sabarmati Ashram|self-sufficient residential community]] and wore the traditional Indian ''[[dhoti]]'' and shawl, woven with yarn hand-spun on a ''[[Spinning wheel#Charkha|charkha]]''. He ate simple vegetarian food, and also [[List of fasts undertaken by Mahatma Gandhi|undertook long fasts]] as a means of both self-purification and political protest.
Gandhi's vision of an independent India based on [[religious pluralism]] was challenged in the early 1940s by a new Muslim nationalism which was demanding a separate Muslim homeland carved out of India.<ref name=Khan2007-page1>{{Cite book|last=Khan|first=Yasmin|title=The Great Partition: The Making of India and Pakistan|url=https://archive.org/details/greatpartitionma00khan/page/18|access-date=1 September 2013|year=2007|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=978-0-300-12078-3|page=[https://archive.org/details/greatpartitionma00khan/page/18 18]}} Quote: "the Muslim League had only caught on among South Asian Muslims during the Second World War. ... By the late 1940s, the League and the Congress had impressed in the British their own visions of a free future for Indian people. ... one, articulated by the Congress, rested on the idea of a united, plural India as a home for all Indians and the other, spelt out by the League, rested on the foundation of Muslim nationalism and the carving out of a separate Muslim homeland." (p. 18)</ref> In August 1947, Britain granted independence, but the British Indian Empire<ref name=Khan2007-page1/> was [[partition of India|partitioned]] into two [[dominion]]s, a Hindu-majority [[Dominion of India|India]] and Muslim-majority [[Dominion of Pakistan|Pakistan]].<ref name=autogenerated3>{{Cite book|last=Khan|first=Yasmin|title=The Great Partition: The Making of India and Pakistan|url=https://archive.org/details/greatpartitionma00khan/page/1|access-date=1 September 2013|year=2007|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=978-0-300-12078-3|page=[https://archive.org/details/greatpartitionma00khan/page/1 1]}} Quote: "South Asians learned that the British Indian empire would be partitioned on 3 June 1947. They heard about it on the radio, from relations and friends, by reading newspapers and, later, through government pamphlets. Among a population of almost four hundred million, where the vast majority lived in the countryside, ..., it is hardly surprising that many ... did not hear the news for many weeks afterwards. For some, the butchery and forced relocation of the summer months of 1947 may have been the first they know about the creation of the two new states rising from the fragmentary and terminally weakened British empire in India." (p. 1)</ref> As many displaced Hindus, Muslims, and [[Sikh]]s made their way to their new lands, religious violence broke out, especially in the [[Punjab region|Punjab]] and [[Bengal]]. Eschewing the [[Independence Day (India)|official celebration of independence]] in Delhi, Gandhi visited the affected areas, attempting to provide solace. In the months following, he undertook several [[fast unto death|fasts unto death]] to stop religious violence. The last of these, undertaken on 12 January 1948 when he was 78,<ref name=Brown1991-p380>[[#Brown1991|Brown (1991)]], p. 380: "Despite and indeed because of his sense of helplessness Delhi was to be the scene of what he called his greatest fast. ... His decision was made suddenly, though after considerable thought – he gave no hint of it even to Nehru and Patel who were with him shortly before he announced his intention at a prayer-meeting on 12 January 1948. He said he would fast until communal peace was restored, real peace rather than the calm of a dead city imposed by police and troops. Patel and the government took the fast partly as condemnation of their decision to withhold a considerable cash sum still outstanding to Pakistan as a result of the allocation of undivided India's assets, because the hostilities that had broken out in Kashmir; ... But even when the government agreed to pay out the cash, Gandhi would not break his fast: that he would only do after a large number of important politicians and leaders of communal bodies agreed to a joint plan for restoration of normal life in the city."</ref> also had the indirect goal of pressuring India to pay out some cash assets owed to Pakistan.<ref name=Brown1991-p380/> Some Indians thought Gandhi was too accommodating.<ref name=Brown1991-p380/><ref name="CushRobinson2008"/> Among them was [[Nathuram Godse]], a [[Hindu nationalism|Hindu nationalist]], who [[Assassination of Mahatma Gandhi|assassinated Gandhi]] on 30 January 1948 by firing three bullets into his chest.<ref name="CushRobinson2008">{{Cite book|last1=Cush|first1=Denise|last2=Robinson|first2=Catherine|last3=York|first3=Michael|title=Encyclopedia of Hinduism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i_T0HeWE-EAC&pg=PA544|access-date=31 August 2013|year=2008|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-0-7007-1267-0|page=544|deadurl=no|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20131012221104/http://books.google.com/books?id=i_T0HeWE-EAC&pg=PA544|archivedate=12 October 2013}} Quote: "The apotheosis of this contrast is the assassination of Gandhi in 1948 by a militant Nathuram Godse, on the basis of his 'weak' accommodationist approach towards the new state of Pakistan." (p. 544)</ref>
Gandhi's birthday, 2 October, is commemorated in India as [[Gandhi Jayanti]], a [[Public holidays in India|national holiday]], and worldwide as the [[International Day of Non-Violence|International Day of Nonviolence]]. Gandhi is commonly, though not formally considered the [[Father of the Nation]] in India.<ref name="archive.indianexpress.com">[http://archive.indianexpress.com/news/gandhi-not-formally-conferred-father-of-the-nation-title-govt/973101/ "Gandhi not formally conferred 'Father of the Nation' title: Govt"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140906121950/http://archive.indianexpress.com/news/gandhi-not-formally-conferred-father-of-the-nation-title-govt/973101 |date=6 September 2014 }}, ''[[The Indian Express]]'', 11 July 2012.</ref><ref name="timesofindia.indiatimes.com">[http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Constitution-doesnt-permit-Father-of-the-Nation-title-Government/articleshow/16961980.cms "Constitution doesn't permit 'Father of the Nation' title: Government"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170107223546/http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Constitution-doesnt-permit-Father-of-the-Nation-title-Government/articleshow/16961980.cms |date=7 January 2017 }}, ''The Times of India'', 26 October 2012.</ref> Gandhi is also called '''Bapu'''<ref name="Nehru">{{cite book |last1=Nehru |first1=Jawaharlal |title=An Autobiography |publisher=Bodley Head }}</ref> ([[Gujarati language|Gujarati]]: endearment for ''father'',<ref name="McAllister1982"/> ''papa''<ref name="McAllister1982">{{Cite book|last=McAllister|first=Pam|title=Reweaving the Web of Life: Feminism and Nonviolence|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vt8hAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA194|access-date=31 August 2013|year=1982|publisher=New Society Publishers|isbn=978-0-86571-017-7|page=194|deadurl=no|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20131012210751/http://books.google.com/books?id=vt8hAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA194|archivedate=12 October 2013}} Quote: "With love, Yours, Bapu (You closed with the term of endearment used by your close friends, the term you used with all the movement leaders, roughly meaning 'Papa'." Another letter written in 1940 shows similar tenderness and caring.</ref><ref name="Eck2003">{{Cite book|last=Eck|first=Diana L.|author-link=Diana Eck|title=Encountering God: A Spiritual Journey from Bozeman to Banaras|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XpR0AmKLeY4C&pg=PA210|access-date=31 August 2013|year=2003|publisher=Beacon Press|isbn=978-0-8070-7301-8|page=210|deadurl=no|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20131012220529/http://books.google.com/books?id=XpR0AmKLeY4C&pg=PA210|archivedate=12 October 2013}} Quote: "...&nbsp;his niece Manu, who, like others called this immortal Gandhi 'Bapu,' meaning not 'father,' but the familiar, 'daddy'." (p. 210)</ref>).
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==Biography==
===Early life and background===
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi<ref name="Gandhi name">Todd, Anne M. (2012) [https://books.google.com/?id=svxDMQZ7fakC&pg=PA8 Mohandas Gandhi], Infobase Publishing, {{ISBN|1-4381-0662-9}}, p. 8: ''The name Gandhi means "grocer", although Mohandas's father and grandfather were politicians not grocers.''</ref> was born on 2 October 1869<ref name="Gandhi DOB">[[#Rajmohan|Gandhi, Rajmohan (2006)]] [https://books.google.com/?id=FauJL7LKXmkC pp. 1–3].</ref> into an [[Indian people|Indian]] [[Gujarati people|Gujarati]] [[Hindu]] [[Modh]] [[Bania (caste)|Baniya]] family<ref>{{cite book|title=Responses to One Hundred and One Questions on Hinduism By John Renard|year=1999|page=[https://archive.org/details/responsesto101qu0000rena_e0p7/page/139 139]|url=https://archive.org/details/responsesto101qu0000rena_e0p7/page/139|isbn=978-0-8091-3845-6|author=Renard, John}}</ref> in [[Porbandar]] (also known as ''Sudamapuri''), a coastal town on the [[Kathiawar|Kathiawar Peninsula]] and then part of the small [[princely state]] of [[Porbandar State|Porbandar]] in the [[Kathiawar Agency]] of the [[British Raj|Indian Empire]]. His father, [[Karamchand Uttamchand Gandhi]] (1822–1885), served as the ''[[Dewan|diwan]]'' (chief minister) of Porbandar state.<ref>Mohandas K. Gandhi, ''Autobiography'' chapter 1 (Dover edition, p. 1).</ref>
Although he only had an elementary education and had previously been a clerk in the state administration, Karamchand proved a capable chief minister.<ref name=GuhaPP19to21>Guha 2015 pp. 19–21</ref> During his tenure, Karamchand married four times. His first two wives died young, after each had given birth to a daughter, and his third marriage was childless. In 1857, Karamchand sought his third wife's permission to remarry; that year, he married Putlibai (1844–1891), who also came from Junagadh,<ref name=GuhaPP19to21/> and was from a [[Pranami]] [[Vaishnavism|Vaishnava]] family.<ref>{{cite book|title=Identity and Religion: Foundations of anti-Islamism in India|year=2004|page=67|url=https://books.google.com/?id=aLgB8pZg0qsC&pg=PA67|isbn=978-0-7619-3227-7|author=Misra, Amalendu}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Mohandas: A True Story of a Man, His People, and an Empire By Gandhi|year=2006|page=5|url=https://books.google.com/?id=TEyXCoc76AEC&pg=PA5|isbn=978-0-14-310411-7|author=Gandhi, Rajmohan}}</ref><ref name="Tendulkar1951"/><ref>{{cite book|title=Lawyer to Mahatma: Life, Work and Transformation of M. K. Gandhi |year=2001|page=5|url=https://books.google.com/?id=fRq21fNfydIC&pg=PA5|isbn=978-81-7629-293-1|author=Malhotra, S.L}}</ref> Karamchand and Putlibai had three children over the ensuing decade: a son, Laxmidas (c. 1860–1914); a daughter, Raliatbehn (1862–1960); and another son, Karsandas (c. 1866–1913).<ref>Guha 2015, p. 21</ref><ref>Guha 2015, p. 512</ref>
On 2 October 1869, Putlibai gave birth to her last child, Mohandas, in a dark, windowless ground-floor room of the Gandhi family residence in Porbandar city. As a child, Gandhi was described by his sister Raliat as "restless as mercury, either playing or roaming about. One of his favourite pastimes was twisting dogs' ears."<ref>Guha 2015, p. 22</ref> The Indian classics, especially the stories of [[Shravan#In Hindu epics|Shravana]] and king [[Harishchandra]], had a great impact on Gandhi in his childhood. In his autobiography, he admits that they left an indelible impression on his mind. He writes: "It haunted me and I must have acted Harishchandra to myself times without number." Gandhi's early self-identification with truth and love as supreme values is traceable to these epic characters.<ref name="Sorokin2002"/><ref name="RudolphRudolph1983">{{cite book|author1=Rudolph, Susanne Hoeber  |author2=Rudolph, Lloyd I.  |lastauthoramp=yes |title=Gandhi: The Traditional Roots of Charisma|url=https://books.google.com/?id=JsPYNLAU9KYC&pg=PA48|year=1983|publisher=University of Chicago Press|page=48|isbn=978-0-226-73136-0}}</ref>
The family's religious background was eclectic. Gandhi's father Karamchand was [[Hindu]] and his mother Putlibai was from a Pranami [[Vaishnava]] Hindu family.<ref>[[#Rajmohan|Gandhi, Rajmohan (2006)]] pp. 2, 8, 269</ref><ref name=sharma11>{{cite book|author=Arvind Sharma|title=Gandhi: A Spiritual Biography|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2xFGsj4PIjoC |year=2013|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=978-0-300-18738-0|pages=11–14}}</ref> Gandhi's father was of Modh Baniya caste in the [[Varna (Hinduism)|varna]] of [[Vaishya]].<ref>{{cite book|author1=Rudolph, Susanne Hoeber  |author2=Rudolph, Lloyd I.  |lastauthoramp=yes |title=Gandhi: The Traditional Roots of Charisma|url=https://books.google.com/?id=JsPYNLAU9KYC&pg=PA17|year=1983|publisher=University of Chicago Press|page=17|isbn=978-0-226-73136-0}}</ref> His mother came from the medieval [[Krishna]] bhakti-based [[Pranami]] tradition, whose religious texts include the ''[[Bhagavad Gita]]'', the ''[[Bhagavata Purana]]'', and a collection of 14 texts with teachings that the tradition believes to include the essence of the [[Vedas]], the [[Quran]] and the [[Bible]].<ref name=sharma11/><ref>{{cite book|author=Gerard Toffin|editor=John Zavos|display-editors=etal|title=Public Hinduisms|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uuuICwAAQBAJ&pg=PT249| year=2012|publisher= SAGE Publications|isbn=978-81-321-1696-7|pages=249–257}}</ref> Gandhi was deeply influenced by his mother, an extremely pious lady who "would not think of taking her meals without her daily prayers... she would take the hardest vows and keep them without flinching. To keep two or three consecutive fasts was nothing to her."<ref>Guha 2015, p. 23</ref>
In 1874, Gandhi's father Karamchand left Porbandar for the smaller state of [[Rajkot]], where he became a counsellor to its ruler, the Thakur Sahib; though Rajkot was a less prestigious state than Porbandar, the British regional political agency was located there, which gave the state's ''diwan'' a measure of security.<ref>Guha 2015, pp. 24–25</ref> In 1876, Karamchand became ''diwan'' of Rajkot and was succeeded as ''diwan'' of Porbandar by his brother Tulsidas. His family then rejoined him in Rajkot.<ref name="ReferenceA">{{cite book|title=Gandhi before India|year= 2015|author=Rajmohan Gandhi |publisher=Vintage Books|isbn=978-0-385-53230-3|pages=24–25}}</ref>
[[File:Gandhi and Laxmidas 2.jpg|thumb|upright=0.85|Gandhi (right) with his eldest brother Laxmidas in 1886.<ref name="Fischer1982p96">{{cite book|author=Louis Fischer|title=Gandhi, his life and message for the world |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=02NWvRxCx64C |year=1982|publisher=Penguin|isbn=978-0-451-62142-9|page=96}}</ref>]]
At age 9, Gandhi entered the local school in [[Rajkot]], near his home. There he studied the rudiments of arithmetic, history, the Gujarati language and geography.<ref name="ReferenceA"/> At age 11, he joined the High School in Rajkot.<ref name="ReferenceB">{{cite book|title=Gandhi before India|year= 2015|author=Rajmohan Gandhi | publisher=Vintage Books|isbn=978-0-385-53230-3|pages=25–26}}</ref> He was an average student, won some prizes, but was a shy and tongue tied student, with no interest in games; his only companions were books and school lessons.<ref>{{cite book|author=Sankar Ghose|title=Mahatma Gandhi|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5l0BPnxN1h8C&pg=PA4|year=1991|publisher=Allied Publishers|isbn=978-81-7023-205-6|page=4}}</ref>
While at high school, Gandhi's elder brother introduced him to a Muslim friend named Sheikh Mehtab. Mehtab was older in age, taller and encouraged the strictly vegetarian boy to eat meat to gain height. He also took Mohandas to a brothel one day, though Mohandas "was struck blind and dumb in this den of vice," rebuffed the prostitutes' advances and was promptly sent out of the brothel. The experience caused Mohandas mental anguish, and he abandoned the company of Mehtab.<ref>{{cite book|author=Ramachandra Guha| title=Gandhi before India |year=2015| publisher=Vintage Books|isbn=978-0-385-53230-3|pages=27–28}}</ref>
In May 1883, the 13-year-old Mohandas was married to 14-year-old [[Kasturba Gandhi|Kasturbai Makhanji Kapadia]] (her first name was usually shortened to "Kasturba", and affectionately to "Ba") in an [[arranged marriage|arranged]] marriage, according to the custom of the region at that time.<ref name="Mohanty2011"/> In the process, he lost a year at school, but was later allowed to make up by accelerating his studies.<ref name="Childhood">Gandhi (1940). [http://wikilivres.ca/wiki/The_Story_of_My_Experiments_with_Truth/Part_I/At_the_High_School Chapter "At the High School"]; {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120630233959/http://wikilivres.ca/wiki/The_Story_of_My_Experiments_with_Truth/Part_I/At_the_High_School |date=30 June 2012 }}.</ref> His wedding was a joint event, where his brother and cousin were also married. Recalling the day of their marriage, he once said, "As we didn't know much about marriage, for us it meant only wearing new clothes, eating sweets and playing with relatives." As was prevailing tradition, the adolescent bride was to spend much time at her parents' house, and away from her husband.<ref name="Husband">Gandhi (1940). [http://wikilivres.ca/wiki/The_Story_of_My_Experiments_with_Truth/Part_I/Playing_the_Husband Chapter "Playing the Husband"]; {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120701002125/http://wikilivres.ca/wiki/The_Story_of_My_Experiments_with_Truth/Part_I/Playing_the_Husband |date=1 July 2012 }}.</ref>
Writing many years later, Mohandas described with regret the lustful feelings he felt for his young bride, "even at school I used to think of her, and the thought of nightfall and our subsequent meeting was ever haunting me." He later recalled feeling jealous and possessive of her, such as when she would visit a temple with her girlfriends, and being sexually lustful in his feelings for her.<ref>{{cite book|author=Ramachandra Guha |title=Gandhi before India |year= 2015| publisher= Vintage Books|isbn=978-0-385-53230-3|pages=28–29}}</ref>
In late 1885, Gandhi's father Karamchand died.<ref name="ReferenceC">Guha 2015, p. 29</ref> Gandhi, then 16 years old, and his wife of age 17 had their first baby, who survived only a few days. The two deaths anguished Gandhi.<ref name="ReferenceC"/> The Gandhi couple had four more children, all sons: [[Harilal Gandhi|Harilal]], born in 1888; [[Manilal Gandhi|Manilal]], born in 1892; [[Ramdas Gandhi|Ramdas]], born in 1897; and [[Devdas Gandhi|Devdas]], born in 1900.<ref name="Mohanty2011"/>
In November 1887, the 18-year-old Gandhi graduated from high school in [[Ahmedabad]].<ref>Guha 2015, p. 30</ref> In January 1888, he enrolled at Samaldas College in [[Bhavnagar State]], then the sole degree-granting institution of higher education in the region. But he dropped out and returned to his family in Porbandar.<ref name="autogenerated32">Guha 2015, p. 32</ref>
===Three years in London===
====Student of law====
Gandhi came from a poor family, and he had dropped out of the cheapest college he could afford.<ref name="Preparation">Gandhi (1940). [http://wikilivres.ca/wiki/The_Story_of_My_Experiments_with_Truth/Part_I/Preparation_for_England Chapter "Preparation for England".] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120702043412/http://wikilivres.ca/wiki/The_Story_of_My_Experiments_with_Truth/Part_I/Preparation_for_England |date=2 July 2012 }}</ref> Mavji Dave Joshiji, a [[Brahmin]] priest and family friend, advised Gandhi and his family that he should consider law studies in London.<ref>{{cite book|title=Gandhi before India|year=2015|author=Rajmohan Gandhi| publisher=Vintage Books|isbn=978-0-385-53230-3|page=32}}</ref> In July 1888, his wife Kasturba gave birth to their first surviving son, Harilal.<ref name="autogenerated33">Guha 2015, pp. 33-34</ref> His mother was not comfortable about Gandhi leaving his wife and family, and going so far from home. Gandhi's uncle Tulsidas also tried to dissuade his nephew. Gandhi wanted to go. To persuade his wife and mother, Gandhi made a vow in front of his mother that he would abstain from meat, alcohol and women. Gandhi's brother Laxmidas, who was already a lawyer, cheered Gandhi's London studies plan and offered to support him. Putlibai gave Gandhi her permission and blessing.<ref name="autogenerated32"/><ref name="Gandhi2006a">[[#Rajmohan|Gandhi, Rajmohan (2006)]] [https://books.google.com/?id=FauJL7LKXmkC&pg=PA20 pp. 20–21].</ref>
On 10 August 1888, Gandhi aged 18, left Porbandar for Mumbai, then known as Bombay. Upon arrival, he stayed with the local Modh Bania community while waiting for the ship travel arrangements. The head of the community knew Gandhi's father. After learning Gandhi's plans, he and other elders warned Gandhi that England would tempt him to compromise his religion, and eat and drink in Western ways. Gandhi informed them of his promise to his mother and her blessings. The local chief disregarded it, and excommunicated him from his caste. But Gandhi ignored this, and on 4 September, he sailed from Bombay to London. His brother saw him off.<ref name="autogenerated33"/><ref>M K Gandhi (1940), [https://wikilivres.ca/wiki/The_Story_of_My_Experiments_with_Truth/Part_I/Outcaste The Story of My Experiments with Truth] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160417030706/http://wikilivres.ca/wiki/The_Story_of_My_Experiments_with_Truth/Part_I/Outcaste |date=17 April 2016 }}, Autobiography, Wikisource</ref>
Gandhi attended University College, London which is a constituent college of University of London.
[[File:Gandhi student.jpg|thumb|upright=0.85|Gandhi in London as a law student]] At UCL, he studied law and [[jurisprudence]] and was invited to enroll at [[Inner Temple]] with the intention of becoming a [[barrister]]. His childhood shyness and self withdrawal had continued through his teens, and he remained so when he arrived in London, but he joined a public speaking practice group and overcame this handicap to practise law.<ref>{{cite book|author=Thomas Weber|title=Gandhi as Disciple and Mentor|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P8nC80pG4GIC&pg=PA19|year=2004|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-139-45657-9|pages=19–25}}</ref>
====Vegetarianism====
His time in London was influenced by the vow he had made to his mother. He tried to adopt "English" customs, including taking dancing lessons. However, he could not appreciate the bland vegetarian food offered by his landlady and was frequently hungry until he found one of London's few vegetarian restaurants. Influenced by [[Henry Stephens Salt|Henry Salt's]] writing, he joined the [[Vegetarian Society|London Vegetarian Society]] and was elected to its executive committee<ref name="Brown1991">[[#Brown1991|Brown (1991)]].</ref> under the aegis of its president and benefactor [[Arnold Hills]]. An achievement while on the committee was the establishment of a local [[Bayswater]] chapter.<ref name="Tendulkar1951" /> Some of the vegetarians he met were members of the [[Theosophical Society]], which had been founded in 1875 to further universal brotherhood, and which was devoted to the study of [[Buddhist]] and [[Hindu]] literature. They encouraged Gandhi to join them in reading the ''[[Bhagavad Gita]]'' both in translation as well as in the original.<ref name="Brown1991"/>
====Dispute with a friend====
Gandhi had a friendly and productive relationship with the President of the [[Vegetarian Society|London Vegetarian Society]], [[Arnold Hills]], but the two men took a different view on the continued LVS membership of committee member [[Thomas Allinson|Dr Thomas Allinson]]. Their disagreement is the first known example of Gandhi challenging authority, despite his shyness and temperamental disinclination towards confrontation.
Allinson had been promoting newly available birth control methods, but Hills disapproved of these, believing they undermined public morality. He believed vegetarianism to be a moral movement and that Allinson should therefore no longer remain a member of the LVS. Gandhi shared Hills views on the dangers of birth control, but defended Allinson’s right to differ.<ref>Shyness my shield https://www.mkgandhi.org/autobio/chap18.htm</ref>
It would have been hard for Gandhi to challenge Hills; Hills was 12 years his senior and unlike Gandhi, highly eloquent. He bankrolled the LVS and was a [[captain of industry]] with his [[Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company|Thames Ironworks]] company employing more than 6,000 people in the [[East End of London]]. He was also a highly accomplished sportsman who would go on to found the football club [[West Ham United]].
{{quote| The question deeply interested me...I had a high regard for [[Arnold Hills|Mr. Hills]] and his generosity. But I thought it was quite improper to exclude a man from a vegetarian society simply because he refused to regard puritan morals as one of the objects of the society <ref>From the essay ‘shyness my shield’ https://www.mkgandhi.org/autobio/chap18.htm</ref>}}
A motion to remove Allinson was raised, and was debated and voted on by the committee. Gandhi’s shyness was an obstacle to his defence of Allinson at the committee meeting, he wrote his views down on paper but shyness prevented him reading out his arguments, so Hills, the President, asked another committee member to read them out for him. Although some other members of the committee agreed with Gandhi, the vote was lost and Allinson excluded. There were no hard feelings, with Hills proposing the toast at the LVS farewell dinner in honour of Gandhi’s return to India, just days after he was [[call to the bar|called to the bar]].<ref>From International Vegetarian Union website. The article describes the farewell dinner https://ivu.org/history/gandhi/1891-11.html</ref>
====Called to the bar====
Gandhi, at age 22, was [[Call to the bar|called to the bar]] in June 1891 and then left [[London]] for India, where he learned that his mother had died while he was in London and that his family had kept the news from him.<ref name="Brown1991"/> His attempts at establishing a law practice in [[Bombay]] failed because he was psychologically unable to [[cross-examination|cross-examine]] witnesses. He returned to Rajkot to make a modest living drafting petitions for litigants, but he was forced to stop when he ran afoul of a British officer Sam Sunny.<ref name="Tendulkar1951"/><ref name="Brown1991"/>
In 1893, a Muslim merchant in Kathiawar named Dada Abdullah contacted Gandhi. Abdullah owned a large successful shipping business in South Africa. His distant cousin in Johannesburg needed a lawyer, and they preferred someone with Kathiawari heritage. Gandhi inquired about his pay for the work. They offered a total salary of £105 plus travel expenses. He accepted it, knowing that it would be at least one-year commitment in the [[Colony of Natal]], South Africa, also a part of the British Empire.<ref name="Tendulkar1951"/><ref name="Herman 2008 pp. 82">[[#Herman2008|Herman (2008)]], pp. 82–83</ref>
===Civil rights activist in South Africa (1893–1914)===
In April 1893, Gandhi aged 23, set sail for South Africa to be the lawyer for Abdullah's cousin.<ref name="Herman 2008 pp. 82"/><ref name="NHOA-193">{{cite book|author1=Giliomee, Hermann  |author2-link=Mbenga, Bernard |author2=Mbenga, Bernard  |lastauthoramp=yes |title=New History of South Africa|editor=Roxanne Reid|publisher= Tafelberg|year=2007|edition=1st|page=193|chapter=3|isbn=978-0-624-04359-1|author1-link=Giliomee, Hermann }}</ref> He spent 21 years in South Africa, where he developed his political views, ethics and politics.<ref name="Gandhi">{{cite journal|title=Gandhi in South Africa|journal= [[The Journal of Modern African Studies]]|year= 1969|jstor=159062|author=Power, Paul F. |volume=7|issue=3|pages=441–55|doi=10.1017/S0022278X00018590}}</ref><ref>"Into that Heaven of Freedom: The impact of apartheid on an Indian family's diasporic history", Mohamed M Keshavjee, 2015, by Mawenzi House Publishers, Ltd., Toronto, ON, Canada, {{ISBN|978-1-927494-27-1}}</ref>
Immediately upon arriving in South Africa, Gandhi faced discrimination because of his skin colour and heritage, like all people of colour.<ref name="Parekh2001"/> He was not allowed to sit with European passengers in the stagecoach and told to sit on the floor near the driver, then beaten when he refused; elsewhere he was kicked into a gutter for daring to walk near a house, in another instance thrown off a train at [[Pietermaritzburg]] after refusing to leave the first-class.<ref name="Stagecoach">Gandhi (1940). [http://wikilivres.ca/wiki/The_Story_of_My_Experiments_with_Truth/Part_II/More_Hardships Chapter "More Hardships".] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120702044616/http://wikilivres.ca/wiki/The_Story_of_My_Experiments_with_Truth/Part_II/More_Hardships |date=2 July 2012 }}</ref><ref name=dhiman25>{{cite book|author=S. Dhiman|title=Gandhi and Leadership: New Horizons in Exemplary Leadership|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2Y2kCgAAQBAJ |year=2016|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-1-137-49235-7 |pages=25–27}}</ref> He sat in the train station, shivering all night and pondering if he should return to India or protest for his rights.<ref name=dhiman25/> He chose to protest and was allowed to board the train the next day.<ref name="(Mahatma)Fischer2002">[[#Fischer2002|Fischer (2002)]]</ref> In another incident, the magistrate of a [[Durban]] court ordered Gandhi to remove his turban, which he refused to do.<ref name="Turban">Gandhi (1940). [http://wikilivres.ca/wiki/The_Story_of_My_Experiments_with_Truth/Part_II/Some_Experiences Chapter "Some Experiences".] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120702043438/http://wikilivres.ca/wiki/The_Story_of_My_Experiments_with_Truth/Part_II/Some_Experiences |date=2 July 2012 }}</ref> Indians were not allowed to walk on public footpaths in South Africa. Gandhi was kicked by a police officer out of the footpath onto the street without warning.<ref name="What it is to be a coolie">Gandhi (1940). [http://wikilivres.ca/wiki/The_Story_of_My_Experiments_with_Truth/Part_II/What_it_is_to_be_a_%27Coolie%27 Chapter "What it is to be a coolie".] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160411011314/http://wikilivres.ca/wiki/The_Story_of_My_Experiments_with_Truth/Part_II/What_it_is_to_be_a_%27Coolie%27 |date=11 April 2016 }}</ref>
When Gandhi arrived in South Africa, according to Herman, he thought of himself as "a Briton first, and an Indian second".<ref>[[#Herman2008|Herman (2008)]], pp. 87–88</ref> However, the prejudice against him and his fellow Indians from British people that Gandhi experienced and observed deeply bothered him. He found it humiliating, struggling to understand how some people can feel honour or superiority or pleasure in such inhumane practices.<ref name=dhiman25/> Gandhi began to question his people's standing in the [[British Empire]].<ref name="Allen2011">{{cite book|last=Allen|first=Jeremiah|title=Sleeping with Strangers: A Vagabond's Journey Tramping the Globe|url=https://books.google.com/?id=vyl8f54UToQC&pg=PT273|year=2011|publisher=Other Places Publishing|isbn=978-1-935850-01-4|page=273}}</ref>
The Abdullah case that had brought him to South Africa concluded in May 1894, and the Indian community organised a farewell party for Gandhi as he prepared to return to India.<ref name="Herman 2008 pp. 88">[[#Herman2008|Herman (2008)]], pp. 88–89</ref> However, a new Natal government discriminatory proposal led to Gandhi extending his original period of stay in South Africa. He planned to assist Indians in opposing a bill to [[Disfranchisement|deny them the right to vote]], a right then proposed to be an exclusive European right. He asked [[Joseph Chamberlain]], the British Colonial Secretary, to reconsider his position on this bill.<ref name="Gandhi" /> Though unable to halt the bill's passage, his campaign was successful in drawing attention to the grievances of Indians in South Africa. He helped found the [[Natal Indian Congress]] in 1894,<ref name="Tendulkar1951"/><ref name="(Mahatma)Fischer2002"/> and through this organisation, he moulded the Indian community of South Africa into a unified political force. In January 1897, when Gandhi landed in Durban, a mob of white settlers attacked him<ref>{{cite wikisource |title=The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi |chapter=March 1897 Memorial |wslink=The_Collected_Works_of_Mahatma_Gandhi/Volume_II}}: correspondence and newspaper accounts of the incident.</ref> and he escaped only through the efforts of the wife of the police superintendent. However, he refused to press charges against any member of the mob.<ref name="Tendulkar1951"/>
[[File:Gandhi Boer War.jpg|thumb|Gandhi with the stretcher-bearers of the [[Indian Ambulance Corps]] during the [[Boer War]].]]
During the [[Second Boer War|Boer War]], Gandhi volunteered in 1900 to form a group of stretcher-bearers as the [[Natal Indian Ambulance Corps]]. According to Arthur Herman, Gandhi wanted to disprove the imperial British stereotype that Hindus were not fit for "manly" activities involving danger and exertion, unlike the Muslim "[[martial race]]s".<ref>[[#Herman2008|Herman (2008)]], page 125</ref> Gandhi raised eleven hundred Indian volunteers, to support British combat troops against the Boers. They were trained and medically certified to serve on the front lines. They were auxiliaries at the [[Battle of Colenso]] to a White volunteer ambulance corps. At the battle of [[Battle of Spion Kop|Spion Kop]] Gandhi and his bearers moved to the front line and had to carry wounded soldiers for miles to a field hospital because the terrain was too rough for the ambulances. Gandhi and thirty-seven other Indians received the [[Queen's South Africa Medal]].<ref>[[#Herman2008|Herman (2008)]] chapter 6.</ref>
[[File:Gandhi and Kasturbhai 1902.jpg|thumb|Gandhi and his wife [[Kasturba Gandhi|Kasturba]] (1902)]]
In 1906, the [[Transvaal Colony|Transvaal]] government promulgated a new Act compelling registration of the colony's Indian and Chinese populations. At a mass protest meeting held in Johannesburg on 11 September that year, Gandhi adopted his still evolving methodology of ''[[Satyagraha]]'' (devotion to the truth), or nonviolent protest, for the first time.<ref name="Rai2000">{{cite book|last=Rai|first=Ajay Shanker|title=Gandhian Satyagraha: An Analytical And Critical Approach|url=https://books.google.com/?id=Z9ZSLa6cy-8C&pg=PA35|year=2000|publisher=Concept Publishing Company|isbn=978-81-7022-799-1|page=35}}</ref> According to Anthony Parel, Gandhi was also influenced by the Tamil text ''[[Tirukkuṛaḷ]]'' because [[Leo Tolstoy]] mentioned it in their correspondence that began with "[[A Letter to a Hindu]]".<ref name="LetterToAHindu">{{cite web | url = http://www.online-literature.com/tolstoy/2733/ | title = A Letter to A Hindu: The Subjection of India-Its Cause and Cure | last = Tolstoy | first = Leo | date = 14 December 1908 | website = The Literature Network | publisher = The Literature Network | access-date = 12 February 2012 | quote = The Hindu Kural}}</ref><ref name=gandhi>{{Citation | last = Parel | first = Anthony J. | author-link = Anthony Parel | contribution = Gandhi and Tolstoy | editor1=M. P. Mathai|editor2= M. S. John |editor3= Siby K. Joseph | title = Meditations on Gandhi : a Ravindra Varma festschrift | pages = 96–112 | publisher = Concept | place = New Delhi | year = 2002 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=kcpDOVk5Gp8C&pg=PA96 |accessdate=8 September 2012}}</ref> Gandhi urged Indians to defy the new law and to suffer the punishments for doing so. Gandhi's ideas of protests, persuasion skills and public relations had emerged. He took these back to India in 1915.<ref>[[Guha, Ramachandra]] (2013), ''Gandhi Before India'', Vol. 1, Ch. 22, Allen Lane, {{ISBN|0-670-08387-9}}.</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Charles R. DiSalvo|title=M.K. Gandhi, Attorney at Law: The Man before the Mahatma|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9XGtAAAAQBAJ&pg=PR14|year=2013|pages=14–15}}</ref>
====Europeans, Indians and Africans====
Gandhi focused his attention on Indians while in South Africa. He was not interested in politics. This changed after he was discriminated against and bullied, such as by being thrown out of a train coach because of his skin colour by a white train official. After several such incidents with [[White South African|Whites in South Africa]], Gandhi's thinking and focus changed, and he felt he must resist this and fight for rights. He entered politics by forming the Natal Indian Congress.<ref>{{cite book|last1= Jones|first1= Constance|last2= Ryan|first2= James|title= Encyclopedia of Hinduism|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=OgMmceadQ3gC|access-date= 5 October 2012|year= 2009|publisher= Infobase Publishing|isbn= 978-1-4381-0873-5|pages= 158–59|deadurl= no|archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20151021174237/https://books.google.com/books?id=OgMmceadQ3gC|archivedate= 21 October 2015|df= dmy-all}}</ref> According to Ashwin Desai and Goolam Vahed, Gandhi's views on racism are contentious, and in some cases, distressing to those who admire him. Gandhi suffered persecution from the beginning in South Africa. Like with other coloured people, white officials denied him his rights, and the press and those in the streets bullied and called him a "parasite", "semi-barbarous", "canker", "squalid coolie", "yellow man", and other epithets. People would spit on him as an expression of racial hate.<ref name="Desai2015p26"/>
While in South Africa, Gandhi focused on racial persecution of Indians but ignored those of Africans. In some cases, state Desai and Vahed, his behaviour was one of being a willing part of racial stereotyping and African exploitation.<ref name="Desai2015p26"/> During a speech in September 1896, Gandhi complained that the whites in the British colony of South Africa were degrading Indian Hindus and Muslims to "a level of [[Kaffir (racial term)|Kaffir]]".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://theprint.in/opinion/ramachandra-guha-is-wrong-a-middle-aged-gandhi-was-racist-and-no-mahatma/168222/|title=Ram Guha is wrong. Gandhi went from a racist young man to a racist middle-aged man}}</ref> Scholars cite it as an example of evidence that Gandhi at that time thought of Indians and black South Africans differently.<ref name="Desai2015p26"/> As another example given by Herman, Gandhi, at age 24, prepared a legal brief for the Natal Assembly in 1895, seeking voting rights for Indians. Gandhi cited race history and European Orientalists' opinions that "Anglo-Saxons and Indians are sprung from the same Aryan stock or rather the Indo-European peoples", and argued that Indians should not be grouped with the Africans.<ref name="Herman 2008 pp. 88"/>
Years later, Gandhi and his colleagues served and helped Africans as nurses and by opposing racism, according to the Nobel Peace Prize winner [[Nelson Mandela]]. The general image of Gandhi, state Desai and Vahed, has been reinvented since his assassination as if he was always a saint, when in reality his life was more complex, contained inconvenient truths and was one that evolved over time.<ref name="Desai2015p26">{{cite book|author1= Ashwin Desai|author2= Goolem Vahed|title=The South African Gandhi: Stretcher-Bearer of Empire|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=lZZ1CgAAQBAJ |year= 2015|publisher= Stanford University Press|isbn= 978-0-8047-9717-7 |pages= 22–26, 33–38}}</ref> In contrast, other Africa scholars state the evidence points to a rich history of co-operation and efforts by Gandhi and Indian people with nonwhite South Africans against persecution of Africans and the [[Apartheid]].<ref>{{cite book|author1=Edward Ramsamy|author2=Michael Mbanaso|author3=Chima Korieh|title=Minorities and the State in Africa|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-J-EZLTRVRwC |publisher=Cambria Press|isbn=978-1-62196-874-0|pages=71–73}}</ref>
In 1906, when the British [[Bambatha Rebellion|declared war]] against the [[Zulu Kingdom]] in Natal, Gandhi at age 36, sympathised with the Zulus and encouraged the Indian volunteers to help as an ambulance unit.<ref name="Herman2010"/> He argued that Indians should participate in the war efforts to change attitudes and perceptions of the British people against the coloured people.<ref name="Herman2010p281">[[#Herman2008|Herman (2008)]], pp. 280–281, 154–157</ref> Gandhi, a group of 20 Indians and black people of South Africa volunteered as a stretcher-bearer corps to treat wounded British soldiers and the opposite side of the war: Zulu victims.<ref name="Herman2010"/>
[[File:Gandhi suit.jpg|thumb|right|upright|Gandhi photographed in South Africa (1909)]]
White soldiers stopped Gandhi and team from treating the injured Zulu, and some African stretcher-bearers with Gandhi were shot dead by the British. The medical team commanded by Gandhi operated for less than two months.<ref name="Herman2010">[[#Herman2008|Herman (2008)]], pp. 136–137.</ref> Gandhi volunteering to help as a "staunch loyalist" during the Zulu and other wars made no difference in the British attitude, states Herman, and the African experience was a part of his great disillusionment with the West, transforming him into an "uncompromising non-cooperator".<ref name="Herman2010p281"/>
In 1910, Gandhi established, with the help of his friend [[Hermann Kallenbach]], an idealistic community they named “Tolstoy Farm” near Johannesburg.<ref>For Kallenbach and the naming of Tolstoy Farm, see Vashi, Ashish (31 March 2011) [https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/ahmedabad/For-Gandhi-Kallenbach-was-a-friend-and-guide/articleshow/7829668.cms?referral=PM "For Gandhi, Kallenbach was a Friend and Guide"], ''The Times of India''. Retrieved 1 January 2019.<br />For Johannesburg, see [http://philosophynow.org/issues/101/Satyagraha "Gandhi – A Medium for Truth" (link to article in ''Philosophy Now'' magazine)] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140324184714/http://philosophynow.org/issues/101/Satyagraha |date=24 March 2014 }}. Retrieved March 2014.</ref> There he nurtured his policy of peaceful resistance.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Gandhi's Decisive South African 1913 Campaign: A Personal Perspective from the Letters of Betty Molteno|journal= [[South African Historical Journal]]|year= 2014|author1=Corder, Catherine|author2= Plaut, Martin |volume=66|issue=1|pages=22–54|doi=10.1080/02582473.2013.862565}}</ref>
In the years after black South Africans gained the right to vote in South Africa (1994), Gandhi was proclaimed a national hero with numerous monuments.<ref name="Mbeki2006"/>
=== Struggle for Indian independence (1915–1947) ===
{{See also|Indian independence movement}}
At the request of [[Gopal Krishna Gokhale]], conveyed to him by [[Charles Freer Andrews|C. F. Andrews]], Gandhi returned to India in 1915. He brought an international reputation as a leading Indian nationalist, theorist and community organiser.
Gandhi joined the [[Indian National Congress]] and was introduced to Indian issues, politics and the Indian people primarily by [[Gopal Krishna Gokhale|Gokhale]]. Gokhale was a key leader of the Congress Party best known for his restraint and moderation, and his insistence on working inside the system. Gandhi took Gokhale's liberal approach based on British Whiggish traditions and transformed it to make it look Indian.<ref name="Whiggism"/>
Gandhi took leadership of the Congress in 1920 and began escalating demands until on 26 January 1930 the Indian National Congress declared the independence of India. The British did not recognise the declaration but negotiations ensued, with the Congress taking a role in provincial government in the late 1930s. Gandhi and the Congress withdrew their support of the Raj when the Viceroy declared war on Germany in September 1939 without consultation. Tensions escalated until Gandhi demanded immediate independence in 1942 and the British responded by imprisoning him and tens of thousands of Congress leaders. Meanwhile, the Muslim League did co-operate with Britain and moved, against Gandhi's strong opposition, to demands for a totally separate Muslim state of Pakistan. In August 1947 the British partitioned the land with India and Pakistan each achieving independence on terms that Gandhi disapproved.<ref>{{cite book|author=Markovits, Claude |title=A History of Modern India, 1480–1950|url=https://books.google.com/?id=uzOmy2y0Zh4C|year=2004|publisher=Anthem Press|pages=367–86|isbn=978-1-84331-004-4}}</ref>
====Role in World War I====
{{See also|Indian Army during World War I|label 1=The role of India in World War I}}
In April 1918, during the latter part of [[World War I]], the [[Frederic Thesiger, 1st Viscount Chelmsford|Viceroy]] invited Gandhi to a War Conference in Delhi.<ref>
[[s:Chronology of Mahatma Gandhi's life/India 1918|Chronology of Mahatma Gandhi's Life:India 1918]] in WikiSource based on the [[s:The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi|Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi]]. Based on public domain volumes.</ref> Gandhi agreed to actively recruit Indians for the war effort.<ref name="wikilivres.ca"/><ref name="Recruiting">Gandhi (1940). [http://wikilivres.ca/wiki/The_Story_of_My_Experiments_with_Truth/Part_V/Recruiting_Campaign Chapter "Recruiting Campaign"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120702044149/http://wikilivres.ca/wiki/The_Story_of_My_Experiments_with_Truth/Part_V/Recruiting_Campaign |date=2 July 2012 }}.</ref> In contrast to the Zulu War of 1906 and the outbreak of World War I in 1914, when he recruited volunteers for the Ambulance Corps, this time Gandhi attempted to recruit combatants. In a June 1918 leaflet entitled "Appeal for Enlistment", Gandhi wrote "To bring about such a state of things we should have the ability to defend ourselves, that is, the ability to bear arms and to use them... If we want to learn the use of arms with the greatest possible despatch, it is our duty to enlist ourselves in the army."<ref name="CollectedWorks17b">Gandhi (1965), ''Collected Works'', [http://www.gandhiserve.org/cwmg/VOL017.PDF Vol 17.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091015235028/http://www.gandhiserve.org/cwmg/VOL017.PDF |date=15 October 2009 }} Chapter "67. Appeal for enlistment", Nadiad, 22 June 1918.</ref> He did, however, stipulate in a letter to the [[John Maffey, 1st Baron Rugby|Viceroy's private secretary]] that he "personally will not kill or injure anybody, friend or foe."<ref name="CollectedWorks17c">Gandhi (1965), ''Collected Works'', [http://www.gandhiserve.org/cwmg/VOL017.PDF Vol 17.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091015235028/http://www.gandhiserve.org/cwmg/VOL017.PDF |date=15 October 2009 }} "Chapter 8. Letter to J. L. Maffey", Nadiad, 30 April 1918.</ref>
Gandhi's war recruitment campaign brought into question his consistency on nonviolence. [[Mahadev Desai|Gandhi's private secretary]] noted that "The question of the consistency between his creed of '[[Ahimsa]]' (nonviolence) and his recruiting campaign was raised not only then but has been discussed ever since."<ref name="wikilivres.ca"/>
====Champaran agitations====
{{Main|Champaran Satyagraha}}
[[File:Gandhi Kheda 1918.jpg|thumb|Gandhi in 1918, at the time of the Kheda and Champaran Satyagrahas]]
Gandhi's first major achievement came in 1917 with the Champaran agitation in Bihar. The Champaran agitation pitted the local peasantry against their largely British landlords who were backed by the local administration. The peasantry was forced to grow Indigo, a cash crop whose demand had been declining over two decades, and were forced to sell their crops to the planters at a fixed price. Unhappy with this, the peasantry appealed to Gandhi at his ashram in Ahmedabad. Pursuing a strategy of nonviolent protest, Gandhi took the administration by surprise and won concessions from the authorities.<ref name="Hardiman2001"/>
====Kheda agitations====
{{Main|Kheda Satyagraha}}
In 1918, [[Kheda]] was hit by floods and famine and the peasantry was demanding relief from taxes. Gandhi moved his headquarters to [[Nadiad]],<ref name="Laboratory">{{cite web |url=http://www.aicc.org.in/satyagraha_laboratories_of_mahatma_gandhi.htm |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20061206050856/http://www.aicc.org.in/satyagraha_laboratories_of_mahatma_gandhi.htm |archivedate=6 December 2006 |title=Satyagraha Laboratories of Mahatma Gandhi|year=2004 |work=[[Indian National Congress]] website |publisher=[[All India Congress Committee]] |access-date=25 February 2012}}</ref> organising scores of supporters and fresh volunteers from the region, the most notable being [[Vallabhbhai Patel]].<ref name="Gandhi Patel">[[#Rajmohan|Gandhi, Rajmohan (2006)]] [https://books.google.com/?id=FauJL7LKXmkC&pg=196 pp. 196–97].</ref> Using non-co-operation as a technique, Gandhi initiated a signature campaign where peasants pledged non-payment of revenue even under the threat of confiscation of land. A social boycott of ''mamlatdars'' and ''talatdars'' (revenue officials within the district) accompanied the agitation. Gandhi worked hard to win public support for the agitation across the country. For five months, the administration refused but finally in end-May 1918, the Government gave way on important provisions and relaxed the conditions of payment of revenue tax until the famine ended. In Kheda, Vallabhbhai Patel represented the farmers in negotiations with the British, who suspended revenue collection and released all the prisoners.<ref name="Brown1974"/>
====Khilafat movement====
<blockquote>
Every revolution begins with a single act of defiance.
</blockquote>
In 1919 after the World War I was over, Gandhi (aged 49) sought political co-operation from Muslims in his fight against British imperialism by supporting the [[Ottoman Empire]] that had been defeated in the World War. Before this initiative of Gandhi, communal disputes and religious riots between Hindus and Muslims were common in British India, such as the riots of 1917–18. Gandhi had already supported the British crown with resources and by recruiting Indian soldiers to fight the war in Europe on the British side. This effort of Gandhi was in part motivated by the British promise to reciprocate the help with ''swaraj'' (self-government) to Indians after the end of World War I.<ref name=robbins133/> The British government, instead of self government, had offered minor reforms instead, disappointing Gandhi.<ref name="green89"/> Gandhi announced his ''satyagraha'' (civil disobedience) intentions. The British colonial officials made their counter move by passing the [[Rowlatt Act]], to block Gandhi's movement. The Act allowed the British government to treat civil disobedience participants as criminals and gave it the legal basis to arrest anyone for "preventive indefinite detention, incarceration without judicial review or any need for a trial".<ref name=minault68/>
Gandhi felt that Hindu-Muslim co-operation was necessary for political progress against the British. He leveraged the [[Khilafat movement]], wherein [[Sunni]] Muslims in India, their leaders such as the sultans of princely states in India and Ali brothers championed the Turkish [[Caliph]] as a solidarity symbol of Sunni Islamic community (''[[ummah]]''). They saw the Caliph as their means to support Islam and the Islamic law after the defeat of [[Ottoman Empire]] in World War I.<ref>Minault, Gail (1982) ''The Khilafat Movement Religious Symbolism and Political Mobilization in India'', Columbia University Press, {{ISBN|0-231-05072-0}}, pp. 4–8</ref><ref name=paine20/><ref name=ghosep161/> Gandhi's support to the Khilafat movement led to mixed results. It initially led to a strong Muslim support for Gandhi. However, the Hindu leaders including Rabindranath Tagore questioned Gandhi's leadership because they were largely against recognising or supporting the Sunni Islamic Caliph in Turkey.<ref name=minault68>Minault, Gail (1982) ''The Khilafat Movement Religious Symbolism and Political Mobilization in India'', Columbia University Press, {{ISBN|0-231-05072-0}}, pp. 68–72, 78–82, 96–102, 108–109</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Roderick Matthews|title=Jinnah vs. Gandhi |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r9A4AgAAQBAJ&pg=PT31 |year=2012|publisher=Hachette|isbn=978-93-5009-078-7|page=31}}, Quote: "Rabindranath Tagore heavily criticized Gandhi at the time in private letters (...). They reveal Tagore's belief that Gandhi had committed the Indian political nation to a cause that was mistakenly anti-Western and fundamentally negative";<br />{{cite journal | last1 = Kham | first1 = Aqeeluzzafar | year = 1990 | title = The All-India Muslim Conference and the Origin of the Khilafat Movement in India | journal = Journal of the Pakistan Historical Society | volume = 38 | issue = 2| pages = 155–62 }}</ref><ref name=Roberts1923>{{cite journal | last1 = Roberts | first1 = W. H. | year = 1923 | title = A Review of the Gandhi Movement in India | journal = Political Science Quarterly | volume = 38 | issue = 2| pages = 227–48 | jstor=2142634 | doi = 10.2307/2142634}}</ref>
The increasing Muslim support for Gandhi, after he championed the Caliph's cause, temporarily stopped the Hindu-Muslim communal violence. It offered evidence of inter-communal harmony in joint Rowlatt ''satyagraha'' demonstration rallies, raising Gandhi's stature as the political leader to the British.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Bose, Sugata  |author2=Jalal, Ayesha  |lastauthoramp=yes |title=Modern South History, Culture, Political Economy|url=https://books.google.com/?id=qMJIuHL9ksAC&pg=PA112|year=2004|publisher=Psychology Press|pages=112–14|isbn=978-0-203-71253-5}}</ref><ref>[[#Brown1991|Brown (1991)]] pp. 140–47.</ref> His support for the Khilafat movement also helped him sideline [[Muhammad Ali Jinnah]], who had announced his opposition to the ''satyagraha'' non-cooperation movement approach of Gandhi. Jinnah began creating his independent support, and later went on to lead the demand for West and East Pakistan.<ref>Minault, Gail (1982) ''The Khilafat Movement Religious Symbolism and Political Mobilization in India'', Columbia University Press, {{ISBN|0-231-05072-0}}, pp. 113–116</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Akbar S. Ahmed|title=Jinnah, Pakistan and Islamic Identity: The Search for Saladin|url=https://archive.org/details/jinnahpakistanis00ahme/page/57|year=1997|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-415-14966-2|pages=[https://archive.org/details/jinnahpakistanis00ahme/page/57 57–71]}}</ref>
By the end of 1922 the Khilafat movement had collapsed.<ref>{{cite book|author=von Pochhammer, Wilhelm |title=India's Road to Nationhood: A Political History of the Subcontinent|url=https://books.google.com/?id=mHLB4m75pisC&pg=PA437|year=2005|publisher=Allied Publishers| page=440| isbn=978-81-7764-715-0}}</ref> Turkey's Ataturk had ended the Caliphate, Khilafat movement ended, and Muslim support for Gandhi largely evaporated.<ref name=paine20/><ref name=ghosep161/> Muslim leaders and delegates abandoned Gandhi and his Congress.<ref>{{cite book|author=Brown, Judith Margaret |title=Modern India: the origins of an Asian democracy|url=https://books.google.com/?id=Eq7tAAAAMAAJ|year=1994|publisher=Oxford U. Press|page=228|isbn=978-0-19-873112-2}}</ref> Hindu-Muslim communal conflicts reignited. Deadly religious riots re-appeared in numerous cities, with 91 in [[United Provinces of Agra and Oudh]] alone.<ref>{{cite book|author=Sarkar, Sumit|title=Modern India: 1885–1947|url=https://archive.org/details/modernindia1885100sark/page/233|year=1983|publisher=Macmillan|page=[https://archive.org/details/modernindia1885100sark/page/233 233]|isbn=978-0-333-90425-1}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|editor=Markovits, Claude |title=A History of Modern India, 1480–1950|url=https://books.google.com/?id=uzOmy2y0Zh4C&pg=PA372|year= 2004|publisher=Anthem Press|page=372 |isbn=978-1-84331-004-4}}</ref>
====Non-co-operation====
{{Main|Non-co-operation movement}}
With his book [[Hind Swaraj]] (1909) Gandhi, aged 40, declared that British rule was established in India with the co-operation of Indians and had survived only because of this co-operation. If Indians refused to co-operate, British rule would collapse and swaraj would come.<ref>Mary Elizabeth King, "Mohandas K, Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Bequest: Nonviolent Civil Resistance in a Globalized World" in {{cite book|author1=Lewis V. Baldwin|author2=Paul R. Dekar|lastauthoramp=yes|title="In an Inescapable Network of Mutuality": Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Globalization of an Ethical Ideal|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6xdNAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA168|year=2013|publisher=Wipf and Stock|pages=168–69|deadurl=no|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160101071616/https://books.google.com/books?id=6xdNAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA168|archivedate=1 January 2016|isbn=9781610974349}}</ref>
[[File:Gandhi home.jpg|thumb|[[Sabarmati Ashram]], Gandhi's home in Gujarat is now a museum (photographed in 2006).]]
In February 1919, Gandhi cautioned the Viceroy of India with a cable communication that if the British were to pass the [[Rowlatt Act]], he would appeal to Indians to start civil disobedience.<ref name="Wolpert2002p99">{{cite book|author=Stanley Wolpert|title=Gandhi's Passion: The Life and Legacy of Mahatma Gandhi|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KpBy6BCupe4C|year=2002|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-515634-8|pages=99–103|deadurl=no|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20170219190635/https://books.google.com/books?id=KpBy6BCupe4C|archivedate=19 February 2017}}</ref> The British government ignored him and passed the law, stating it would not yield to threats. The ''satyagraha'' civil disobedience followed, with people assembling to protest the Rowlatt Act. On 30 March 1919, British law officers opened fire on an assembly of unarmed people, peacefully gathered, participating in ''satyagraha'' in Delhi.<ref name="Wolpert2002p99"/>
People rioted in retaliation. On 6 April 1919, a Hindu festival day, he asked a crowd to remember not to injure or kill British people, but to express their frustration with peace, to boycott British goods and burn any British clothing they owned. He emphasised the use of non-violence to the British and towards each other, even if the other side uses violence. Communities across India announced plans to gather in greater numbers to protest. Government warned him to not enter Delhi. Gandhi defied the order. On 9 April, Gandhi was arrested.<ref name="Wolpert2002p99"/>
People rioted. On 13 April 1919, people including women with children gathered in an Amritsar park, and a British officer named [[Reginald Edward Harry Dyer|Reginald Dyer]] surrounded them and ordered his troops to fire on them. The resulting [[Jallianwala Bagh massacre]] (or Amritsar massacre) of hundreds of Sikh and Hindu civilians enraged the subcontinent, but was cheered by some Britons and parts of the British media as an appropriate response. Gandhi in Ahmedabad, on the day after the massacre in Amritsar, did not criticise the British and instead criticised his fellow countrymen for not exclusively using love to deal with the hate of the British government.<ref name="Wolpert2002p99"/> Gandhi demanded that people stop all violence, stop all property destruction, and went on fast-to-death to pressure Indians to stop their rioting.<ref>{{cite book|last = Gandhi|first = Mohandas Karamchand|title = An Autobiography or The Story of My Experiments With Truth|publisher = Navajivan Publishing House|location = Ahmedabad|edition = 2|page = [https://archive.org/details/autobiographyst00gand/page/82 82]|year = 1940|isbn = 0-8070-5909-9|title-link = The Story of My Experiments with Truth}} Also available at [[s:An Autobiography or The Story of my Experiments with Truth|Wikisource]].</ref>
The massacre and Gandhi's non-violent response to it moved many, but also made some Sikhs and Hindus upset that Dyer was getting away with murder. Investigation committees were formed by the British, which Gandhi asked Indians to boycott.<ref name="Wolpert2002p99"/> The unfolding events, the massacre and the British response, led Gandhi to the belief that Indians will never get a fair equal treatment under British rulers, and he shifted his attention to ''[[Swaraj]]'' or self rule and political independence for India.<ref name="Chakrabarty2008">{{cite book|last=Chakrabarty|first=Bidyut|title=Indian Politics and Society since Independence: events, processes and ideology|url=https://books.google.com/?id=QzQHZ178C24C&pg=PA154|access-date=4 April 2012|year=2008|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-415-40868-4|page=154}}</ref> In 1921, Gandhi was the leader of the Indian National Congress.<ref name=ghosep161/> He reorganised the Congress. With Congress now behind him, and Muslim support triggered by his backing the Khilafat movement to restore the Caliph in Turkey,<ref name=ghosep161/> Gandhi had the political support and the attention of the [[British Raj]].<ref name=Roberts1923/><ref name=minault68/><ref name=paine20/>
[[File:Gandhi spinning.jpg|left|thumb|Gandhi spinning yarn, in the late 1920s]]
Gandhi expanded his nonviolent non-co-operation platform to include the [[Swadeshi movement|''swadeshi'' policy]] – the boycott of foreign-made goods, especially British goods. Linked to this was his advocacy that ''[[khadi]]'' (homespun cloth) be worn by all Indians instead of British-made textiles. Gandhi exhorted Indian men and women, rich or poor, to spend time each day spinning ''khadi'' in support of the independence movement.<ref>[[#Desai|Desai]], p. 89.</ref> In addition to boycotting British products, Gandhi urged the people to boycott British institutions and law courts, to resign from government employment, and to forsake [[British honours system|British titles and honours]]. Gandhi thus began his journey aimed at crippling the British India government economically, politically and administratively.<ref name="Shashi1996">[[#Shashi|Shashi]], p. 9.</ref>
The appeal of "Non-cooperation" grew, its social popularity drew participation from all strata of Indian society. Gandhi was arrested on 10 March 1922, tried for sedition, and sentenced to six years' imprisonment. He began his sentence on 18 March 1922. With Gandhi isolated in prison, the Indian National Congress split into two factions, one led by [[Chitta Ranjan Das]] and [[Motilal Nehru]] favouring party participation in the legislatures, and the other led by [[Chakravarti Rajagopalachari]] and [[Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel]], opposing this move.<ref>[[#Desai|Desai]], p. 131.</ref> Furthermore, co-operation among Hindus and Muslims ended as Khilafat movement collapsed with the rise of Ataturk in Turkey. Muslim leaders left the Congress and began forming Muslim organisations. The political base behind Gandhi had broken into factions. Gandhi was released in February 1924 for an [[appendicitis]] operation, having served only two years.<ref name="Datta2006">{{cite book|last=Datta|first=Amaresh|title=The Encyclopaedia of Indian Literature (Volume Two) (Devraj To Jyoti)|url=https://books.google.com/?id=zB4n3MVozbUC&pg=PA1345|access-date=4 April 2012|date=1 January 2006|publisher=Sahitya Akademi|isbn=978-81-260-1194-0|page=1345}}</ref>
====Salt Satyagraha (Salt March)====
{{Main|Salt Satyagraha}}
[[File:Salt March.ogg|thumb|Original footage of Gandhi and his followers marching to Dandi in the Salt Satyagraha]]
After his early release from prison for political crimes in 1924, over the second half of the 1920s, Gandhi continued to pursue ''swaraj''. He pushed through a resolution at the Calcutta Congress in December 1928 calling on the British government to grant India [[dominion]] status or face a new campaign of non-co-operation with complete independence for the country as its goal.{{sfn|Gandhi|1990|p=172}} After his support for the World War I with Indian combat troops, and the failure of Khilafat movement in preserving the rule of Caliph in Turkey, followed by a collapse in Muslim support for his leadership, some such as [[Subhas Chandra Bose]] and [[Bhagat Singh]] questioned his values and non-violent approach.<ref name=paine20/><ref name=ghose199/> While many Hindu leaders championed a demand for immediate independence, Gandhi revised his own call to a one-year wait, instead of two.{{sfn|Gandhi|1990|p=172}}
The British did not respond favourably to Gandhi's proposal. British political leaders such as Lord Birkenhead and [[Winston Churchill]] announced opposition to "the appeasers of Gandhi", in their discussions with European diplomats who sympathised with Indian demands.<ref>Herman (2008) pp. 419–420</ref> On 31 December 1929, the flag of India was unfurled in [[Lahore]]. Gandhi led Congress celebrated 26 January 1930 as [[Independence Day (India)|India's Independence Day]] in Lahore. This day was commemorated by almost every other Indian organisation. Gandhi then launched a new Satyagraha against the tax on salt in March 1930. Gandhi sent an ultimatum in the form of a polite letter to the viceroy of India, Lord Irwin, on 2 March. A young left wing British Quaker by the name of Reg Reynolds<ref>{{cite book|author=John. Newsinger|title=The Blood Never Dried|year= 2006|publisher= Bookmarks Publications Ltd.|isbn=1905192126|pages=141}}</ref> delivered the letter. Gandhi condemned British rule in the letter, describing it as "a curse" that "has impoverished the dumb millions by a system of progressive exploitation and by a ruinously expensive military and civil administration... It has reduced us politically to serfdom." Gandhi also mentioned in the letter that the viceroy received a salary "over five thousand times India's average income."<ref>{{cite book|author=S R Bakshi|title=Gandhi and Gandhi and the Mass Movement|year= 1988|publisher= New Delhi|pages=133–34}}</ref> British violence, Gandhi promised, was going to be defeated by Indian non-violence.
This was highlighted by the famous Salt March to Dandi from 12 March to 6 April, where, together with 78 volunteers, he marched {{convert|388|km|mi}} from Ahmedabad to Dandi, Gujarat to make salt himself, with the declared intention of breaking the salt laws. The march took 25 days to cover 240 miles with Gandhi speaking to often huge crowds along the way. Thousands of Indians joined him in Dandi. On 5 May he was interned under a regulation dating from 1827 in anticipation of a protest that he had planned. The protest at Dharasana salt works on 21 May went ahead without its leader, Gandhi. A horrified American journalist, [[Webb Miller (journalist)|Webb Miller]], described the British response thus:
{{quote|In complete silence the Gandhi men drew up and halted a hundred yards from the stockade. A picked column advanced from the crowd, waded the ditches and approached the barbed wire stockade... at a word of command, scores of native policemen rushed upon the advancing marchers and rained blows on their heads with their steel-shot lathis [long bamboo sticks]. Not one of the marchers even raised an arm to fend off blows. They went down like ninepins. From where I stood I heard the sickening whack of the clubs on unprotected skulls... Those struck down fell sprawling, unconscious or writhing with fractured skulls or broken shoulders.<ref>{{cite book|author=L. Fischer|title=Gandhi and the Mass Movement|year=1950|pages=298–99}}</ref>}}
This went on for hours until some 300 or more protesters had been beaten, many seriously injured and two killed. At no time did they offer any resistance.
This campaign was one of his most successful at upsetting British hold on India; Britain responded by imprisoning over 60,000&nbsp;people.<ref name="Hatt2002">Hatt (2002), [https://books.google.com/?id=f6vvy-J7vhcC&pg=PA33 p. 33.]</ref> Congress estimates, however, put the figure at 90,000. Among them was one of Gandhi's lieutenants, [[Jawaharlal Nehru]].
According to Sarma, Gandhi recruited women to participate in the salt tax campaigns and the boycott of foreign products, which gave many women a new self-confidence and dignity in the mainstream of Indian public life.<ref name="Sarma1994"/> However, other scholars such as Marilyn French state that Gandhi barred women from joining his civil disobedience movement because he feared he would be accused of using women as political shield.<ref name=french219/> When women insisted that they join the movement and public demonstrations, according to Thapar-Bjorkert, Gandhi asked the volunteers to get permissions of their guardians and only those women who can arrange child-care should join him.<ref name=suruchi77>{{cite book|author=Suruchi Thapar-Bjorkert|title=Women in the Indian National Movement: Unseen Faces and Unheard Voices, 1930–42|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2OyILUFU1NQC&pg=PA77|year=2006|publisher=SAGE Publications|isbn=978-0-7619-3407-3|pages=77–79}}</ref> Regardless of Gandhi's apprehensions and views, Indian women joined the Salt March by the thousands to defy the British salt taxes and monopoly on salt mining. After Gandhi's arrest, the women marched and picketed shops on their own, accepting violence and verbal abuse from British authorities for the cause in a manner Gandhi inspired.<ref name=french219>{{cite book|author=Marilyn French|title=From Eve to Dawn, A History of Women in the World, Volume IV: Revolutions and Struggles for Justice in the 20th Century|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Hyr9pwbqeqoC  |year=2008|publisher=City University of New York Press|isbn=978-1-55861-628-8|pages=219–220}}</ref>
=====Gandhi as folk hero=====
[[File:Indian workers on strike in support of Mahatma Gandhi in 1930.jpg|thumb|Indian workers on strike in support of Gandhi in 1930.]]
According to Atlury Murali, Indian Congress in the 1920s appealed to [[Andhra Pradesh]] peasants by creating Telugu language plays that combined Indian mythology and legends, linked them to Gandhi's ideas, and portrayed Gandhi as a [[messiah]], a reincarnation of ancient and medieval Indian nationalist leaders and saints. The plays built support among peasants steeped in traditional Hindu culture, according to Murali, and this effort made Gandhi a folk hero in Telugu speaking villages, a sacred messiah-like figure.<ref name="Murali1985"/>
According to Dennis Dalton, it was the ideas that were responsible for his wide following. Gandhi criticised Western civilisation as one driven by "brute force and immorality", contrasting it with his categorisation of Indian civilisation as one driven by "soul force and morality".<ref name=dennis20/> Gandhi captured the imagination of the people of his heritage with his ideas about winning "hate with love". These ideas are evidenced in his pamphlets from the 1890s, in South Africa, where too he was popular among the Indian [[Indian indenture system|indentured workers]]. After he returned to India, people flocked to him because he reflected their values.<ref name=dennis20/>
Gandhi also campaigned hard going from one rural corner of the Indian subcontinent to another. He used terminology and phrases such as ''[[Rama]]-rajya'' from ''[[Ramayana]]'', [[Prahlada]] as a paradigmatic icon, and such cultural symbols as another facet of ''swaraj'' and ''satyagraha''.<ref>{{cite book|author=S. Dhiman|title=Gandhi and Leadership: New Horizons in Exemplary Leadership|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=2Y2kCgAAQBAJ |year= 2016|publisher= Springer|isbn=978-1-137-49235-7|pages=46–49}}</ref> These ideas sounded strange outside India, during his lifetime, but they readily and deeply resonated with the culture and historic values of his people.<ref name=dennis20>{{cite book|author=Dennis Dalton|title=Mahatma Gandhi: Nonviolent Power in Action|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KxUp1igCL_0C |year=2012|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=978-0-231-15959-3|pages=8–14, 20–23, 30–35}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author1=John M Levine|author2=Michael A. Hogg|title=Encyclopedia of Group Processes and Intergroup Relations|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wrQ5DQAAQBAJ&pg=PA73|year=2010|publisher=SAGE Publications|isbn=978-1-4129-4208-9|page=73}}</ref>
====Negotiations====
The government, represented by [[E. F. L. Wood, 1st Earl of Halifax|Lord Irwin]], decided to negotiate with Gandhi. The [[Gandhi–Irwin Pact]] was signed in March 1931. The British Government agreed to free all political prisoners, in return for the suspension of the civil disobedience movement. According to the pact, Gandhi was invited to attend the Round Table Conference in London for discussions and as the sole representative of the Indian National Congress. The conference was a disappointment to Gandhi and the nationalists. Gandhi expected to discuss India's independence, while the British side focused on the Indian princes and Indian minorities rather than on a transfer of power. Lord Irwin's successor, [[Freeman Freeman-Thomas, 1st Marquess of Willingdon|Lord Willingdon]], took a hard line against India as an independent nation, began a new campaign of controlling and subduing the nationalist movement. Gandhi was again arrested, and the government tried and failed to negate his influence by completely isolating him from his followers.<ref name="Herman2008">[[#Herman2008|Herman (2008)]] [https://books.google.com/?id=tquxD6dk914C&pg=PA375 pp. 375–77.]</ref>
In Britain, [[Winston Churchill]], a prominent Conservative politician who was then out of office but later became its prime minister, became a vigorous and articulate critic of Gandhi and opponent of his long-term plans. Churchill often ridiculed Gandhi, saying in a widely reported 1931 speech:
{{quote|It is alarming and also nauseating to see Mr Gandhi, a seditious Middle Temple lawyer, now posing as a fakir of a type well known in the East, striding half-naked up the steps of the Vice-regal palace....to parley on equal terms with the representative of the King-Emperor.<ref name="Herman">{{cite book|author=Arthur Herman|title=Gandhi & Churchill: The Epic Rivalry that Destroyed an Empire and Forged Our Age|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tquxD6dk914C&pg=PA359|year=2008|publisher=Random House|page=359|deadurl=no|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160101071616/https://books.google.com/books?id=tquxD6dk914C&pg=PA359|archivedate=1 January 2016|df=dmy-all|isbn=9780553905045}}</ref>}}
Churchill's bitterness against Gandhi grew in the 1930s. He called Gandhi as the one who was "seditious in aim" whose evil genius and multiform menace was attacking the British empire. Churchill called him a dictator, a "Hindu [[Mussolini]]", fomenting a race war, trying to replace the Raj with [[Brahmin]] cronies, playing on the ignorance of Indian masses, all for selfish gain.<ref name="Herman2008p378"/> Churchill attempted to isolate Gandhi, and his criticism of Gandhi was widely covered by European and American press. It gained Churchill sympathetic support, but it also increased support for Gandhi among Europeans. The developments heightened Churchill's anxiety that the "British themselves would give up out of pacifism and misplaced conscience".<ref name="Herman2008p378">{{cite book|author=Arthur Herman|title=Gandhi & Churchill: The Epic Rivalry that Destroyed an Empire and Forged Our Age|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tquxD6dk914C|year=2008|publisher=Random House|isbn=978-0-553-90504-5|pages=378–381|deadurl=no|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140913065817/http://books.google.com/books?id=tquxD6dk914C|archivedate=13 September 2014}}</ref>
====Round Table Conferences====
[[File:Mahadev Desai and Gandhi 2 1939.jpg|thumb|[[Mahadev Desai]] (left) was Gandhi's personal assistant, both at Birla House, Bombay, 7 April 1939]]
During the discussions between Gandhi and the British government over 1931–32 at the [[Round Table Conferences (India)|Round Table Conferences]], Gandhi, now aged about 62, sought constitutional reforms as a preparation to the end of colonial British rule, and begin the self-rule by Indians.<ref name="Muldoon92"/> The British side sought reforms that would keep Indian subcontinent as a colony. The British negotiators proposed constitutional reforms on a British Dominion model that established separate electorates based on religious and social divisions. The British questioned the Congress party and Gandhi's authority to speak for all of India.<ref>{{cite book|author=Rajmohan Gandhi|title=Gandhi: The Man, His People, and the Empire|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FauJL7LKXmkC|year=2006|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-25570-8|pages=332–333|deadurl=no|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20170222104043/https://books.google.com/books?id=FauJL7LKXmkC|archivedate=22 February 2017}}</ref> They invited Indian religious leaders, such as Muslims and Sikhs, to press their demands along religious lines, as well as [[B. R. Ambedkar]] as the representative leader of the untouchables.<ref name="Muldoon92">{{cite book|author=Andrew Muldoon|title=Empire, Politics and the Creation of the 1935 India Act: Last Act of the Raj|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D1gfDAAAQBAJ |year=2016|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-317-14431-1|pages=92–99}}</ref> Gandhi vehemently opposed a constitution that enshrined rights or representations based on communal divisions, because he feared that it would not bring people together but divide them, perpetuate their status and divert the attention from India's struggle to end the colonial rule.<ref>{{cite book|author=Andrew Muldoon|title=Empire, Politics and the Creation of the 1935 India Act: Last Act of the Raj|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=D1gfDAAAQBAJ |year= 2016|publisher= Routledge|isbn=978-1-317-14431-1|page= 97}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Judith Margaret Brown|title=Gandhi: Prisoner of Hope|url=https://archive.org/details/gandhi00judi/page/252|year=1991|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=978-0-300-05125-4|pages=[https://archive.org/details/gandhi00judi/page/252 252–257]}}</ref>
The Second Round Table conference was the only time he left India between 1914 and his death in 1948. He declined the government’s offer of accommodation in an expensive [[West End of London|West End]] hotel, preferring to stay in the [[East End of London|East End]], to live among working-class people, as he did in India.<ref>English Heritage website with information on his stay at Kingsley Hall https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/blue-plaques/mahatma-gandhi-kingsley-hall/</ref> He based himself in a small [[monastic cell|cell-bedroom]] at [[Kingsley Hall]] for the [[Kingsley Hall#Gandhi|three month duration of his stay]] and was enthusiastically received by East Enders.<ref>the video shows MKGs populariy in the poorer districts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLYIEajnqnI</ref>. During this time he renewed his links with the British vegetarian movement.
After Gandhi returned from the Second Round Table conference, he started a new ''satyagraha''. He was arrested and imprisoned at the [[Yerwada Jail]], Pune. While he was in prison, the British government enacted a new law that granted untouchables a separate electorate. It came to be known as the [[Communal Award]].<ref>{{cite book|author=Arthur Herman|title=Gandhi & Churchill: The Epic Rivalry that Destroyed an Empire and Forged Our Age|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tquxD6dk914C|year=2008|publisher=Random House|isbn=978-0-553-90504-5|pages=382–390|deadurl=no|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140913065817/http://books.google.com/books?id=tquxD6dk914C|archivedate=13 September 2014}}</ref> In protest, Gandhi started a fast-unto-death, while he was held in prison.<ref name="Dirks2011p267">{{cite book|author=Nicholas B. Dirks|title=Castes of Mind: Colonialism and the Making of Modern India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UP7vmkFSJhIC&pg=PA268|year=2011|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-1-4008-4094-6|pages=267–274}}</ref> The resulting public outcry forced the government, in consultations with Ambedkar, to replace the Communal Award with a compromise [[Poona Pact]].<ref name=yer>{{cite book |title=Gandhi's Coolie: Life & Times of Ramkrishna Bajaj|author=Kamath, M. V. |publisher=Allied Publishers|year=1995|isbn=81-7023-487-5 |page= 24|url=https://books.google.com/?id=7bRZgojbsPsC&pg=PA24}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Rachel Fell McDermott|display-authors=etal|title=Sources of Indian Traditions: Modern India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=w8qJAwAAQBAJ |year=2014|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=978-0-231-51092-9|pages=369–370}}</ref>
====Congress politics====
In 1934 Gandhi resigned from Congress party membership. He did not disagree with the party's position but felt that if he resigned, his popularity with Indians would cease to stifle the party's membership, which actually varied, including communists, socialists, trade unionists, students, religious conservatives, and those with pro-business convictions, and that these various voices would get a chance to make themselves heard. Gandhi also wanted to avoid being a target for Raj propaganda by leading a party that had temporarily accepted political accommodation with the Raj.{{sfn|Gandhi|1990|p=246}}
Gandhi returned to active politics again in 1936, with the Nehru presidency and the Lucknow session of the Congress. Although Gandhi wanted a total focus on the task of winning independence and not speculation about India's future, he did not restrain the Congress from adopting socialism as its goal. Gandhi had a clash with Subhas Chandra Bose, who had been elected president in 1938, and who had previously expressed a lack of faith in nonviolence as a means of protest.<ref>Ghose, Sankar (1992). ''Jawaharlal Nehru, A Biography'', [https://books.google.com/?id=MUeyUhVGIDMC&pg=PA137 p. 137]. Allied Publishers Limited.</ref> Despite Gandhi's opposition, Bose won a second term as Congress President, against Gandhi's nominee, [[Bhogaraju Pattabhi Sitaramayya|Dr. Pattabhi Sitaramayya]]; but left the Congress when the All-India leaders resigned en masse in protest of his abandonment of the principles introduced by Gandhi.{{sfn|Gandhi|1990|pp=277–281}}<ref name="Sarkar2006"/> Gandhi declared that Sitaramayya's defeat was his defeat.<ref>{{cite web|last=Dash |first=Siddhartha |work=Orissa Review |url=http://orissa.gov.in/e-magazine/Orissareview/jan2005/englishPdf/Gandhi_subhas.pdf |title=Gandhi and Subhas Chandra Bose |date=January 2005 |access-date=12 April 2012 |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20121224061752/http://orissa.gov.in/e-magazine/Orissareview/jan2005/englishPdf/Gandhi_subhas.pdf |archivedate=24 December 2012 }}</ref>
====World War II and ''Quit India movement''====
{{Main|Quit India Movement}}
[[File:Gandhi and Nehru 1942.jpg|thumb|[[Jawaharlal Nehru]] and Gandhi in 1946]]
Gandhi opposed providing any help to the British war effort and he campaigned against any Indian participation in the World War II.<ref name=herman467/> Gandhi's campaign did not enjoy the support of Indian masses and many Indian leaders such as Sardar Patel and Rajendra Prasad. His campaign was a failure.<ref name=herman467/> Over 2.5&nbsp;million Indians ignored Gandhi, volunteered and joined the British military to fight on various fronts of the allied forces.<ref name=herman467>{{cite book|author=Arthur Herman|title=Gandhi & Churchill: The Epic Rivalry that Destroyed an Empire and Forged Our Age|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tquxD6dk914C|year=2008|publisher=Random House|isbn=978-0-553-90504-5|pages=467–470|deadurl=no|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140913065817/http://books.google.com/books?id=tquxD6dk914C|archivedate=13 September 2014}}</ref>
Gandhi opposition to the Indian participation in the [[World War II]] was motivated by his belief that India could not be party to a war ostensibly being fought for democratic freedom while that freedom was denied to India itself.<ref>{{cite book|author=Bipan Chandra|title=India's Struggle for Independence|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0q7xH06NrFkC&pg=PT543|year=2000|publisher=Penguin Books|isbn=978-81-8475-183-3|page=543}}</ref> He also condemned Nazism and Fascism, a view which won endorsement of other Indian leaders. As the war progressed, Gandhi intensified his demand for independence, calling for the British to ''Quit India'' in a 1942 speech in Mumbai.<ref name="Wolpertp74">{{cite book|author=Stanley Wolpert|title=Gandhi's Passion: The Life and Legacy of Mahatma Gandhi|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KpBy6BCupe4C|year=2002|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-515634-8|pages=74–75|deadurl=no|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20170219190635/https://books.google.com/books?id=KpBy6BCupe4C|archivedate=19 February 2017}}</ref> This was Gandhi's and the Congress Party's most definitive revolt aimed at securing the British exit from India.{{sfn|Gandhi|1990|p=309}} The British government responded quickly to the Quit India speech, and within hours after Gandhi's speech arrested Gandhi and all the members of the Congress Working Committee.<ref>{{cite book|author=Gurcharan Das|title=A Fine Family|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IgbeMDKvkU0C&pg=PA49 |year=1990 |publisher= Penguin Books|isbn=978-0-14-012258-9|pages=49–50}}</ref> His countrymen retaliated the arrests by damaging or burning down hundreds of government owned railway stations, police stations, and cutting down telegraph wires.<ref name="Wolpertp205"/>
In 1942, Gandhi now nearing age 73, urged his people to completely stop co-operating with the imperial government. In this effort, he urged that they neither kill nor injure British people, but be willing to suffer and die if violence is initiated by the British officials.<ref name="Wolpertp74"/> He clarified that the movement would not be stopped because of any individual acts of violence, saying that the ''"ordered anarchy"'' of ''"the present system of administration"'' was ''"worse than real anarchy."''<ref>{{cite book |title=The Mahatma and mother India: essays on Gandhiʼs nonviolence and nationalism |last=Brock |first=Peter |year=1983 |publisher=[[Navajivan Publishing House]] |page=34 |url=https://books.google.com/?id=vRduAAAAMAAJ}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru: a historic partnership |last=Limaye |first=Madhu |authorlink1=Madhu Limaye |isbn=81-7018-547-5 |publisher=B. R. Publishing Corporation |year=1990 |page=11 |url=https://books.google.com/?id=WVIwAQAAIAAJ}}</ref> He urged Indians to ''Karo ya maro'' ("Do or die") in the cause of their rights and freedoms.<ref name="Wolpertp74"/><ref>{{cite book|author=von Pochhammer, Wilhelm |title=India's Road to Nationhood: A Political History of the Subcontinent|url= https://books.google.com/?id=mHLB4m75pisC&pg=PA469 |year=2005 |publisher=Allied Publishers|page= 469|isbn= 81-7764-715-6}}</ref>
[[File:Gandhi writing 1942.jpg|thumb|left|Gandhi in 1942, the year he launched the [[Quit India Movement]]]]
Gandhi's arrest lasted two years, as he was held in the [[Aga Khan Palace]] in [[Pune]]. During this period, his long time secretary Mahadev Desai died of a heart attack, his wife Kasturba died after 18 months' imprisonment on 22 February 1944; and Gandhi suffered a severe [[malaria]] attack.<ref name="Wolpertp205">{{cite book|author=Stanley Wolpert|title=Gandhi's Passion: The Life and Legacy of Mahatma Gandhi|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KpBy6BCupe4C|year=2002|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-515634-8|pages=205–211|deadurl=no|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20170219190635/https://books.google.com/books?id=KpBy6BCupe4C|archivedate=19 February 2017}}</ref> While in jail, he agreed to an interview with Stuart Gelder, a British journalist. Gelder then composed and released an interview summary, cabled it to the mainstream press, that announced sudden concessions Gandhi was willing to make, comments that shocked his countrymen, the Congress workers and even Gandhi. The latter two claimed that it distorted what Gandhi actually said on a range of topics and falsely repudiated the Quit India movement.<ref name="Wolpertp205"/>
Gandhi was released before the end of the war on 6 May 1944 because of his failing health and necessary surgery; the Raj did not want him to die in prison and enrage the nation. He came out of detention to an altered political scene – the [[All-India Muslim League|Muslim League]] for example, which a few years earlier had appeared marginal, "now occupied the centre of the political stage"<ref name="Lapping1989"/> and the topic of [[Muhammad Ali Jinnah]]'s campaign for Pakistan was a major talking point. Gandhi and Jinnah had extensive correspondence and the two men met several times over a period of two weeks in September 1944, where Gandhi insisted on a united religiously plural and independent India which included Muslims and non-Muslims of the Indian subcontinent coexisting. Jinnah rejected this proposal and insisted instead for partitioning the subcontinent on religious lines to create a separate Muslim India (later Pakistan).<ref name=Khan2007-page1/><ref>{{cite book|author=Mahatma Gandhi|title=The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0awHaT3ZmdEC|year=2000|isbn=978-81-230-0169-2|pages=456–462}}, Archive of [https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.61312/2015.61312.Gandhi-jinnah-Talks#page/n29/mode/2up Gandhi-Jinnah communications (pp. 11–34)]</ref> These discussions continued through 1947.<ref>{{cite news |title=Gandhi, Jinnah Meet First Time Since '44; Disagree on Pakistan, but Will Push Peace |access-date=25 March 2012 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1947/05/07/archives/gandhi-jinnah-meet-first-time-since-44-disagree-on-pakistan-but.html |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=7 May 1947 |deadurl=no |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130430103734/http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F30A1EFA3F58147B93C5A9178ED85F438485F9 |archivedate=30 April 2013  }} {{subscription needed}}</ref>
While the leaders of Congress languished in jail, the other parties supported the war and gained organizational strength. Underground publications flailed at the ruthless suppression of Congress, but it had little control over events.<ref name="BhattacharyaStudies2001">{{cite book|last1=Bhattacharya|first1=Sanjoy|title=Propaganda and information in Eastern India, 1939–45: a necessary weapon of war|url=https://books.google.com/?id=M2GI26jditsC&pg=PA33|year=2001|publisher=Psychology Press|isbn=978-0-7007-1406-3|page=33}}</ref> At the end of the war, the British gave clear indications that power would be transferred to Indian hands. At this point Gandhi called off the struggle, and around 100,000 political prisoners were released, including the Congress's leadership.<ref name=autogenerated2>[[#Shashi|Shashi]], p. 13.</ref>
====Partition and independence====
{{See also|Indian independence movement|Partition of India}}
[[File:Gandhi Jinnah 1944.jpg|thumb|left|Gandhi with [[Muhammad Ali Jinnah]] in 1944]]
Gandhi opposed [[Partition (law)|partition]] of the [[Indian subcontinent]] along religious lines.<ref>Reprinted in [[#Fischer2002|Fischer (2002)]], pp. 106–08.</ref> The Indian National Congress and Gandhi called for the [[British Empire|British]] to [[Quit India Movement|Quit India]]. However, the [[All-India Muslim League|Muslim League]] demanded "Divide and Quit India".<ref>{{cite book|author1=Hermann Kulke|author2=Dietmar Rothermund|title=A History of India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RoW9GuFJ9GIC |year=2004|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-415-32920-0|pages=311–312, context: 308–316}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Penderel Moon|title=Divide and Quit|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=WpViCTc-YAgC |year= 1962|publisher= University of California Press|pages= 11–28 }}</ref> Gandhi suggested an agreement which required the Congress and the Muslim League to co-operate and attain independence under a provisional government, thereafter, the question of partition could be resolved by a plebiscite in the districts with a Muslim majority.<ref name="(Mahatma)Jack1994">[[#Jack|Jack]], p. 418.</ref>
Jinnah rejected Gandhi's proposal and called for [[Direct Action Day]], on 16 August 1946, to press Muslims to publicly gather in cities and support his proposal for partition of Indian subcontinent into a Muslim state and non-Muslim state. Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, the Muslim League Chief Minister of Bengal – now [[Bangladesh]] and [[West Bengal]], gave Calcutta's police special holiday to celebrate the Direct Action Day.<ref name="Wolpert118">{{cite book|author=Stanley Wolpert|title=Shameful Flight: The Last Years of the British Empire in India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zuoMsBWCTBUC|year=2009|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-539394-1|pages=118–121|deadurl=no|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20131001210558/http://books.google.com/books?id=zuoMsBWCTBUC|archivedate=1 October 2013}}</ref> The Direct Action Day triggered a mass murder of Calcutta Hindus and the torching of their property, and holidaying police were missing to contain or stop the conflict.<ref name="Chapter 1">[[#Wolpert|Wolpert]], [https://www.nytimes.com/books/first/w/wolpert-gandhi.html Chapter 1.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160321161002/http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/w/wolpert-gandhi.html |date=21 March 2016 }}, Oxford University Press</ref> The British government did not order its army to move in to contain the violence.<ref name="Wolpert118"/> The violence on Direct Action Day led to retaliatory violence against Muslims across India. Thousands of Hindus and Muslims were murdered, and tens of thousands were injured in the cycle of violence in the days that followed.<ref>{{cite book|author=Stanley Wolpert|title=Shameful Flight: The Last Years of the British Empire in India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zuoMsBWCTBUC|year=2009|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-539394-1|pages=118–127|deadurl=no|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20131001210558/http://books.google.com/books?id=zuoMsBWCTBUC|archivedate=1 October 2013}}</ref> Gandhi visited the most riot-prone areas to appeal a stop to the massacres.<ref name="Chapter 1"/>
[[File:Mountbattens with Gandhi (IND 5298).jpg|thumb|Gandhi in 1947, with Lord [[Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma|Louis Mountbatten]], Britain's last Viceroy of India, and his wife [[Edwina Mountbatten, Countess Mountbatten of Burma|Edwina Mountbatten]]]]
[[Archibald Wavell, 1st Earl Wavell|Archibald Wavell]], the Viceroy and Governor-General of British India for three years through February 1947, had worked with Gandhi and Jinnah to find a common ground, before and after accepting Indian independence in principle. Wavell condemned Gandhi's character and motives as well as his ideas. Wavell accused Gandhi of harbouring the single minded idea to "overthrow British rule and influence and to establish a Hindu raj", and called Gandhi a "malignant, malevolent, exceedingly shrewd" politician.<ref name="Dalton2012p65"/> Wavell feared a civil war on the Indian subcontinent, and doubted Gandhi would be able to stop it.<ref name="Dalton2012p65">{{cite book|author=Dennis Dalton|title=Mahatma Gandhi: Nonviolent Power in Action|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=shCQVfWixiAC |year= 2012|publisher= Columbia University Press|isbn= 978-0-231-53039-2|pages=64–66}}</ref>
The British reluctantly agreed to grant independence to the people of the Indian subcontinent, but accepted Jinnah's proposal of partitioning the land into Pakistan and India. Gandhi was involved in the final negotiations, but [[Stanley Wolpert]] states the "plan to carve up British India was never approved of or accepted by Gandhi".<ref>[[#Wolpert|Wolpert]], Oxford University Press, p. 7.</ref>
The partition was controversial and violently disputed. More than half a million were killed in religious riots as 10 million to 12&nbsp;million non-Muslims (Hindus, Sikhs mostly) migrated from Pakistan into India, and Muslims migrated from India into Pakistan, across the newly created borders of India, West Pakistan and East Pakistan.<ref name="MetcalfMetcalf2006">{{cite book|last1=Metcalf|first1=Barbara Daly|last2=Metcalf|first2=Thomas R.|title=A concise history of modern India|url=https://books.google.com/?id=iuESgYNYPl0C|year=2006|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-86362-9|pages=221–22}}</ref>
Gandhi spent the day of independence not celebrating the end of the British rule but appealing for peace among his countrymen by fasting and spinning in Calcutta on 15 August 1947. The partition had gripped the Indian subcontinent with religious violence and the streets were filled with corpses.<ref name=gs/> Some writers credit Gandhi's fasting and protests for stopping the religious riots and communal violence. Others do not. Archibald Wavell, for example, upon learning of Gandhi's assassination, commented, "I always thought he [Gandhi] had more of malevolence than benevolence in him, but who am I to judge, and how can an Englishman estimate a Hindu?"<ref name="Dalton2012p65"/>
===Assassination===
{{Main|Assassination of Mahatma Gandhi}}
At 5:17&nbsp;pm on 30 January 1948, Gandhi was with his grandnieces in the garden of the former [[Birla House]] (now [[Gandhi Smriti]]), on his way to address a prayer meeting, when [[Nathuram Godse]] fired three bullets from a [[Beretta M1934]] [[9×17mm Corto|9mm Corto]] pistol into his chest at point-blank range. According to some accounts, Gandhi died instantly.<ref>{{cite book|author=Mahatma Gandhi|title=The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=USxWAAAAYAAJ|year=2000|publisher=Publications Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India|isbn=978-81-230-0154-8|page=130}}</ref><ref name="Gandhi2007">{{Cite book|last=Gandhi|first=Tushar A.|title="Let's Kill Gandhi !": A Chronicle of His Last Days, the Conspiracy, Murder, Investigation, and Trial|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x-dsbNz7syQC&pg=PT12|year=2007|publisher=Rupa & Company|isbn=978-81-291-1094-7|page=12|deadurl=no|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160101071616/https://books.google.com/books?id=x-dsbNz7syQC&pg=PT12|archivedate=1 January 2016}}</ref> In other accounts, such as one prepared by an eyewitness journalist, Gandhi was carried into the Birla House, into a bedroom. There he died about 30 minutes later as one of Gandhi's family members read verses from Hindu scriptures.<ref>{{cite book|author=Nicholas Henry Pronko|title=Empirical Foundations of Psychology|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0VOBAAAAQBAJ|year=2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-136-32701-8|pages=342–343}}</ref>
Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru addressed his countrymen over the [[All-India Radio]] saying:<ref name="Ghose1991">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5l0BPnxN1h8C&pg=PA367&dq=all+india+radio+Friends+and+comrades,+the+light+has+gone+out+of+our+lives#v=onepage&q=all%20india%20radio%20Friends%20and%20comrades%2C%20the%20light%20has%20gone%20out%20of%20our%20lives |title=Mahatma Gandhi|author=Sankar Ghose|year= 1991|publisher=Allied Publishers|isbn=978-81-7023-205-6|page=386}}</ref>
<blockquote>Friends and comrades, the light has gone out of our lives, and there is darkness everywhere, and I do not quite know what to tell you or how to say it. Our beloved leader, Bapu as we called him, the father of the nation, is no more. Perhaps I am wrong to say that; nevertheless, we will not see him again, as we have seen him for these many years, we will not run to him for advice or seek solace from him, and that is a terrible blow, not only for me, but for millions and millions in this country.<ref name="Jai1996">Jain, 1996, [https://books.google.com/?id=5Wrc1K0uJTgC&pg=PA45 pp. 45–47.]</ref></blockquote>
[[File:MKGandhi assassination spot.jpg|left|thumb|upright=0.9|Memorial where Gandhi was assassinated in 1948. His stylised footsteps lead to the memorial.]]
Gandhi's assassin Godse made no attempt to escape and was seized by the witnesses. He was arrested. In the weeks that followed, his collaborators were arrested as well.<ref>{{cite book|author=Jay Robert Nash|title=Almanac of World Crime|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9aQlCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA69|year=1981|publisher=New York: Rowman & Littlefield|isbn=978-1-4617-4768-0|page=69}}</ref><ref>G.D. Khosla (1965), [http://www.mkgandhi.org/ebks/The-Murder-of-the-Mahatma.pdf The Murder of the Mahatma] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150921232029/http://www.mkgandhi.org/ebks/the-murder-of-the-mahatma.pdf |date=21 September 2015 }}, Chief Justice of Punjab, Jaico Publishers, pages 38</ref> Godse was a Hindu nationalist with links to the extremist [[Hindu Mahasabha]].<ref>{{cite book|author=Hardiman, David |title=Gandhi in His Time and Ours: The Global Legacy of His Ideas|url=https://books.google.com/?id=XwStR-MUwPQC |year= 2003|publisher= Columbia University Press|pages=174–76|isbn=978-0-231-13114-8}}</ref> They were tried in court at Delhi's Red Fort. At his trial, Godse did not deny the charges nor express any remorse. According to Claude Markovits, a French historian noted for his studies of colonial India, Godse stated that he killed Gandhi because of his complacence towards Muslims, holding Gandhi responsible for the frenzy of violence and sufferings during the subcontinent's partition into Pakistan and India. Godse accused Gandhi of subjectivism and of acting as if only he had a monopoly of the truth. Godse was found guilty and executed in 1949.<ref name="Markovits2004p57">{{cite book|author=Claude Markovits|title=The UnGandhian Gandhi: The Life and Afterlife of the Mahatma|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=SpDvZO8xNNgC&pg=PA57 |year= 2004|publisher= Anthem Press|isbn=978-1-84331-127-0|pages=57–59}}</ref><ref name=godse1948>{{cite book|author= N V Godse|title = Why I assassinated Mahatma Gandhi?| publisher= Surya Bharti Parkashan (Reprint: 1993)| year=1948| oclc= 33991989}}</ref>
[[File:Gandhi funeral.jpg|thumb|Gandhi's funeral was marked by millions of Indians.<ref name=Gandhi94>{{cite book|author=Mahatma Gandhi|title=The Gandhi Reader: A Sourcebook of His Life and Writings|url=https://archive.org/details/gandhireadersou00gand/page/483|year=1994|publisher=Grove Press|isbn=978-0-8021-3161-4|pages=[https://archive.org/details/gandhireadersou00gand/page/483 483–489]}}</ref>]]
Gandhi's death was mourned nationwide. Over a million people joined the five-mile long funeral procession that took over five hours to reach Raj Ghat from Birla house, where he was assassinated, and another million watched the procession pass by.<ref name=Gandhi94/> Gandhi's body was transported on a weapons carrier, whose chassis was dismantled overnight to allow a high-floor to be installed so that people could catch a glimpse of his body. The engine of the vehicle was not used; instead four drag-ropes manned by 50 people each pulled the vehicle.<ref name=ie48/> All Indian-owned establishments in London remained closed in mourning as thousands of people from all faiths and denominations and Indians from all over Britain converged at [[India House, London|India House]] in London.<ref name=ie48pg5/>
Gandhi's assassination dramatically changed the political landscape. Nehru became his political heir. According to Markovits, while Gandhi was alive, Pakistan's declaration that it was a "Muslim state" had led Indian groups to demand that it be declared a "Hindu state".<ref name="Markovits2004p57"/> Nehru used Gandhi's martyrdom as a political weapon to silence all advocates of Hindu nationalism as well as his political challengers. He linked Gandhi's assassination to politics of hatred and ill-will.<ref name="Markovits2004p57"/>
According to Guha, Nehru and his Congress colleagues called on Indians to honour Gandhi's memory and even more his ideals.<ref>Guha, Ramachandra (2007), ''[[India after Gandhi]]'', Harper Collins, {{ISBN|978-0-330-50554-3}}, pp. 37–40.</ref><ref>Gopal, Sarvepalli (1979), ''Jawaharlal Nehru'', Jonathan Cape, London, {{ISBN|0-224-01621-0}}, pp. 16–17.</ref> Nehru used the assassination to consolidate the authority of the new Indian state. Gandhi's death helped marshal support for the new government and legitimise the Congress Party's control, leveraged by the massive outpouring of Hindu expressions of grief for a man who had inspired them for decades. The government suppressed the [[Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh|RSS]], the Muslim National Guards, and the [[Khaksars]], with some 200,000 arrests.<ref name="Khan2011"/>
For years after the assassination, states Markovits, "Gandhi's shadow loomed large over the political life of the new Indian Republic". The government quelled any opposition to its economic and social policies, despite they being contrary to Gandhi's ideas, by reconstructing Gandhi's image and ideals.<ref>{{cite book|author=Claude Markovits|title=The UnGandhian Gandhi: The Life and Afterlife of the Mahatma|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SpDvZO8xNNgC&pg=PA57 |year=2004|publisher=Anthem Press|isbn=978-1-84331-127-0|pages=58–62}}</ref>
====Funeral and memorials====
Gandhi was cremated in accordance with Hindu tradition. Gandhi's ashes were poured into urns which were sent across India for memorial services.<ref>{{cite book|title=LIFE|url=https://books.google.com/?id=LEEEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA76|date=15 March 1948|publisher=Time Inc|page=76|issn=0024-3019}}</ref> Most of the ashes were immersed at the [[Sangam at Allahabad]] on 12 February 1948, but some were secretly taken away. In 1997, [[Tushar Gandhi]] immersed the contents of one urn, found in a bank vault and reclaimed through the courts, at the Sangam at Allahabad.<ref name="Guardian-2008-ashes"/><ref name="Kumar2006"/> Some of Gandhi's ashes were scattered at the source of the [[Nile River]] near [[Jinja, Uganda]], and a memorial plaque marks the event. On 30 January 2008, the contents of another urn were immersed at [[Girgaum Chowpatty]]. Another urn is at the [[Aga Khan Palace|palace]] of the [[Aga Khan]] in [[Pune]] (where Gandhi was held as a political prisoner from 1942 to 1944) and another in the [[Self-Realization Fellowship Lake Shrine]] in Los Angeles.<ref name="Guardian-2008-ashes" /><ref name="GWPM"/>
The Birla House site where Gandhi was assassinated is now a memorial called Gandhi Smriti. The place near Yamuna river where he was cremated is the [[Raj Ghat and other memorials|Rāj Ghāt]] memorial in New Delhi.<ref>{{cite book|author=Margot Bigg|title=Delhi|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kmP1ALZKj2cC&pg=PA14|year=2012|publisher=Avalon|isbn=978-1-61238-490-0|page=14}}</ref> A black marble platform, it bears the epigraph "Hē Rāma" ([[Devanagari]]: ''हे ! राम'' or, ''Hey [[Rama|Raam]]''). These are widely believed to be Gandhi's last words after he was shot, though the veracity of this statement has been disputed.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Lal, Vinay|date=January 2001|url=http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/southasia/History/Gandhi/HeRam_gandhi.html|title='Hey Ram': The Politics of Gandhi's Last Words|journal=Humanscape|volume=8|issue=1|pages=34–38|deadurl=no|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20040604013327/http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/southasia/History/Gandhi/HeRam_gandhi.html|archivedate=4 June 2004}}</ref>
==Principles, practices and beliefs==
Gandhi's statements, letters and life have attracted much political and scholarly analysis of his principles, practices and beliefs, including what influenced him. Some writers present him as a paragon of ethical living and pacifism, while others present him as a more complex, contradictory and evolving character influenced by his culture and circumstances.<ref>{{cite book|author=William Borman|title=Gandhi and Non-Violence|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=U6DE9OUvrTEC |year= 1986|publisher= State University of New York Press|isbn=978-0-88706-331-2|pages=192–195, 208–209}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Dennis Dalton|title=Mahatma Gandhi: Nonviolent Power in Action|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KxUp1igCL_0C |year=2012|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=978-0-231-15959-3|pages=30–35}}, Quote: "Yet he [Gandhi] must bear some of the responsibility for losing his followers along the way. The sheer vagueness and contradictions recurrent throughout his writing made it easier to accept him as a saint than to fathom the challenge posed by his demanding beliefs. Gandhi saw no harm in self-contradictions: life was a series of experiments, and any principle might change if Truth so dictated".</ref>
===Influences===
[[File:Tagore Gandhi.jpg|thumb|Gandhi with poet [[Rabindranath Tagore]], 1940]]
Gandhi grew up in a [[Hindu]] and [[Jain]] religious atmosphere in his native Gujarat, which were his primary influences, but he was also influenced by his personal reflections and literature of Hindu Bhakti saints, [[Advaita Vedanta]], [[Islam]], [[Buddhism]], [[Christianity]], and thinkers such as [[Tolstoy]], [[John Ruskin|Ruskin]] and [[Thoreau]].<ref name=brown93>{{cite book|author1=Brown, Judith M.  |author2=Parel, Anthony  |lastauthoramp=yes |title=The Cambridge Companion to Gandhi|url=https://books.google.com/?id=KLM8kMZZu-IC&pg=PA93|year=2011|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-13345-6|page=93}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Indira Carr|editor=Stuart Brown|display-editors=etal|title=Biographical Dictionary of Twentieth-Century Philosophers|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UZQqBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA263 |year=2012|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-134-92796-8|pages=263–264}}, Quote: "Gandhi, Mohandas Karamchand. Indian. born: 2 October 1869, Gujarat; (...) Influences: [[Vaishnavism]], [[Jainism]] and [[Advaita Vedanta]]."</ref> At age 57 he declared himself to be [[Advaita Vedanta|Advaitist Hindu]] in his religious persuasion, but added that he supported [[Dvaita|Dvaitist]] viewpoints and religious pluralism.<ref>{{cite book|author=J. Jordens|title=Gandhi's Religion: A Homespun Shawl|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ELODDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA116|year=1998|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|isbn=978-0-230-37389-1|page=116}}, '''Quote:''' "I am an advaitist, and yet I can support Dvaitism".</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Jeffrey D. Long|editor=Rita Sherma and Arvind Sharma|title=Hermeneutics and Hindu Thought: Toward a Fusion of Horizons|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x4eXRvwyvtMC&pg=PA194 |year=2008|publisher=Springer |isbn=978-1-4020-8192-7|page=194}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Gandhi, Mahatma|title=Hinduism According to Gandhi: Thoughts, Writings and Critical Interpretation|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IYsxh5qiUc0C&pg=PA85|year=2013|publisher=Orient Paperbacks|isbn=978-81-222-0558-9|page=85}}</ref>
Gandhi was influenced by his devout Vaishnava Hindu mother, the regional Hindu temples and [[Bhakti movement|saint tradition]] which co-existed with Jain tradition in Gujarat.<ref name=brown93/><ref>{{cite book|author=Anil Mishra|title=Reading Gandhi|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Xa8cD95Mt4YC&pg=PA2 |year=2012|publisher=Pearson |isbn=978-81-317-9964-2|page=2}}</ref> Historian R.B. Cribb states that Gandhi's thought evolved over time, with his early ideas becoming the core or scaffolding for his mature philosophy. He committed himself early to truthfulness, [[Temperance (virtue)|temperance]], [[chastity]], and vegetarianism.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Cribb | first1 = R. B. | year = 1985 | title = The Early Political Philosophy of M. K. Gandhi, 1869–1893 | journal = Asian Profile | volume = 13 | issue = 4| pages = 353–60 }}</ref>
Gandhi's London lifestyle incorporated the values he had grown up with. When he returned to India in 1891, his outlook was parochial and he could not make a living as a lawyer. This challenged his belief that practicality and morality necessarily coincided. By moving in 1893 to South Africa he found a solution to this problem and developed the central concepts of his mature philosophy.<ref name="Crib1985">Crib (1985).</ref>
According to Bhikhu Parekh, three books that influenced Gandhi most in South Africa were [[William Mackintire Salter|William Salter's]] ''Ethical Religion'' (1889); [[Henry David Thoreau]]'s ''[[Civil Disobedience (Thoreau)|On the Duty of Civil Disobedience]]'' (1849); and [[Leo Tolstoy]]'s ''[[The Kingdom of God Is Within You]]'' (1894). Ruskin inspired his decision to live an austere life on a commune, at first on the Phoenix Farm in Natal and then on the Tolstoy Farm just outside Johannesburg, South Africa.<ref name="Parekh2001"/> The most profound influence on Gandhi were those from Hinduism, Christianity and Jainism, states Parekh, with his thoughts "in harmony with the classical Indian traditions, specially the Advaita or monistic tradition".<ref>{{cite book|author=Bhikhu C. Parekh|title=Gandhi|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Qwyjly4tTUUC |year=2001|publisher=Sterling Publishing|isbn=978-1-4027-6887-3|pages=43, 71}}</ref>
According to Indira Carr and others, Gandhi was influenced by Vaishnavism, Jainism and Advaita Vedanta.<ref>{{cite book|author=Indira Carr|editor=Stuart Brown|display-editors=etal|title=Biographical Dictionary of Twentieth-Century Philosophers|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UZQqBgAAQBAJ |year=2012|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-134-92796-8|page=263}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Glyn Richards|title=Studies in Religion: A Comparative Approach to Theological and Philosophical Themes |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fQ2_DAAAQBAJ&pg=PA64 |year=2016|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-1-349-24147-7|pages=64–78}}</ref> Balkrishna Gokhale states that Gandhi was influenced by Hinduism and Jainism, and his studies of Sermon on the Mount of Christianity, Ruskin and Tolstoy.<ref name="BGB">{{cite journal |last1=Gokhale |first1=Balkrishna Govind |year=1972 |title=Gandhi and History |journal=History and Theory |volume=11 |issue=2 |pages=214–25 |doi=10.2307/2504587 |jstor=2504587 |ref=harv}}</ref>
Additional theories of possible influences on Gandhi have been proposed. For example, in 1935, N. A. Toothi stated that Gandhi was influenced by the reforms and teachings of the [[Swaminarayan]] tradition of Hinduism. According to Raymond Williams, Toothi may have overlooked the influence of the Jain community, and adds close parallels do exist in programs of social reform in the Swaminarayan tradition and those of Gandhi, based on "nonviolence, truth-telling, cleanliness, temperance and upliftment of the masses."<ref name=rbw01>{{cite book|last=Williams|first=Raymond Brady|title=An introduction to Swaminarayan Hinduism|year=2001|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=0-521-65422-X|page=173}}</ref><ref name=mhe94>{{cite book|last=Meller|first=Helen Elizabeth|title=Patrick Geddes: social evolutionist and city planner|year=1994|publisher=Routledge|isbn=0-415-10393-2|page=[https://archive.org/details/patrickgeddessoc0000mell/page/159 159]|url=https://archive.org/details/patrickgeddessoc0000mell/page/159}}</ref> Historian Howard states the culture of Gujarat influenced Gandhi and his methods.<ref name=Spodek>{{cite journal|last=Spodek|first=Howard|title=On the Origins of Gandhi's Political Methodology: The Heritage of Kathiawad and Gujarat|journal=Journal of Asian Studies|year= 1971| volume=30 |issue=2 |pages=361–72 |jstor=2942919 |doi=10.2307/2942919}}</ref>
====Tolstoy====
[[File:Gandhi Tolstoy Farm.jpg|thumb|Mohandas K. Gandhi and other residents of [[Tolstoyan movement#Africa|Tolstoy Farm]], South Africa, 1910]]
Along with the book mentioned above, in 1908 [[Leo Tolstoy]] wrote ''[[A Letter to a Hindu]],'' which said that only by using love as a weapon through [[passive resistance]] could the Indian people overthrow colonial rule. In 1909, Gandhi wrote to Tolstoy seeking advice and permission to republish ''A Letter to a Hindu'' in Gujarati. Tolstoy responded and the two continued a correspondence until Tolstoy's death in 1910 (Tolstoy's last letter was to Gandhi).<ref>{{cite book|title=Mahatma Gandhi and Leo Tolstoy: Letters |editor=B. Srinivasa Murthy|year= 1987|isbn= 0-941910-03-2}}</ref> The letters concern practical and theological applications of nonviolence.<ref>{{cite book|title=Mahatma Gandhi and Leo Tolstoy: Letters|editor=Murthy, B. Srinivasa|year=1987|isbn=0-941910-03-2|url=http://bsmurthy.com/download/Mahatma_Gandhi_Leostoy_Letters_by_BSM.pdf|publisher=Long Beach Publications|location=Long Beach, California|access-date=14 January 2012|deadurl=no|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120917094806/http://bsmurthy.com/download/Mahatma_Gandhi_Leostoy_Letters_by_BSM.pdf|archivedate=17 September 2012}}</ref> Gandhi saw himself a disciple of Tolstoy, for they agreed regarding opposition to state authority and colonialism; both hated violence and preached [[Nonresistance|non-resistance]]. However, they differed sharply on political strategy. Gandhi called for political involvement; he was a nationalist and was prepared to use nonviolent force. He was also willing to compromise.<ref name="Green1986">{{cite book|author=Green, Martin Burgess |title=The origins of nonviolence: Tolstoy and Gandhi in their historical settings|url=https://books.google.com/?id=D0luAAAAMAAJ|access-date=17 January 2012|year=1986|publisher=Pennsylvania State University Press|isbn=978-0-271-00414-3}}</ref> It was at Tolstoy Farm where Gandhi and [[Hermann Kallenbach]] systematically trained their disciples in the philosophy of nonviolence.<ref name="Bhana">{{cite journal |last1=Bhana |first1=Surendra |year=1979 |title=Tolstoy Farm, A Satyagrahi's Battle Ground |journal=Journal of Indian History |volume=57 |issue=2/3 |pages=431–40}}</ref>
====Shrimad Rajchandra====
Gandhi credited [[Shrimad Rajchandra]], a poet and Jain philosopher, as his influential counsellor. In ''Modern Review'', June 1930, Gandhi wrote about their first encounter in 1891 at Dr. P.J. Mehta's residence in Bombay. Gandhi exchanged letters with Rajchandra when he was in South Africa, referring to him as ''Kavi'' (literally, "poet"). In 1930, Gandhi wrote, "Such was the man who captivated my heart in religious matters as no other man ever has till now."<ref>{{cite book|last1=Gandhi|first1=Mahatma|title=Gandhi: An Autobiography|isbn=0-8070-5909-9|pages=[https://archive.org/details/autobiographyst00gand/page/63 63–65]|edition=Beacon Press|url=https://archive.org/details/autobiographyst00gand/page/63|year=1993}}</ref> 'I have said elsewhere that in moulding my inner life Tolstoy and Ruskin vied with Kavi. But Kavi's influence was undoubtedly deeper if only because I had come in closest personal touch with him.'<ref>{{cite book|last1=Webber|first1= Thomas|title=Gandhi as Disciple and Mentor|date=3 March 2011|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn =978-0-521-17448-0|pages=33–36 |edition= 3}}</ref>
Gandhi, in his autobiography, called Rajchandra his "guide and helper" and his "refuge [...] in moments of spiritual crisis". He had advised Gandhi to be patient and to study Hinduism deeply.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Gandhi|first1=Mahatma|title=Modern Review|date=June 1930}}</ref><ref name="Gandhi1957"/><ref name="Weber2004">{{cite book|author=Thomas Weber|title=Gandhi as Disciple and Mentor|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P8nC80pG4GIC&pg=PA34|date=2 December 2004|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-139-45657-9|pages=34–36}}</ref>
====Religious texts====
During his stay in [[South Africa]], along with scriptures and philosophical texts of Hinduism and other Indian religions, Gandhi read translated texts of Christianity such as the [[Bible]], and Islam such as the [[Quran]].<ref name=britgandhirel/> A Quaker mission in South Africa attempted to convert him to Christianity. Gandhi joined them in their prayers and debated Christian theology with them, but refused conversion stating he did not accept the theology therein or that Christ was the only son of God.<ref name=britgandhirel/><ref>{{cite book|author=Martin Burgess Green|title=Gandhi: voice of a new age revolution|url=https://archive.org/details/gandhivoiceofnew00gree/page/123|year=1993|publisher=Continuum|isbn=978-0-8264-0620-0|pages=[https://archive.org/details/gandhivoiceofnew00gree/page/123 123–125]}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Fischer Louis|title=The life of Mahatma Gandhi|url=https://archive.org/details/lifeofmahatmagan00fisc_0/page/43|year=1950|publisher=HarperCollins|isbn=978-0-06-091038-9|pages=[https://archive.org/details/lifeofmahatmagan00fisc_0/page/43 43–44]}}</ref>
His comparative studies of religions and interaction with scholars, led him to respect all religions as well as become concerned about imperfections in all of them and frequent misinterpretations.<ref name=britgandhirel/> Gandhi grew fond of Hinduism, and referred to the ''[[Bhagavad Gita]]'' as his spiritual dictionary and greatest single influence on his life.<ref name=britgandhirel>{{Cite web| title=Mahatma Gandhi – The religious quest {{!}} Biography, Accomplishments, & Facts| url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Mahatma-Gandhi/Resistance-and-results#toc22635| work=Encyclopædia Britannica| year=2015| access-date=3 June 2017| language=en| deadurl=no| archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20170513020112/https://www.britannica.com/biography/Mahatma-Gandhi/Resistance-and-results#toc22635| archivedate=13 May 2017| df=dmy-all}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Ghose, Sankar |title=Mahatma Gandhi|url=https://books.google.com/?id=5l0BPnxN1h8C |year=1991|publisher= Allied Publishers|pages= 377–378|isbn= 978-81-7023-205-6}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Richard H. Davis|title=The "Bhagavad Gita": A Biography|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vQ3rAwAAQBAJ| year= 2014|publisher= Princeton University Press|isbn= 978-1-4008-5197-3|pages=137–145}}</ref>
=====Sufism=====
Gandhi was acquainted with [[Sufi Islam]]'s [[Chishti Order]] during his stay in South Africa. He attended [[Khanqah]] gatherings there at Riverside. According to Margaret Chatterjee, Gandhi as a Vaishnava Hindu shared values such as humility, devotion and brotherhood for the poor that is also found in [[Sufism]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Chatterjee|first=Margaret|title=Gandhi and the Challenge of Religious Diversity: Religious Pluralism Revisited|date=2005|publisher=Bibliophile South Asia|isbn=978-81-85002-46-0|page=119|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_06rcmT0b7UC&pg=PA119}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Fiala|first=Andrew|title=The Routledge Handbook of Pacifism and Nonviolence|date=2018|publisher=[[Routledge]]|isbn=978-1-317-27197-0|page=94|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y35KDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT94}}, Fiala quotes Ambitabh Pal, "Gandhi himself followed a strand of Hinduism that with its emphasis on service and on poetry and songs bore similarities to Sufi Islam".</ref> [[Winston Churchill]] also compared Gandhi to a Sufi [[fakir]].<ref name="Herman"/>
===On wars and nonviolence===
====Support for Wars====
Gandhi participated in the South African war against the Boers, on the British side in 1899.<ref name=ghose275/> Both the Dutch settlers called Boers and the imperial British at that time discriminated against the coloured races they considered as inferior, and Gandhi later wrote about his conflicted beliefs during the Boer war. He stated that "when the war was declared, my personal sympathies were all with the Boers, but my loyalty to the British rule drove me to participation with the British in that war". According to Gandhi, he felt that since he was demanding his rights as a British citizen, it was also his duty to serve the British forces in the defence of the British Empire.<ref>{{cite book|author=Simone Panter-Brick|title=Gandhi and Nationalism: The Path to Indian Independence|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-aIcBgAAQBAJ |year=2015|publisher=I.B.Tauris|isbn=978-1-78453-023-5|pages=75–77}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Mahatma Gandhi|title=All Men Are Brothers|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LSzUAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA22 |year=2005|publisher= Bloomsbury Academic|isbn= 978-0-8264-1739-8|page=22}}</ref>
During World War I (1914–1918), nearing the age of 50, Gandhi supported the British and its allied forces by recruiting Indians to join the British army, expanding the Indian contingent from about 100,000 to over 1.1&nbsp;million.<ref name="green89">{{cite book|author1=Michael J. Green|author2=Nicholas Szechenyi|title=A Global History of the Twentieth Century: Legacies and Lessons from Six National Perspectives|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0xHnDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA89 |year=2017|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|isbn=978-1-4422-7972-8|pages=89–90}}</ref><ref name=ghose275/> He encouraged his people to fight on one side of the war in Europe and Africa at the cost of their lives.<ref name=ghose275>{{cite book|author=Ghose, Sankar |title=Mahatma Gandhi|url=https://books.google.com/?id=5l0BPnxN1h8C&pg=PA275 |year=1991|publisher= Allied Publishers|page= 275|isbn= 978-81-7023-205-6}}</ref> Pacifists criticised and questioned Gandhi, who defended these practices by stating, according to Sankar Ghose, "it would be madness for me to sever my connection with the society to which I belong".<ref name=ghose275/> According to Keith Robbins, the recruitment effort was in part motivated by the British promise to reciprocate the help with ''swaraj'' (self-government) to Indians after the end of World War I.<ref name=robbins133>{{cite book|author=Keith Robbins|title=The First World War|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=qnTq4w-Ny3oC |year=2002|publisher= Oxford University Press|isbn= 978-0-19-280318-4|pages=133–137}}</ref> After the war, the British government offered minor reforms instead, which disappointed Gandhi.<ref name="green89"/> He launched his ''satyagraha'' movement in 1919. In parallel, Gandhi's fellowmen became sceptical of his pacifist ideas and were inspired by the ideas of nationalism and anti-imperialism.<ref>{{cite book|author=Rahul Sagar|editor=David M. Malone|display-editors=etal|title=The Oxford Handbook of Indian Foreign Policy|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=McwfCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA70 |year=2015 |publisher= Oxford University Press|isbn= 978-0-19-106118-9|pages=71–73}}</ref>
In a 1920 essay, after the World War I, Gandhi wrote, "where there is only a choice between cowardice and violence, I would advise violence." Rahul Sagar interprets Gandhi's efforts to recruit for the British military during the War, as Gandhi's belief that, at that time, it would demonstrate that Indians were willing to fight. Further, it would also show the British that his fellow Indians were "their subjects by choice rather than out of cowardice." In 1922, Gandhi wrote that abstinence from violence is effective and true forgiveness only when one has the power to punish, not when one decides not to do anything because one is helpless.<ref>{{cite book|author=Rahul Sagar|editor=David M. Malone|display-editors=etal|title=The Oxford Handbook of Indian Foreign Policy|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=McwfCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA70 |year=2015 |publisher= Oxford University Press|isbn= 978-0-19-106118-9|page=70}}</ref>
After World War II engulfed Britain, Gandhi actively campaigned to oppose any help to the British war effort and any Indian participation in the war. According to Arthur Herman, Gandhi believed that his campaign would strike a blow to imperialism.<ref name=herman467/> Gandhi's position was not supported by many Indian leaders, and his campaign against the British war effort was a failure. The Hindu leader, [[Tej Bahadur Sapru]] declared in 1941, states Herman, "A good many Congress leaders are fed up with the barren program of the Mahatma".<ref name=herman467/> Over 2.5&nbsp;million Indians ignored Gandhi, volunteered and joined on the British side. They fought and died as a part of the allied forces in Europe, North Africa and various fronts of the World War II.<ref name="herman467"/>
====Truth and Satyagraha====
[[File:Mahatma Gandhi on Rumours.jpg|thumb|Plaque displaying one of Gandhi's quotes on rumour]]
Gandhi dedicated his life to discovering and pursuing truth, or ''[[Satya]]'', and called his movement as ''satyagraha'', which means "appeal to, insistence on, or reliance on the Truth".<ref>{{cite book|author=Gene Sharp|title=Gandhi Wields the Weapon of Moral Power: Three Case Histories |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SUhuAAAAMAAJ |year=1960|publisher=Navajivan|page=4}}</ref> The first formulation of the ''satyagraha'' as a political movement and principle occurred in 1920, which he tabled as "Resolution on Non-cooperation" in September that year before a session of the Indian Congress. It was the ''satyagraha'' formulation and step, states Dennis Dalton, that deeply resonated with beliefs and culture of his people, embedded him into the popular consciousness, transforming him quickly into Mahatma.<ref>{{cite book|author=Dennis Dalton|title=Mahatma Gandhi: Nonviolent Power in Action|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KxUp1igCL_0C |year=2012|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=978-0-231-15959-3|pages=30–32}}</ref>
[[File:God is Truth.jpg|thumb|left|"God is truth. The way to truth lies through [[ahimsa]] (nonviolence)" – [[Sabarmati Ashram|Sabarmati]], 13 March 1927]]
Gandhi based ''Satyagraha'' on the Vedantic ideal of self-realization, ahimsa (nonviolence), vegetarianism, and universal love. William Borman states that the key to his ''satyagraha'' is rooted in the Hindu [[Upanishads|Upanishadic]] texts.<ref>{{cite book|author=William Borman|title=Gandhi and Non-Violence|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U6DE9OUvrTEC |year=1986|publisher=State University of New York Press|isbn=978-0-88706-331-2|pages=26–34}}</ref> According to Indira Carr, Gandhi's ideas on ''ahimsa'' and ''satyagraha'' were founded on the philosophical foundations of Advaita Vedanta.<ref>{{cite book|author=Indira Carr|editor=Stuart Brown|display-editors=etal|title=Biographical Dictionary of Twentieth-Century Philosophers|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UZQqBgAAQBAJ |year=2012|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-134-92796-8|page=264}}</ref> I. Bruce Watson states that some of these ideas are found not only in traditions within Hinduism, but also in Jainism or Buddhism, particularly those about non-violence, vegetarianism and universal love, but Gandhi's synthesis was to politicise these ideas.<ref name="Watson">{{cite journal |last1=Watson |first1=I. Bruce |year=1977 |title=Satyagraha: The Gandhian Synthesis |journal=Journal of Indian History |volume=55|issue=1/2 |pages=325–35 |ref=harv}}</ref> Gandhi's concept of ''satya'' as a civil movement, states Glyn Richards, are best understood in the context of the Hindu terminology of [[Dharma]] and ''[[Ṛta]]''.<ref name=richards1>Glyn Richards (1986), [https://www.jstor.org/stable/20006253 Gandhi's Concept of Truth and the Advaita Tradition], Religious Studies, Cambridge University Press, Vol. 22, No. 1 (Mar. 1986), pp. 1–14</ref>
Gandhi stated that the most important battle to fight was overcoming his own demons, fears, and insecurities. Gandhi summarised his beliefs first when he said "God is Truth". He would later change this statement to "Truth is God". Thus, ''satya'' (truth) in Gandhi's philosophy is "God".<ref name="Parel2006">{{cite book|author=Parel, Anthony |title=Gandhi's Philosophy and the Quest for Harmony|url=https://books.google.com/?id=MQhz0fW0HZUC&pg=PA195|access-date=13 January 2012|year=2006|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-86715-3|page=195}}</ref> Gandhi, states Richards, described the term "God" not as a separate power, but as the Being (Brahman, Atman) of the [[Advaita Vedanta]] tradition, a nondual universal that pervades in all things, in each person and all life.<ref name=richards1/> According to Nicholas Gier, this to Gandhi meant the unity of God and humans, that all beings have the same one soul and therefore equality, that ''atman'' exists and is same as everything in the universe, ahimsa (non-violence) is the very nature of this ''atman''.<ref name=gier40>{{cite book|author=Nicholas F. Gier|title=The Virtue of Nonviolence: From Gautama to Gandhi|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tVLt99uleLwC&pg=PA40|year =2004|publisher= State University of New York Press|isbn=978-0-7914-5949-2|pages=40–42}}</ref>
[[File:Salt March.jpg|thumb|Gandhi picking salt during [[Salt March|Salt Satyagraha]] to defy colonial law giving salt collection monopoly to the British.<ref>[https://www.britannica.com/event/Salt-March Salt March: Indian History] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170701155026/https://www.britannica.com/event/Salt-March |date=1 July 2017 }}, ''Encyclopædia Britannica''</ref> His ''satyagraha'' attracted vast numbers of Indian men and women.<ref>{{cite book|author=Sita Anantha Raman|title=Women in India: A Social and Cultural History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KwKrCQAAQBAJ |year=2009|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-0-313-01440-6|pages=164–166}}</ref>]]
The essence of [[Satyagraha]] is "soul force" as a political means, refusing to use brute force against the oppressor, seeking to eliminate antagonisms between the oppressor and the oppressed, aiming to transform or "purify" the oppressor. It is not inaction but determined passive resistance and non-co-operation where, states Arthur Herman, "love conquers hate".<ref>{{cite book|author=Arthur Herman|title=Gandhi & Churchill: The Epic Rivalry that Destroyed an Empire and Forged Our Age|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tquxD6dk914C&pg=PA176 |year=2008|publisher=Random House |isbn=978-0-553-90504-5|page=176}}</ref> A euphemism sometimes used for Satyagraha is that it is a "silent force" or a "soul force" (a term also used by Martin Luther King Jr. during his famous "[[I Have a Dream]]" speech). It arms the individual with moral power rather than physical power. Satyagraha is also termed a "universal force", as it essentially "makes no distinction between kinsmen and strangers, young and old, man and woman, friend and foe."<ref name="rules">{{cite journal | last1 = Gandhi | first1 = M.K. | title = Some Rules of Satyagraha ''Young India (Navajivan)'' 23 February 1930 | journal = The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi | volume = 48 | page = 340 }}</ref>
Gandhi wrote: "There must be no impatience, no barbarity, no insolence, no undue pressure. If we want to cultivate a true spirit of democracy, we cannot afford to be intolerant. Intolerance betrays want of faith in one's cause."<ref>Prabhu, R. K. and Rao, U. R. (eds.) (1967) from section [http://www.mkgandhi.org/momgandhi/chap34.htm "Power of Satyagraha"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070902015645/http://www.mkgandhi.org/momgandhi/chap34.htm |date=2 September 2007 }}, of the book The Mind of Mahatma Gandhi, Ahemadabad, India.</ref> [[Civil disobedience|Civil disobedience and non-co-operation]] as practised under Satyagraha are based on the "law of suffering",<ref name="CollectedWorks20">{{cite book |title=Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi |chapter=156. The Law of Suffering |last=Gandhi |first=M. K. |volume=20 |year=1982 |publisher=Publications Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Govt. of India |location=New Delhi |isbn= |edition=electronic |pages=396–99 |chapter-url=http://www.gandhiserve.org/cwmg/VOL020.PDF |origyear=Young India, 16 June 1920 |access-date=14 January 2012 |deadurl=no |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120128150127/http://www.gandhiserve.org/cwmg/VOL020.PDF |archivedate=28 January 2012  }}</ref> a doctrine that ''the endurance of suffering is a means to an end''. This end usually implies a moral upliftment or progress of an individual or society. Therefore, non-co-operation in Satyagraha is in fact a means to secure the co-operation of the opponent consistently with [[truth]] and [[justice]].<ref name="Sharma2008">{{cite book|last=Sharma|first=Jai Narain|title=Satyagraha: Gandhi's approach to conflict resolution|url=https://books.google.com/?id=XxJvoBWTAXoC&pg=PA17|access-date=26 January 2012|year=2008|publisher=Concept Publishing Company|isbn=978-81-8069-480-6|page=17}}</ref>
While Gandhi's idea of ''satyagraha'' as a political means attracted a widespread following among Indians, the support was not universal. For example, Muslim leaders such as Jinnah opposed the ''satyagraha'' idea, accused Gandhi to be reviving Hinduism through political activism, and began effort to counter Gandhi with Muslim nationalism and a demand for Muslim homeland.<ref>{{cite book|author=R. Taras|title=Liberal and Illiberal Nationalisms|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=Npt_DAAAQBAJ&pg=PA91|year= 2002|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|isbn=978-0-230-59640-5|page=91}}, '''Quote:''' "In 1920 Jinnah opposed satyagraha and resigned from the Congress, boosting the fortunes of the Muslim League."</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Yasmin Khan|title=The Great Partition: The Making of India and Pakistan|url=https://archive.org/details/greatpartitionma00khan/page/11|year=2007|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=978-0-300-12078-3|pages=[https://archive.org/details/greatpartitionma00khan/page/11 11–22]}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Rafiq Zakaria|title=The Man who Divided India |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2RdITXUpyVgC |year=2002|publisher=Popular Prakashan|isbn=978-81-7991-145-7|pages=83–85}}</ref> The untouchability leader [[B. R. Ambedkar|Ambedkar]], in June 1945, after his decision to convert to Buddhism and a key architect of the Constitution of modern India, dismissed Gandhi's ideas as loved by "blind Hindu devotees", primitive, influenced by spurious brew of Tolstoy and Ruskin, and "there is always some simpleton to preach them".<ref name="Herman2008p586">{{cite book|author=Arthur Herman|title=Gandhi & Churchill: The Epic Rivalry that Destroyed an Empire and Forged Our Age|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tquxD6dk914C|year=2008|publisher=Random House|isbn=978-0-553-90504-5|page=586|deadurl=no|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140913065817/http://books.google.com/books?id=tquxD6dk914C|archivedate=13 September 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last=Cháirez-Garza | first=Jesús Francisco | title=Touching space: Ambedkar on the spatial features of untouchability | journal=Contemporary South Asia | publisher=Taylor & Francis | volume=22 | issue=1 | date=2 January 2014 | doi=10.1080/09584935.2013.870978 | pages=37–50}};<br />B.R. Ambedkar (1945), [https://archive.org/stream/Dr.BabasahebAmbedkarWritingsAndSpeechespdfsAllVolumes/Volume_09#page/n15/mode/2up/search/ahimsa What Congress and Gandhi have done to the Untouchables], Thacker & Co. Editions, First Edition, pages v, 282–297</ref> [[Winston Churchill]] caricatured Gandhi as a "cunning huckster" seeking selfish gain, an "aspiring dictator", and an "atavistic spokesman of a pagan Hinduism". Churchill stated that the civil disobedience movement spectacle of Gandhi only increased "the danger to which white people there [British India] are exposed".<ref>{{cite book|author=Arthur Herman|title=Gandhi & Churchill: The Epic Rivalry that Destroyed an Empire and Forged Our Age|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tquxD6dk914C|year=2008|publisher=Random House|isbn=978-0-553-90504-5|pages=359, 378–380|deadurl=no|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140913065817/http://books.google.com/books?id=tquxD6dk914C|archivedate=13 September 2014}}</ref>
====Nonviolence====
[[File:Gandhi at Darwen with women.jpg|thumb|Gandhi with textile workers at [[Darwen]], Lancashire, 26 September 1931]]
Although Gandhi was not the originator of the principle of nonviolence, he was the first to apply it in the political field on a large scale.<ref>{{Cite book|last =Asirvatham|first =Eddy|title =Political Theory|publisher=S.chand|isbn=81-219-0346-7}}</ref> The concept of nonviolence (''[[ahimsa]]'') has a long history in Indian religious thought, with it being considered the highest dharma (ethical value virtue), a precept to be observed towards all living beings (''sarvbhuta''), at all times (''sarvada''), in all respects (''sarvatha''), in action, words and thought.<ref>{{cite book|author=Christopher Chapple|title=Nonviolence to Animals, Earth, and Self in Asian Traditions|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_Y00Q0_mOkAC |year=1993|publisher=State University of New York Press|isbn=978-0-7914-1497-2|pages=16–18, 54–57}}</ref> Gandhi explains his philosophy and ideas about ''ahimsa'' as a political means in his autobiography ''[[The Story of My Experiments with Truth]]''.<ref name="Borman1986">{{Citation| last = Gandhi | first = Mohandis K. | date = 11 August 1920| journal = Young India | publisher = M. K. Gandhi | page = 3| title = The Doctrine of the Sword |url=https://www.gandhiheritageportal.org/datalink/files/ghp_journals/journal_image_3/young_india_vol2_img251.jpg| accessdate = 3 May 2017}}  Cited from {{cite book|author=Borman, William |title=Gandhi and nonviolence|url=https://books.google.com/?id=U6DE9OUvrTEC&pg=PA253|year= 1986|publisher=SUNY Press|page=253|isbn=978-0-88706-331-2}}</ref><ref>Faisal Devji, ''The Impossible Indian: Gandhi and the Temptation of Violence'' (Harvard University Press; 2012)</ref><ref name="Johnson2006">{{cite book|last=Johnson|first=Richard L.|title=Gandhi's Experiments With Truth: Essential Writings By And About Mahatma Gandhi|url=https://books.google.com/?id=dRQcKsx-YgQC&pg=PR11|access-date=9 May 2012|year=2006|publisher=Lexington Books|isbn=978-0-7391-1143-7|page=11}}</ref>
Gandhi was criticised for refusing to protest the hanging of [[Bhagat Singh]], [[Sukhdev]], [[Udham Singh]] and [[Rajguru]].<ref>[http://www.kamat.com/mmgandhi/onbhagatsingh.htm Mahatma Gandhi on Bhagat Singh].</ref><ref name="Rai">{{cite book|last=Rai|first=Raghunath|title=Themes in Indian History|url=https://books.google.com/?id=zYhgvAsKGLsC&pg=PA282|publisher=FK Publications|page=282|isbn=978-81-89611-62-0|year=1992}}</ref> He was accused of accepting a deal with the King's representative Irwin that released civil disobedience leaders from prison and accepted the death sentence against the highly popular revolutionary Bhagat Singh, who at his trial had replied, "Revolution is the inalienable right of mankind".<ref name=ghose199>{{cite book|author=Sankar Ghose|title=Mahatma Gandhi|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5l0BPnxN1h8C |year=1991|publisher=Allied Publishers|isbn=978-81-7023-205-6|pages=199–204}}</ref>
Gandhi's views came under heavy criticism in Britain when it was under attack from [[Nazi Germany]], and later when the [[Holocaust]] was revealed. He told the British people in 1940, "I would like you to lay down the arms you have as being useless for saving you or humanity. You will invite Herr [[Hitler]] and Signor [[Mussolini]] to take what they want of the countries you call your possessions... If these gentlemen choose to occupy your homes, you will vacate them. If they do not give you free passage out, you will allow yourselves, man, woman, and child, to be slaughtered, but you will refuse to owe allegiance to them."<ref name="Wolpert2002">[[#Wolpert|Wolpert]], p. 197.</ref> [[George Orwell]] remarked that Gandhi's methods confronted 'an old-fashioned and rather shaky despotism which treated him in a fairly chivalrous way', not a totalitarian Power, 'where political opponents simply disappear.'<ref>Orwell, review of [[Louis Fischer]]'s ''Gandhi and Stalin'', ''The Observer'', 10 October 1948, reprinted in ''It Is what I Think'', pp. 452–453.</ref>
In a post-war interview in 1946, he said, "Hitler killed five million [[Jews]]. It is the greatest crime of our time. But the Jews should have offered themselves to the butcher's knife. They should have thrown themselves into the sea from cliffs... It would have aroused the world and the people of Germany... As it is they succumbed anyway in their millions."<ref>{{Cite book|year=1950|title = The life of Mahatma Gandhi|author=Fischer, Louis|publisher=Harper|page=348|url=https://books.google.com/?id=pHcGAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA348}}</ref> Gandhi believed this act of "collective suicide", in response to the Holocaust, "would have been heroism".<ref>George Orwell, "Reflections on Gandhi", ''Partisan Review'', January 1949.</ref>
===On inter-religious relations===
====Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs====
Gandhi believed that Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism were traditions of Hinduism, with shared history, rites and ideas. At other times, he acknowledged that he knew little about Buddhism other than his reading of [[Edwin Arnold]]'s book on it. Based on that book, he considered Buddhism to be a reform movement and the Buddha to be a Hindu.<ref name="Jordens1998p107"/> He stated he knew Jainism much more, and he credited Jains to have profoundly influenced him. Sikhism, to Gandhi, was an integral part of Hinduism, in the form of another reform movement. Sikh and Buddhist leaders disagreed with Gandhi, a disagreement Gandhi respected as a difference of opinion.<ref name="Jordens1998p107">{{cite book|author=J.T.F. Jordens|title=Gandhi's Religion: A Homespun Shawl|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ELODDAAAQBAJ |year=1998|publisher=New York: Palgrave Macmillan|isbn=978-0-230-37389-1|pages=107–108}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Nikky-Guninder Kaur Singh|editor=Harold Coward|title=Indian Critiques of Gandhi|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t5iQbjXgA0cC |year=2003|publisher=State University of New York Press|isbn=978-0-7914-8588-0|pages=185–188}}</ref>
====Muslims====
Gandhi had generally positive and empathetic views of [[Islam]], and he extensively studied the [[Quran]]. He viewed Islam as a faith that proactively promoted peace, and felt that non-violence had a predominant place in the Quran.<ref name="Gorder">{{cite book |last1=Gorder |first1=A. Christian Van |title=Islam, Peace and Social Justice: A Christian Perspective |date=2014 |publisher=James Clarke & Co |isbn=9780227902004 |page=166 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JVWlAwAAQBAJ&pg=PT166}}</ref> He also read the Islamic prophet [[Muhammad]]'s biography, and argued that it was "not the sword that won a place for Islam in those days in the scheme of life. It was the rigid simplicity, the utter self-effacement of the Prophet, the scrupulous regard for pledges, his intense devotion to his friends and followers, his intrepidity, his fearlessness, his absolute trust in God and in his own mission."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Malekian |first1=Farhad |title=Corpus Juris of Islamic International Criminal Justice |date=2018 |publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publishing |isbn=9781527516939 |page=409 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b-pwDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA409}}</ref> Gandhi had a large [[Indian Muslim]] following, who he encouraged to join him in a mutual nonviolent [[jihad]] against the social oppression of their time. Prominent Muslim allies in his nonviolent resistance movement included [[Maulana Abul Kalam Azad]] and [[Abdul Ghaffar Khan]]. However, Gandhi's empathy towards Islam, and his eager willingness to valorise peaceful Muslim social activists, was viewed by many Hindus as an appeasement of Muslims and later became a leading cause for his assassination at the hands of intolerant [[Hindu extremists]].<ref name="Gorder"/>
While Gandhi expressed mostly positive views of Islam, he did occasionally criticise Muslims.<ref name="Gorder"/> He stated in 1925 that he did not criticise the teachings of the Quran, but he did criticise the interpreters of the Quran. Gandhi believed that numerous interpreters have interpreted it to fit their preconceived notions.<ref>{{cite book|author=M K Gandhi|title=Young India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1XfjAAAAMAAJ|year=1925|publisher=Navajivan Publishing|pages=81–82}}</ref> He believed Muslims should welcome criticism of the Quran, because "every true scripture only gains from criticism". Gandhi criticised Muslims who "betray intolerance of criticism by a non-Muslim of anything related to Islam", such as the penalty of stoning to death under Islamic law. To Gandhi, Islam has "nothing to fear from criticism even if it be unreasonable".<ref name="Gandhi2004p193">{{cite book|author=Mohandas Karmchand Gandhi|editor=V Geetha|title=Soul Force: Gandhi's Writings on Peace |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Wwkt5TX623UC|year=2004|publisher=Gandhi Publications Trust |isbn=978-81-86211-85-4|pages=193–194}}</ref><ref name=nagler17>{{cite book|author1=Mohandas K. Gandhi|author2-link=Michael N. Nagler |author2=Michael Nagler (Ed) |title=Gandhi on Islam|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L3MRPQAACAAJ |year=2006|publisher=Berkeley Hills|isbn=1-893163-64-4|pages=1–17, 31–38}}</ref> He also believed there were material contradictions between Hinduism and Islam,<ref name=nagler17/> and he criticised Muslims along with communists that were quick to resort to violence.<ref>{{cite book|author=Niranjan Ramakrishnan|title=Reading Gandhi in the Twenty-First Century|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vMPZvrd3BzwC&pg=PA59 |year=2013|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|isbn=978-1-137-32514-3|page=59}}</ref>
One of the strategies Gandhi adopted was to work with Muslim leaders of pre-partition India, to oppose the British imperialism in and outside the Indian subcontinent.<ref name=paine20>{{cite book|author=Sarah C.M. Paine|title=Nation Building, State Building, and Economic Development: Case Studies and Comparisons|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cJ9sBgAAQBAJ |year=2015|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-317-46409-9|pages=20–21}}</ref><ref name=ghosep161/> After the World War I, in 1919–22, he won Muslim leadership support of Ali Brothers by backing the [[Khilafat Movement]] in favour the Islamic Caliph and his historic [[Ottoman Caliphate]], and opposing the secular Islam supporting [[Mustafa Kemal Atatürk]]. By 1924, Ataturk had ended the Caliphate, the Khilafat Movement was over, and Muslim support for Gandhi had largely evaporated.<ref name=paine20/><ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Kumaraswamy | first1 = P. R. | year = 1992 | title = Mahatma Gandhi and the Jewish National Home: An Assessment | journal = Asian and African Studies: Journal of the Israel Oriental Society | volume = 26 | issue = 1| pages = 1–13 }}</ref><ref name=ghosep161>{{cite book|author=Ghose, Sankar |title=Mahatma Gandhi|url=https://books.google.com/?id=5l0BPnxN1h8C&pg=PA164 |year=1991 |publisher=Allied Publishers|pages=161–164|isbn=978-81-7023-205-6}}</ref>
In 1925, Gandhi gave another reason to why he got involved in the Khilafat movement and the Middle East affairs between Britain and the Ottoman Empire. Gandhi explained to his co-religionists (Hindu) that he sympathised and campaigned for the Islamic cause, not because he cared for the Sultan, but because "I wanted to enlist the Mussalman's sympathy in the matter of cow protection".<ref>{{cite book|author=Simone Panter-Brick|title=Gandhi and Nationalism: The Path to Indian Independence |year=2015 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=-aIcBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA118 |publisher=I.B.Tauris |isbn=978-1-78453-023-5|pages=118–119}}</ref> According to the historian M. Naeem Qureshi, like the then Indian Muslim leaders who had combined religion and politics, Gandhi too imported his religion into his political strategy during the Khilafat movement.<ref>{{cite book|author=M. Naeem Qureshi|title=Pan-Islam in British Indian Politics: A Study of the Khilafat Movement, 1918–1924|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=czKYZPyoyx0C&pg=PA104|year=1999|editor=Reinhard Schulze|publisher=BRILL Academic|isbn=90-04-11371-1|pages=104–105 with footnotes|deadurl=no|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160424072809/https://books.google.com/books?id=czKYZPyoyx0C&pg=PA104|archivedate=24 April 2016}}</ref>
In the 1940s, Gandhi pooled ideas with some Muslim leaders who sought religious harmony like him, and opposed the proposed partition of British India into India and Pakistan. For example, his close friend [[Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan|Badshah Khan]] suggested that they should work towards opening Hindu temples for Muslim prayers, and Islamic mosques for Hindu prayers, to bring the two religious groups closer.<ref>{{cite book|author=Muhammad Soaleh Korejo|title=The Frontier Gandhi: His Place in History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JGduAAAAMAAJ|year=1993|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-577461-0|pages=77–79}}</ref> Gandhi accepted this and began having Muslim prayers read in Hindu temples to play his part, but was unable to get Hindu prayers read in mosques. The Hindu nationalist groups objected and began confronting Gandhi for this one-sided practice, by shouting and demonstrating inside the Hindu temples, in the last years of his life.<ref>{{cite book|author=Stanley Wolpert|title=Gandhi's Passion: The Life and Legacy of Mahatma Gandhi|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ih1VCqkUr4gC|year=2001|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-972872-5|pages=243–244}}</ref><ref name=godse1948/><ref>{{cite book|author=Rein Fernhout|editor=ʻAbd Allāh Aḥmad Naʻim, Jerald Gort and Henry Jansen|title=Human Rights and Religious Values: An Uneasy Relationship?|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=plEEQnaDGYYC&pg=PA126 |year= 1995|publisher= Rodopi|isbn= 978-90-5183-777-3|pages=126–131}}</ref>
====Christians====
Gandhi criticised as well as praised Christianity. He was critical of Christian missionary efforts in British India, because they mixed medical or education assistance with demands that the beneficiary convert to Christianity.<ref name="Bauman2015p56"/> According to Gandhi, this was not true "service" but one driven by ulterior motive of luring people into religious conversion and exploiting the economically or medically desperate. It did not lead to inner transformation or moral advance or to the Christian teaching of "love", but was based on false one-sided criticisms of other religions, when Christian societies faced similar problems in South Africa and Europe. It led to the converted person hating his neighbours and other religions, it divided people rather than bringing them closer in compassion. According to Gandhi, "no religious tradition could claim a monopoly over truth or salvation".<ref name="Bauman2015p56">{{cite book|author=Chad M. Bauman|title= Pentecostals, Proselytization, and Anti-Christian Violence in Contemporary India |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Mg6aBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA56 |year=2015|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-020210-1|pages=50, 56–59, 66}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author1=Robert Eric Frykenberg|author2=Richard Fox Young|title=India and the Indianness of Christianity|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=Jgubl3CQQDgC&pg=PA211 |year=2009|publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans|isbn=978-0-8028-6392-8|pages=211–214}}</ref> Gandhi did not support laws to prohibit missionary activity, but demanded that Christians should first understand the message of Jesus, and then strive to live without stereotyping and misrepresenting other religions. According to Gandhi, the message of Jesus wasn't to humiliate and imperialistically rule over other people considering them inferior or second class or slaves, but that "when the hungry are fed and peace comes to our individual and collective life, then Christ is born".<ref name=coward81>{{cite book|editor=Harold Coward|title=Hindu-Christian Dialogue: Perspectives and Encounters|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6eHgNyNimoAC|author=John C.B. Webster|year=1993|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass|isbn=978-81-208-1158-4|pages=81–86, 89–95|deadurl=no|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150317045104/http://books.google.com/books?id=6eHgNyNimoAC|archivedate=17 March 2015}}</ref>
Gandhi believed that his long acquaintance with Christianity had made him like it as well as find it imperfect. He asked Christians to stop humiliating his country and his people as heathens, idolators and other abusive language, and to change their negative views of India. He believed that Christians should introspect on the "true meaning of religion" and get a desire to study and learn from Indian religions in the spirit of universal brotherhood.<ref name=coward81/> According to [[Eric J. Sharpe|Eric Sharpe]] – a professor of Religious Studies, though Gandhi was born in a Hindu family and later became Hindu by conviction, many Christians in time thought of him as an "exemplary Christian and even as a saint".<ref>{{cite book|editor= Harold Coward|title= Hindu-Christian Dialogue: Perspectives and Encounters|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=6eHgNyNimoAC|author= Eric J. Sharpe|year= 1993|publisher= Motilal Banarsidass|isbn= 978-81-208-1158-4|page= 105|deadurl= no|archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20150317045104/http://books.google.com/books?id=6eHgNyNimoAC|archivedate= 17 March 2015|df= dmy-all}}</ref>
Some colonial era Christian preachers and faithfuls considered Gandhi as a saint.<ref name="Johnson 2006">{{cite book | last=Johnson | first=R.L. | title=Gandhi's Experiments with Truth: Essential Writings by and about Mahatma Gandhi | publisher=Lexington Books | series=Studies in Comparative Philosophy | year=2006 | isbn=978-0-7391-1143-7 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dRQcKsx-YgQC |page=269}}</ref><ref name="Markovits 2004">{{cite book | last=Markovits | first=C. | title=The UnGandhian Gandhi: The Life and Afterlife of the Mahatma | publisher=Anthem Press | series=Anthem South Asian studies | year=2004 | isbn=978-1-84331-127-0 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SpDvZO8xNNgC&pg=PA1616|page=16}}</ref><ref name="Rudolph Rudolph 2010">{{cite book | last=Rudolph | first=L.I. | last2=Rudolph | first2=S.H. | title=Postmodern Gandhi and Other Essays: Gandhi in the World and at Home | publisher=University of Chicago Press | year=2010 | isbn=978-0-226-73131-5 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s_wBDYZCRG4C |pp=99, 114–118}}</ref> Biographers from France and Britain have drawn parallels between Gandhi and Christian saints. Recent scholars question these romantic biographies and state that Gandhi was neither a Christian figure nor mirrored a Christian saint.<ref name="de Saint-Cheron 2017 p. 13">{{cite book | last=de Saint-Cheron | first=M. | title=Gandhi: Anti-Biography of a Great Soul | publisher=Taylor & Francis | year=2017 | isbn=978-1-351-47062-9 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KkcrDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT13 | access-date=1 April 2018 | page=13}}</ref> Gandhi's life is better viewed as exemplifying his belief in the "convergence of various spiritualities" of a Christian and a Hindu, states Michael de Saint-Cheron.<ref name="de Saint-Cheron 2017 p. 13"/>
====Jews====
According to Kumaraswamy, Gandhi initially supported Arab demands with respect to Palestine. He justified this support by invoking Islam, stating that "non-Muslims cannot acquire sovereign jurisdiction" in ''Jazirat al-Arab'' (the Arabian Peninsula).<ref name="Kumaraswamy2010p36"/> These arguments, states Kumaraswamy, were a part of his political strategy to win Muslim support during the [[Khilafat Movement#Khilafat Movement in South Asia|Khilafat movement]]. In the post-Khilafat period, Gandhi neither negated Jewish demands nor did he use Islamic texts or history to support Muslim claims against Israel. Gandhi's silence after the Khilafat period may represent an evolution in his understanding of the conflicting religious claims over Palestine, according to Kumaraswamy.<ref name="Kumaraswamy2010p36"/> In 1938, Gandhi spoke in favour of Jewish claims, and in March 1946, he said to the Member of British Parliament [[Sidney Silverman]], "if the Arabs have a claim to Palestine, the Jews have a prior claim", a position very different from his earlier stance.<ref name="Kumaraswamy2010p36">{{cite book|author=P. R. Kumaraswamy|title=India's Israel Policy|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=5EHJHVXmLeEC |year= 2010|publisher= Columbia University Press|isbn=978-0-231-52548-0|pages=36–38}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Fischer Louis|title=The life of Mahatma Gandhi|url=https://archive.org/details/lifeofmahatmagan00fisc_0/page/424|year=1950|publisher=HarperCollins|isbn=978-0-06-091038-9|page=[https://archive.org/details/lifeofmahatmagan00fisc_0/page/424 424]}}</ref>
Gandhi discussed the [[History of the Jews in Germany#Jews under the Nazis (1933–1939)|persecution of the Jews in Germany]] and the [[Aliyah#Zionist Aliyah (1882 on)|emigration of Jews from Europe to Palestine]] through his lens of [[Satyagraha]].<ref name=gs/><ref>Panter-Brick, Simone (2008), ''Gandhi and the Middle East: Jews, Arabs and Imperial Interests''. London: [[I.B. Tauris]], {{ISBN|1-84511-584-8}}.</ref> In 1937, Gandhi discussed [[Zionism]] with his close Jewish friend Hermann Kallenbach.<ref name=dream>Panter-Brick, Simone. [http://www.dur.ac.uk/anthropology.journal/vol16/iss2/panter-brick.pdf "Gandhi's Dream of Hindu-Muslim Unity and its two Offshoots in the Middle East"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120717192928/http://www.dur.ac.uk/anthropology.journal/vol16/iss2/panter-brick.pdf |date=17 July 2012 }}. ''Durham Anthropology Journal'', Volume 16(2), 2009: pp. 54–66.</ref> He said that Zionism was not the right answer to the problems faced by Jews<ref name=Jack>[[#Jack|Jack]], p. 317.</ref> and instead recommended Satyagraha. Gandhi thought the Zionists in Palestine represented European imperialism and used violence to achieve their goals; he argued that "the Jews should disclaim any intention of realizing their aspiration under the protection of arms and should rely wholly on the goodwill of Arabs. No exception can possibly be taken to the natural desire of the Jews to find a home in Palestine. But they must wait for its fulfillment till Arab opinion is ripe for it."<ref name=gs/>
In 1938, Gandhi stated that his "sympathies are all with the Jews. I have known them intimately in South Africa. Some of them became life-long companions." Philosopher [[Martin Buber]] was highly critical of Gandhi's approach and in 1939 wrote an open letter to him on the subject. Gandhi reiterated his stance that "the Jews seek to convert the Arab heart", and use "''satyagraha'' in confronting the Arabs" in 1947.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Murti, Ramana V.V. |title=Buber's Dialogue and Gandhi's Satyagraha|journal=Journal of the History of Ideas|volume= 29|issue=4 |year=1968|pages=605–13|jstor=2708297|doi=10.2307/2708297}}</ref> According to Simone Panter-Brick, Gandhi's political position on Jewish-Arab conflict evolved over the 1917-1947 period, shifting from a support for the Arab position first, and for the Jewish position in the 1940s.<ref>Simone Panter-Brick (2009), [https://www.jstor.org/stable/40262646 Gandhi's Views on the Resolution of the Conflict in Palestine: A Note], Middle Eastern Studies, Taylor & Francis, Vol. 45, No. 1 (Jan. 2009), pp. 127–133</ref>
===On life, society and other application of his ideas===
====Vegetarianism, food, and animals====
Gandhi was brought up as a vegetarian by his devout Hindu mother.<ref>{{cite book|author=Stanley Wolpert|title=Gandhi's Passion: The Life and Legacy of Mahatma Gandhi|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KpBy6BCupe4C|year=2002|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-515634-8|pages=14, 25–27|deadurl=no|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20170219190635/https://books.google.com/books?id=KpBy6BCupe4C|archivedate=19 February 2017}}, Quote: "The Gandhis had always been strict vegetarians, as are all devout Hindus".</ref><ref name=kemmerer65/> The idea of vegetarianism is deeply ingrained in [[Hindu]] Vaishnavism and [[Jain]] traditions in India, such as in his native Gujarat, where meat is considered as a form of food obtained by violence to animals.<ref name="Tahtinen1979p62">{{cite book|author=Unto Tähtinen|title=The Core of Gandhi's Philosophy |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gPk72b6A8yYC&pg=PA61 |year=1979|publisher=Abhinav Publications|isbn=978-0-8364-0516-3|pages=61–62, 51–52}}</ref><ref>Chitrita Banerji, ''Eating India: an odyssey into the food and culture of the land of spices'' (2007), p. 169.</ref> Gandhi's rationale for vegetarianism was largely along those found in Hindu and Jain texts. Gandhi believed that any form of food inescapably harms some form of living organism, but one should seek to understand and reduce the violence in what one consumes because "there is essential unity of all life".<ref name=kemmerer65>{{cite book|author=Lisa Kemmerer|title=Animals and World Religions|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JowVDAAAQBAJ |year=2012|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-979068-5|pages=65–68}}</ref><ref name=terchek204/>
Gandhi believed that some life forms are more capable of suffering, and non-violence to him meant not having the intent as well as active efforts to minimise hurt, injury or suffering to all life forms.<ref name=terchek204>{{cite book|author=Ronald Terchek|title=Gandhi: Struggling for Autonomy|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=hg1MqCeW7OUC |year= 1998|publisher= Rowman & Littlefield|isbn= 978-0-8476-9215-6|pages=204–206}}</ref> Gandhi explored food sources that reduced violence to various life forms in the food chain. He believed that slaughtering animals is unnecessary, as other sources of foods are available.<ref name="Tahtinen1979p62"/> He also consulted with vegetarianism campaigners during his lifetime, such as with [[Henry Stephens Salt]]. Food to Gandhi was not only a source of sustaining one's body, but a source of his impact on other living beings, and one that affected his mind, character and spiritual well being.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Becker, Carol|title=Gandhi's Body and Further Representations of War and Peace|journal=Art Journal|volume= 65|issue=4 |pages=78–95|year=2006 |doi=10.2307/20068500|jstor=20068500}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Joseph S. Alter |authorlink=Joseph Alter |title=Gandhi's Body: Sex, Diet, and the Politics of Nationalism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2U_SqENK3T8C|year=2011|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|isbn=978-0-8122-0474-2|pages=4–5, 21–22, 34–38, 162–163}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author1=Kerry S. Walters|author2=Lisa Portmess|title=Ethical Vegetarianism: From Pythagoras to Peter Singer|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8Ti_kVvWVBwC&pg=PA139 |year=1999|publisher=State University of New York Press|isbn=978-0-7914-4043-8|pages=139–144}}</ref> He avoided not only meat, but also eggs and milk. Gandhi wrote the book ''The Moral Basis of Vegetarianism'' and wrote for the London Vegetarian Society's publication.<ref>[[#Wolpert|Wolpert]], p. 22.</ref>
Beyond his religious beliefs, Gandhi stated another motivation for his experiments with diet. He attempted to find the most non-violent vegetarian meal that the poorest human could afford, taking meticulous notes on vegetables and fruits, and his observations with his own body and his ''ashram'' in Gujarat.<ref name=herman89/><ref name=gandhi328/> He tried fresh and dry fruits ([[Fruitarianism]]), then just sun dried fruits, before resuming his prior vegetarian diet on advice of his doctor and concerns of his friends. His experiments with food began in the 1890s and continued for several decades.<ref name=herman89>{{cite book|author=Arthur Herman|title=Gandhi & Churchill: The Epic Rivalry that Destroyed an Empire and Forged Our Age|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tquxD6dk914C|year=2008|publisher=Random House|isbn=978-0-553-90504-5|pages=89–90, 294–295|deadurl=no|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140913065817/http://books.google.com/books?id=tquxD6dk914C|archivedate=13 September 2014}}</ref><ref name=gandhi328>{{cite book|author=Mahatma Gandhi|title=An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth|url=https://archive.org/details/autobiographyst00gand/page/328|year=1957|publisher=Beacon Press|isbn=978-0-8070-5909-8|pages=[https://archive.org/details/autobiographyst00gand/page/328 328–330]}}</ref> For some of these experiments, Gandhi combined his own ideas with those found on [[mitahara|diet]] in Indian [[yoga]] texts. He believed that each vegetarian should experiment with his or her diet because, in his studies at his ''ashram'' he saw "one man's food may be poison for another".<ref>{{cite book|author=Joseph S. Alter|title=Gandhi's Body: Sex, Diet, and the Politics of Nationalism|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=2U_SqENK3T8C|year= 2011|publisher= University of Pennsylvania Press|isbn=978-0-8122-0474-2|pages=21–22, 34–34, 74–75, 162–163}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Georg Feuerstein|title=The Path of Yoga: An Essential Guide to Its Principles and Practices|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Knp7nmz8qgMC |year=2011|publisher=Shambhala Publications|isbn=978-0-8348-2292-4|page=66}}</ref>
Gandhi championed animal rights in general. Other than making vegetarian choices, he actively campaigned against dissection studies and experimentation on live animals ([[vivisection]]) in the name of science and medical studies.<ref name="Tahtinen1979p62"/> He considered it a violence against animals, something that inflicted pain and suffering. He wrote, "Vivisection in my opinion is the blackest of all the blackest crimes that man is at present committing against God and His fair creation."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.mkgandhi.org/articles/views_on_sci.htm |title=Towards an understanding of Gandhi's views on Science |publisher=Mkgandhi.org |date=1 November 1934 |accessdate=12 July 2016 |deadurl=no |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160311184704/http://www.mkgandhi.org/articles/views_on_sci.htm |archivedate=11 March 2016  }}</ref>
====Fasting====
{{See also|List of fasts undertaken by Mahatma Gandhi}}
[[File:Gandhi fasting 1948.jpg|thumb|Gandhi's last political protest using fasting, in January 1948]]
Gandhi used [[fasting]] as a political device, often threatening suicide unless demands were met. Congress publicised the fasts as a political action that generated widespread sympathy. In response the government tried to manipulate news coverage to minimise his challenge to the Raj. He fasted in 1932 to protest the voting scheme for separate political representation for Dalits; Gandhi did not want them segregated. The British government stopped the London press from showing photographs of his emaciated body, because it would elicit sympathy. Gandhi's 1943 hunger strike took place during a two-year prison term for the anticolonial Quit India movement. The government called on nutritional experts to demystify his action, and again no photos were allowed. However, his final fast in 1948, after the end of British rule in India, his hunger strike was lauded by the British press and this time did include full-length photos.<ref>{{cite journal|author1=Pratt, Tim  |author2=Vernon, James  |lastauthoramp=yes |doi=10.1086/424944|title='Appeal from this fiery bed...': The Colonial Politics of Gandhi's Fasts and Their Metropolitan Reception|journal=Journal of British Studies|year=2005|volume=44|issue=1|pages=92–114}}</ref>
Alter states that Gandhi's fasting, vegetarianism and diet was more than a political leverage, it was a part of his experiments with self restraint and healthy living. He was "profoundly skeptical of traditional Ayurveda", encouraging it to study the scientific method and adopt its progressive learning approach. Gandhi believed yoga offered health benefits. He believed that a healthy nutritional diet based on regional foods and hygiene were essential to good health.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Alter, Joseph S. |title=Gandhi's body, Gandhi's truth: Nonviolence and the biomoral imperative of public health|journal=Journal of Asian Studies|year=1996|volume=35|issue=2|pages=305–306, 309–310, 313–317, 320–321 (all with footnotes)|jstor= 2943361| doi= 10.2307/2943361}}</ref> Recently [[Indian Council of Medical Research|ICMR]] made Gandhi's health records public in a book 'Gandhi and Health@150'. These records indicate that despite being underweight at 46.7 kgs Gandhi was generally healthy. He avoided modern medication and experiemented extensively with water and earth healing. While his cardio records show his heart was normal, there were several instances he suffered from ailments like Malaria and was also operated twice for piles and appendicts. Despite health challenges Gandhi was able to walk about 79000 kms in his lifetime which comes to an average of 18 kms per day and is equivalent to walking around the earth twice.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://krishijagran.com/news/mahatma-gandhis-underweight-health-records-revealed-for-the-1st-time-know-his-heart-health-serious-diseases/|title=Mahatma Gandhi's Underweight Health Records Revealed For the 1st Time; Know his Heart Health, Serious Diseases|website=krishijagran.com|access-date=26 March 2019}}</ref>
====Women====
Gandhi strongly favoured the emancipation of women, and urged "the women to fight for their own self-development." He opposed ''[[purdah]]'', [[child marriage]], [[dowry]] and ''[[sati (practice)|sati]]''.<ref name="Norvell1997"/> A wife is not a slave of the husband, stated Gandhi, but his comrade, better half, colleague and friend, according to Lyn Norvell.<ref name="Norvell1997"/> In his own life however, according to Suruchi Thapar-Bjorkert, Gandhi's relationship with his wife were at odds with some of these values.<ref name=suruchi77/>
At various occasions, Gandhi credited his orthodox Hindu mother, and his wife, for first lessons in ''satyagraha''.<ref name="Kishwar2008p132">{{cite book|author=Madhu Purnima Kishwar|title=Zealous Reformers, Deadly Laws|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5rSGAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA132 |year=2008 |publisher=SAGE Publications|isbn=978-81-321-0009-6|pages=132–133}}</ref> He used the legends of Hindu goddess [[Sita]] to expound women's innate strength, autonomy and "lioness in spirit" whose moral compass can make any demon "as helpless as a goat".<ref name="Kishwar2008p132"/> To Gandhi, the women of India were an important part of the "swadeshi movement" (Buy Indian), and his goal of decolonising the Indian economy.<ref name="Kishwar2008p132"/>
Some historians such as Angela Woollacott and Kumari Jayawardena state that even though Gandhi often and publicly expressed his belief in the equality of sexes, yet his vision was one of gender difference and complementarity between them. Women, to Gandhi, should be educated to be better in the domestic realm and educate the next generation. His views on women's rights were less liberal and more similar to puritan-Victorian expectations of women, states Jayawardena, than other Hindu leaders with him who supported economic independence and equal gender rights in all aspects.<ref>{{cite book|author=Angela Woollacott|title=Gender and Empire|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S5YcBQAAQBAJ |year=2006|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|isbn=978-0-230-20485-0|pages=107–108}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Kumari Jayawardena|title=Feminism and Nationalism in the Third World|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Vj_OCgAAQBAJ|year=2016|publisher=Verso|isbn=978-1-78478-431-7|pages=95–99}}</ref>
====Brahmacharya: abstinence from sex and food====
Along with many other texts, Gandhi studied ''Bhagavad Gita'' while in South Africa.<ref name="apsharma154">{{cite book|author=A. P. Sharma|title=Indian & Western Educational Philosophy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2o4bTpFQtdIC |year=2010|publisher=Pustak Mahal|isbn=978-81-7806-201-3|pages=154–156}}</ref> This Hindu scripture discusses [[jnana yoga]], [[bhakti yoga]] and [[karma yoga]] along with virtues such as non-violence, patience, integrity, lack of hypocrisy, self restraint and abstinence.<ref>{{cite book|author=Winthrop Sargeant|editor=Christopher Key Chapple|title=The Bhagavad Gita: Twenty-fifth–Anniversary Edition|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=COuy5CDAqt4C|year=2010|publisher=State University of New York Press|isbn=978-1-4384-2840-6|pages=x–xviii, 285 (verse 6.14), 415 (verse 10.5), 535 (verse 13.7)|deadurl=no|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20170415012931/https://books.google.com/books?id=COuy5CDAqt4C|archivedate=15 April 2017}}</ref> Gandhi began experiments with these, and in 1906 at age 37, although married and a father, he vowed to abstain from sexual relations.<ref name="apsharma154"/>
Gandhi's experiment with abstinence went beyond sex, and extended to food. He consulted the [[Jain]] scholar Rajchandra, whom he fondly called Raychandbhai.<ref>{{cite book|author=Thomas Weber|title=Gandhi as Disciple and Mentor |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P8nC80pG4GIC&pg=PA33 |year=2004|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-139-45657-9|page=33}}</ref> Rajchandra advised him that milk stimulated sexual passion. Gandhi began abstaining from cow's milk in 1912, and did so even when doctors advised him to consume milk.<ref name="Gandhi1957">{{cite book|author=Mahatma Gandhi|title=An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth|url=https://archive.org/details/autobiographyst00gand/page/262|accessdate=23 November 2016|volume=39|year=1957|publisher=Beacon Press|isbn=978-0-8070-5909-8|page=[https://archive.org/details/autobiographyst00gand/page/262 262]}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Sankar Ghose|title= Mahatma Gandhi |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5l0BPnxN1h8C |year=1991|publisher= Allied Publishers|isbn=978-81-7023-205-6|pages=66–67}}</ref> According to Sankar Ghose, Tagore described Gandhi as someone who did not abhor sex or women, but considered sexual life as inconsistent with his moral goals.<ref name=ghose354>{{cite book|author=Sankar Ghose|title= Mahatma Gandhi |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=5l0BPnxN1h8C |year= 1991|publisher= Allied Publishers|isbn= 978-81-7023-205-6|pages=354–357}}</ref>
Gandhi tried to test and prove to himself his ''brahmacharya''. The experiments began some time after the death of his wife in February 1944. At the start of his experiment he had women sleep in the same room but in different beds. He later slept with women in the same bed but clothed, and finally he slept naked with women. In April 1945, Gandhi referenced being naked with several "women or girls" in a letter to Birla as part of the experiments.<ref name=parekh210>{{cite book|author=Bhikhu C. Parekh|title=Colonialism, tradition, and reform: an analysis of Gandhi's political discourse|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eXhuAAAAMAAJ|year=1999|publisher=Sage Publications|isbn=978-0-7619-9382-7|pages=210–221|deadurl=no|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140629120818/http://books.google.com/books?id=exhuAAAAMAAJ|archivedate=29 June 2014}}</ref> According to the 1960s memoir of his grandniece Manu, Gandhi feared in early 1947 that he and she may be killed by Muslims in the run up to India's independence in August 1947, and asked her when she was 18 years old if she wanted to help him with his experiments to test their "purity", for which she readily accepted.<ref name="jadadams2012">{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/thrill-of-the-chaste-the-truth-about-gandhis-sex-life-1937411.html|title=Thrill of the chaste: The truth about Gandhi's sex life|date=2 January 2012|work=The Independent|author=Jad Adams|deadurl=no|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130603033106/http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/thrill-of-the-chaste-the-truth-about-gandhis-sex-life-1937411.html|archivedate=3 June 2013}}</ref> Gandhi slept naked in the same bed with Manu with the bedroom doors open all night. Manu stated that the experiment had no "ill effect" on her. Gandhi also shared his bed with 18-year-old Abha, wife of his grandnephew Kanu. Gandhi would sleep with both Manu and Abha at the same time.<ref name="jadadams2012" /><ref name=majumdar224>{{cite book|author=Uma Majmudar|title=Gandhi's Pilgrimage of Faith: From Darkness to Light|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3XombmM30kAC&pg=PA224 |year=2012 |publisher= State University of New York Press|isbn=978-0-7914-8351-0|pages=224–225}}</ref> None of the women who participated in the ''brahmachari'' experiments of Gandhi indicated that they had sex or that Gandhi behaved in any sexual way. Those who went public said they felt as though they were sleeping with their ageing mother.<ref name=ghose354/><ref name=parekh210/><ref>{{cite journal|author=Lal, Vinay |title=Nakedness, Nonviolence, and Brahmacharya: Gandhi's Experiments in Celibate Sexuality|journal=Journal of the History of Sexuality|date=Jan–Apr 2000|volume=9 |issue =1/2|pages=105–36|jstor=3704634}}</ref>
According to Sean Scalmer, Gandhi in his final year of life was an ascetic, looked ugly and a sickly skeletal figure, already caricatured in the Western media.<ref>{{cite book|author=Sean Scalmer|title=Gandhi in the West: The Mahatma and the Rise of Radical Protest|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oDcXJxRR4TUC&pg=PA16|year=2011|publisher=Cambridge University Press|pages=12–17 with footnotes|deadurl=no|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160101071616/https://books.google.com/books?id=oDcXJxRR4TUC&pg=PA16|archivedate=1 January 2016}}</ref> In February 1947, he asked his confidants such as Birla and Ramakrishna if it was wrong for him to experiment his ''brahmacharya'' oath.<ref name=ghose354/> Gandhi's public experiments, as they progressed, were widely discussed and criticised by his family members and leading politicians. However, Gandhi said that if he would not let Manu sleep with him, it would be a sign of weakness. Some of his staff resigned, including two of his newspaper's editors who had refused to print some of Gandhi's sermons dealing with his experiments.<ref name="jadadams2012" /> Nirmalkumar Bose, Gandhi's Bengali interpreter, for example criticised Gandhi, not because Gandhi did anything wrong, but because Bose was concerned about the psychological effect on the women who participated in his experiments.<ref name=majumdar224/> Veena Howard states Gandhi's views on brahmacharya and religious renunciation experiments were a method to confront women issues in his times.<ref name=howard2013>{{cite journal |author=Howard, Veena R. |year=2013|title=Rethinking Gandhi's celibacy: Ascetic power and women's empowerment|journal=[[Journal of the American Academy of Religion]] |volume=81 |issue=1 |pages=130, 137, 130–161 |publisher=Oxford University Press |doi= 10.1093/jaarel/lfs103 }}</ref>
====Untouchability and castes====
Gandhi spoke out against untouchability early in his life.<ref name="Jaffrelotp62">{{cite book|author=Christophe Jaffrelot|title=Dr. Ambedkar and Untouchability: Fighting the Indian Caste System|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W1590ts70g0C&pg=PA60|year=2005|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=978-0-231-13602-0|pages=60–63}}</ref> Before 1932, he and his colleagues used the term ''Antyaja'' for untouchables. One of the major speeches he made on untouchability was at [[Nagpur]] in 1920, where he called untouchability as a great evil in Hindu society. In his remarks, he stated that the phenomena of untouchability is not unique to the Hindu society, but has deeper roots because Europeans in South Africa treat "all of us, Hindus and Muslims, as untouchables; we may not reside in their midst, nor enjoy the rights which they do".<ref name=gandhi149/> He called it intolerable. He stated this practice can be eradicated, Hinduism is flexible to allow this, and a concerted effort is needed to persuade it is wrong and by all to eradicate it.<ref name=gandhi149/>
According to [[Christophe Jaffrelot]], while Gandhi considered untouchability to be wrong and evil, he believed that caste or class are based neither on inequality nor on inferiority.<ref name="Jaffrelotp62"/> Gandhi believed that individuals should freely intermarry whoever they want to, but no one should expect everyone to befriend them. Every individual regardless of his or her background, stated Gandhi, has a right to choose who they welcome into their home, who they befriend and who they spend time with.<ref name="Jaffrelotp62"/><ref name=gandhi149>MK Gandhi (1920), [https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.164029/2015.164029.The-Collected-Works-Of-Mahatma-Gandhi-Xix-November-1920--April-1921#page/n163/mode/2up Speech at Antyaj Conference], Nagpur, pages 148–155</ref>
In 1932, Gandhi began a new campaign to improve the lives of the untouchables, whom he started referring to as [[Harijan]]s or "the children of god".<ref name="Coward2003"/> On 8 May 1933, Gandhi began a 21-day fast of self-purification and launched a one-year campaign to help the Harijan movement.<ref>[[#Desai|Desai]], pp. 230–89.</ref> This new campaign was not universally embraced within the [[Dalit (outcaste)|Dalit]] community. Ambedkar and his allies felt Gandhi was being paternalistic and was undermining Dalit political rights. Ambedkar described him as "devious and untrustworthy".<ref name="GreatSoulReview"/> He accused Gandhi as someone who wished to retain the caste system.<ref name="Dirks2011p267"/> Ambedkar and Gandhi debated their ideas and concerns, where both tried to persuade each other.<ref>[http://www.mkgandhi.org/Selected%20Letters/amb-gandhi%20corr..htm Gandhi-Ambedkar correspondence] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170109182842/http://www.mkgandhi.org/Selected%20Letters/amb-gandhi%20corr..htm |date=9 January 2017 }}, Mahatma Gandhi writings, An Archive</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Rajmohan Gandhi|title=Gandhi: The Man, His People, and the Empire|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FauJL7LKXmkC|year=2006|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-25570-8|pages=333–359|deadurl=no|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20170222104043/https://books.google.com/books?id=FauJL7LKXmkC|archivedate=22 February 2017}}</ref>
In 1935, Ambedkar announced his intentions to leave Hinduism and join Buddhism.<ref name="Dirks2011p267"/> According to Sankar Ghose, the announcement shook Gandhi, who reappraised his views and wrote many essays with his views on castes, inter-marriage and what Hinduism says on the subject. These views contrasted with those of Ambedkar.<ref>{{cite book|author=Sankar Ghose|title=Mahatma Gandhi |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5l0BPnxN1h8C&pg=PA236 |year=1991|publisher=Allied Publishers|isbn=978-81-7023-205-6|page=236}}</ref> In actual elections of 1937, except for some seats in Mumbai where Ambedkar's party won, India's untouchables voted heavily in favour of Gandhi's campaign and his party, the Congress.<ref>{{cite book|author= Rajmohan Gandhi|title=Gandhi: The Man, His People, and the Empire |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FauJL7LKXmkC&pg=PA385 |year=2006 |publisher=University of California Press|isbn= 978-0-520-25570-8|page= 385}}</ref>
Gandhi and his colleagues continued to consult Ambedkar, keeping him influential. Ambedkar worked with other Congress leaders through the 1940s, wrote large parts of India's constitution in the late 1940s, and converted to Buddhism in 1956.<ref name="Dirks2011p267"/> According to Jaffrelot, Gandhi's views evolved between the 1920s and 1940s, when in 1946 he actively encouraged inter-marriage across castes. However, Gandhi's approach to untouchability was different from Ambedkar's, championing fusion, choice and free intermixing. Ambedkar envisioned each segment of society maintaining its identity group, and each group then separately advancing the "politics of equality".<ref name="Jaffrelotp62"/>
The criticism of Gandhi by Ambedkar continued to influence the Dalit movement past Gandhi's death. According to Arthur Herman, Ambedkar's hate for Gandhi and Gandhi's ideas was so strong that after he heard the news of Gandhi's assassination, remarked after a momentary silence a sense of regret and then "my real enemy is gone; thank goodness the eclipse is over now".<ref name="Herman2008p586"/><ref>{{cite journal|author= KR Rao|editor =MVVS Murthi|display-editors=etal|journal=Journal of Gandhian Studies|title = Satyagraha: Gandhi's yoga of nonviolence| volume = 3|year=1975|page=48|publisher= Gandhi Bhawan, University of Allahabad}};<br />Laxman Kawale (2012), ''Dalit's Social Transformation: Redefining the Social Justice'', ISRJ, Volume 1, Issue XII, page 3; Quote: "Even though Ambedkar was a party to Poona Pact, he was never reconciled to it. His contempt against Gandhi which was [sic] continued even after his assassination on January 30, 1948. On the death of Gandhi he expressed, "My real enemy has gone; thank goodness the eclipse is over". He equated the assassination of Gandhi with that of Caesar and the remark of Cicero to the messenger – "Tell the Romans, your hour of liberty has come". He further remarked, "While one regrets the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, one cannot help finding in his heart the echo of the sentiments expressed by Cicero on the assassination of Caesar".</ref> According to [[Ramachandra Guha]], "ideologues have carried these old rivalries into the present, with the demonization of Gandhi now common among politicians who presume to speak in Ambedkar's name."<ref>Guha, Ramachandra (22 June 2012) [https://newrepublic.com/article/books-and-arts/magazine/104203/the-other-liberal-light "The Other Liberal Light"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151024032337/http://www.newrepublic.com/article/books-and-arts/magazine/104203/the-other-liberal-light |date=24 October 2015 }}. ''[[The New Republic]]''.</ref>
====Nai Talim, basic education====
{{main|Nai Talim}}
Gandhi rejected the colonial Western format of education system. He stated that it led to disdain for manual work, generally created an elite administrative bureaucracy. Gandhi favoured an education system with far greater emphasis on learning skills in practical and useful work, one that included physical, mental and spiritual studies. His methodology sought to treat all professions equal and pay everyone the same.<ref>{{cite book|author=V.R. Devika |author2=G. Arulmani|editor= Gideon Arulmani|display-editors=etal|title=Handbook of Career Development: International Perspectives|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=_RS4BAAAQBAJ&pg=PA111| year=2014|publisher= Springer Science|isbn= 978-1-4614-9460-7|page=111}}</ref><ref name=weber80/>
Gandhi called his ideas ''Nai Talim'' (literally, 'new education'). He believed that the Western style education violated and destroyed the indigenous cultures. A different basic education model, he believed, would lead to better self awareness, prepare people to treat all work equally respectable and valued, and lead to a society with less social diseases.<ref>{{cite book|author=J.J. Chambliss|title=Philosophy of Education: An Encyclopedia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ncDYnnvzm1sC |year=2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-136-51161-5|page=233}}</ref><ref>Dehury, Dinabandhu "Mahatma Gandhi's Contribution to Education", ''Orissa Review'', [http://orissa.gov.in/e-magazine/Orissareview/sept-oct2006/engpdf/11-15.pdf September/October 2006, pp. 11–15]  {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100215184920/http://orissa.gov.in/e-magazine/Orissareview/sept-oct2006/engpdf/11-15.pdf |date=15 February 2010 }}; [http://orissa.gov.in/e-magazine/Orissareview/2008/December-2008/engpdf/1-5.pdf December 2008, pp. 1–5.]</ref>
Nai Talim evolved out of his experiences at the Tolstoy Farm in South Africa, and Gandhi attempted to formulate the new system at the Sevagram ashram after 1937.<ref name=weber80>{{cite book|author=Weber, Thomas |title=Gandhi As Disciple And Mentor|url=https://books.google.com/?id=P8nC80pG4GIC&pg=PA80|year=2004|publisher=Cambridge U. Press|page=80 with footnote 42|isbn=978-1-139-45657-9}}</ref> Nehru government's vision of an industrialised, centrally [[planned economy]] after 1947 had scant place for Gandhi's village-oriented approach.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Yencken, David |author2=Fien, John |author3=Sykes, Helen  |lastauthoramp=yes |title=Environment, Education, and Society in the Asia-Pacific: Local Traditions and Global Discourses|url=https://books.google.com/?id=tpE3W2MhC78C&pg=PA107|year=2000|publisher=Psychology Press|page=107|isbn=978-0-203-45926-3}}</ref>
In his autobiography, Gandhi wrote that he believed every Hindu boy and girl must learn [[Sanskrit]] because its historic and spiritual texts are in that language.<ref name="Childhood"/>
====Swaraj, self-rule====
{{Main|Swaraj}}
Gandhi believed that ''swaraj'' not only can be attained with non-violence, it can be run with non-violence. A military is unnecessary, because any aggressor can be thrown out using the method of non-violent non-co-operation. While military is unnecessary in a nation organised under ''swaraj'' principle, Gandhi added that a police force is necessary given human nature. However, the state would limit the use of weapons by the police to the minimum, aiming for their use as a restraining force.<ref name="Chakrabarty">{{cite book|author=Chakrabarty, Bidyut|title=Social and political thought of Mahatma Gandhi|url=https://archive.org/details/socialpoliticalt0000chak/page/138|year=2006|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-415-36096-8|pages=[https://archive.org/details/socialpoliticalt0000chak/page/138 138–139]}}</ref>
According to Gandhi, a non-violent state is like an "ordered anarchy".<ref name="Chakrabarty"/> In a society of mostly non-violent individuals, those who are violent will sooner or later accept discipline or leave the community, stated Gandhi.<ref name="Chakrabarty"/> He emphasised a society where individuals believed more in learning about their duties and responsibilities, not demanded rights and privileges. On returning from South Africa, when Gandhi received a letter asking for his participation in writing a world charter for human rights, he responded saying, "in my experience, it is far more important to have a charter for human duties."<ref>[[Eknath Easwaran|Easwaran, Eknath]]. ''[[Gandhi the Man]]''. Nilgiri Press, 2011. p. 49.</ref>
Swaraj to Gandhi did not mean transferring colonial era British power brokering system, favours-driven, bureaucratic, class exploitative structure and mindset into Indian hands. He warned such a transfer would still be English rule, just without the Englishman. "This is not the Swaraj I want", said Gandhi.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Gillen, Paul  |author2=Ghosh, Devleena  |lastauthoramp=yes |title=Colonialism and Modernity|url=https://books.google.com/?id=bnQk28Du5poC&pg=PA130|year=2007|publisher=UNSW Press|pages=129–131|isbn=978-0-86840-735-7}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Anil Mishra|title=Reading Gandhi|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Xa8cD95Mt4YC |year=2012|publisher=Pearson|isbn=978-81-317-9964-2|pages=167–170}}</ref> Tewari states that Gandhi saw democracy as more than a system of government; it meant promoting both individuality and the self-discipline of the community. Democracy meant settling disputes in a nonviolent manner; it required freedom of thought and expression. For Gandhi, democracy was a way of life.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Tewari | first1 = S. M. | year = 1971 | title = The Concept of Democracy in the Political Thought of Mahatma Gandhi | journal = Indian Political Science Review | volume = 6 | issue = 2| pages = 225–51 }}</ref>
====Hindu nationalism and revivalism====
Some scholars state Gandhi supported a religiously diverse India,<ref>{{cite book|author1=John L. Esposito|author2=Darrell J. Fasching|author3=Todd Lewis|title=Religion & globalization: world religions in historical perspective|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L9QQAQAAIAAJ |year= 2007|publisher= Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-517695-7|pages=543–544}}</ref> while others state that the Muslim leaders who championed the partition and creation of a separate Muslim Pakistan considered Gandhi to be Hindu nationalist or revivalist.<ref>{{cite book|author= Chetan Bhatt|title= Hindu nationalism: origins, ideologies and modern myths|url= https://archive.org/details/hindunationalism00chet/page/111|year= 2001|publisher= Berg|isbn= 978-1-85973-343-1|pages= [https://archive.org/details/hindunationalism00chet/page/111 111–112]}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author1=Leora Batnitzky|author2=Hanoch Dagan|title=Institutionalizing Rights and Religion: Competing Supremacies|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xIA7DgAAQBAJ |year=2017|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-108-17953-9|page=250}}, Quote: "Many Muslims viewed Gandhi not as a secularist, but as a Hindu nationalist."</ref> For example, in his letters to Mohammad Iqbal, Jinnah accused Gandhi to be favouring a Hindu rule and revivalism, that Gandhi led Indian National Congress was a fascist party.<ref>{{cite book|author=Lars Tore Flåten|title=Hindu Nationalism, History and Identity in India: Narrating a Hindu past under the BJP|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5NZRDQAAQBAJ&pg=PT249 |year=2016|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-1-317-20871-6|page=249}}</ref>
In an interview with C.F. Andrews, Gandhi stated that if we believe all religions teach the same message of love and peace between all human beings, then there is neither any rationale nor need for proselytisation or attempts to convert people from one religion to another.<ref name=singh79/> Gandhi opposed missionary organisations who criticised Indian religions then attempted to convert followers of Indian religions to Islam or Christianity. In Gandhi's view, those who attempt to convert a Hindu, "they must harbour in their breasts the belief that Hinduism is an error" and that their own religion is "the only true religion".<ref name=singh79/><ref>{{cite book|author1=Mahatma Gandhi|author2=Anand T. Hingorani|title=All Religions are True|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=2rDWAAAAMAAJ|year= 1962|publisher= Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan|pages=112–113}}</ref> Gandhi believed that people who demand religious respect and rights must also show the same respect and grant the same rights to followers of other religions. He stated that spiritual studies must encourage "a Hindu to become a better Hindu, a Mussalman to become a better Mussalman, and a Christian a better Christian."<ref name=singh79>{{cite journal| author1=Singh AR| author2= Singh SA| title=Gandhi on religion, faith and conversion: secular blueprint relevant today | journal=Mens Sana Monographs | year= 2004 | volume= 2 | issue= 1 | pages= 79–88 | pmid=22815610 | pmc=3400300 | url= https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/eutils/elink.fcgi?dbfrom=pubmed&tool=sumsearch.org/cite&retmode=ref&cmd=prlinks&id=22815610  }}</ref>
According to Gandhi, religion is not about what a man believes, it is about how a man lives, how he relates to other people, his conduct towards others, and one's relationship to one's conception of god.<ref name=parekh82>{{cite book|author=Bhikhu C. Parekh|title=Gandhi|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=Qwyjly4tTUUC |year= 2001|publisher= Sterling Publishing|isbn= 978-1-4027-6887-3|pages= 82–84}}</ref> It is not important to convert or to join any religion, but it is important to improve one's way of life and conduct by absorbing ideas from any source and any religion, believed Gandhi.<ref name=parekh82/>
====Gandhian economics====
{{Main|Gandhian economics}}
Gandhi believed in ''sarvodaya'' economic model, which literally means "welfare, upliftment of all".<ref name=rivett1>{{cite journal | last=Rivett | first=Kenneth | title=The Economic Thought of Mahatma Gandhi | journal=The British Journal of Sociology | publisher=JSTOR | volume=10 | issue=1 | year=1959 | doi=10.2307/587582 | pages=1–15| jstor=587582 }}</ref> This, states Bhatt, was a very different economic model than the socialism model championed and followed by free India by Nehru – India's first prime minister. To both, according to Bhatt, removing poverty and unemployment were the objective, but the Gandhian economic and development approach preferred adapting technology and infrastructure to suit the local situation, in contrast to Nehru's large scale, socialised state owned enterprises.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Bhatt | first1 = V. V. | year = 1982 | title = Development Problem, Strategy, and Technology Choice: Sarvodaya and Socialist Approaches in India | journal = Economic Development and Cultural Change | volume = 31 | issue = 1| pages = 85–99 | jstor=1153645 | doi = 10.1086/451307}}</ref>
To Gandhi, the economic philosophy that aims at "greatest good for the greatest number" was fundamentally flawed, and his alternative proposal ''sarvodaya'' set its aim at the "greatest good for all". He believed that the best economic system not only cared to lift the "poor, less skilled, of impoverished background" but also empowered to lift the "rich, highly skilled, of capital means and landlords". Violence against any human being, born poor or rich, is wrong, believed Gandhi.<ref name=rivett1/><ref>{{cite journal | last=Rothermund | first=Indira | title=The Individual and Society in Gandhi's Political Thought | journal=The Journal of Asian Studies | publisher=Cambridge University Press | volume=28 | issue=2 | year=1969 | doi=10.2307/2943005 | pages=313–320| jstor=2943005 }}</ref> He stated that the mandate theory of majoritarian democracy should not be pushed to absurd extremes, individual freedoms should never be denied, and no person should ever be made a social or economic slave to the "resolutions of majorities".<ref>{{cite book|author=Ramjee Singh|editor=Ronald Bontekoe|display-editors=etal|title=Justice and Democracy: Cross-cultural Perspectives  |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZcGvAzjPSboC&pg=PA233 |year=1997|publisher=University of Hawaii Press|isbn=978-0-8248-1926-2|pages=233–235}}</ref>
Gandhi challenged Nehru and the modernizers in the late 1930s who called for rapid industrialisation on the Soviet model; Gandhi denounced that as dehumanising and contrary to the needs of the villages where the great majority of the people lived.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Chakrabarty, Bidyut |title=Jawaharlal Nehru and Planning, 1938–1941: India at the Crossroads|journal=Modern Asian Studies|year=1992|volume=26|issue=2|pages=275–87|doi=10.1017/S0026749X00009781}}</ref> After Gandhi's assassination, Nehru led India in accordance with his personal socialist convictions.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Socialism and Indian economic policy|author=Padma Desai and Jagdish Bhagwati|journal=World Development|volume= 3|issue= 4|year= 1975|pages=213–21|doi=10.1016/0305-750X(75)90063-7}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |title=Socialism at crossroads|author=B.K. Nehru|journal=India International Centre Quarterly|volume=17|date=Spring 1990|pages=1–12|jstor=23002177|issue=1}}</ref> Historian Kuruvilla [[Pandikattu]] says "it was Nehru's vision, not Gandhi's, that was eventually preferred by the Indian State."<ref>{{cite book|author=Pandikattu, Kuruvila |title=Gandhi: the meaning of Mahatma for the millennium|url=https://books.google.com/?id=YrGadHsc1bUC&pg=PA237 |year=2001 |publisher=CRVP |isbn=978-1-56518-156-4|page=237}}</ref>
Gandhi called for ending poverty through improved agriculture and small-scale cottage rural industries.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Rivett | first1 = Kenneth | year = 1959 | title = The Economic Thought of Mahatma Gandhi | journal = British Journal of Sociology | volume = 10 | issue = 1| pages = 1–15 | jstor=587582 | doi = 10.2307/587582}}</ref> Gandhi's economic thinking disagreed with Marx, according to the political theory scholar and economist [[Bhikhu Parekh]]. Gandhi refused to endorse the view that economic forces are best understood as "antagonistic class interests".<ref name=parekh5/> He argued that no man can degrade or brutalise the other without degrading and brutalising himself and that sustainable economic growth comes from service, not from exploitation. Further, believed Gandhi, in a free nation, victims exist only when they co-operate with their oppressor, and an economic and political system that offered increasing alternatives gave power of choice to the poorest man.<ref name=parekh5>{{cite book|author=Bhikhu C. Parekh|title=Gandhi|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=Qwyjly4tTUUC |year= 2001|publisher= Sterling Publishing|isbn= 978-1-4027-6887-3|pages= 5–6, 15–16}}</ref>
While disagreeing with Nehru about the socialist economic model, Gandhi also critiqued capitalism that was driven by endless wants and a materialistic view of man. This, he believed, created a vicious vested system of materialism at the cost of other human needs such as spirituality and social relationships.<ref name=parekh5/> To Gandhi, states Parekh, both communism and capitalism were wrong, in part because both focussed exclusively on materialistic view of man, and because the former deified the state with unlimited power of violence, while the latter deified capital. He believed that a better economic system is one which does not impoverish one's culture and spiritual pursuits.<ref>{{cite book|author=Bhikhu Parekh| authorlink = Bhikhu Parekh| title=Gandhi's Political Philosophy: A Critical Examination|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sP2wCwAAQBAJ |year=1991|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|isbn=978-1-349-12242-4|pages=133–136}}</ref>
====Gandhism====
{{Main|Gandhism}}
''Gandhism'' designates the ideas and principles Gandhi promoted; of central importance is nonviolent resistance. A [[:Category:Gandhians|Gandhian]] can mean either an individual who follows, or a specific philosophy which is attributed to, Gandhism.<ref name="Hardiman2001"/> M. M. Sankhdher argues that Gandhism is not a systematic position in metaphysics or in political philosophy. Rather, it is a political creed, an economic doctrine, a religious outlook, a moral precept, and especially, a humanitarian world view. It is an effort not to systematise wisdom but to transform society and is based on an undying faith in the goodness of human nature.<ref>Sankhdher, M. M. (1972), "Gandhism: A Political Interpretation", ''Gandhi Marg'', pp. 68–74.</ref> However Gandhi himself did not approve of the notion of "Gandhism", as he explained in 1936:
{{quote|There is no such thing as "Gandhism", and I do not want to leave any sect after me. I do not claim to have originated any new principle or doctrine. I have simply tried in my own way to apply the eternal truths to our daily life and problems...The opinions I have formed and the conclusions I have arrived at are not final. I may change them tomorrow. I have nothing new to teach the world. Truth and nonviolence are as old as the hills.<ref>Kamath, M. V. (2007), ''Gandhi, a spiritual journey'', Indus Source, {{ISBN|81-88569-11-9}}, p. 195.</ref>}}
==Literary works==
[[File:Young India.png|thumb|upright|''Young India'', a weekly journal published by Gandhi from 1919 to 1932]]
Gandhi was a prolific writer. One of Gandhi's earliest publications, ''Hind Swaraj'', published in Gujarati in 1909, became "the intellectual blueprint" for India's independence movement. The book was translated into English the next year, with a copyright legend that read "No Rights Reserved".<ref name=ie12>{{cite news|title=Would Gandhi have been a Wikipedian?|url=http://www.indianexpress.com/news/would-gandhi-have-been-a-wikipedian/900506/0|access-date=26 January 2012|work=The Indian Express|date=17 January 2012|deadurl=no|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20121209021916/http://www.indianexpress.com/news/would-gandhi-have-been-a-wikipedian/900506/0|archivedate=9 December 2012}}</ref> For decades he edited several newspapers including ''[[Harijan]]'' in Gujarati, in [[Hindi]] and in the English language; ''[[Indian Opinion]]'' while in South Africa and, ''[[Young India]]'', in English, and Navajivan, a Gujarati monthly, on his return to India. Later, Navajivan was also published in Hindi. In addition, he wrote letters almost every day to individuals and newspapers.<ref>[http://www.lifepositive.com/Spirit/masters/mahatma-gandhi/journalist.asp "Peerless Communicator"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070804022748/http://www.lifepositive.com/Spirit/masters/mahatma-gandhi/journalist.asp |date=4 August 2007 }} by V. N. Narayanan. Life Positive Plus, October–December 2002.</ref>
Gandhi also wrote several books including his autobiography, ''[[The Story of My Experiments with Truth]] (Gujarātī "સત્યના પ્રયોગો અથવા આત્મકથા")'', of which he bought the entire first edition to make sure it was reprinted.<ref name="GreatSoulReview"/> His other autobiographies included: ''Satyagraha in South Africa'' about his struggle there, ''[[Hind Swaraj or Indian Home Rule]]'', a political pamphlet, and a paraphrase in Gujarati of [[John Ruskin]]'s ''[[Unto This Last]]''.<ref name="Unto this last">{{Cite book |last= Gandhi |first= M. K. |title= Unto this Last: A paraphrase |url= http://wikilivres.ca/wiki/Unto_This_Last_%E2%80%94_M._K._Gandhi |publisher= Navajivan Publishing House |location= Ahmedabad |language= English |isbn= 81-7229-076-4 |format= PDF |deadurl= no |archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20121030070419/http://wikilivres.ca/wiki/Unto_This_Last_%E2%80%94_M._K._Gandhi |archivedate= 30 October 2012 |df= dmy-all }}</ref> This last essay can be considered his programme on economics. He also wrote extensively on vegetarianism, diet and health, religion, social reforms, etc. Gandhi usually wrote in Gujarati, though he also revised the Hindi and English translations of his books.<ref name="Pareku">{{cite book|last=Pareku|first=Bhikhu|title=Gandhi|url=https://books.google.com/?id=0chB4q7XeHcC&pg=PT159|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-160667-0|page=159|year=2001}}</ref>
Gandhi's complete works were published by the Indian government under the name ''[[s:The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi|The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi]]'' in the 1960s. The writings comprise about 50,000 pages published in about a hundred volumes. In 2000, a revised edition of the complete works sparked a controversy, as it contained a large number of errors and omissions.<ref>{{cite news|title=Revised edition of Bapu's works to be withdrawn|url=http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2005-11-16/india/27838774_1_second-edition-bapu-gujarat-vidyapith|access-date=25 March 2012|newspaper=[[The Times of India]]|date=16 November 2005}}</ref> The Indian government later withdrew the revised edition.<ref>{{cite web |author=Peter Rühe |url=http://www.gandhiserve.org/e/cwmg/cwmg_controversy.htm |title=Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi (CWMG) Controversy |publisher=Gandhiserve.org |accessdate=12 July 2016 |deadurl=no |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160907204816/http://www.gandhiserve.org/e/cwmg/cwmg_controversy.htm |archivedate=7 September 2016  }}</ref>
==Legacy and depictions in popular culture==
{{See also|List of artistic depictions of Mahatma Gandhi|List of roads named after Mahatma Gandhi}}
* The word ''[[Mahatma]]'', while often mistaken for Gandhi's given name in the West, is taken from the [[Sanskrit language|Sanskrit]] words ''maha'' (meaning ''Great'') and ''atma'' (meaning ''Soul''). [[Rabindranath Tagore]] is said to have accorded the title to Gandhi.<ref name="Tagore1998">{{cite book|last=Tagore|first=Rabindranath|editor=Dutta, Krishna |others=Robinson, Andrew |title=Rabindranath Tagore: an anthology|date=15 December 1998|publisher=Macmillan|isbn=978-0-312-20079-4|page=2}}</ref> In his autobiography, Gandhi nevertheless explains that he never valued the title, and was often pained by it.<ref>[[#Desai|Desai]], p. viii.</ref><ref>Basu Majumdar, A. K. (1993), ''Rabindranath Tagore: The Poet of India'', Indus Publishing, {{ISBN|81-85182-92-2}}, p. 83: "When Gandhi returned to India, Rabindranath's eldest brother Dwijendranath, was perhaps the first to address him as Mahatma. Rabindranath followed suit and then the whole of India called him Mahatma Gandhi."</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Ghose, Sankar |title=Mahatma Gandhi|url=https://books.google.com/?id=5l0BPnxN1h8C&pg=PA158|year=1991|publisher=Allied Publishers|page=158|isbn=978-81-7023-205-6|quote=So Tagore differed from many of Gandhi's ideas, but yet he had great regard for him and Tagore was perhaps the first important Indian who called Gandhi a Mahatma. But in 1921 when Gandhi was asked whether he was really a Mahatma Gandhi replied that he did not feel like one, and that, in any event he could not define a Mahatma for he had never met any.}}</ref>
* Innumerable streets, roads and localities in India are named after M.K.Gandhi. These include [[M.G. Road|M.G.Road]] (the [[main street]] of a number of Indian cities including [[Mumbai]] and [[Bangalore]]), [[Gandhi Market]] (near [[Sion, Mumbai|Sion]], Mumbai) and [[Gandhinagar]] (the capital of the state of [[Gujarat]], Gandhi's birthplace).<ref>{{cite book|last1=Guha|first1=Ramachandra|title=India After Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy|date=24 July 2007|publisher=Ecco Press|location=Delhi|isbn=978-0-06-019881-7|url=https://archive.org/details/indiaaftergandhi00guha}}</ref>
===Followers and international influence===
[[File:Mahatmagandhi.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|[[Statue]] of Mahatma Gandhi at [[York University]]]]
[[File:The Soviet Union 1969 CPA 3793 stamp (Mahatma Gandhi).jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|Mahatma Gandhi on a 1969 postage stamp of the [[Soviet Union]]]]
[[File:Gandhi Commons.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|Mahatma Gandhi at Praça Túlio Fontoura, [[São Paulo]], Brazil. [[Statue]] by Gautam Pal]]
[[File:Mahatma Gandhi Statue, Vidhana Soudha (03).jpg|thumb|Largest Gandhi Statue located between Vidhana Soudha and Vikasa Soudha, [[Bengaluru]]]]
Gandhi influenced important leaders and political movements. Leaders of the [[civil rights movement]] in the United States, including [[Martin Luther King Jr.]], [[James Lawson (American activist)|James Lawson]], and [[James Bevel]], drew from the writings of Gandhi in the development of their own theories about nonviolence.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/kingpapers/article/kings_trip_to_india/ |title=King's Trip to India |publisher=Mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu |access-date=24 January 2012 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090321002316/http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/kingpapers/article/kings_trip_to_india/|archivedate=21 March 2009}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |author=Sidner, Sara |url=http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/02/17/king.anniversaryvisit/index.html |title=King moved, as father was, on trip to Gandhi's memorial |work=cnn.com Asia-Pacific |publisher=CNN |date=17 February 2009 |access-date=24 January 2012 |deadurl=no |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120414101902/http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/02/17/king.anniversaryvisit/index.html |archivedate=14 April 2012  }}</ref><ref>{{cite news|author=D'Souza, Placido P. |url=http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/openforum/article/COMMEMORATING-MARTIN-LUTHER-KING-JR-Gandhi-s-2640319.php |title=Commemorating Martin Luther King Jr.: Gandhi's influence on King |work=San Francisco Chronicle |date=20 January 2003 |access-date=24 January 2012 |archivedate=18 January 2013 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130118040508/http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/openforum/article/COMMEMORATING-MARTIN-LUTHER-KING-JR-Gandhi-s-2640319.php |deadurl=no |df= }}</ref> King said "Christ gave us the goals and Mahatma Gandhi the tactics."<ref name="Tougas2011">{{cite book|last=Tougas|first=Shelley|title=Birmingham 1963: How a Photograph Rallied Civil Rights Support|url=https://books.google.com/?id=zzWQKHKcrOMC&pg=PT12|access-date=24 January 2012|date=1 January 2011|publisher=Capstone Press|isbn=978-0-7565-4398-3|page=12}}</ref> King sometimes referred to Gandhi as "the little brown saint."<ref>{{cite book|last=Cone|first=James|title=Martin & Malcolm & America: A Dream Or a Nightmare|year=1992|publisher=Orbis Books|isbn=0-88344-824-6}}</ref> Anti-[[History of South Africa in the Apartheid Era|apartheid]] activist and former President of South Africa, [[Nelson Mandela]], was inspired by Gandhi.<ref name="Mandela-2000">[[Nelson Mandela]], [http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,993025,00.html "The Sacred Warrior: The liberator of South Africa looks at the seminal work of the liberator of India"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131005014909/http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0%2C9171%2C993025%2C00.html |date=5 October 2013 }}, ''Time'', 3 January 2000</ref> Others include [[Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan]],<ref>{{cite news|url=http://progressive.org/mag_amitpalabdul |title=A pacifist uncovered- Abdul Ghaffar Khan, Pakistani pacifist |author=Pal, Amitabh |work=The Progressive |date=February 2002 |access-date=24 January 2012 |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120107183114/http://progressive.org/mag_amitpalabdul |archivedate=7 January 2012 |df= }}</ref> [[Steve Biko]], and [[Aung San Suu Kyi]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.tribuneindia.com/2004/20040222/spectrum/book1.htm |title=An alternative Gandhi |work=The Tribune |location=India |date=22 February 2004 |access-date=12 March 2009 |deadurl=no |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090514084050/http://www.tribuneindia.com/2004/20040222/spectrum/book1.htm |archivedate=14 May 2009  }}</ref>
In his early years, the former [[President of South Africa]] Nelson Mandela was a follower of the nonviolent resistance philosophy of Gandhi.<ref name="Mandela-2000" /> Bhana and Vahed commented on these events as "Gandhi inspired succeeding generations of South African activists seeking to end White rule. This legacy connects him to Nelson Mandela...in a sense Mandela completed what Gandhi started."<ref name="BhanaVahed2005"/>
Gandhi's life and teachings inspired many who specifically referred to Gandhi as their mentor or who dedicated their lives to spreading Gandhi's ideas. In Europe, [[Romain Rolland]] was the first to discuss Gandhi in his 1924 book ''Mahatma Gandhi,'' and Brazilian anarchist and feminist [[Maria Lacerda de Moura]] wrote about Gandhi in her work on pacifism. In 1931, notable European physicist [[Albert Einstein]] exchanged written letters with Gandhi, and called him "a role model for the generations to come" in a letter writing about him.<ref name="Albano-Müller">{{cite web |url=http://www.gandhiserve.org/streams/einstein.html |title=Einstein on Gandhi (Einstein's letter to Gandhi – Courtesy:Saraswati Albano-Müller & Notes by Einstein on Gandhi – Source: The Hebrew University of Jerusalem ) |publisher=Gandhiserve.org |date=18 October 1931 |access-date=24 January 2012 |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120117104005/http://www.gandhiserve.org/streams/einstein.html |archivedate=17 January 2012  }}</ref> Einstein said of Gandhi:
<blockquote>
Mahatma Gandhi's life achievement stands unique in political history. He has invented a completely new and humane means for the liberation war of an oppressed country, and practised it with greatest energy and devotion. The moral influence he had on the consciously thinking human being of the entire civilised world will probably be much more lasting than it seems in our time with its overestimation of brutal violent forces. Because lasting will only be the work of such statesmen who wake up and strengthen the moral power of their people through their example and educational works. We may all be happy and grateful that destiny gifted us with such an enlightened contemporary, a role model for the generations to come.
Generations to come will scarce believe that such a one as this walked the earth in flesh and blood.
</blockquote>
[[Lanza del Vasto]] went to India in 1936 intending to live with Gandhi; he later returned to Europe to spread Gandhi's philosophy and founded the [[Community of the Ark]] in 1948 (modelled after Gandhi's ashrams). [[Madeleine Slade]] (known as "Mirabehn") was the daughter of a British admiral who spent much of her adult life in India as a devotee of Gandhi.<ref name="Dhupelia-Mesthrie2005">{{cite book|last=Dhupelia-Mesthrie|first=Uma|title=Gandhi's prisoner?: the life of Gandhi's son Manilal|url=https://books.google.com/?id=hCR0AJx-9pwC&pg=PA293|access-date=26 January 2012|date=1 January 2005|publisher=Permanent Black|isbn=978-81-7824-116-6|page=293}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=In the company of Bapu|url=http://www.telegraphindia.com/1041003/asp/look/story_3824566.asp|date=3 October 2004|work=[[The Telegraph (Calcutta)|The Telegraph]]|access-date=26 January 2012|deadurl=no|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120208170605/http://www.telegraphindia.com/1041003/asp/look/story_3824566.asp|archivedate=8 February 2012}}</ref>
In addition, the British musician [[John Lennon]] referred to Gandhi when discussing his views on nonviolence.<ref name="Rolling Stone">{{cite web |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070528225215/http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/8898300/lennon_lives_forever|url= https://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/8898300/lennon_lives_forever|archivedate=28 May 2007|title=Lennon Lives Forever |author=Gilmore, Mikal |date=5 December 2005 |work=Rolling Stone |access-date=24 January 2012}}</ref> At the [[Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival]] in 2007, former US Vice-President and environmentalist [[Al Gore]] spoke of Gandhi's influence on him.<ref name="Al Gore">{{cite web |url=http://www.exchange4media.com/Cannes/2007/fullstory2007.asp?section_id=13&news_id=26524&tag=21387&pict=2 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120111115931/http://www.exchange4media.com/Cannes/2007/fullstory2007.asp?section_id=13&news_id=26524&tag=21387&pict=2 |archive-date=11 January 2012 |title= Of Gandhigiri and Green Lion, Al Gore wins hearts at Cannes |author=Kar, Kalyan |date= 23 June 2007 |work=Cannes Lions 2007 |publisher= exchange4media |access-date=24 January 2012}}</ref>
US President [[Barack Obama]] in a 2010 address to the [[Parliament of India]] said that:
<blockquote>I am mindful that I might not be standing before you today, as President of the United States, had it not been for Gandhi and the message he shared with America and the world.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2010/11/08/remarks-president-joint-session-indian-parliament-new-delhi-india |title=Remarks by the President to the Joint Session of the Indian Parliament in New Delhi, India |publisher=The White House |date=8 November 2010 |access-date=24 January 2012 |deadurl=no |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120113041849/http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2010/11/08/remarks-president-joint-session-indian-parliament-new-delhi-india |archivedate=13 January 2012 |df=dmy-all }}</ref></blockquote>
Obama in September 2009 said that his biggest inspiration came from Gandhi. His reply was in response to the question 'Who was the one person, dead or live, that you would choose to dine with?'. He continued that "He's somebody I find a lot of inspiration in. He inspired Dr. King with his message of nonviolence. He ended up doing so much and changed the world just by the power of his ethics."<ref name="Wakefield">{{cite news |url=http://www.nbcnews.com/id/32723625/ns/politics-white_house/t/obama-steers-clear-politics-school-pep-talk |title=Obama steers clear of politics in school pep talk |agency=Associated Press |date=8 September 2009 |publisher=MSNBC |access-date=24 January 2012 |deadurl=no |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20131004223415/http://www.nbcnews.com/id/32723625/ns/politics-white_house/t/obama-steers-clear-politics-school-pep-talk/ |archivedate=4 October 2013  }}</ref>
''Time Magazine'' named [[14th Dalai Lama|The 14th Dalai Lama]], [[Lech Wałęsa]], [[Martin Luther King]], [[Cesar Chavez]], [[Aung San Suu Kyi]], [[Benigno Aquino, Jr.]], [[Desmond Tutu]], and [[Nelson Mandela]] as ''Children of Gandhi'' and his spiritual heirs to nonviolence.<ref name="TimeTCOG">{{cite news|url=http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,993026,00.html|title=The Children of Gandhi|date=31 December 1999|work=Time|format=excerpt|deadurl=no|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20131005013134/http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0%2C9171%2C993026%2C00.html|archivedate=5 October 2013}}</ref>
The [[Mahatma Gandhi District]] in [[Houston]], Texas, United States, an ethnic Indian enclave, is officially named after Gandhi.<ref name="MorenoCelebrates">{{cite web |url=http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Houston-community-celebrates-district-named-for-1613050.php |title=Houston community celebrates district named for Gandhi |author=Moreno, Jenalia |date=16 January 2010 |work=Houston Chronicle |access-date=24 January 2012 |deadurl=no |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150411062824/http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Houston-community-celebrates-district-named-for-1613050.php |archivedate=11 April 2015  }}</ref>
Gandhi's ideas had a significant influence on [[20th-century philosophy]]. It began with his engagement with [[Romain Rolland]] and [[Martin Buber]]. [[Jean-Luc Nancy]] said that the French philosopher [[Maurice Blanchot]] engaged critically with Gandhi from the point of view of "European spirituality"<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.co.in/books?redir_esc=y&id=4MB2DwAAQBAJ&q=blanchot#v=snippet&q=blanchot&f=false|title=Gandhi and Philosophy: On Theological Anti-Politics|first1=Shaj|last1=Mohan|first2=Divya|last2=Dwivedi|first3=Jean-Luc|last3=Nancy|date=December 13, 2018|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing|via=Google Books|isbn=978-1-4742-2173-3}}</ref>. Since then philosophers including [[Hannah Arendt]], [[Etienne Balibar]] and [[Slavoj Žižek]] found that Gandhi was a necessary reference to discuss morality in politics. Recently in the light of climate change Gandhi's views on technology are gaining importance in the fields of [[environmental philosophy]] and [[philosophy of technology]].<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.co.in/books?redir_esc=y&id=4MB2DwAAQBAJ&q=blanchot#v=snippet&q=blanchot&f=false|title=Gandhi and Philosophy: On Theological Anti-Politics|first1=Shaj|last1=Mohan|first2=Divya|last2=Dwivedi|first3=Jean-Luc|last3=Nancy|date=December 13, 2018|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing|via=Google Books|isbn=978-1-4742-2173-3}}</ref>.
On the basis of a petition, a statue of Gandhi at the [[University of Ghana]] was removed on 15 December 2018, because it was viewed by the petitioners as "an homage to a racist".<ref>{{cite news
|title=After a petition called Gandhi 'racist,' his statue was removed from the University of Ghana
|first=Cleve R.
|last=Wootson Jr.
|date=15 December 2018
|newspaper=[[Washington Post]]
|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2018/12/15/after-petition-called-gandhi-racist-his-statue-was-removed-university-ghana/}}</ref>
===Global days that celebrate Gandhi===
In 2007, the [[United Nations General Assembly]] declared Gandhi's birthday 2 October as "the [[International Day of Non-Violence|International Day of Nonviolence]]."<ref name="UN declares 2 October, Gandhi's birthday, as International Day of Nonviolence">{{cite web|title=UN declares 2 October, Gandhi's birthday, as International Day of Nonviolence|url=https://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=22926&Cr=non&Cr1=violence|publisher=UN News Centre|access-date=2 April 2012|date=15 June 2007|deadurl=no|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120123011319/http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=22926&Cr=non&Cr1=violence|archivedate=23 January 2012}}</ref> First proposed by UNESCO in 1948, as the School Day of Nonviolence and Peace (DENIP in Spanish),<ref name="cartadelapaz">{{cite web |url=http://www.cartadelapaz.org/portal_cp/anoticies_detall.php?id=682 |title=School Day of Nonviolence And Peace |date=30 January 2009 |work=Letter of Peace addressed to the UN |publisher=cartadelapaz.org |access-date=9 January 2012 |deadurl=no |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20111101164628/http://www.cartadelapaz.org/portal_cp/anoticies_detall.php?id=682 |archivedate=1 November 2011  }}</ref> 30 January is observed as the [[School Day of Non-violence and Peace|School Day of Nonviolence and Peace]] in schools of many countries<ref name="DENIP">{{cite web |url=http://denip.webcindario.com/denip.english.html |title=DENIP: School Day of Nonviolence and Peace |author=Eulogio Díaz del Corral |date=31 January 1983 |work=DENIP |access-date=30 January 2012 |language=Spanish |deadurl=no |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120227082217/http://denip.webcindario.com/denip.english.html |archivedate=27 February 2012  }}</ref> In countries with a Southern Hemisphere school calendar, it is observed on 30 March.<ref name="DENIP"/>
===Awards===
[[File:Madrid - Plaza Joan Miró, Monumento a Mohandas K. Gandhi 2.jpg|thumb|Monument to M. K. Gandhi in [[Madrid]], Spain]]
''[[Time (magazine)|Time magazine]]'' named Gandhi the [[Time Magazine Person of the Year|Man of the Year]] in 1930. The [[University of Nagpur]] awarded him an [[Legum Doctor|LL.D.]] in 1937.<ref>{{Cite journal |url=http://www.currentscience.ac.in/Downloads/article_id_006_06_0311_0316_0.pdf | title =University and Educational Intelligence | journal = [[Current Science]]| volume = 6 | issue =6 | pages = 314 | year =December 1937 | pmid =  | pmc = }}</ref> Gandhi was also the runner-up to [[Albert Einstein]] as "[[Person of the Century]]"<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,988159,00.html |title=The Time 100 |access-date=3 March 2009 |work=Time |first=Salman |last=Rushdie |date=13 April 1998 |deadurl=no |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130915092916/http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0%2C9171%2C988159%2C00.html |archivedate=15 September 2013  }}</ref> at the end of 1999. The [[Government of India]] awarded the annual [[Gandhi Peace Prize]] to distinguished social workers, world leaders and citizens. [[Nelson Mandela]], the leader of South Africa's struggle to eradicate racial discrimination and segregation, was a prominent non-Indian recipient. In 2011, ''Time'' magazine named Gandhi as one of the top 25 political icons of all time.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2046285_2045996_2045906,00.html |title=Top 25 Political Icons |access-date=9 February 2011 |work=Time |date=4 February 2011 |deadurl=no |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20131228045051/http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0%2C28804%2C2046285_2045996_2045906%2C00.html |archivedate=28 December 2013  }}</ref>
Gandhi did not receive the [[Nobel Peace Prize]], although he was nominated five times between 1937 and 1948, including the first-ever nomination by the [[American Friends Service Committee]],<ref name="AFSC">{{cite web |url=http://www.afsc.org/nobel-peace-prize-nominations |title=Nobel Peace Prize Nominations |publisher=American Friends Service Committee |access-date=30 January 2012 |deadurl=no |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120204172207/http://www.afsc.org/nobel-peace-prize-nominations |archivedate=4 February 2012  }}</ref> though he made the short list only twice, in 1937 and 1947.<ref name="Tønnesson">{{cite web
|last = Tønnesson
|first = Øyvind
|title = Mahatma Gandhi, the Missing Laureate
|publisher = Nobelprize.org
|date = 1 December 1999
|url = https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/themes/peace/gandhi/
|access-date = 16 January 2012
|deadurl = no
|archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20130705224937/http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/themes/peace/gandhi/
|archivedate = 5 July 2013
|df = dmy-all
}}</ref> Decades later, the Nobel Committee publicly declared its regret for the omission, and admitted to deeply divided nationalistic opinion denying the award.<ref name="Tønnesson"/> Gandhi was nominated in 1948 but was assassinated before nominations closed. That year, the committee chose not to award the peace prize stating that "there was no suitable living candidate" and later research shows that the possibility of awarding the prize posthumously to Gandhi was discussed and that the reference to no suitable living candidate was to Gandhi.<ref name="Tønnesson"/> Geir Lundestad, Secretary of Norwegian Nobel Committee in 2006 said, "The greatest omission in our 106-year history is undoubtedly that Mahatma Gandhi never received the Nobel Peace prize. Gandhi could do without the Nobel Peace prize, whether Nobel committee can do without Gandhi is the question".<ref>[http://www.icrs.ugm.ac.id/wednesday-forum-schedule/111-relevance-of-gandhian-philosophy-in-the-21st-century "Relevance of Gandhian Philosophy in the 21st Century"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110915025114/http://www.icrs.ugm.ac.id/wednesday-forum-schedule/111-relevance-of-gandhian-philosophy-in-the-21st-century |date=15 September 2011 }}. Icrs.ugm.ac.id. Retrieved 5 August 2013.</ref> When the [[14th Dalai Lama]] was awarded the Prize in 1989, the chairman of the committee said that this was "in part a tribute to the memory of Mahatma Gandhi".<ref name="Tønnesson"/>  In the summer of 1995, the North American Vegetarian Society inducted him posthumously into the Vegetarian Hall of Fame.<ref>[https://navs-online.org/purposes-programs/hall-of-fame/ Inductees, Vegetarian Hall of Fame, North American Vegetarian Society website]</ref>
====Father of the Nation====
Indians widely describe Gandhi as [[Father of the Nation|the father of the nation]].<ref name="archive.indianexpress.com"/><ref name="timesofindia.indiatimes.com"/> Origin of this title is traced back to a radio address (on Singapore radio) on 6 July 1944 by [[Subhash Chandra Bose]] where Bose addressed Gandhi as "The Father of the Nation".<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.thehindu.com/2000/02/01/stories/13011282.htm|title=Crusade with arms|date=|website=The Hindu|access-date=}}</ref> On 28 April 1947, [[Sarojini Naidu]] during a conference also referred Gandhi as "Father of the Nation".<ref name="Father of the Nation RTI">{{cite news|title=Father of the Nation RTI|publisher=[[NDTV]]|access-date=21 September 2016|url=http://www.ndtv.com/india-news/10-year-olds-rti-on-father-of-the-nation-title-for-gandhi-474827|deadurl=no|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20161204192603/http://www.ndtv.com/india-news/10-year-olds-rti-on-father-of-the-nation-title-for-gandhi-474827|archivedate=4 December 2016}}</ref><ref name="Constitution does not permit any titles">{{cite news|title=Constitution does not permit any titles|work=[[The Times of India]]|access-date=21 September 2016|url=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Constitution-doesnt-permit-Father-of-the-Nation-title-Government/articleshow/16961980.cms|deadurl=no|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20170107223546/http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Constitution-doesnt-permit-Father-of-the-Nation-title-Government/articleshow/16961980.cms|archivedate=7 January 2017}}</ref>. However, in response to an [[Right to Information Act, 2005|RTI application]] in 2012, the Government of India stated that the [[Constitution of India]] did not permit any titles except ones acquired through education or military service.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.opindia.com/2019/05/in-2012-upa-government-had-declared-father-of-the-nation-title-cannot-be-accorded-to-mahatma-gandhi/|title=In 2012, UPA government had declared that 'Father of the Nation' title cannot be accorded to Mahatma Gandhi|date=2019-05-17|website=OpIndia|language=en-GB|access-date=2019-09-09}}</ref>.
===Film, theatre and literature===
A 5 hour 9 minute long biographical documentary film,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfHUvW7L5-k#t=5h6m10s |title=Mahatma: Life of Gandhi, 1869–1948 (1968 – 5hrs 10min) |publisher=Channel of GandhiServe Foundation |access-date=30 December 2014 |deadurl=no |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150118145035/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfHUvW7L5-k#t=5h6m10s |archivedate=18 January 2015  }}</ref> ''[[Mahatma: Life of Gandhi, 1869–1948]]'', made by [[Vithalbhai Jhaveri]]<ref>{{cite web|title=Vithalbhai Jhaveri|url=http://www.gandhiserve.org/information/our_photographers/vithalbhai_jhaveri.html|publisher=GandhiServe Foundatiom|access-date=30 December 2014|deadurl=no|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20141231162132/http://www.gandhiserve.org/information/our_photographers/vithalbhai_jhaveri.html|archivedate=31 December 2014}}</ref> in 1968, quoting Gandhi's words and using black & white archival footage and photographs, captures the history of those times. [[Ben Kingsley]] portrayed him in [[Richard Attenborough]]'s 1982 film ''[[Gandhi (film)|Gandhi]]'',<ref>{{Cite journal|url=http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~sj6/Case%20of%20the%20Missing%20Mahatma.pdf#page=9|title=The Case of the Missing Mahatma:Gandhi and the Hindi Cinema|last=Dwyer|first=Rachel|year=2011|journal=Public Culture|volume=23|issue=2|pages=349–376|publisher=Duke University Press|doi=10.1215/08992363-1161949|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170321082552/http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~sj6/Case%20of%20the%20Missing%20Mahatma.pdf#page=9|archive-date=21 March 2017|dead-url=no|access-date=|doi-access=}}</ref> which won the [[Academy Award]] for Best Picture.  It was based on the biography by [[Louis Fischer]].<ref>Louis Fischer,  ''The Life of Mahatma Gandhi'' (1957) [https://archive.org/details/lifeofmahatmagan00loui online]</ref> The 1996 film ''[[The Making of the Mahatma]]'' documented Gandhi's time in South Africa and his transformation from an inexperienced barrister to recognised political leader.<ref name="Making">{{cite web|author=Melvani, Lavina|title=Making of the Mahatma|url=http://www.hinduismtoday.com/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=4798|work=Hinduism Today|publisher=hinduismtoday.com|date=February 1997|access-date=26 January 2012|deadurl=no|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120203075903/http://www.hinduismtoday.com/modules/smartsection/item.php?itemid=4798|archivedate=3 February 2012}}</ref> Gandhi was a central figure in the 2006 [[Bollywood]] comedy film ''[[Lage Raho Munna Bhai]]''. Jahnu Barua's [[Maine Gandhi Ko Nahin Mara|''Maine Gandhi Ko Nahin Mara'' (I did not kill Gandhi)]], places contemporary society as a backdrop with its vanishing memory of Gandhi's values as a metaphor for the senile forgetfulness of the protagonist of his 2005 film,<ref>{{cite web|last1=Pandohar|first1=Jaspreet (Reviewer)|title=Movies – Maine Gandhi Ko Nahin Mara (I Did Not Kill Gandhi) (2005)|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2005/10/03/maine_gandhi_ko_nahi_mara_2005_review.shtml|publisher=BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation)|access-date=30 December 2014|deadurl=no|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20150704134213/http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2005/10/03/maine_gandhi_ko_nahi_mara_2005_review.shtml|archivedate=4 July 2015}}</ref> writes [[Vinay Lal]].<ref>{{cite web|last1=Lal|first1=Vinay|title=Moving Images of Gandhi|url=http://www.vinaylal.com/ESSAYS(Gandhi)/mov9.pdf#page=9|access-date=30 December 2014|deadurl=yes|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304042605/http://www.vinaylal.com/ESSAYS%28Gandhi%29/mov9.pdf#page=9|archivedate=4 March 2016}}</ref>
The 1979 opera ''[[Satyagraha (opera)|Satyagraha]]'' by American composer [[Philip Glass]] is loosely based on Gandhi's life.<ref name="KostelanetzFlemming1999">{{cite book|author-first1=Richard |author-last1=Kostelanetz |authorlink=Richard Kostelanetz |author-first2=Robert |author-last2=Flemming|title=Writings on Glass: Essays, Interviews, Criticism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tykImG0WAsAC&pg=PA102|year=1999|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-21491-0|page=102 |ref=harv }}</ref><ref name="Glass2015">{{cite book|author=Philip Glass|title=Words Without Music: A Memoir|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OpPXBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT192|year=2015|publisher=Liveright|isbn=978-1-63149-081-1|pages=192, 307}}</ref> The opera's libretto, taken from the ''[[Bhagavad Gita]]'', is sung in the original [[Sanskrit]].{{sfn|Kostelanetz|Flemming|1999|p=168}}
Anti-Gandhi themes have also been showcased through films and plays. The 1995 Marathi play ''Gandhi Virudh Gandhi'' explored the relationship between Gandhi and his son Harilal. The 2007 film, ''[[Gandhi, My Father]]'' was inspired on the same theme. The 1989 Marathi play ''[[Me Nathuram Godse Boltoy]]'' and the 1997 Hindi play ''Gandhi Ambedkar'' criticised Gandhi and his principles.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.dnaindia.com/opinion/4153/report-its-fashionable-to-be-anti-gandhi | title=It's fashionable to be anti-Gandhi | publisher=DNA | date=1 October 2005 | access-date=25 January 2013 | deadurl=no | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130622050823/http://www.dnaindia.com/opinion/4153/report-its-fashionable-to-be-anti-gandhi | archivedate=22 June 2013 | df=dmy-all }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.livemint.com/Leisure/Id8PjapDYFoJqUkyzJvG7N/Drama-king.html | title=Drama king | work=[[Mint (newspaper)|Live Mint]] | date=20 February 2009 | access-date=25 January 2013 | author=Dutt, Devina | deadurl=no | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130430154736/http://www.livemint.com/Leisure/Id8PjapDYFoJqUkyzJvG7N/Drama-king.html | archivedate=30 April 2013 | df=dmy-all }}</ref>
Several biographers have undertaken the task of describing Gandhi's life. Among them are D. G. Tendulkar with his ''Mahatma. Life of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi'' in eight volumes, [[Chaman Nahal]]'s Gandhi Quartet, and [[Pyarelal Nayyar|Pyarelal]] and [[Sushila Nayyar]] with their ''Mahatma Gandhi'' in 10 volumes. The 2010 biography, ''[[Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle With India]]'' by [[Joseph Lelyveld]] contained controversial material speculating about Gandhi's sexual life.<ref name="LelyveldNYT">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/30/books/in-great-soul-joseph-lelyveld-re-examines-gandhi.html|title=Appreciating Gandhi Through His Human Side|work=The New York Times|date=29 March 2011|access-date=26 January 2012|first=Hari|last=Kunzru|deadurl=no|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120131013732/http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/30/books/in-great-soul-joseph-lelyveld-re-examines-gandhi.html|archivedate=31 January 2012}} (Review of ''Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle With India'' by Joseph Lelyveld).</ref> Lelyveld, however, stated that the press coverage "grossly distort[s]" the overall message of the book.<ref name="LelyveldResponse">{{cite news |url=http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/breaking-news/us-author-slams-gandhi-gay-claim/story-fn3dxity-1226030279549 |title=US author slams Gandhi gay claim |agency=Agence France-Presse |date=29 March 2011 |work=The Australian |access-date=26 January 2012 |deadurl=no |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130501191126/http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/breaking-news/us-author-slams-gandhi-gay-claim/story-fn3dxity-1226030279549 |archivedate=1 May 2013  }}</ref> The 2014 film ''[[Welcome Back Gandhi]]'' takes a fictionalised look at how Gandhi might react to modern day India.<ref>{{cite web|title=A Welcome Effort|url=http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-metroplus/a-welcome-effort/article1496255.ece|work=The Hindu|access-date=24 January 2014|deadurl=no|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140202232729/http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-metroplus/a-welcome-effort/article1496255.ece|archivedate=2 February 2014}}</ref> The 2019 play ''Bharat Bhagya Vidhata'', inspired by [[Rakesh Jhaveri|Pujya Gurudevshri Rakeshbhai]] and produced by [[Sangeet Natak Akademi]] and Shrimad Rajchandra Mission Dharampur takes a look at how Gandhi cultivated the values of truth and non-violence.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Pandit |first1=Unnati |title=Bharat Bhagya Vidhata' captivates the audience |url=https://thelivenagpur.com/2019/03/05/bharat-bhagya-vidhata-captivates-the-audience/ |website=The Live Nagpur |publisher=The Live Nagpur |accessdate=7 May 2019}}</ref>
"Mahatma Gandhi" is used by [[Cole Porter]] in his lyrics for the song [[You're the Top]] which is included in the 1934 musical [[Anything Goes]].  In the song Porter rhymes "Mahatma Gandhi' with "Napoleon Brandy."
===Current impact within India===
[[File:Gandhi Memorial Kanyakumari.jpg|thumb|[[Gandhi Mandapam (Chennai)|The Gandhi Mandapam]], a temple in [[Kanyakumari]], Tamil Nadu in India, was erected to honour M.K. Gandhi.]]
India, with its rapid economic modernisation and urbanisation, has rejected [[Gandhian economics|Gandhi's economics]]<ref>{{cite book|author=Ghosh, B. N. |title=Contemporary issues in development economics|url=https://books.google.com/?id=aM18jLPbhj8C&pg=PA211|year=2001|publisher=Psychology Press|isbn=978-0-415-25136-5|page=211}}</ref> but accepted much of his politics and continues to revere his memory. Reporter Jim Yardley notes that, "modern India is hardly a Gandhian nation, if it ever was one. His vision of a village-dominated economy was shunted aside during his lifetime as rural romanticism, and his call for a national ethos of personal austerity and nonviolence has proved antithetical to the goals of an aspiring economic and military power." By contrast Gandhi is "given full credit for India's political identity as a tolerant, secular democracy."<ref name="Obama">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/07/world/asia/07gandhi.html |title=Obama Invokes Gandhi, Whose Ideal Eludes India |author=Yardley, Jim |date=6 November 2010 |work=Asia-Pacific |access-date=22 January 2012 |deadurl=no |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130817091454/http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/07/world/asia/07gandhi.html |archivedate=17 August 2013  }}</ref>
Gandhi's birthday, 2 October, is a [[national holiday in India]], [[Gandhi Jayanti]]. Gandhi's image also appears on [[Mahatma Gandhi Series (banknotes)|paper currency of all denominations]] issued by [[Reserve Bank of India]], except for the one rupee note.<ref name="rbi_notes">{{cite web|url=http://www.rbi.org.in/scripts/ic_banknotes.aspx |title=Reserve Bank of India&nbsp;– Bank Notes |publisher=Rbi.org.in |access-date=5 November 2011 |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20111026095526/http://www.rbi.org.in/scripts/ic_banknotes.aspx |archivedate=26 October 2011 |df= }}</ref> Gandhi's date of death, 30 January, is commemorated as a [[Martyrs' Day (India)|Martyrs' Day]] in India.<ref name="MDay">{{cite web |url=http://pib.nic.in/feature/feyr2000/fjan2000/f270120001.html |title=Martyrs' Day |author=Chatterjee, Sailen |work=Features |publisher=Press Information Bureau |access-date=30 January 2012 |deadurl=no |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120202060355/http://pib.nic.in/feature/feyr2000/fjan2000/f270120001.html |archivedate=2 February 2012  }}</ref>
There are three temples in India dedicated to Gandhi.<ref name="GandhiGod">{{cite web |url=http://www.bangaloremirror.com/bangalore/others/Here,%20Gandhi%20is%20god/articleshow/21768559.cms |title=Here, Gandhi is God |author=Kaggere, Niranjan |publisher=BangaloreMirror.com |date=2 October 2010 |access-date=29 January 2011 |deadurl=no |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20131004222327/http://www.bangaloremirror.com/bangalore/others/Here%2C%20Gandhi%20is%20god/articleshow/21768559.cms |archivedate=4 October 2013  }}</ref> One is located at [[Sambalpur]] in Orissa and the second at Nidaghatta village near Kadur in [[Chikmagalur]] district of [[Karnataka]] and the third one at [[Chityal, Nalgonda district|Chityal]] in the district of [[Nalgonda district|Nalgonda]], [[Telangana]].<ref name="GandhiGod"/><ref>[http://www.mahatmagandhitemple.org/ "Mahatma Gandhi Temple"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161005210732/http://www.mahatmagandhitemple.org/ |date=5 October 2016 }}. ''Mahatma Gandhi Temple Website'',</ref> The Gandhi Memorial in [[Kanyakumari]] resembles central Indian Hindu temples and the [[Tamukkam Palace|Tamukkam or Summer Palace]] in [[Madurai]] now houses the Mahatma Gandhi Museum.<ref name="AbramEdwards2003">{{cite book|last1=Abram|first1=David|last2=Edwards|first2=Nick|title=The Rough Guide to South India|url=https://books.google.com/?id=sEhJBfbhTAAC|access-date=21 January 2012|date=27 November 2003|publisher=Rough Guides|isbn=978-1-84353-103-6|page=506}}</ref>
===Descendants===
Gandhi's children and grandchildren live in India and other countries. Grandson [[Rajmohan Gandhi]] is a [[Professor]] in [[Illinois]] and an author of Gandhi's biography titled "Mohandas",<ref>{{cite book |last1=Gandhi |first1=Rajmohan |title=Mohandas (a Biography) |publisher=PRHI}}</ref> while another, Tarun Gandhi, has authored several authoritative books on his grandfather. Another grandson, Kanu Ramdas Gandhi (the son of Gandhi's third son [[Ramdas Gandhi|Ramdas]]), was found living in an old age home in Delhi despite having taught earlier in the United States.<ref>{{cite news |title=Kanu Gandhi, Gandhiji's grandson and ex-Nasa scientist, dies |url=https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/kanu-gandhi-gandhiji-s-grandson-and-ex-nasa-scientist-dies/story-7WSlnYpQi6OYLMCxFZNt3N.html |accessdate=29 October 2018 |newspaper=Hindustan Times |date=8 November 2016}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Lodged in old age home in Delhi, Gandhi's grandson looks to Rajkot |url=https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/lodged-in-old-age-home-in-delhi-gandhi-s-grandson-looks-to-rajkot/story-8uykSprAZxSXisG2axWDSN.html |accessdate=29 October 2018 |newspaper=Hindustan Times |date=22 June 2016}}</ref>
[[File:Gandhi family tree.jpg|thumb|Family tree of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and Kasturba Gandhi. Source: Gandhi Ashram Sabarmati]]
==See also==
{{Div col|colwidth=22em}}
* [[List of peace activists]]
* [[List of civil rights leaders]]
* [[Seven Social Sins]] (AKA Seven Blunders of the World)
* [[Gandhi cap]]
* [[Gandhi Teerth]] – Gandhi International Research Institute and Museum for Gandhian study, research on Mahatma Gandhi and dialogue.
* [[Trikaranasuddhi]]
* [[Theosophy and politics#Gandhi|Mahatma Gandhi and Theosophy]]
* [[Nelson Mandela]]
{{div col end}}
==References==
{{Reflist|refs=<ref name="BhanaVahed2005">{{cite book|last1=Bhana|first1=Surendra|last2=Vahed|first2=Goolam H.|title=The Making of a Political Reformer: Gandhi in South Africa, 1893–1914|url=https://books.google.com/?id=fF9uAAAAMAAJ|year=2005|publisher=Manohar|isbn=978-81-7304-612-4|pages=44–45, 149}}</ref><ref name="Brown1974">{{cite book|ref=Brown1974|last=Brown|first=Judith M.|title=Gandhi's Rise to Power: Indian Politics 1915–1922|url=https://books.google.com/?id=HUo4AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA94|year= 1974|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-09873-1|pages= 94–102}}</ref><ref name="Coward2003">{{cite book |author=Coward, Harold G. |authorlink=Harold Coward |title=Indian Critiques of Gandhi|url=https://books.google.com/?id=GGGudMuE4PIC&pg=PA52|year=2003|publisher=SUNY Press|isbn=978-0-7914-5910-2|pages=52–53}}</ref><ref name=gs>{{cite book|last=Lelyveld|first=Joseph|authorlink=Joseph Lelyveld|title=Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle with India|url=https://archive.org/details/greatsoulmahatma0000lely/page/278|year=2011|publisher=Random House Digital, Inc.|isbn=978-0-307-26958-4|pages=[https://archive.org/details/greatsoulmahatma0000lely/page/278 278–81]}}</ref><ref name="GWPM">{{Cite news|last =Ferrell|first =David|title =A Little Serenity in a City of Madness|newspaper =Los Angeles Times|page =B 2|date =27 September 2001|url =https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/doc/421687420.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Sep%2027,%202001&author=DAVID%20FERRELL&pub=Los%20Angeles%20Times&edition=&startpage=B.2&desc=Surroundings:%20Lake%20Shrine;%20%27A%20Little%20Serenity%20in%20a%20City%20of%20Madness%27;%20Meditation%20Gardens%20in%20Pacific%20Palisades%20Are%20a%20Place%20to%20Walk,%20Think%20and%20Pray|format =Abstract|access-date =14 January 2012|deadurl =no|archiveurl =https://web.archive.org/web/20131005003758/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/doc/421687420.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS%3AFT&type=current&date=Sep%2027%2C%202001&author=DAVID%20FERRELL&pub=Los%20Angeles%20Times&edition=&startpage=B.2&desc=Surroundings%3A%20Lake%20Shrine%3B%20%27A%20Little%20Serenity%20in%20a%20City%20of%20Madness%27%3B%20Meditation%20Gardens%20in%20Pacific%20Palisades%20Are%20a%20Place%20to%20Walk%2C%20Think%20and%20Pray|archivedate =5 October 2013|df =dmy-all}}</ref><ref name="GreatSoulReview">{{cite news |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748703529004576160371482469358 |title=Among the Hagiographers (A book review of "Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle With India" by Joseph Lelyveld) |author=Roberts, Andrew |authorlink=Andrew Roberts (historian) |date=26 March 2011 |work=The Wall Street Journal |access-date=14 January 2012 |deadurl=no |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120103114003/http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703529004576160371482469358.html |archivedate=3 January 2012  }}</ref><ref name="Guardian-2008-ashes">{{cite news |title=Gandhi's ashes to rest at sea, not in a museum |author=Ramesh, Randeep |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/jan/16/india.international |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |date=16 January 2008 |access-date=14 January 2012 |location=London |deadurl=no |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130901110713/http://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/jan/16/india.international |archivedate=1 September 2013  }}</ref><ref name="Hardiman2001">{{cite journal|title=Champaran and Gandhi: Planters, Peasants and Gandhian Politics by Jacques Pouchepadass (Review)|first=David|last=Hardiman|journal=Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society|volume=11|issue=1|date=April 2001|pages=99–101|jstor=25188108|doi=10.1017/S1356186301450152}}</ref><ref name=ie48pg5>{{cite news|title=Of all faiths and races, together they shed their silent tears|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=4cU-AAAAIBAJ&sjid=nkwMAAAAIBAJ&pg=2964%2C2759742|access-date=19 January 2012|work=The Indian Express|date=31 January 1948|page=5 (top centre)}}</ref><ref name=ie48>{{cite news|title=Over a million get last darshan|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=4cU-AAAAIBAJ&sjid=nkwMAAAAIBAJ&pg=2273%2C2717510|page=1 (bottom left)|access-date=19 January 2012|work=The Indian Express|date=1 February 1948}}</ref><ref name="Khan2011">{{cite journal |last1=Khan |first1=Yasmin |year=2011|title=Performing Peace: Gandhi's assassination as a critical moment in the consolidation of the Nehruvian state |journal=Modern Asian Studies |volume=45 |issue=1 |pages=57–80 |doi=10.1017/S0026749X10000223}} {{subscription required}}</ref><ref name="Kumar2006">{{cite book|last=Kumar|first=Shanti|title=Gandhi meets primetime: globalization and nationalism in Indian television|url=https://books.google.com/?id=abPsWgqrmMMC&pg=PA170|year=2006|publisher=University of Illinois Press|isbn=978-0-252-07244-4|page=170}}</ref><ref name="Lapping1989">{{cite book|author=Lapping, Brian |title=End of empire|url=https://books.google.com/?id=xBsiAQAAIAAJ|year=1989|publisher=Paladin|isbn=978-0-586-08870-8}}</ref><ref name="Mbeki2006">{{cite web|url=http://www.polity.org.za/article/mbeki-mahatma-gandhi-satyagraha-100th-anniversary-01102006-2006-10-01|title=Mbeki: Mahatma Gandhi Satyagraha 100th Anniversary (01/10/2006)|last=Smith|first=Colleen|date=1 October 2006|work=Speeches|publisher=Polityorg.za|access-date=20 January 2012|deadurl=no|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130502050531/http://www.polity.org.za/article/mbeki-mahatma-gandhi-satyagraha-100th-anniversary-01102006-2006-10-01|archivedate=2 May 2013}}</ref><ref name="Mohanty2011">{{cite journal |last1=Mohanty |first1=Rekha |year=2011 |title=From Satya to Sadbhavna |journal=Orissa Review |issue=January 2011 |pages=45–49 |url=http://odisha.gov.in/e-magazine/Orissareview/2011/Jan/engpdf/46-50.pdf#page=58 |access-date=23 February 2012 |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160101071619/http://odisha.gov.in/e-magazine/Orissareview/2011/Jan/engpdf/46-50.pdf#page=58 |archivedate=1 January 2016 }}</ref><ref name="Murali1985">{{cite journal |last1=Murali |first1=Atlury |date=January 1985 |title=Non-Cooperation in Andhra in 1920–22: Nationalist Intelligentsia and the Mobilization of Peasantry |journal=Indian Historical Review |volume=12 |issue=1/2 |pages=188–217 |issn= 0376-9836 }}</ref><ref name="Norvell1997">{{cite journal |last1=Norvell |first1=Lyn |year=1997 |title=Gandhi and the Indian Women's Movement |url=http://www.bl.uk/eblj/1997articles/article2.html |journal=British Library Journal |volume=23 |issue=1 |pages=12–27 |issn=0305-5167 |deadurl=no |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20131004223515/http://www.bl.uk/eblj/1997articles/article2.html |archivedate=4 October 2013  }}</ref><ref name="Parekh2001">{{cite book|last=Parekh|first=Bhikhu C.|title=Gandhi: a very short introduction|publisher=Oxford University Press|url= https://books.google.com/?id=0chB4q7XeHcC|isbn=978-0-19-285457-5|year=2001|page=7}}</ref>
<!--ref name="Pyarelal1956">{{cite book|last=Nayyar|first=Pyarelal|title=Mahatma Gandhi – the last phase, Vol 1|url=https://books.google.com/?id=E8wBAAAAMAAJ|authorlink=Pyarelal Nayyar|year=1956|publisher=Navajivan Publishing House|isbn=0-85283-112-9}}</ref--><ref name="Sarkar2006">{{Cite journal|title=Power, Hegemony and Politics: Leadership Struggle in Congress in the 1930s|last=Sarkar|first=Jayabrata|journal=Modern Asian Studies|date=18 April 2006|volume=40|issue=2|pages=333–70|doi=10.1017/S0026749X0600179X}}</ref><ref name="Sarma1994">{{cite journal |last1=Sarma |first1=Bina Kumari |date=January 1994 |title=Gandhian Movement and Women's Awakening in Orissa |journal=Indian Historical Review |volume=21 |issue=1/2 |pages=78–79|issn= 0376-9836}}</ref><ref name="Sorokin2002">{{cite book|last=Sorokin|first=Pitirim Aleksandrovich|title=The Ways and Power of Love: types, factors, and techniques of moral transformation|url=https://books.google.com/?id=DGCleCxTkbIC&pg=PA169|year=2002|publisher=Templeton Foundation Press|isbn=978-1-890151-86-7|page=169}}</ref><ref name="Tendulkar1951">{{cite book|last=Tendulkar|first=D. G.|title=Mahatma; life of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi|url=https://books.google.com/?id=LHJuAAAAMAAJ|year=1951|publisher=Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India|location=Delhi}}</ref><ref name="Whiggism">{{cite journal |last1=Prashad |first1=Ganesh |date=September 1966 |title=Whiggism in India|journal=[[Political Science Quarterly]] |volume=81 |issue=3|pages= 412–31 |jstor=2147642 |doi=10.2307/2147642}}</ref><ref name="wikilivres.ca">{{cite book|author=Desai, Mahadev Haribhai |title=Day-to-day with Gandhi: secretary's diary|url=https://books.google.com/?id=iDQKAQAAIAAJ|publisher=Sarva Seva Sangh Prakashan|chapter=Preface|chapterurl=http://www.wikilivres.ca/wiki/Day_to_Day_with_Gandhi/Volume_1/Preface|archiveurl=http://www.wikilivres.ca/wiki/Day_to_Day_with_Gandhi|archivedate=3 June 2007|others=Hemantkumar Nilkanth (translation)|year=1930}}</ref>
}}
==Bibliography==
===Books===
{{Refbegin|30em}}
*Ahmed, Talat. ''Mohandas Gandhi: Experiments in Civil Disobedience'' (2018)
* {{cite book |last1=Barr |first1=F. Mary |title=Bapu: Conversations and Correspondence with Mahatma Gandhi |date=1956 |edition=2nd |publisher=International Book House |location=Bombay, India |oclc=8372568|title-link=Bapu (book) }} (see [[Bapu (book)|book article]])
* {{cite book|last=Bondurant|first=Joan Valérie |authorlink=Joan Bondurant |title=Conquest of Violence: the Gandhian philosophy of conflict|url=https://books.google.com/?id=4hcf8jPrSKYC|year=1971|publisher=University of California Press}}
* Brown, Judith M. "Gandhi, Mohandas Karamchand [Mahatma Gandhi] (1869–1948)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography,'' Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, January 2011. Retrieved 25 February 2012 {{subscription required}}
* Brown, Judith M., and Anthony Parel, eds. ''The Cambridge Companion to Gandhi'' (2012); 14 essays by scholars [https://www.amazon.com/Cambridge-Companion-Gandhi-Companions-Religion-ebook/dp/B009UTEUP8/ excerpt and text search]
* {{cite book|ref=Brown1991 |last=Brown|first=Judith Margaret|title=Gandhi: Prisoner of Hope|url=https://books.google.com/?id=boDAE8MLAJMC|year=1991|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=978-0-300-05125-4}}<!--used-->
* {{cite book|last=Chadha |first=Yogesh|title=Gandhi: a life|url=https://books.google.com/?id=vSduAAAAMAAJ|year=1997|publisher=John Wiley|isbn=978-0-471-24378-6}}<!--used-->
* {{cite book|last1=Dwivedi|first1=Divya|last2=Mohan|first2=Shaj|last3=Nancy|first3=Jean-Luc|title=Gandhi and Philosophy: On Theological Anti-politics|year=2019|url=https://books.google.co.in/books?id=4MB2DwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=gandhi+and+philosophy&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj_ieyNj8TkAhVFwI8KHaN7AB4Q6AEIKDAA#v=onepage&q=gandhi%20and%20philosophy&f=false|publisher=Bloomsbury Academic, UK|ISBN=9781474221733}}<!--used-->
* Fischer, Louis. ''The Life of Mahatma Gandhi'' (1957) [https://archive.org/details/lifeofmahatmagan00loui online]
<!--*{{cite book|author=Chakrabarty, Bidyut |title=Social and Political Thought of Mahatma Gandhi|url=https://books.google.com/?id=4x34We-mY40C|year=2006|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-415-36096-8}}-->
* {{cite book|last=Easwaran|first=Eknath|authorlink=Eknath Easwaran|title=Gandhi the Man: How One Man Changed Himself to Change the World|url=https://archive.org/details/gandhimanhowonem00ekna|year=2011|publisher=Nilgiri Press|isbn=978-1-58638-055-7}}
* {{cite book|ref=harv|last=Hook|first=Sue Vander|title=Mahatma Gandhi: Proponent of Peace|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KMmI6FZYNcIC&pg=PA18|date=1 September 2010|publisher=ABDO|isbn=978-1-61758-813-6}}
* {{citation |last=Gandhi |first=Rajmohan |title=Patel, A Life |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ayZuAAAAMAAJ |year=1990 |publisher=Navajivan Pub. House}}
* {{cite book|ref=harv|last=Gandhi|first=Rajmohan|title=Gandhi: The Man, His People, and the Empire|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FauJL7LKXmkC|year=2006|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-25570-8}}
* {{cite book|last=Gangrade|first=K.D.|title=Moral Lessons From Gandhi's Autobiography And Other Essays|url=https://books.google.com/?id=UODB6R_LmWsC|year=2004|publisher=Concept Publishing Company|isbn=978-81-8069-084-6|chapter=Role of Shanti Sainiks in the Global Race for Armaments}}<!--used-->
* {{cite book|last=Guha|first=Ramachandra|title=Gandhi Before India|url=https://books.google.com/books?isbn=038553230X|year=2013|publisher=Vintage Books|isbn=978-0-385-53230-3}}<!--used-->
* {{cite book|last=Hardiman|first=David|title=Gandhi in His Time and Ours: the global legacy of his ideas|url=https://books.google.com/?id=UWYV5qYZ3-oC|year=2003|publisher=C. Hurst & Co.|isbn=978-1-85065-711-8}}<!--used-->
* {{cite book|last=Hatt|first=Christine|title=Mahatma Gandhi|url=https://books.google.com/?id=f6vvy-J7vhcC|year=2002|publisher=Evans Brothers|isbn=978-0-237-52308-4}}<!--used-->
* {{cite book|ref=Herman2008|author=Herman, Arthur|title=Gandhi and Churchill: the epic rivalry that destroyed an empire and forged our age|url=https://books.google.com/?id=tquxD6dk914C|year=2008|publisher=Random House Digital, Inc.|isbn=978-0-553-80463-8}}<!--used-->
* {{cite book|last=Jai|first=Janak Raj|title=Commissions and Omissions by Indian Prime Ministers: 1947–1980|url=https://books.google.com/?id=5Wrc1K0uJTgC|year=1996|publisher=Regency Publications|isbn=978-81-86030-23-3}}<!--used-->
* {{cite book|ref=harv|last=Johnson|first=Richard L.|title=Gandhi's Experiments with Truth: Essential Writings by and about Mahatma Gandhi|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dRQcKsx-YgQC&pg=PA3|year=2006|publisher=Lexington Books|isbn=978-0-7391-1143-7}}
* {{cite book|author1=Jones, Constance  |author2=Ryan, James D.  |lastauthoramp=yes |title=Encyclopedia of Hinduism|url=https://books.google.com/?id=hZET2sSUVsgC|year=2007|publisher=Infobase Publishing|isbn=978-0-8160-5458-9|page=160}}<!--used-->
* {{cite book|last=Majmudar|first=Uma|title=Gandhi's Pilgrimage of Faith: from darkness to light|url=https://books.google.com/?id=xM4paHEq5oQC|year=2005|publisher=SUNY Press|isbn=978-0-7914-6405-2}}<!--used-->
* {{cite book|last=Miller|first=Jake C.|title=Prophets of a just society|url=https://books.google.com/?id=uiBNJWqtiVcC|year=2002|publisher=Nova Publishers|isbn=978-1-59033-068-5}}<!--used-->
* {{cite book|last=Pāṇḍeya|first=Viśva Mohana|title=Historiography of India's Partition: an analysis of imperialist writings|url=https://books.google.com/?id=Vu2lu-ZI-vQC|year=2003|publisher=Atlantic Publishers & Dist|isbn=978-81-269-0314-6}}
* {{cite book|authorlink1=Marc Pilisuk|last1=Pilisuk|first1=Marc|last2=Nagler|first2=Michael N.|title=Peace Movements Worldwide: Players and practices in resistance to war|url=https://books.google.com/?id=GTJV2UcZVHcC|year=2011|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-0-313-36482-2}}<!--used-->
* {{cite book|last=Rühe|first=Peter|title=Gandhi|url=https://books.google.com/?id=-9fWAAAACAAJ|date=5 October 2004|publisher=Phaidon|isbn=978-0-7148-4459-6}}
* {{cite book|last=Schouten|first=Jan Peter|title=Jesus as Guru: the image of Christ among Hindus and Christians in India|url=https://books.google.com/?id=pIoKdTH7KPsC|year=2008|publisher=Rodopi|isbn=978-90-420-2443-4}}<!--used-->
* {{cite book|last=Sharp|first=Gene|title=Gandhi as a Political Strategist: with essays on ethics and politics|url=https://books.google.com/?id=T2cwAQAAIAAJ|year=1979|publisher=P. Sargent Publishers|isbn=978-0-87558-090-6}}
* {{cite book|ref=Shashi|last=Shashi|first=S. S.|title=Encyclopaedia Indica: India, Pakistan, Bangladesh|year=1996|publisher=Anmol Publications|isbn=978-81-7041-859-7}}<!--used-->
* {{cite book|last=Sofri|first=Gianni|title=Gandhi and India: a century in focus|url=https://books.google.com/?id=QbCN4R_ZBCUC|year=1999|publisher=Windrush Press|isbn=978-1-900624-12-1}}
* {{cite book|last=Thacker|first=Dhirubhai|editor=Amaresh Datta|title=The Encyclopaedia of Indian Literature (Volume Two) (Devraj To Jyoti)|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/?id=zB4n3MVozbUC&pg=PA1345|year=2006|publisher=Sahitya Akademi|isbn=978-81-260-1194-0|page=1345|chapter="Gandhi, Mohandas Karamchand" (entry)}}<!--used-->
* {{cite book|author=Todd, Anne M|title=Mohandas Gandhi|url=https://archive.org/details/mohandasgandhi0000todd|year=2004|publisher=Infobase Publishing|isbn=978-0-7910-7864-8}}; short biography for children
* {{cite book|ref=Wolpert|author=Wolpert, Stanley |title=Gandhi's Passion: the life and legacy of Mahatma Gandhi|url=https://books.google.com/?id=ih1VCqkUr4gC&pg=PA197|year=2002|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-972872-5}}
{{Refend}}
===Primary sources===
{{Refbegin|30em}}
* {{cite book|ref=harv|author=Abel M|title=Glimpses of Indian National Movement|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ox3WE2GCbNAC&pg=PA125|year= 2005|publisher=ICFAI Books|isbn=978-81-7881-420-9}}
* {{cite book|last=Andrews|first=C. F.|title=Mahatma Gandhi's Ideas Including Selections from His Writings|url=https://books.google.com/?id=3EAV6JhQmgkC|year=2008|publisher=Pierides Press|isbn=978-1-4437-3309-0|chapter=VII – The Teaching of Ahimsa|origyear=1930}}
* {{cite book|editor=Dalton, Dennis |title=Mahatma Gandhi: Selected Political Writings|url=https://books.google.com/?id=afqmUWX5yeoC|year=1996|publisher=Hackett Publishing|isbn=978-0-87220-330-3}}
* {{cite book|editor=Duncan, Ronald|title=Selected Writings of Mahatma Gandhi|url=https://www.questia.com/read/54615149/selected-writings-of-mahatma-gandhi|year= 2011|publisher=Literary Licensing, LLC|isbn=978-1-258-00907-6}}
* {{cite book|ref=Fischer2002|last1=Gandhi|first1=M. K.|last2=Fischer|first2=Louis|editor=Louis Fischer|title=The Essential Gandhi: An Anthology of His Writings on His Life, Work and Ideas|year=2002|publisher=Vintage Books|isbn=978-1-4000-3050-7}}
* {{cite book|last=Gandhi|first=Mohandas Karamchand|title=Satyagraha in South Africa|year=1928|publisher=Navajivan Publishing House|location=Ahmedabad|edition=1|language=Gujarati|quote=Translated by Valji G. Desai}} Free online access at Wikilivres.ca (1/e). Pdfs from Gandhiserve (3/e) & Yann Forget (hosted by Arvind Gupta) (1/e).
* {{cite book|last=Gandhi |first=Mohandas Karamchand|title=The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi|year=1994|publisher=Publications Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Govt. of India|isbn=978-81-230-0239-2}} (100 volumes). Free online access from Gandhiserve.
* {{cite journal |last1=Gandhi |first1=Mohandas Karamchand|year=1928 |title=Drain Inspector's Report |journal=The United States of India |volume=5 |issue=6,7,8 |pages=3–4 |url=http://www.saadigitalarchive.org/item/20111212-545}}
* {{Citation|ref=Desai|last=Gandhi|first=Mohandas Karamchand|editor=Desai, Mahadev H. |title=Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments With Truth |publisher=Dover |location=Mineola, N.Y. |year=1990|isbn=0-486-24593-4|title-link=The Story of My Experiments With Truth}}
* {{cite book|ref=harv|last=Gandhi|first=Rajmohan|title=Mohandas: True Story of a Man, His People|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-FDI8LkGsIAC&pg=PT10|year= 2007|publisher=Penguin Books Limited|isbn=978-81-8475-317-2}}
* {{cite book|ref=harv|last=Guha|first=Ramachandra|title=Gandhi Before India |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XS7UAAAAQBAJ&pg=PP37|year= 2013|publisher=Penguin Books Limited|isbn=978-93-5118-322-8}}
* {{cite book|ref=Jack|editor=Jack, Homer A.|title=The Gandhi Reader: A Source Book of His Life and Writings|url=https://archive.org/details/gandhireadersou00gand|year=1994|publisher=Grove Press|isbn=978-0-8021-3161-4}}
* {{cite book|author1=Johnson, Richard L.  |author2=Gandhi, M. K. |lastauthoramp=yes |title=Gandhi's Experiments With Truth: Essential Writings by and about Mahatma Gandhi|url=https://books.google.com/?id=dRQcKsx-YgQC|year=2006|publisher=Lexington Books|isbn=978-0-7391-1143-7}}<!--used-->
* {{cite book|ref=harv|last=Todd|first=Anne M.|title=Mohandas Gandhi|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=svxDMQZ7fakC&pg=PA7|year= 2009| publisher=Infobase Publishing|isbn=978-1-4381-0662-5}}
* {{cite book|editor=Parel, Anthony J. |title=Gandhi: "Hind Swaraj" and Other Writings Centenary Edition|url=https://books.google.com/?id=oc47gUOPZfcC|year=2009|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-14602-9}}
{{Refend}}
==External links==
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{{Sister project links|Mohandas K. Gandhi|display=Mahatma Gandhi|wikt=no|v=no|voy=no|n=no|b=no|author=yes|d=Q1001}}
{{Bibliowiki|Mohandas K. Gandhi}}
* {{Britannica|225216}}
* {{DMOZ|Society/History/By_Region/Asia/South_Asia/Personalities/Gandhi%2C_Mohandas_Karamchand%2C_Mahatma/}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20160701151650/http://www.dli.ernet.in/handle/2015/502501%3Bjsessionid%3DD74A55AB7FEF2464BAE33254D74FFA03 Gandhi's correspondence with the Indian government 1942–1944]<!-- site is undergoing upgrades, hence the downtime for the official link -->
* [https://www.gandhiheritageportal.org/ About Mahatma Gandhi]
* [http://www.gandhiashramsabarmati.org/ Gandhi Ashram at Sabarmati]
* [http://www.gandhi-manibhavan.org/ Mani Bhavan Gandhi Sangrahalaya Gandhi Museum & Library]
* {{Gutenberg author |id=Gandhi,+Mahatma | name=Mahatma Gandhi}}<!--See also a single book at {{Gutenberg author |id=Gandhi,+M.+K.}}-->
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Gandhi}}
* {{Librivox author |id=622}}
* {{PM20|FID=pe/005823}}
{{Mohandas K. Gandhi}}
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{{Hindu reform movements}}
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{{Indian National Congress Presidents}}
{{Social and political philosophy}}
{{Simple living}}
{{Vegetarianism}}
{{Modern Hindu writers}}
{{Time Persons of the Year|27–50}}
{{Asian of the Century}}
}}
{{Portal bar|Religion|Hinduism|India|Philosophy}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gandhi, Mohandas Karamchand}}
[[Category:Mahatma Gandhi| ]]
[[Category:1869 births]]
[[Category:1948 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century Indian lawyers]]
[[Category:19th-century Indian philosophers]]
[[Category:19th-century Indian writers]]
[[Category:19th-century male writers]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian lawyers]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian philosophers]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian writers]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian male writers]]
[[Category:Alumni of University College London]]
[[Category:Alumni of the University of London]]
[[Category:Animal rights activists]]
[[Category:Anti-consumerists]]
[[Category:Anti-poverty advocates]]
[[Category:Anti-imperialism]]
[[Category:Anti–World War II activists]]
[[Category:Articles containing video clips]]
[[Category:Ascetics]]
[[Category:Assassinated Indian politicians]]
[[Category:British Empire in World War II]]
[[Category:Contemporary Indian philosophers]]
[[Category:Deaths by firearm in India]]
[[Category:Founders of Indian schools and colleges]]
[[Category:Gandhians| ]]
[[Category:Gujarati people]]
[[Category:Gujarati-language writers]]
[[Category:Hindu pacifists]]
[[Category:Indian activist journalists]]
[[Category:Indian anti-war activists]]
[[Category:Indian autobiographers]]
[[Category:Indian barristers]]
[[Category:Indian civil rights activists]]
[[Category:Indian emigrants to South Africa]]
[[Category:Indian expatriates in South Africa]]
[[Category:Indian expatriates in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Indian Hindus]]
[[Category:Indian humanitarians]]
[[Category:Indian independence activists]]
[[Category:Indian libertarians]]
[[Category:Indian male philosophers]]
[[Category:Indian memoirists]]
[[Category:Indian murder victims]]
[[Category:Indian nationalists]]
[[Category:Indian pacifists]]
[[Category:Indian people of World War II]]
[[Category:Indian political philosophers]]
[[Category:Indian revolutionaries]]
[[Category:Indian tax resisters]]
[[Category:International opponents of apartheid in South Africa]]
[[Category:Mahatma Gandhi family|Mohandas Karamchand]]
[[Category:Members of the Inner Temple]]
[[Category:Natal Indian Congress politicians]]
[[Category:Neo-Vedanta]]
[[Category:Nonviolence advocates]]
[[Category:People from Porbandar]]
[[Category:People murdered in Delhi]]
[[Category:People of British India]]
[[Category:People of the Second Boer War]]
[[Category:Presidents of the Indian National Congress]]
[[Category:Prisoners and detainees of British India]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Kaisar-i-Hind Medal]]
[[Category:Relief workers in Noakhali]]
[[Category:Simple living advocates]]
[[Category:South African Indian Congress politicians]]
[[Category:South African lawyers]]
[[Category:State funerals in India]]
[[Category:Swadeshi activists]]
[[Category:Tolstoyans]]
[[Category:Vegetarians]]
[[Category:World Peace Prize laureates]]
[[Category:Writers about activism and social change]]
[[Category:Writers from Gujarat]]

Latest revision as of 17:45, 11 September 2019