Mahatma gandhi wikipedia biography joshi

As Gandhi attended the Indian National Congress, his hopes came true. Gopal Krishna Gokhale, one of the most prominent Indian politicians of the time, supported the resolution for the rights of Indians in South Africa and the resolution was passed. Through Gokhale, in whose house Gandhi stayed for a month, Gandhi met many political connections that would serve him later in life.

However, his promise to always aid his friends in Natal soon prompted him to return to South Africa, when he received an urgent telegram informing him that the Boers had formed a peaceful relationship with British South Africans and now held political sway in the Cape Colony as well; the telegram also informed him that this would be a severe setback in his attempt to overturn discriminatory legislation targeting Indian South Africans.

Gandhi travelled back to South Africa immediately and met with Joseph Chamberlain , Secretary of State for the Colonies, and presented him with a paper on the discriminatory policies instituted against the Indian population but Chamberlain instead rebuffed Gandhi and informed him that Indians living in South Africa would have to accede to the will of the Afrikaners , who now were granted increased political power as a result of the formation of the Union of South Africa as a dominion.

Gandhi began to organize a fast response to this new South African political configuration. Instead of working in Natal, he now established a camp in the newly conquered Transvaal region and began helping Indians who had escaped from the war in that region, and now had to purchase overly expensive re-entry passes. He also represented poor Indians who were dispossessed of dwellings in a shantytown by the authorities.

Gandhi also started a new magazine, Indian Opinion , that advocated for political liberty and equal rights in South Africa. The magazine, which initially included several young women from Europe, expanded its staff around the country, increasing both Gandhi's popularity and the public support for his ideas. At around the same time, Gandhi read John Ruskin's book Unto This Last , which maintained that the life of manual labor was superior to all other ways of living.

As he adopted this belief, Gandhi chose to abandon the Western dress and habits, and he moved his family and staff to a Transvaal farm called the Phoenix, where he even renounced the use of an oil-powered engine and printed Indian Opinion by hand-wheel, and performed agriculture labor using old, manual farming equipment. He began to conceive of his public work as a mission to restore old Indian virtue and civilization, rather than fall prey to modern Western influence, which included electricity and technology.

Between and , he also changed another aspect of his personal life by achieving Brahmacharya, or the voluntary abstention from sexual relations. He made this choice as part of his philosophy of selflessness and self-restraint. Finally, he also formulated his own philosophy of political protest, called Satyagraha, which literally meant "truth-force" in Sanskrit.

In practice, this practice meant protesting injustice steadfastly, but in a non-violent manner. He put this theory into practice on 8 September , when, at a large gathering of the Indian community in Transvaal, he asked the whole community to take a vow of disobedience to the law, as the Transvaal government had started an effort to register every Indian child over the age of eight, which would make them an official part of the South African population.

Setting a personal example, Gandhi became the first Indian to appear before a magistrate for his refusal to register, and he was sentenced to two months in prison. He actually asked for a heavier sentence, a request, consistent with his philosophy of self-denial. After his release, Gandhi continued his campaign and thousands of Indians burned their registration cards, crossing the Transvaal-Natal border without passes.

Many went to jail, including Gandhi, who went to jail again in Gandhi did not waver when a South African General by the name of Jan Christian Smuts promised to eliminate the registration law, but broke his word. Gandhi went all the way to London in and gathered enough support among the members of the British government to convince Smuts to eliminate the law in Yet the Transvaal Prime Minister continued to regard Indians as second-class citizens while the Cape Colony government passed another discriminatory law making all non-Christian marriages illegal, which meant that all Indian children would be considered born out of wedlock.

In addition, the government in Natal continued to impose a crippling poll tax upon Indians entering Natal. In response to these strikingly unjust rules, Gandhi organized a large-scale satyagraha, which involved women crossing the Natal-Transvaal border illegally. When they were arrested, five thousand Indian coal miners also went on strike; Gandhi himself led them across the Natalese border, where they expected arrest.

Although Smuts and Gandhi did not agree on many points, they had respect for each other. In , Smuts relented due to the sheer number of Indians involved in protest and negotiated a settlement which provided for the legality of Indian marriages and abolished the poll tax. Further, the import of indentured laborers from India was to be phased out by In July , Gandhi sailed for Britain, known throughout the world for the success of his satyagraha.

Gandhi was in England when World War I started and he immediately began organizing a medical corps similar to the force he had led in the Boer War, but he had also faced health problems that caused him to return to India, where he met the applauding crowds with enthusiasm once again. Indians continued to refer to him as "Great Soul," an appellation reserved only for the holiest men of Hinduism.

While Gandhi accepted the love and admiration of the crowds, he also insisted that all souls were equal and did not accept the implication of religious sacredness that his new name carried. In order to retreat into a life of humility and restraint, as his personal principles mandated, he decided to withdraw from public life for a while spending his first year in India focusing on his personal quest for purity and healing.

He also lived in a communal space with untouchables, a choice which many of his financial supporters resented, because they believed that the very presence of untouchables defiled higher-caste Indians. Gandhi even considered moving to a district in Ahmedabad inhabited entirely by the untouchables when a generous Muslim merchant donated enough money to keep up his current living space for another year.

By that time, Gandhi's communal life with the untouchables had become more acceptable. Although Gandhi had withdrawn from public life, he briefly met with the British Governor of Bombay and future Viceroy of India , Lord Willington, whom Gandhi promised to consult before he launched any political campaigns. Gandhi also felt the impact of another event, the passing of Gopal Krishna Gokhale, who had become his supporter and political mentor.

He stayed away from the political trend of Indian nationalism, which many of the members of the Indian National Congress embraced. Instead, he stayed busy resettling his family and the inhabitants of the Phoenix Settlement in South Africa, as well as the Tolstoy Settlement he had founded near Johannesburg. For this purpose, on 25 May , he created a new settlement, which came to be known as the Satyagraha ashram derived from the Sanskrit word "Satya" meaning "truth" near the town of Ahmedabad and close to his place of birth in the western Indian province of Gujarat.

All the inhabitants of the ashram, which included one family of untouchables, swore to poverty and chastity. After a while, Gandhi became influenced by the idea of Indian independence from the British, but he dreaded the possibility that a westernized Indian elite would replace the British colonial government. He developed a strong conviction that Indian independence should take place as a large-scale sociopolitical reform, which would remove the old plagues of extreme poverty and caste restrictions.

In fact, he believed that Indians could not become worthy of self-government unless they all shared a concern for the poor. As Gandhi resumed his public life in India in , he delivered a speech at the opening of the new Hindu University in the city of Benares , where he discussed his understanding of independence and reform. He also provided specific examples of the abhorrent living conditions of the lower classes that he had observed during his travels around India and focused specifically on sanitation.

Although the Indians of the higher-castes did not readily embrace the ideas in the speech, Gandhi had now returned to public life and he felt ready to convert these ideas to actions. Facing the possibility of arrest, just like he always did in South Africa, Gandhi first spoke for the rights of impoverished indigo-cultivators in the Champaran district.

His efforts eventually led to the appointment of a government commission to investigate abuses perpetrated on the indigo planters. He also interfered whenever he saw violence. When a group of Ahmedabad mill workers went on strike and became violent, he resolved to fast until they returned to peace. Though some political commentators condemned Gandhi's behavior as a form of blackmail, the fast only lasted three days before the workers and their employers negotiated an agreement.

Through this situation, Gandhi discovered the fast as one of his most effective weapons in later years and set a precedent for later action as part of satyagraha. As the First World War continued, Gandhi also became involved in recruiting men for the British Indian Army , an involvement which his followers had a difficult time accepting, after listening to his passionate speeches about resisting injustice in a non-violent manner.

At this point, although Gandhi still remained loyal to Britain and enamored with the ideals of the British constitution, his desire to support an independent home rule became stronger. As time passed, Gandhi became exhausted from his long journey around the country and fell ill with dysentery. He refused conventional treatment and chose to practice his own healing methods, relying on diet and spending a long time bedridden, while in recovery in his ashram.

In the meantime, the unrest in India increased exponentially with news of the British victories over the Ottoman Empire during the Middle Eastern theatre of the First World War. The prospect of the only major Muslim power in the world ceasing to exist was an unacceptable proposition to many Indian Muslims. After the end of the war, the British colonial government decided to follow the recommendations of the Rowlatt Committee, which advocated the retention of various wartime restrictions in India, including curfews and measures to suppress free speech.

Gandhi was still sick when these events took place and, although he could not protest actively, he felt his loyalty to the British Empire weaken significantly. Later, when the Rowlatt Act actually became law, Gandhi proposed that the entire country observe a day of prayer, fasting, and abstention from physical labor as a peaceful protest against the injustice of the oppressive law.

Gandhi's plea generated an overwhelming response as millions of Indians did not go to work on 6 April As the entire country stood still, the British colonial government arrested Gandhi, which provoked angry crowds to fill the streets of India's cities and, much to Gandhi's dislike, violence erupted everywhere. Gandhi could not tolerate violence so he called off his campaign and asked that everyone return to their homes.

He acted in accordance with his firm belief that if satyagraha could not be carried out without violence, it should not take place at all. Unfortunately, not all protesters shared Gandhi's conviction as ardently. Let us tell you that in his earlier days, he was deeply influenced by the stories of Shravana and Harishchandra as they reflected the importance of truth.

When Gandhi was 9 years old he went to a local school at Rajkot and studied the basics of arithmetic, history, geography, and languages. At the age of 11, he went to a high school in Rajkot. Because of his wedding, at least about one year, his studies were disturbed and later he joined and completed his schooling. He joined Samaldas college in Bhavnagar in at Gujarat.

Later, one of his family friends Mavji Dave Joshi pursued further studies i. Gandhiji was not satisfied with his studies at Samaldas College and so he became excited by the London proposal and managed to convince his mother and wife that he will not touch non-veg, wine, or women. In the year , Mahatma Gandhi left for London to study law.

Thereafter 10 days after arrival, he joined the Inner Temple, one of the four London law colleges, and studied and practiced law. In London, he also joined a Vegetarian Society and was introduced to Bhagavad Gita by some of his vegetarian friends. Later, Bhagavad Gita set an impression and influenced his life. In May he went to South Africa to work as a lawyer.

There he had a first-hand experience of racial discrimination when he was thrown out of the first-class apartment of the train despite holding the first-class ticket because it was reserved for white people only and no Indian or black was allowed to travel in the first class. This incident had a serious effect on him and he decided to protest against racial discrimination.

He further observed that this type of incident was quite common against his fellow Indians who were derogatorily referred to as coolies. In a short period, Gandhi became a leader of the Indian community in South Africa. References Wikimedia Foundation. Die… … Deutsch Wikipedia. List of Marathi writers — This article contains a list of Marathi writers arranged in the English alphabetical order of the writers last names.

A list in Marathi of many Marathi writers and links to Wikipedia articles in Marathi concerning those writers are available in… … Wikipedia. Lakshmanshastri Joshi. Lakshmanshastri Joshi Lakshman Shastri Joshi — was an Indian scholar, a distinguished Sanskrit and Hindu Dharma expert, a Marathi literary critic, and supporter of Indian independence.

Die… … Deutsch Wikipedia List of Marathi writers — This article contains a list of Marathi writers arranged in the English alphabetical order of the writers last names. Refusing to move to the back of the train, Gandhi was forcibly removed and thrown off the train at a station in Pietermaritzburg. From that night forward, the small, unassuming man would grow into a giant force for civil rights.

Gandhi formed the Natal Indian Congress in to fight discrimination. Gandhi prepared to return to India at the end of his year-long contract until he learned, at his farewell party, of a bill before the Natal Legislative Assembly that would deprive Indians of the right to vote. Fellow immigrants convinced Gandhi to stay and lead the fight against the legislation.

After a brief trip to India in late and early , Gandhi returned to South Africa with his wife and children. Gandhi ran a thriving legal practice, and at the outbreak of the Boer War, he raised an all-Indian ambulance corps of 1, volunteers to support the British cause, arguing that if Indians expected to have full rights of citizenship in the British Empire, they also needed to shoulder their responsibilities.

After years of protests, the government imprisoned hundreds of Indians in , including Gandhi. Under pressure, the South African government accepted a compromise negotiated by Gandhi and General Jan Christian Smuts that included recognition of Hindu marriages and the abolition of a poll tax for Indians. In Gandhi founded an ashram in Ahmedabad, India, that was open to all castes.

Wearing a simple loincloth and shawl, Gandhi lived an austere life devoted to prayer, fasting and meditation. In , with India still under the firm control of the British, Gandhi had a political reawakening when the newly enacted Rowlatt Act authorized British authorities to imprison people suspected of sedition without trial. In response, Gandhi called for a Satyagraha campaign of peaceful protests and strikes.

Violence broke out instead, which culminated on April 13, , in the Massacre of Amritsar. Troops led by British Brigadier General Reginald Dyer fired machine guns into a crowd of unarmed demonstrators and killed nearly people. Gandhi became a leading figure in the Indian home-rule movement. Calling for mass boycotts, he urged government officials to stop working for the Crown, students to stop attending government schools, soldiers to leave their posts and citizens to stop paying taxes and purchasing British goods.

Rather than buy British-manufactured clothes, he began to use a portable spinning wheel to produce his own cloth.

Mahatma gandhi wikipedia biography joshi

The spinning wheel soon became a symbol of Indian independence and self-reliance. Gandhi assumed the leadership of the Indian National Congress and advocated a policy of non-violence and non-cooperation to achieve home rule. After British authorities arrested Gandhi in , he pleaded guilty to three counts of sedition. Although sentenced to a six-year imprisonment, Gandhi was released in February after appendicitis surgery.