Hello fellow countrymen, my name is Mohandas Gandhi and I'm here to talk to you about how I achieved independence.
I was born on October 2, 1869. My father was the dewan of Porbandar where I was born. My mother was a devoted practitioner of Vaishnavism, which was influenced by Jainism.
I left home to study law in London at the Inner Temple at the age of 19.
I set up a law practice in Bombay once I returned to India in mid-1891, but it had very little success. I soon accepted a position with an Indian firm that sent me to his office in South Africa and I remained there with my wife and children for nearly 2 years.
I was known as Mahatma, meaning "the great-souled one" by many of my followers because of my great ascetic lifestyle based on prayer, fasting, and meditation.
I didn't like the way the British government was ruling so in order to get them out, I had to try and gain independence for India. I first started out with the method of passive resistance and civil disobedience. Then, I led the British Homespun movement and the Salt March to represent non-violence.
I led a campaign of civil disobedience that would last for 8 years after 1906. During the final phase in 1913, hundreds of Indians living in South Africa, including women, went to jail, and thousands of striking Indian miners were imprisoned, flogged and even shot. The government of South Africa accepted a compromise that I negotiated including important concessions such as the recognition of Indian marriages and the abolition of the existing poll tax for Indians.
I launched an organized campaign of passive resistance in response to Parliaments passage of the Rowlatt Acts in 1919. I backed off after violence broke out; including the massacre by British-led soldiers of some 400 Indians attending a meeting at Amritsar, but only temporarily, and by 1920, I was the most visible figure in the movement for Indian Independence.
In the famous Salt March of April to May 1930, thousands of Indians followed me from Ahmadabad to the Arabian Sea.
The march resulted in the arrest of nearly 60,000 people, including myself.
After sporadic violence broke out, I decided to announce the end of the resistance movement to the dismay of many of my followers.
I was arrested by British authorities in March 1922 and they tried to sedition me; I was sentenced to six years in prison but I was released in 1924 after undergoing an operation for appendicitis. I refrained from active participation in politics for the next several years, but in 1930, I launched a new civil disobedience campaign against the colonial governments tax on salt.
I stressed the importance of economic independence for India by advocating the manufacture of khaddar in order to replace imported textiles from Britain.
After India finally got its independence, the British split the country into two; India and Pakistan. I strongly opposed partition, but I agreed to it in hopes that after independence Hindus and Muslims could achieve peace internally.
Statues of me were put in museums all around the world so people would remember me as a great leader who gained independence for India from Great Britain and a hero to all of my fellow countrymen.
Website Source used: http://www.history.com/topics/mahatma-gandhi
Google Images: - http://beautifultrouble.org/case/the-salt-march/ - https://www.tes.com/lessons/-NohKMluo1Xi_w/ghandi-s-salt-march-1930 - http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/inside-gandhis-salt-march-the-nonviolent-journey-changed-the-world - https://www.quora.com/How-many-times-did-Mahatma-Gandhi-go-to-jail - http://www.avon-schools.org/Page/9856 - http://12.000.scripts.mit.edu/mission2017/case-studies/water-access-in-south-africa/ - http://www.teachwithmovies.org/set-up-the-sub/sus-wrld-hist-nonviol-india-force-more-powerful.html - http://www.sikh-heritage.co.uk/Martyrs/udhamsingh/b&udham.htm - https://globalshellshock2010.wikispaces.com/Amritsar+Massacre?responseToken=044909a04005ae582c5f7aaaf5fe653d0
Credits:
Created with images by David Paul Ohmer - "San Francisco - Ferry Terminal Building "Mohandas Gandhi"" • Jorge Lascar - "Damaged murals from bombing - The Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic [Kandy]" • the opoponax - "India Itinerary - Option B" • Simon - "india mumbai bombay" • VinothChandar - "Mahatma Gandhi" • Fotos GOVBA - "Carnaval 2010 Desfile do Afoxé Filhos de Gandhy" • Fotos GOVBA - "Carnaval 2010 Desfile do Afoxé Filhos de Gandhy" • Abee5 - "Quit India Speech By Mahatma Gandhi (1942)" • Gabriela__F - "Mahatma Gandhi" • Ruth and Dave - "Statue of Mahatma Gandhi, Tavistock Square" • shankar s. - "Aga Khan Palace, Pune/ Poona" • Newtown grafitti - "Mahatma Gandhi, I"