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Gandhian Era
photograph of Gandhi, 1931
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahatma_Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
- Date and Place of Birth: 2 Oct. 1869 and Porbandar, Gujarat.
- Father: Karamachand Gandhi,
- Mother: Putali Bai,
- Political Guru: Gopal Krishna Gokhale,
- Private Secretary: Mahadev Desai
1915
- Mahatma Gandhi arrived in Bombay, India on 9 Jan, 1915.
- Foundation of Satvagraha Ashrama at Kocharab near Ahmedabad (20 May)
- In 1917, Ashrama shifted at the banks of Sabarmati; All India tour.
1916
- He delivered a speech on the occassion of opening ceremony of Banaras Hindu University – BHU on 04 Feb.,
- He abstains from active politics (though he attended Lucknow session of INC held in 26 – 30 Dec., 1916, where Raj Kumar Shukla, a cultivator from Bihar, requested him to come to Champaran.)
1917
- Gandhi entered active politics with Champaran campaign to redress grievances of the cultivators oppressed by Indigo planters of Bihar (April 1917). Champaran Satyagraha was his first Civil Disobedience Movement in India.
1918
- In Feb. 1918, Gandhi launched the struggle in Ahmedabad which involved industrial workers.
- Hunger strike as a weapon was used for the first time by Gandhi during Ahmedabad struggle. In March 1918, Gandhi worked for peasants of Kheda in Gujarat who were facing difficulties in paying the rent owing to failure of crops.
- Kheda Satyagraha was his first Non – Cooperation Movement.
1919
- Gandhi gave a call for Satyagraha against the Rowlatt Act on 6 April 1919 and took the command of the nationalist movement for the first time.
- Gandhi returns Kaisar – i – Hind gold medal as a protest against Jallianwala Bagh massacre April 13, 1919.
- The All India Khilafat Conference elected Gandhi as its president (Nov. 1919, Delhi).
1920 – 22
- Gandhi leads the Non – Cooperation and Khilafat Movement (Aug. 1, 1920 – Feb., 1922). Gandhi calls off Movement (Feb. 12, 1922), after the violent incident at Chauri – Chaura on Feb. 5, 1922.
- Non – Cooperation Movement was the First mass-based politics under Gandhi.
1924
- Belgaum (Karnataka) session of INC – for the first and the last time Gandhi was elected the president of the Congress.
1925 – 27
- Gandhi retires from active politics for the first time and devotes himself to ‘constructive programme of the Congress, Gandhi resumes active politics in 1927.
1930 – 34
Gandhi launches the Civil Disobedience Movement with his Dandi march/Salt Satyagraha (First Phase: 12 March 1930 – 5 March 1931; Gandhi – Irwin Pact: 5 March 1931; Gandhi attends the Second Round Table Conference in London as sole representative of the Congress: 7 Sep. –1 Dec. 1931, Second Phase: 3 Jan. 1932 – 17 April 1934)
1934 – 39
- Gandhi retires from active politics, sets up Sevagram (Vardha Ashram)
1940 – 41
- Gandhi launches Individual Satyagraha Movement.
1942
- Call to Quit India Movement for which Gandhi raised the slogan, ‘Do or Die’ (We shall either free India or die in the attempt), Gandhi and all Congress leaders arrested (9 Aug. 1942).
1942 – 44
- Gandhi kept in detention at the Aga Khan Palace nearPune (9 Aug. 1942 – May, 1944).
- Gandhi lost his wife Kasturba on 22 Feb. 1944and private secretary Mahadev Desat this was Gandhi’s last prison term.
1946
- Deeply distressed by the orgy of communal violence, as a result Muslim League’s Direct Actions call, Gandhi travelled to Noakhali (East Bengal – now Bangladesh) and later on to Calcutta to restore communal peace.
1947
- Gandhi, deeply distressed by the Mountbatten Plan/ Partition Plan (3 June 1947), while staying in Calcutta to restore communal violence, observes complete silence on the dawn of India’s Independence on 15 Aug. 1947.
- Gandhi returns to Delhi in Sep. 1947.
1948
- Gandhi was shot dead by Nathu Ram Godse, while on his way to the evening prayer meeting at Birla House on 30 Jan. 1948). He died, with ‘Hey Ram’ on his lips.
- Facts about Gandhi: UNO declared 2 Oct. as ‘International Non – violence Day'(Antarrashtriy Ahinsa Diwas)
- Literary Influences on Gandhi: John Ruskin’s Unto This Last Emerson, Thoreau, Leo Tolstoy, the Bible and the Gita.
- Literary Works: Sarvoday (1908) – translation of ‘Unto this last’ in Gujarati, Hind Swaraj (1909), My Experiments with Truth (Autobiography, 1927) – reveals events of Gandhi’s life upto 1922.
As an Editor:
- Indian Opinion: 1903 – 15 (in English and Gujarati, for a short period in Hindi and Tamil).Harijan: 1919 – 31 (in English, Gujarati and Hindi),
- Young India: 1933 – 42 (in English and Gujarati – named Navjeevan)
Other Names:
Mahatma (Saint) – by Rabindranath Tagore, 1917;
Malang Baba/ Nanga Faqir (Naked Saint) by Kabailis of North – West Frontier, 1930;
Half – naked Saint (Ardha Nanga Faqir)/Indian Faqir/Traitor Faqir – by Winston Churchill, 1931;
Rashtrapita (the Father of the Naiton) – by Subhash Chandra Bose, 1944.
