MAHATMA GANDHI

Mahatma Gandhi is remembered in the world for four major virtues. They are non-violence, truth, love and fraternity.By applying these four virtues he brought freedom to India. His full name was Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. He was born in Porebandar of Gujarat on 2 October 1869. His father was an officer in charge ofa Province. Mohandas married while he was reading in High School. After passing the EntranceExamination he went to England to study law. M. K.Gandhi was not born great. He was an ordinary child like many of us. In the beginning he acted likea common child. He told lies only once in his life. However, he corrected his bad habits very soon. He smoked cigarette only once. He took meat with his friend only once. All these things were done due to the influence of bad company in his childhood. One day he confessed all these bad deeds before his father and vowed not to repeat them. M.K.Gandhi was much influenced by the character of the King Harischandra in the play entitled Raja Harischandra. M.K.Gandhi completed his law in England and came back to India in 1893. He started his career as a lawyer. He supported the poor and truthful clients. He went to South Africa todeal with the cases of a famous merchant named Abdula Seth. In South Africa he faced many hurdles. He discovered that the white men were ill treating the dark Indians there. He himself was tortured and insulted by the white often. One day, he was travelling in a first class compartment a train. He had booked a ticket for him. Still he was evented and punished out of the compartment by the white men. On another occasion he wore a turban and attended the Court. But the judge who was a whiteman ordered him: to remove the turban becausehe was a coolie-lawyer. Gandhiji fought against this unjust and cruel treatment. He observed Satyagraha there and became successful. In South Africa he built uphis career as a Satyagrahi.He returned to India in 1915. In India he found similar unkind treatment by the white rulers. He started the Non-co-operation in 1930 and the Quit India Movement in 1942. During his struggle heapplied no jealousy and violence against the rulers.Finally, he succeeded. The British Government granted independence to India. Gandhi's style of living wasvery simple. He removed the caste barrier. He called the untouchables as the Harijan, the children of God. He was a reformer.He told the Indians to do manual labour. He advised the students of his time toread vocational subjects inorder to be self-dependent. He also advised to introduce hand-spinning as a subjectin educational institutions.He was a strong supporter of agriculture. Gandhiji was a spiritual man. He spiritualised the politics. He was pained to find that many politicians had become greedy for power soon after independence. He earnestlyappealed them to work forthe development of the country. He also told the people to love and tolerate each other. He read the Gita, the Koran, the Holy Bible and all other scriptures. The saddest thing for us isthat Gandhiji died an unnatural death. He was shot dead by an Indian on his way to attend a prayeron 30 January, 1948. It wasa cruel murder. His death was mourned all over the world. His body was cremated at Raj Ghat in New Delhi. We observe thisday as the martyr day every year. Gandhiji was really a noble soul. Do