Mahatma Gandhi biography and what he did. Mahatma Gandhi: biography, family, political and social activities

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi born on October 2, 1869 in the coastal city of Porbandar (Gujarat) into a Vaishnava family belonging to the Vaishya caste. The family had four children. At the age of 13, Mohandas's parents married a girl of the same age named Kasturba...

The Gandhi family was wealthy enough to allow their children to receive a good education, and Mohandas, at the age of 19, went to London to study law. Upon completion of his studies in 1891, he returned to India to work in his specialty. In 1893, Mohandas signed a one-year contract to practice law in South Africa.

At that time, South Africa was controlled by the British. Trying to assert his rights as a British subject, he was attacked by the authorities and saw that all Indians were subjected to this treatment. Gandhi began the struggle to protect the rights of his compatriots and spent 21 years with his family in South Africa until he achieved success.

Gandhi developed a method of action based on the principles of courage, truth and non-violence, called Satyagraha. He believed that the way a result is achieved is more important than the result itself. Satyagraha promotes nonviolence and civil disobedience as the most preferable means of achieving political and social goals. In 1915, Gandhi returned to India. Within 15 years he became the leader of the Indian nationalist movement.

Using the principles of Satyagraha, Gandhi led the struggle for Indian independence from Britain. Many times the British arrested Gandhi for his activities in South Africa and India. He believed that if there were grounds for imprisonment, then going to prison was fair. In total, he spent seven years in prison during his political activities.

More than once Gandhi went on hunger strikes to show others the need for non-violence. India gained independence in 1947 and was divided into India and Pakistan. This was followed by massive conflicts between Hindus and Muslims. Gandhi was committed to a united India where Hindus and Muslims would live in peace.

On January 13, 1948, he began a fast to stop the bloodshed. Five days later, the leaders of the opposition parties promised to stop fighting, and Gandhi broke off his hunger strike. Twelve days later, Hindu fanatic Nathuram Godse, Gandhi's opponent of tolerance for all faiths and religions, shot the Mahatma three times in the stomach and chest. The weakening Mahatma, supported on both sides by his nieces, showed with gestures that he forgave the murderer. Gandhi passed away with the words on his lips: “Jay Ram, Jay Ram.” The name of Rama (repetition of the name - Ramanama) was with Mohandas from childhood, supporting and inspiring him throughout his life.

lane from English: Sergey ‘Narayan’ Evseev

Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand (Mahatma)

One of the leaders and ideologists of the Indian national liberation movement.

Born on October 2, 1869 in the Gujarat principality of Porbandar. Gandhi's father was a minister in a number of princely states of the Kathiyawar peninsula.

Gandhi grew up in a family where the customs of the Hindu religion were strictly observed, which influenced the formation of his worldview.

Having received his legal education in England in 1891, Gandhi practiced law in Bombay until 1893. In 1893-1914. served as legal advisor to a Gujarat trading firm in South Africa.

Here Gandhi led the fight against racial discrimination and oppression of Indians, organizing peaceful demonstrations and petitions addressed to the government. As a result, South African Indians succeeded in getting some discriminatory laws repealed.

In South Africa, Gandhi developed the tactics of so-called nonviolent resistance, which he called satyagraha. During the Anglo-Boer (1899-1902) and Anglo-Zulu (1906) wars, Gandhi created medical units from Indians to help the British, although, by his own admission, he considered the struggle of the Boers and Zulus to be fair; he considered his actions as proof of Indian loyalty to the British Empire, which, according to Gandhi, should have convinced the British to grant India self-government.

During this period, Gandhi became acquainted with the works of L.N. Tolstoy, who had a great influence on him and whom Gandhi considered his teacher and spiritual mentor.

Upon returning to his homeland (January 1915), Gandhi became close to the Indian National Congress party and soon became one of the leading leaders of the national liberation movement of India, the ideological leader of the Congress.

After the First World War 1914-1918. In India, as a result of a sharp aggravation of contradictions between the Indian people and the colonialists and under the influence of the October Revolution in Russia, a mass anti-imperialist movement began.

Gandhi realized that without relying on the masses, it was impossible to achieve independence, self-government, or any other concessions from the colonialists. Gandhi and his followers traveled around India, speaking at crowded rallies with calls to fight against British rule.

Gandhi limited this struggle exclusively to nonviolent forms, condemning any violence on the part of the revolutionary people. He also condemned the class struggle and preached the resolution of social conflicts through arbitration, based on the principle of trusteeship.

This position of Gandhi was in the interests of the Indian bourgeoisie, and the Indian National Congress Party fully supported it. In 1919-1947 The National Congress under Gandhi's leadership became a mass national anti-imperialist organization that enjoyed popular support.

The involvement of the masses in the national liberation movement is the main merit of Gandhi and the source of his enormous popularity among the people, who nicknamed Gandhi Mahatma (Great Soul).

Name: Mahatma Gandhi

Place of Birth: Porbandar, India

A place of death: New Delhi, India

Activity: Indian political and public figure

Family status: was married

Mahatma Gandhi - biography

He could have chosen the share of the wealthy bourgeoisie, but doomed himself to hunger strikes, poverty and wanderings in prison. This is the price Mahatma Gandhi paid for Indian independence.

The surname Gandhi in India is the most common, as is the biography itself, one of the great people of India. In one of these ordinary families, on October 2, 1869, a boy named Mohandas was born. The future “conscience of the nation” was lucky with the conditions of birth: both grandfather and father were chief ministers in the district city of Porbandar; one of Gandhi's elder brothers served as a lawyer and the other as a police inspector.

Mahatma Gandhi - childhood, studies

The father wanted to see his youngest son as his successor as prime minister of his native principality of Porbandar. Therefore, Mohandas received a good education at the local English school, got used to wearing European clothes and acquired aristocratic manners.

However, fate prepared another path for him - life against the tide.

Gandhi had to go against the opinions of those around him for the first time in 1884, when he decided to go to London to continue his education.

Many Hindus were outraged by Mohandas's intention. After all, previously no one from the merchant caste (namely, Gandhi belonged to it) had ever left India! However, the brave guy still left for Britain on the first ship. So Mohandas became an outcast from his caste.

Imagine the surprise of the ambitious Indian when he realized that even for the high society of London he was just an “upstart from the provinces”! To get rid of the surging depression, Gandhi threw himself into his studies. The decision turned out to be correct: it was education that made Mohandas a man of peace, wise and enlightened. In the libraries of London, he studied the main works on jurisprudence, sociology, political science, and the foundations of Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam and Christianity.

In the capital of the British Empire, he was introduced to Helena Blavatsky, a famous 19th-century traveler, occultist and spiritualist. However, none of the world religions managed to subjugate Gandhi. In his brain, like in a highly complex computer, he synthesized all the teachings in order to ultimately follow his own path through life - the path of Gandhi.

Returning to his homeland in 1891, Mahatma Gandhi began working as a lawyer at the Bombay Human Rights College. But he soon realized that he didn’t want to be a lawyer at all, but a politician and even... a reformer of India!

The philosopher Gandhi began the social revolution by extending a helping hand to the untouchables - the lowest caste in Hindu society. Its representatives did not have the right to education, political activity, decent work, or human living conditions. Like the Jews in Nazi Germany, who pinned the “yellow star of shame” on their clothes, for centuries the untouchables were obliged from birth to death to wear a humiliating bell around their necks in order to ring on the street to inform passers-by that a “subhuman” was coming towards them.

Gandhi decided to break stereotypes in his signature way - by personal example. “Never demand from your neighbors what you cannot fulfill yourself!” - Mohandas liked to repeat. He began to call the untouchables “harijans” (which translated means “people of God”), inviting them into his house, sharing meals with them and traveling with them in the same carriages. Finally, he adopted an orphan girl from the “untouchable” caste and brought her into his family.

All of India started talking about Mohandas. First with indignation, then with interest, and then with respect. “It was as if Gandhi made us all wake up,” Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of independent India, once said about the sage.

Mohandas Gandhi formulated the main goal of his life simply: India cannot be happy while it is under the yoke of the British Empire.

Of course, at first no one took him seriously. In fact, what could a small, frail Indian with protruding ears do to a world superpower? Moreover, a mere mortal, and not a monarch!

But Gandhi knew what he was doing. “Yes, the British have weapons that can destroy us,” the philosopher liked to repeat. - But we always have a choice - to live in slavery forever or refuse to obey the colonialists. India's strength lies in its powerlessness!

Gandhi convinced Hindus not to take part in British elections, not to go to English schools, not to buy English goods and, finally, not to pay taxes to the British. “And no violence. Never! Do you hear?!” - Gandhi invariably broadcast from the rostrum. "Yes! - the Hindus readily answered and added: “Mahatma!”, which translated meant “a man of great soul.”

The Mahatma's main weapons of struggle were peaceful demonstrations and boycotts. One by one they broke out in different parts of the country, causing attacks of wild rabies among the British. British soldiers beat unarmed people to death with sticks and shot them with machine guns. Gandhi also suffered: on the way to the liberation of India, he suffered dozens of arrests, seven years in prison and fifteen hunger strikes... He endured, survived and won: in 1947, India achieved national independence. And in an absolutely peaceful way!

Assassination of Mahatma Gandhi

The 78-year-old Gandhi's lifelong goal was achieved. However, he was never able to reconcile people of different religions. The state split into two - the Hindu country India and the Muslim country Pakistan. This event greatly saddened the Mahatma, and his numerous speeches about the “wrong behavior” of Muslims embittered the followers of Allah. On January 30, 1948, Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated by a Pakistani terrorist named Godse.

Mahatma Gandhi - Biography of personal life

Gandhi was not only a politician, reformer and philosopher, but also a father of many children and a faithful husband. According to ancient Indian traditions, already at the age of 7 he was betrothed to a girl of the same age named Kasturbai. The wedding of the “lovers in absentia” took place six years later, when the “young” were only 13 years old. And a year later the newlyweds had their first child, Harilal...

The eldest son did not bring happiness to his parents - he was indifferent to serious matters, loved revelry, debauchery and living at the expense of others. Gandhi repeatedly tried to re-educate him, but in the end, in despair, he simply renounced him. But the other three sons of the Mahatma were ardent defenders of his ideas and activists in the movement for Indian independence.

His faithful wife Kasturbai also became a support for the husband. She participated in all her husband’s political actions, for which she was imprisoned six times. During her last imprisonment in 1944, the exhausted woman died of a heart attack. The Gandhis were married for 62 years.

Today it may seem that Gandhi's achievements were not worth the sacrifices that he and his comrades made on the altar of freedom. After all, to this day India is full of beggars, destitute and humiliated; The division of Hindus into castes has never been abolished, and there is no end in sight to world wars on religious grounds.

And yet Mahatma Gandhi is a great man, a true patriot and a sage with a big heart. After all, many of the truths from his biography, by which people live today, were formulated by him. Here are just a few: “The quiet voice of my conscience is my only master”; “It is more courageous to forgive than to punish. The weak do not know how to forgive, only the strong forgive”; “The human world is like the sea. Even if a few drops in it are dirty, the whole water does not become dirty. Therefore, none of you should ever lose faith in humanity!”

Mohandas Karamchand (Mahatma) Gandhi was born on October 2, 1869 in the fishing village of Porbandar (now Gujarat, a state in western India) and belonged to the Banya merchant caste. Gandhi's father was a minister in a number of princely states of the Kathiyawar peninsula. Gandhi grew up in a family where the customs of the Hindu religion were strictly observed, which influenced the formation of his worldview.

At the age of seven, Gandhi was engaged and at thirteen he married Kasturbai Makanji.

Having been educated in India, Gandhi went to England in 1888 to study law at the Inner Temple (a division of the Inns of Court bar corporation).

"Great Soul" Mahatma GandhiOctober 2 marks the 145th anniversary of the birth of Mahatma Gandhi, one of the leaders and ideologists of the movement for Indian independence from Great Britain. His philosophy of non-violence (satyagraha) influenced movements for peaceful change.

After completing his studies in 1891, Gandhi returned to India and practiced law in Bombay until 1893. He founded several ashrams - spiritual communes, one of them, near Durban, was called Phoenix Farm, the other, near Johannesburg, was Tolstoy Farm. In 1904, he began publishing a weekly newspaper, Indian Opinion.

From 1893 to 1914, Gandhi served as legal advisor to a Gujarati trading firm in South Africa. Here he led the fight against racial discrimination and oppression of Indians, organizing peaceful demonstrations and petitions addressed to the government. In particular, in 1906 he carried out a campaign of civil disobedience, which he called "satyagraha" (Sanskrit - "holding to the truth", "persistence in the truth").

He was frequently arrested for his Satyagraha campaigns - in November 1913 three times in four days while leading a march of two thousand Indian miners from Natal to the Transvaal. The demonstration was stopped by agreement with Jan Smuts, then Minister of Defense of the Union of South Africa. However, as a result, South African Indians managed to get some discriminatory laws repealed. In July 1914, Gandhi left South Africa.

Upon returning to his homeland, he founded a new ashram near Ahmedabad and became close to the Indian National Congress (INC) party, and soon became one of the leading leaders of the national liberation movement of India, the ideological leader of the Congress.

Gandhi attached particular importance to improving the position of lower castes, equal rights and political activity of women, promoting religious tolerance, as well as the development of folk crafts, primarily home weaving, as a symbol of encouraging domestic production. For Gandhi and his associates, spinning acquired the character of a ritual, and the hand spinning wheel was a symbol of the INC for a long time.

In 1918, Gandhi went on his first hunger strike. When the British passed the Rowlett Acts in 1919, which extended restrictions on Indian civil liberties, Gandhi declared the first All-India Satyagraha. Gandhi and his followers traveled throughout India, speaking at crowded rallies calling for a fight against British rule. Gandhi limited this struggle exclusively to nonviolent forms, condemning any violence on the part of the revolutionary people. He also condemned the class struggle and preached the resolution of social conflicts through arbitration, based on the principle of trusteeship. This position of Gandhi was in the interests of the Indian bourgeoisie, and the INC fully supported it.

The involvement of the masses in the national liberation movement is the source of Gandhi's enormous popularity among the people, who nicknamed him Mahatma ("Great Soul").

Thousands of people across the country protested without resorting to violence, but there were massive street riots in many places. The British resorted to repression, culminating in a massacre in Amritsar, where a crowd of Indians was machine-gunned and 379 people were killed. The events in Amritsar turned Gandhi into a determined opponent of the British Empire.

Gandhi launched the second All-India Satyagraha in 1920. He soon called on his countrymen to boycott British textiles and produce their own fabrics on handlooms. In 1922 he was arrested for sedition, tried and sentenced to six years in prison (he was released in 1924).

Gandhi did not limit himself to satyagraha, putting forward the so-called constructive program. He campaigned against untouchability and for Muslim-Hindu unity, for women's rights, the rise of primary education, the prohibition of alcoholic beverages, and the introduction of personal hygiene rules.

In 1929, the INC declared January 26 as National Independence Day, and Gandhi led the third All-India Satyagraha. The following year he protested against increasing the salt tax. At the beginning of 1932 he was subjected to another prison sentence. For six days, Gandhi did not eat food in protest against the policy towards the untouchable castes. In 1933, the hunger strike lasted 21 days. Gandhi was released from prison at the very beginning of his hunger strike to prevent charges against the British authorities in the event of his death.

Gandhi's wife Kasturbai, who was arrested six times over the course of two years, also began to engage in active political activities.

In 1936, Gandhi moved his ashram to Sevagram (Central India), where he published the weekly newspaper Harijan (God's Children).

In 1942, the INC passed the Quit India resolution, and Gandhi became the leader of the last all-India satyagraha campaign. He was arrested along with his wife and jailed in Pune. In February 1943 he went on a 21-day hunger strike. In 1944, his wife died in prison, and Gandhi’s health also suffered greatly. In May 1944 he was released from prison.

In August 1946, INC Chairman Jawaharlal Nehru received an offer from the British to form a government, which forced Muslim League leader Jinnah to announce Direct Action Day, which in turn sparked clashes between Hindus and Muslims. In November, Gandhi walked across East Bengal and Bihar, calling for an end to the unrest. He strongly opposed the partition of India.

On August 15, 1947, when Pakistan officially separated from India and the countries declared their independence, Gandhi went on a hunger strike to express his grief and try to stop the clashes between Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs.

On January 12, 1948, Gandhi began his last hunger strike, which lasted five days. He led congregational prayers daily in the garden outside Birla House in New Delhi.

On January 20, 1948, a refugee from Punjab named Madandal attacked Mahatma Gandhi.

On January 30, 1948, Gandhi was assassinated on his way to prayer. He was cremated on the banks of the Jamna River at Raj Ghat (in New Delhi), a place that has become a national shrine.

The street in Delhi where Gandhi died is now called Tees Janwari Marg (30th January Street). In the Indian capital, there is a memorial to Gandhi Samadhi, where part of his ashes are buried, and his last words are engraved on the marble tombstone - “He Ram!” ("Oh my God! "). Gandhi's collected works span 80 volumes, including his autobiography The Story of My Experiments with Truth (1927), thousands of articles from Indian Opinion, Young India, Harijan and a huge number of letters.

In 2007, the UN declared October 2, Mahatma Gandhi's birthday, as the International Day of Non-Violence.

The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources

Mohandas Karamchand "Mahatma" Gandhi(Guj. મોહનદાસ કરમચંદ ગાંધી, Hindi मोहनदास करमचंद गाँधी, October 2, 1869, Porbandar, Gujarat - January 30, 1948, New Delhi) - one of the leaders and ideologists of the movement for Indian independence from Great Britain. His philosophy of non-violence (satyagraha) influenced movements for peaceful change.

Biography

Gandhi in South Africa (1895)

Mohandas Gandhi and his wife Kasturbai (1902)

Gandhi in 1918

His name is surrounded in India with the same reverence with which the names of saints are pronounced. The spiritual leader of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi fought all his life against the religious strife that was tearing his country apart and against violence, but in his declining years he fell victim to it.

Gandhi came from a family belonging to the trading and moneylending Jati Baniya, belonging to the Vaishya varna. His father, Karamchand Gandhi (1822-1885), served as the diwan - chief minister - of Porbandar. All religious rituals were strictly observed in the Gandhi family. His mother, Putlibai, was especially devout. Worship in temples, taking vows, observing fasts, strict vegetarianism, self-denial, reading Hindu sacred books, conversations on religious topics - all this constituted the spiritual life of the family of young Gandhi.

At the age of 13, Mohandas married his peer Kasturbai. The couple had four sons: Harilal (1888-1949), Manilal (28 October 1892-1956), Ramdas (1897-1969) and Devdas (1900-1957). Representatives of the modern Indian family of politicians, the Gandhis, are not among their descendants. The father abandoned his eldest son Harilal. According to his father, he drank, was debauched and got into debt. Harilal changed his religion several times; died of syphilis. All the other sons were followers of their father and activists of his movement for the independence of India. Devdas is also known for his marriage to Lakshi, the daughter of Rajaji, one of the leaders of the Indian National Congress and an ardent supporter of Gandhi and an Indian national hero. However, Rajaji belonged to the Varna Brahmins and inter-varna marriages were against Gandhi's religious beliefs. Nevertheless, in 1933, Devdas's parents gave permission for marriage.

At the age of 19, Mohandas Gandhi went to London, where he received a law degree. In 1891, after completing his studies, he returned to India. Since Gandhi’s professional activities at home did not bring much success to Gandhi, in 1893 he went to work in South Africa, where he joined the fight for the rights of Indians. There he first used nonviolent resistance (satyagraha) as a means of struggle. The Bhagavad Gita, as well as the ideas of G. D. Thoreau and L. N. Tolstoy (with whom Gandhi corresponded) had a great influence on the formation of Mohandas Gandhi’s worldview.

In 1915, M.K. Gandhi returned to India, and four years later actively became involved in the movement to achieve the country's independence from British colonial rule. In 1915, the famous Indian writer, Nobel Prize winner in literature Rabindranath Tagore first used the title “Mahatma” (dev. महात्मा) in relation to Mohandas Gandhi - “great soul” (and Gandhi himself did not accept this title, considering himself unworthy of it). One of the leaders of the INC, Tilak, shortly before his death, announced him as his successor.

In the struggle for Indian independence, M. Gandhi used methods of nonviolent resistance: in particular, on his initiative, Indians resorted to boycotting British goods and institutions, and also demonstratively violated a number of laws. In 1921, Gandhi headed the Indian National Congress, which he left in 1934 due to differences in his views on the national liberation movement with the position of other party leaders.

His uncompromising struggle against caste inequality is also widely known. “One cannot limit oneself to the position of “as far as possible,” Gandhi taught, “when it comes to untouchability. If untouchability is to be banished, it must be banished completely from the temple and from all other spheres of life.”

Gandhi not only sought to end discrimination against untouchables through secular laws. He sought to prove that the institution of untouchability is in conflict with the Hindu principle of unity, and thus prepare Indian society for the fact that untouchables are equal members of it, like other Indians. Gandhi's struggle against untouchability, as with any inequality, also had a religious basis: Gandhi believed that initially all people, regardless of their race, caste, ethnicity and religious community, had an innate divine nature.

In accordance with this, he began to call the untouchables Harijans - children of God. In seeking to eliminate discrimination against the Harijans, Gandhi acted by his own example: he allowed the Harijans into his ashram, shared meals with them, traveled in third-class carriages (he was called a “third-class passenger”), and went on hunger strikes in defense of their rights. However, he never recognized any of their special interests in public life, or the need to fight for the reservation of places for them in institutions, educational institutions, and legislative bodies. He was against the isolation of untouchables in society and in the national liberation movement.

The deep differences between Gandhi and the leader of the untouchables, Dr. Ambedkar, over granting the latter full equality with representatives of other castes were widely publicized. Gandhi had great respect for his opponent, but believed that Ambedkar's radical views would lead to a split in Indian society. Gandhi's hunger strike in 1932 forced Ambedkar to make concessions. Gandhi was never able to unite with Ambedkar in the fight against untouchability.

Having proclaimed a constructive program, Gandhi created a number of organizations to implement it. Among the most active were the Charka Sangh and the Harijan Sevak Sangh. However, Gandhi was unable to achieve a radical change in the situation of the untouchables and took it hard. Nevertheless, his influence on the political culture, the political consciousness of India on the issue of untouchability is undeniable. The fact that the first Indian constitution officially prohibited discrimination against untouchables is largely due to him.

For a long time, Gandhi remained a consistent adherent of the principle of non-violence. However, then a situation arose when Gandhi's views were seriously tested. The principle of non-violence was adopted by the Congress (INC) for the freedom struggle of India. But Congress did not extend this principle to defense against external aggression.

The question first arose around the Munich crisis of 1938, when war seemed imminent. However, with the end of the crisis, the issue was dropped. In the summer of 1940, Gandhi raised the issue again with the Congress regarding the war as well as the foreign policy of a (supposedly) independent India. The Congress Executive Committee responded that it could not extend the application of the principle of nonviolence that far. This led to a rift between Gandhi and the Congress on this issue. However, two months later, an agreed formulation of the position of the Congress regarding the principles of India's future foreign policy was developed (it did not touch upon the issue of attitude towards the war). It said that the Congress Executive Committee "firmly believes in the policy and practice of non-violence not only in the struggle for Swaraj [self-government, independence] but also in free India, so far as it can be applied there" that " a free India will with all its might support general disarmament and will itself be ready to set an example in this regard to the whole world. The implementation of this initiative will inevitably depend on external factors, as well as on internal conditions, but the state will do everything in its power to implement this disarmament policy...” This formulation was a compromise; it did not fully satisfy Gandhi, but he agreed that this is how the position of the Congress should be expressed.

Gandhi again began to insist on full compliance with the principle of non-violence in December 1941, and this again led to a split - the Congress did not agree with him. Subsequently, Gandhi no longer raised this issue with the Congress and even, according to J. Nehru, agreed to “the participation of the Congress in the war [of World War II] on the condition that India could act as a free state.” According to Nehru, this change of position was associated with moral and mental suffering for Gandhi.

Mahatma Gandhi enjoyed enormous influence among both Hindus and Muslims in India and tried to reconcile these warring factions. He was extremely negative about the division of the former colony of British India in 1947 into the secular republic of Hindu-majority India and Muslim Pakistan. After Partition, violent fighting broke out between Hindus and Muslims. The year 1947 ended in bitter disappointment for Gandhi. He continued to argue the pointlessness of violence, but no one seemed to hear him. In January 1948, in a desperate attempt to stop ethnic strife, Mahatma Gandhi resorted to a hunger strike. He explained his decision this way: “Death will be a wonderful deliverance for me. It’s better to die than to be a helpless witness to India’s self-destruction.”

Gandhi's act of sacrifice had the necessary impact on society. Leaders of religious groups agreed to compromise. A few days after the Mahatma began his hunger strike, they made a joint decision: “We assure that we will protect the lives, property and faith of Muslims and the incidents of religious intolerance that took place in Delhi will not be repeated.”

But Gandhi achieved only partial reconciliation between Hindus and Muslims. The fact is that extremists were, in principle, against cooperation with Muslims. The Hindu Mahasabha, a political organization with terrorist outfits Rashtra Dal and Vashtriya Swayam Sevak, decided to continue the fight. However, in Delhi she was opposed by the authority of Mahatma Gandhi. Therefore, a conspiracy was organized, headed by the leader of the Hindu Mahasabha, Bombay millionaire Vinayak Savarkar. Savarkar declared Gandhi the “insidious enemy” of the Hindus, and called the idea of ​​non-violence absolutized by Gandhism immoral. Gandhi received daily protests from orthodox Hindus. “Some of them consider me a traitor. Others believe that I learned my present beliefs against untouchability and the like from Christianity and Islam,” Gandhi recalled. Savarkar decided to eliminate the objectionable philosopher, who was so popular among the Indian people. A Bombay millionaire created a terrorist group from his loyal people in October 1947. These were educated brahmins. Nathuram Godse was the editor-in-chief of the far-right newspaper Hindu Rashtra, and Narayan Apte was the director of the same publication. Godse was 37 years old, he came from an orthodox Brahmin family, and had incomplete school education.

Attempts and assassination of Gandhi

The first attempt on Mahatma Gandhi's life occurred on January 20, 1948, two days after he ended his hunger strike. The country's leader was addressing worshipers from the veranda of his Delhi home when a Punjab refugee named Madanlal hurled a homemade bomb at him. The device exploded a few steps away from Gandhi, but no one was injured.

The Indian government, alarmed by this incident, insisted on strengthening Gandhi's personal security, but he did not want to hear about it. “If I am destined to die from a madman’s bullet, I will do it with a smile.” At that time he was 78 years old.

On January 30, 1948, Gandhi woke up at dawn and began working on a draft constitution to be presented to Congress. The whole day was spent discussing with colleagues the future fundamental law of the country. It was time for evening prayer, and, accompanied by his niece, he went out onto the front lawn.

As usual, the gathered crowd loudly greeted the “father of the nation.” Adherents of his teachings rushed to their idol, trying, according to ancient custom, to touch the Mahatma’s feet. Taking advantage of the confusion, Nathuram Godse, among other worshipers, approached Gandhi and shot him three times. The first two bullets went through, the third got stuck in the lung near the heart. The weakening Mahatma, supported on both sides by his nieces, whispered: “Oh, Rama! O Rama! (Hindi हे! राम (these words are written on the memorial erected at the site of the shot). Then he showed with gestures that he forgives the killer, after which he died on the spot. This happened at 17:17.

Godse tried to commit suicide, but at that moment people rushed towards him to deal with him on the spot. However, Gandhi's bodyguard saved the killer from the angry crowd and brought him to justice.

Authorities soon discovered that the killer did not act alone. A powerful anti-government conspiracy was uncovered. Eight people appeared in court. All of them were found guilty of murder. The two were sentenced to death and hanged on November 15, 1949. The remaining conspirators received long prison sentences.

On January 30, 2008, on the 60th anniversary of Gandhi's death, some of his ashes were scattered over the sea at Cape Comorin, the southern tip of the Hindustan Peninsula.

Gandhi had an excellent relationship with Adolf Hitler. In his address to him, he writes just like that - my dear friend! Here is a letter from 1939

Perpetuation of memory

• Raj Ghat
• Mahatma Gandhi Memorial. As part of the celebration of Indian Independence Day, in 1997 it was decided to create a memorial to Mahatma Gandhi in the USA.
• There are monuments and memorials dedicated to Mahatma Gandhi in many cities around the world: New York, Atlanta, San Francisco, Pietermaritzburg, Moscow, Honolulu, London, Almaty, Dushanbe, etc. Interestingly, almost all the sculptures depict Gandhi in old age, walking barefoot and leaning on a staff. This image is most often associated with the famous Hindu.
• Postage stamps from many countries around the world have been issued in honor of M. Gandhi.

• Mahatma Gandhi practiced a one-day mouna every week. He devoted the day of silence to reading, thinking, and writing his thoughts.
• More than 10 films have been made about Mahatma Gandhi, in particular: the British “Gandhi” ( Gandhi, 1982, directed by Richard Attenborough, in the role of Gandhi - Ben Kingsley, 8 Oscar awards) and the Indian "Oh, Lord" ( He Ram, 2000).
• In “The Golden Calf” by Ilf and Petrov there is a phrase that has become a catchphrase: “Gandhi came to Dandi” (a reference to Gandhi’s “salt campaign”)
• In the story “And There Were None Left,” by Eric Frank Russell, there is a mention of a certain Gandhi, the creator of the system of civil disobedience on Terra.
• Sir Winston Churchill called Gandhi a “half-naked fakir,” and the British, in a 2000 BBC poll, voted the Mahatma “man of the millennium.”
• In 2007, the UN established the International Day of Non-Violence, celebrated on the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi.
• Russian President Vladimir Putin, answering a question from a German magazine Der Spiegel(June 2007):

Mr. President, former Federal Chancellor Gerhard Schröder called you “a pure democrat.” Do you consider yourself one? - (Laughs.) Am I a pure democrat? Of course, I am an absolute and pure democrat. But do you know what the problem is? It’s not even a problem, it’s a real tragedy. The fact is that I am the only one, there are simply no others like me in the world. ...After the death of Mahatma Gandhi, there is no one to talk to.

• A. Einstein wrote:

The moral influence which Gandhi exercised upon thinking men is far greater than seems possible in our times with his excess of brute force. We are grateful to fate for giving us such a brilliant contemporary, showing the way for future generations. ... Perhaps future generations simply will not believe that such a person of ordinary flesh and blood walked this sinful earth.

• Gandhi's portrait appears on currency notes of 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 500 and 1000 Indian rupees.
• Mahatma Gandhi is one of the 10 most studied personalities in world history according to the catalog of the US Library of Congress.
• Five months before Gandhi's death, India peacefully achieved national independence. Seventy-eight-year-old Gandhi's work was finished, and he knew that his time was near. “Ava, bring me all the important papers,” he told his granddaughter on the morning of the tragic day. - I have to celebrate today. Tomorrow may never come." In many places in his articles and speeches, Gandhi made hints that indicated that he had a presentiment of his end.
• Mahatma Gandhi wrote two letters to Adolf Hitler, in which he dissuaded him from starting World War II. These letters are often misinterpreted because they begin with the address “my friend.”
• The headdress, which is a symbol of Indian independence and patriotism, is named after Gandhi.