Titans of History

GANDHI

1869–1948

I know of no other man in our time, or indeed in recent history, who so convincingly demonstrated the power of the spirit over things material.

Sir Stafford Cripps, British Labour politician, speech at

the Commonwealth Prime Ministers’ Conference,

London (October 1, 1948)

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was the father of the Indian Nation, whose use of peaceful protest to achieve political independence has served as an inspiration for generations of political leaders seeking an end to oppression. The embodiment of man’s capacity for true humanity, Gandhi came to be known by the name of Mahatma, meaning Great Soul.

Gandhi never had a clearly defined role in Indian politics. But Indian independence was as much his achievement as it was of the politicians in the Indian National Congress. Gandhi’s leadership forged a national identity among the Indian people. The tools of his protests—boycotts and noncooperation—could be taken up by all. From spinning and weaving one’s own cloth in preference to buying British textiles, to 250-mile (400-km) mass marches protesting against monopolies, Gandhi’s methods of political involvement transcended the boundaries of age, gender, caste and religion.

No longer was political activism confined to the literate elite. Inspired by this small, frail figure dressed in homespun cloth, millions participated in the peaceful protests which reached their zenith in the Quit India campaign of 1942. As the British authorities arrested hundreds of thousands of protesters, it became apparent that their rule was increasingly untenable. Some contemporaries criticized Gandhi’s methods of protest as “passive”—incapable of achieving anything of real import. The achievement of Indian independence in 1947, and the triumph of countless civil rights movements since, proved them wrong.

Gandhi’s fragile appearance belied his iron will. Although he came from a distinguished family—his father served as prime minister in several princely states—as a youth Gandhi displayed little promise in any sphere. His politicization began in earnest when he was a young lawyer working in South Africa. Here Gandhi experienced discrimination at first hand when he was thrown off a train after a white traveler complained about the presence of an Indian in her carriage. Gandhi set about campaigning for Indian rights and in so doing developed the philosophy of protest that came to define him. Satyagraha, the “truth force,” was an all-consuming discipline that involved nonviolent resistance to an oppressive authority. It required vast inner strength that could only be achieved by extreme self-control. Gandhi pursued it in every aspect of his life. Despite being happily married he adopted celibacy—and then tested his control by sleeping naked with attractive disciples. As a law student in London he had become an ardent practitioner of vegetarianism, and fasting became a frequent practice of his, which he used for both spiritual advancement and to attain political goals. Setting up ashrams, where he lived with his wife and followers, he abandoned his worldly goods and reduced his dress to the homespun dhoti—a type of loincloth. One of the few possessions that Gandhi left at his death was a spinning wheel.

Gandhi’s campaigns against discrimination and injustice were many and varied. He fearlessly challenged social, religious and political practices in the pursuit of justice for the oppressed, be they women, peasants or nations. Visiting London in 1931 for a conference on constitutional reform, Gandhi chose to stay with the poor of the East End. A devout Hindu, he was nonetheless steadfast in his calls for a reform of the caste system and an end to the practice by which certain groups of people, by virtue of their birth, were stigmatized as untouchable. For Gandhi there was “no such thing as religion overriding morality,” and his deep religious belief never closed his mind to the merits of the beliefs of others: he considered himself not just a Hindu but “also a Christian, a Muslim, a Buddhist and a Jew.” The bungled partition of the subcontinent into India and Pakistan on religious lines and the descent into sectarian massacres deeply distressed him, and one of his last actions was a personal fast during the Indo-Pakistan war of 1947.

Gandhi always displayed remarkable personal courage. He endured imprisonment by the British government several times, and he demonstrated more than once his willingness to risk death to secure the future of the Indian nation. As Hindu–Muslim violence threatened to consume India, Gandhi made an unarmed and unprotected pilgrimage through the heart of the unrest in Bengal in an effort to quell it. His assassination in 1948 by a Hindu extremist who resented his conciliatory stance toward Pakistan so shocked his people that it helped stop the slide into mayhem and restore order: he therefore died both a martyr and a peacemaker. “My service to my people,” he once said, “is part of the discipline to which I subject myself in order to free my soul from the bonds of the flesh … For me the path of salvation leads through the unceasing tribulation in the service of my fellow countrymen and humanity.”