Mahatma Gandhi

"My life is my message." These words were spoken by Mahatma Gandhi. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born in 1869 in Porbandar. He is well-known as the Father of independence of India all over the world. As you know, India was once under the imperial control of the Britain. Gandhi started the movement of nonviolence and disobedience. His activity expanded through India and led India to independence. However, why did he start the movement? And how did the movement expand through India?


It was a shocking experience in South Africa that changed the course of his life. In 1893, he visited South Africa when he was 23 years old. As soon as he arrived in South Africa, he experienced a shocking happening. It was when he was in a train. The conductor orderd him to move to freight car from first-class car although he had a first-class ticket. Eventually, he was dropped off the train because he rejected the conductor's order. Then racial discrimination called apartheid was carried out in South Africa. Indian were treated unjustly because they were also targets of apartheid. After the shocking experience, he started the movement of nonviolence and disobedience. He have never had recourse to violence. And he have appealed for the importance of nonviolence.


After his return to India, he continued the movement of nonviolence and disobedience. His speech reached the hearts of the audience. As a result, many people joined in the movement for independence of India. The movement of nonviolence and disobedience has been running well. However, acts of violence by Indian happened when independence of India was close at hand. A British policeman picked a quarrel with demonstrators and the angry crowd attacked the police office. The news made Gandhi disappointed. He said that he didn't need independence with violence. After that, he traveled through India in order to change India from inside.


In 1930, Gandhi made a protest march against monopolization of salt by the Britain government. He marched about 400km from Ahmadabad to Dandi and refined salt at the seaside. Many people joined this demonstration in the middle of the march. This demonstration raised consciousness of Indian and performed an important role in the movement of nonviolence and disobedience. Thus the movement has been expanded through India more and more.


At last, India gained independence from Britain in 1947. On the other hand, the battle between Hindu and Muslim has been raged day by day. They fought and killed each other. Gandhi was terribly shocked to hear that, so he declared to fast until the fight would be over. When he was in danger of his life, the miracle came up. The fight between Hindu and Muslim was over. This amazing story are called "The Miracle of Calcutta". Unfortunately, Gandhi was assassinated by extremist of Hindu on January 30 in 1948. Many people mourned over his death and admired very much what he did. It has been more than 60 years since he died, however, he is still loved by many people all over the world because of his great accomplishment.