Gandhi is not merely the name of a person; it represents the emergence of a thought, a philosophy, a way of living, a method of struggle, and an embodiment of truth and non-violence.
On 2 October 1869, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born in Porbandar. Little could anyone have imagined that this ordinary child would go on to become a guiding force for an entire age and leave an imprint on world history.
The young Mohandas was deeply influenced by the story of King Harishchandra and the values of truth and sacrifice. The courage to speak the truth, endure difficulties for it, and remain steadfast until the very end became a defining feature of his life. The Bhagavad Gita also deeply influenced Gandhi, particularly its emphasis on performing one’s duty with sincerity and remaining committed to one’s principles.
Gandhi went to England in 1888 to study law and became a barrister. His years there were also a period of intellectual and spiritual exploration. He read Edwin Arnold’s The Song Celestial, an English rendering of the Bhagavad Gita, encountered the Bible, particularly the New Testament, and became acquainted with the life of Prophet Muhammad. His exposure to different religious traditions broadened his intellectual horizon.
South African crucible
After returning to India, Gandhi initially wished to establish himself as a lawyer. However, circumstances took him to South Africa in 1893, where he experienced racial discrimination firsthand. The famous incident in which Gandhi, despite possessing a valid first-class railway ticket, was thrown out of a train because of the colour of his skin became a turning point in his life.
South Africa became Gandhi’s laboratory of political and social experimentation. Through his experiences there, he developed Satyagraha — the insistence upon truth through non-violent means. For Gandhi, opposing injustice did not mean hatred towards the person committing the injustice; the struggle had to be against injustice itself.
John Ruskin’s Unto This Last also profoundly influenced him. Gandhi’s interpretation of Ruskin’s ideas contributed to his philosophy of Sarvodaya — the welfare of all — and strengthened his belief in the dignity of labour, equality and simple living. At the Phoenix Settlement, he experimented with community living and manual labour, gradually developing the conviction that political freedom could not be separated from personal discipline and moral responsibility.
Return to India
When Gandhi returned to India in 1915 at the invitation of his political mentor, Gopal Krishna Gokhale, India was already witnessing several forms of resistance against British rule. Gandhi’s arrival gradually provided a unifying framework to these diverse currents.
He travelled extensively across India, attempting to understand the lives, problems and aspirations of ordinary people. The lawyer who had once lived a relatively comfortable life increasingly adopted simplicity. The suit and barrister’s attire gave way to simple Indian clothing, while the spinning wheel, khadi, village life, manual labour and self-reliance became important symbols of his public philosophy.
Mobilising a nation
From the Champaran Satyagraha to the Kheda movement, from the Non-Cooperation Movement to the Civil Disobedience Movement, from the Dandi March to the Quit India Movement, Gandhi became associated with several of the most significant phases of India’s freedom struggle.
What distinguished Gandhi was his ability to understand the mood of the people, identify an appropriate issue and mobilise mass participation. The Dandi March was perhaps one of the most powerful illustrations of this approach. Salt, which existed freely in nature, became a symbol of resistance against colonial authority. By picking up a handful of salt and breaking the salt law, Gandhi transformed an apparently simple act into a nationwide political movement.
Politics without hatred
Gandhi demonstrated that it was possible to challenge an enormously powerful colonial state through mass participation, civil disobedience, moral courage and non-violent resistance.
At a time when political revolutions in many parts of the world were associated with violence and armed struggle, Gandhi presented an alternative: fight injustice without hatred, resist oppression without violence, and pursue political freedom without abandoning moral principles. Satyagraha was, therefore, not merely a political weapon but a moral method.
Khadi, the spinning wheel, salt, fasting, Satyagraha, Ahimsa and Sarvodaya became symbols through which Gandhi connected self-reliance, moral discipline, resistance and the welfare of all. Through these ideas, political action, personal discipline and social responsibility became interconnected.
An enduring legacy
India’s freedom in 1947 was the culmination of a long and complex struggle involving numerous leaders, movements, revolutionaries, organisations and ordinary citizens. Gandhi was one of the central figures in this larger historical process. His greatest contribution may be understood not simply in terms of individual political movements, but in his ability to bring millions of ordinary Indians into the freedom struggle.
His assassination in 1948 brought his physical journey to an end, but the questions he raised about truth, violence, justice, human dignity, economic equality and the relationship between means and ends continued to resonate across the world. After the enormous destruction and violence witnessed during the Second World War, Gandhi’s philosophy of non-violence acquired an even wider significance.
Perhaps his greatest relevance lies in this: Gandhi was not merely a leader of his time; his ideas continue to invite every new generation to reflect upon truth, duty, non-violence, human dignity and the means by which society seeks change.
Views expressed are personal