The Gandhian Era (1917-47)

Facts about Gandhi

Birth : October 2, 1869 at Porbandar, Gujarat. [Note: UNO declared October. 2 as ‘International Non-violence Day’ (Antarrashtriy Ahimsa Diswas)]

• Father : Karamchand Gandhi,
• Mother: Putali Bai,
• Political Guru: Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Private Secretary: Mahadev Desai.
• Literary Influence on Gandhi: John Ruskin’s Unto the Last, Emerson, Thoreau, Leo Tolstoy, the Bible and the Gita.
• Literary Works : Hind Swaraj (1909), My Experiments with Truth (Autobiography, 1927)-reveals events of Gandhi’s life upto 1922.
• As an Editor : Indian Opinion: 1903–15 (in English & Gujarati, for a short period in Hindi & Tamil), Harijan: 1919-31 (in English, Gujarati and Hindi),

• Young India: 1933–42 (in English gujarati-named Navjeevan).
• Other Names : Mahatma (Saint) - by Rabindranath Tagore, 1917; Malang Baba/Nanga Faqir (Naked Saint) - by Kabailis of Noth-West Frontier, 1930; Indian Faqir/Traitor Faqir-by Winston Churchill, 1931; Half-naked Saint by- Franq Mores, 1931; Rashtrapita (the Father of the Nation)- by Subhash Chandra Bose, 1944.

In South Africa (1893-1914)

1893	Departure of Gandhi to South Africa.
1894	Foundation of Natal Indian Congress.
1899	Foundation of Indian Ambulance Core during Boer Wars.
1904	Foundation of Indian Opinion (magazine) and Phoenix Farm, at Phoenix, near Durban.
1906	First Civil Disobedience Movement (Satyagaraha) against Asiatic Ordiannce in Transvaal.
1907	Satyagraha against Compulsory Registration and Passes for Asians (The Black Act) in Transvaal.
1908	Trial and imprisonment-Johanesburg Jail (First Jail Term).
1910	Foundation of Tolstoy Farm (Later-Gandhi Ashrama), near Johannesburg.
1913	Satyagraha against derecognition of non-Christian marraiges in Cape Town.
1914	Awarded Kaisar-i-Hind for raising an Indian Ambulance Core during Boer wars
1915	Arrived in Bombay (India) on 9 January 1915; Foundation of Satyagraha Ashrama at Kocharab near Ahmedabad (20 May). In 1917, Ashrama shifted at the banks of Sabarmati;
1916	Abstain from active politics (though he attended Lucknow session of INC held in 26–30 December, 1916, where Raj Kumar Shukla, a cultivator from Bihar, requested him to come to Champaran.)
1917	Gandhi entered active politics with Champaran campaign to redress grievances of the cultivators oppressed by Indigo planter of Bihar (April 1917). Champaran Satyagraha was his first Civil Disobedience Movement in India.
1918	cooperation Movement. In Febuary 1918, Gandhi launched the struggle in Ahmedabad which involved industrial workers. Hunger strike as a weapon was used for the first time by Gandhi during Ahmedabad struggle. In March 1918, Gandhi worked for peasants of Kheda in Gujarat who were facing difficulties in paying the rent owing to failure of crops. Kheda Satyagraha was his first Non
1919	Gandhi gave a call for Satyagraha against the Rowlatt Act on April 6, 1919 and took the command of the nationalist movement for the first time (First all-India Political Movement), Gandhi returns Kaisar-i-Hind gold medal as a protest against Jallianwala Bagh massacre-April 13, 1919; The All India Khilafat Conference elected Gandhi as its president (November 1919, Delhi).
1920-22	Gandhi leads the Non-Cooperation and Khilafat Movement (August 1, 1920–Febuary 1922), Gandhi calls off Movement (Feb. 12, 1922), after the violent incident at Chauri-Chaura on Febuary 5, 1922. Non-Co-operation Movement was the First mass based politics under Gandhi.
1924	Belgaum (Karnataka) session of INC–for the first and the last time Gandhi was elected the president of the Congress.
1925–27	Gandhi retires from active politics for the first time and devotes himself to ‘constructive programme’ of the Congress; Gandhi resumes active politics in 1927.
1930–34	Gandhi launches the Civil Disobedience Movement with his Dandhi march/Salt Satyagraha (First Phase: March 12, 1930–March 5, 1931; Gandhi-Irwin Pact: March 5, 1931; Gandhi attends the Second Round Table Conference in London as sole representative of the Congress: September 7-December. 1, 1931; Second Phase: January 3, 1932-April 17, 1934).
1934–39	Sets up Sevagram (Vardha Ashram).
1940–41	Gandhi launches Individual Satyagraha Movement.
1942	Call to Quit India Movement for which Gandhi raised the slogan, ‘Do or Die’ (Either free India or die in the attempt), Gandhi and all Congress leaders arrested (August 9, 1942).
1942–44	Gandhi kept in detention at the Aga Khan Palace, near Pune (August 9, 1942-May, 1944). Gandhi lost his wife Kasturba (Febuary 22, 1944) and private secretary Mahadev Desai; this was Gandhi’s last prison term.
1946	Deeply distressed by theory of communal violence, as a result Muslim League’s Direct Action call, Gandhi travelled to Noakhali (East Bengal-now Bangladesh) and later on to Calcutta to restore communal peace.
1947	Gandhi, deeply distressed by the Mountbatten Plan/Partition Plan (June 3, 1947), while staying in Calcutta to restore communal violence, observes complete silence on the dawn of India’s Independence (August, 15, 1947). Gandhi returns to Delhi (September 1947).
1948	Gandhi was shot dead by Nathu Ram Godse, a member of RSS, while on his way to the evening prayer meeting at Birla House, New Delhi (January 30, 1948).