Essay on Mahatma Gandhi

Mahatma Gandhi was the greatest leader of India's freedom struggle. He was born on 2 October 1869 at Porbandar in Gujarat. His full name was Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. He studied law in England and then worked in South Africa, where he fought against the unfair treatment of Indians. He returned to India in 1915 and soon became the leader of the freedom movement. His weapons were truth and non-violence. He led the Non-Cooperation Movement, the Dandi March against the salt tax, and the Quit India Movement. He lived simply, spun his own cloth and worked for the poor and for unity among all religions. India became free in 1947. Gandhiji was killed on 30 January 1948. We remember him as Bapu, the Father of the Nation.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, known to the world as Mahatma Gandhi, was born on 2 October 1869 at Porbandar in Gujarat. His father, Karamchand Gandhi, was a diwan, and his mother, Putlibai, was a deeply religious woman. From her, the young Mohandas learnt truthfulness and self-control.

After his schooling, he went to England to study law and became a barrister. In 1893 he went to South Africa to work on a legal case. There he saw how badly Indians and Africans were treated because of the colour of their skin. He himself was once thrown out of a first-class train compartment although he held a ticket. He decided to fight this injustice, but without hatred and without violence. He called his method satyagraha, which means holding firmly to truth.

Gandhiji returned to India in 1915. He travelled across the country to understand the life of the people. He stood by the indigo farmers of Champaran in 1917 and soon became the leader of the national movement. Under him, the freedom struggle reached every village. He launched the Non-Cooperation Movement in 1920, asking people to give up British goods, schools and titles. In 1930 he walked from Sabarmati Ashram to Dandi to break the salt law. In 1942 he gave the call of "Quit India". He was sent to jail many times, but he never gave up his path.

Freedom from the British was not his only goal. He worked to remove untouchability, to bring Hindus and Muslims together, and to make villages self-reliant. He wore a simple dhoti, lived in an ashram and spun khadi on a charkha. He believed that the means must be as pure as the end.

India became independent on 15 August 1947. On 30 January 1948, Gandhiji was shot dead on his way to a prayer meeting in Delhi. His birthday, 2 October, is a national holiday called Gandhi Jayanti, and the United Nations observes it as the International Day of Non-Violence. His life teaches us that truth, courage and love can defeat the greatest power.